The alchemists had five elements. The alchemical elements were earth, air, fire, water, and the original element of aether, or spirit.

The Chinese elements are water, wood, fire, metal and air.

Different types of elementals are associated with different elements and locales:

Gnomes, Dwarfs, and Elves may be associated with various earthen locales, and the Brownies associated with households.

The old english word "hob" means fire or hearth, so a Hobgoblin would be a hearth, or fire spirit.

Leprechauns are supposed to be associated with the mouth of a spring, so they'd be more water oriented, as would be the rainbows pointing out their gold pots and gatherings.

The Djin and genies are said to live in caves, although one story has them hatching from the egg of the Roq (another name for the Phoenix bird), so they'd be earth spirits.

Elementals are the lower astral forms for the spiritual qualities described by fire, water, earth, and air.

The magical systems employing elementals in rituals are usually those systems with four elements, not the systems with Asian elements and not the newer alchemical five-element system.

Elements & Magick

The Ancients divided the world into four basic principles or "elements" --- earth, water, fire, and air. That viewpoint has mostly changed with advances of science, but the four elements are still accepted in magick. They are more closely linked with emotions, the human psyche, and with nature than are modern explanations of the world.

These "magical elements" are also of some importance in astrology. Many occultists think of the magickal elements as forces, or as *qualities* of energy; especially within the astral world.

Each element has a symbol and color. Common symbols are:

fire: a red triangle pointing up;

air: a yellow triangle pointing up and with a horizontal line through the middle of it;

water: a blue triangle pointing down;

earth: a green triangle pointing down and with a horizontal line through the middle of it.

Colors of the elements are:

Earth: brown and green;

Water: blue;

Fire: red;

Air: yellow:

The Eastern tattvic system uses different symbols and colors.

The elements are often used in majick ritual. Majick sees relationships between things. These relationships are called 'correspondences'. Although majickal correspondences are not literally equal to one another, you can think of them that way (such as gold equals sun). Tables of these relationships, called 'Correspondence Tables', are available (an important one is Crowley's '777'). Thus one thing or symbol can be used to suggest another.

This is important in majick, for the practitioners may surround himself with as many appropriate correspondences as he can to vividly affect the senses, thus making his majickal contact with the inner planes more lucid.

The majickal elements have correspondences with the tarot cards as the four suits.

The four quarters (directions of the universe as used in majick ritual) also correspond with these same elements.