{"id":1702,"date":"2009-05-01T01:10:02","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T06:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2009-04-27T13:39:04","modified_gmt":"2009-04-27T18:39:04","slug":"elemental-perspectives-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2009\/05\/01\/elemental-perspectives-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Elemental Perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dancing in the Flames <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the third in my Elementals Perspectives series for PaganPages.\u00a0 As you might guess, this one is all about the Fire Element.<\/p>\n

When I was about ten years old, I nearly burned down a forest; I played with matches.\u00a0 If it weren\u2019t for the vigilance of my parents, I probably would have been the cause of enormous damages and maybe even loss of life.\u00a0 It has been the cause of many nightmares for me over the years and it\u2019s been difficult to forgive myself for my childish stupidity.\u00a0 The only good thing that has come out of it is now I respect the Fire Element in the world around me to a degree that is probably a notch or two higher than many people.<\/p>\n

As magic workers understand, Fire represents power, energy, consumption, change, transformation, and all the other ways we label those concepts.\u00a0 Fire has to be a part of our magic or nothing happens.\u00a0 But, as I learned most profoundly in my childhood, Fire must be handled with care and caution.\u00a0 When you play with Fire, it just might reach out and bite you.<\/p>\n

Anthropologists often mention the discovery of fire as being a major step in the development of human history and this would certainly be difficult to dispute.\u00a0 Purposely making fire (and I am describing \u2018fire\u2019 in this case as meaning an open flame that is kept alive through our feeding it fuel) created a whole new world for ancient humans and it might be argued that fire-making separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom.\u00a0 Other than using sticks and rocks for tools, it is perhaps the most significant technology ever incorporated into our world.\u00a0 Our modern understanding of physics and all the other so-called \u2018hard sciences\u2019 is due to our use and study of fire.\u00a0 Our technology uses fire and its derivatives in over 90% of everything we take for granted in the world around us.\u00a0 Even the previous two Elements I\u2019ve discussed in the last months (Earth and Water) would not exist if it weren\u2019t for Fire.<\/p>\n

The biggest fire you\u2019ve ever seen is the one that hangs over us in the sky every day.\u00a0 It (the sun) is directly responsible for maintaining life on this planet.\u00a0 And the atoms that make up you, me, and everything we can touch, see, smell, taste, and feel were made in the fiery depths of stars like our own Sol.\u00a0 If we can direct Fire properly, we can perform some pretty amazing magic.\u00a0 Of course, \u2018properly\u2019 is a relative term.\u00a0 But to be able to have any ability to manipulate Fire, to have some control of ENERGY, we need to know something about it.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, this is where science and magic come together very nicely.\u00a0 For instance, we hear a lot about energy in the news lately and since most news media guys don\u2019t know much physics, the word, \u2018energy\u2019 is bandied about as if all energies were the same.\u00a0 Well, guess what\u2026 they are.\u00a0 Energy is energy is energy.\u00a0 The main difference between thermal energy and, say electrical energy is the way we measure it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe that?\u00a0 Okay, try this:\u00a0 thermal energy is measured in basically two ways: degrees and calories.\u00a0 There are formulas that can convert one to the other as long as you know a few other measurements (calories measure how much the degrees change things).\u00a0 Now calories can also be converted to horsepower.\u00a0 That too measures how much change is made in overcoming inertia.\u00a0 Go to your local hardware store and ask for an electric motor and the salesperson will ask you what horsepower you want.\u00a0 That\u2019s basically how they\u2019re rated.<\/p>\n

The way we measure energy depends on what changes we\u2019re interested in.\u00a0 Magic is also interested in changes.\u00a0 Of course, magic is based on the belief that everything is connected to everything else.\u00a0 Modern physics has finally come to that conclusion as well, thank the gods.\u00a0 When magic users \u2018raises energy,\u2019 we don\u2019t necessarily make a big thing about what type of energy we\u2019re raising because we believe there\u2019s always some way to convert the energy we collect together into the type of energy necessary to get the job done at the other end of our spell.\u00a0 Please note that I\u2019ve said we collect the energy.\u00a0 This is actually a more correct way of phrasing it.\u00a0 Mostly, when we get to the part where we\u2019re supposed to \u2018raise energy,\u2019 what we do is insert some form of activity (usually through our own physical efforts, but not always) that we\u2019ve collected together in one place and one time.\u00a0 Now comes the tricky part: converting that energy into the form that will make the changes we want.<\/p>\n

Actually, this is only a small problem, a very small problem.\u00a0 Remember how thermal energy was converted to electrical energy?\u00a0 Basically, it wasn\u2019t changed; it was only put through some things that made us measure it differently and, viola, it was that form of energy.\u00a0 What happened in between is we used some physical device that allows us to measure energy in one way going in and another way going out.\u00a0 Ask a physicist how that happens and he might tell you about sub-atomic particles and dimensional exchanges, etc.\u00a0 That\u2019s fancy physics talk about stuff that we don\u2019t know very much about how and a lot more about what happens.\u00a0 But don\u2019t worry; we aren\u2019t demanding you become the next Einstein just to cast a spell.\u00a0 It\u2019s all magic; having a degree in physics doesn\u2019t make it anything less than magic.<\/p>\n

Spell crafting depends mostly on our Will.\u00a0 That is, it depends on our ability to formulate and hold a clear goal in mind and heart until that goal is reached.\u00a0 As I said before, physics and magic have come together nicely and this particular point is where there is close agreement.\u00a0 Quantum mechanics says that nothing in the universe actually happens until we measure it.\u00a0 Simple observation counts as measurement.\u00a0 With every observation comes an observer and that observer has expectations and a certain amount of Will.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t hard to connect the dots and realize that any energy we direct with a strong enough Will ends up doing pretty much what we expect it to do.\u00a0 All schools of magic train the student to focus their Will and the rest is easy (well, okay, easier).<\/p>\n

Our spells and rituals are the devices we use to collect and convert the energy all around us.\u00a0 Essentially, energy is change.\u00a0 So any change is some form of energy that we can use if we can create the correct spell to convert it to the form that accomplishes our goal.<\/p>\n

But hold on a minute.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go back to me and my stupid matches, or rather, my matches and stupid me.\u00a0 My mistake was not that I didn\u2019t understand that matches made fire and fire burned things.\u00a0 My mistake was that I didn\u2019t understand that at some point, I would be unable to control the fire.\u00a0 My young\/dumb self didn\u2019t respect the fact that energy was all around me and it could overwhelm me if I didn\u2019t put some safety features into the way I handled it.<\/p>\n

Energy is all around us\u2026 everywhere and all the time.\u00a0 A great deal of it is in the form we call matter.\u00a0 Matter is only one way energy hides.\u00a0 But as soon as you spark the right change (remember that all energy is measured by the changes it makes), the matter starts to convert into some other form of energy.\u00a0 In the case of my younger self, the wood around me began to convert mostly to heat and light\u2026 in other words, it began to burn.\u00a0 Given the right \u2018spark,\u2019 any bit of matter can be coaxed to convert itself to some other form of energy.<\/p>\n

The Fire Element requires us to exercise considerable caution.\u00a0 Otherwise, we can burn the forest down around us.\u00a0 Learning to use this Element isn\u2019t just a matter of knowing how to raise energy.\u00a0 It\u2019s also about learning how to handle the energy we collect and convert.\u00a0 All too often, students of magic concentrate on producing the right energy but forget to put safeguards in place.\u00a0 I guarantee this will lead to big problems.<\/p>\n

And that is why you are supposed to cast a circle.\u00a0 Circle casting is mostly a mental thing for most spells.\u00a0 And anything that deals with the mental aspects of the universe is relegated to the Air Element, which will be the subject of the next article in this series.\u00a0 Between now and then, think long and hard about various ways of safeguarding your energy raising.\u00a0 It well might keep you from getting burned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dancing in the Flames This is the third in my Elementals Perspectives series for PaganPages.\u00a0 As you might guess, this one is all about the Fire Element. When I was about ten years old, I nearly burned down a forest; I played with matches.\u00a0 If it weren\u2019t for the vigilance of my parents, I probably would have been the cause of enormous damages and maybe even loss of life.\u00a0 It has been the cause of many nightmares for me over the years and it\u2019s been difficult to forgive myself for my childish stupidity.\u00a0 The only good thing that has come out of it is now I respect the Fire Element in the world around me to a degree that is probably a notch or two higher than many people. As magic workers understand, Fire represents power, energy, consumption, change, transformation, and all the other ways we label those concepts.\u00a0 Fire has to be a part of our magic or nothing happens.\u00a0 But, as I learned most profoundly in my childhood, Fire must be handled with care and caution.\u00a0 When you play with Fire, it just might reach out and bite you. Anthropologists often mention the discovery of fire as being a major step in the development of human history and this would certainly be difficult to dispute.\u00a0 Purposely making fire (and I am describing \u2018fire\u2019 in this case as meaning an open flame that is kept alive through our feeding it fuel) created a whole new world for ancient humans and it might be argued that fire-making separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom.\u00a0 Other than using sticks and rocks for tools, it is perhaps the most significant technology ever incorporated into our world.\u00a0 Our modern understanding of physics and all the other so-called \u2018hard sciences\u2019 is due to our use and study of fire.\u00a0 Our technology uses fire and its derivatives in over 90% of everything we take for granted in the world around us.\u00a0 Even the previous two Elements I\u2019ve discussed in the last months (Earth and Water) would not exist if it weren\u2019t for Fire. The biggest fire you\u2019ve ever seen is the one that hangs over us in the sky every day.\u00a0 It (the sun) is directly responsible for maintaining life on this planet.\u00a0 And the atoms that make up you, me, and everything we can touch, see, smell, taste, and feel were made in the fiery depths of stars like our own Sol.\u00a0 If we can direct Fire properly, we can perform some pretty amazing magic.\u00a0 Of course, \u2018properly\u2019 is a relative term.\u00a0 But to be able to have any ability to manipulate Fire, to have some control of ENERGY, we need to know something about it. Fortunately, this is where science and magic come together very nicely.\u00a0 For instance, we hear a lot about energy in the news lately and since most news media guys don\u2019t know much physics, the word, \u2018energy\u2019 is bandied about as if all energies were the same.\u00a0 Well, guess what\u2026 they are.\u00a0 Energy is energy is energy.\u00a0 The main difference between thermal energy and, say electrical energy is the way we measure it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe that?\u00a0 Okay, try this:\u00a0 thermal energy is measured in basically two ways: degrees and calories.\u00a0 There are formulas that can convert one to the other as long as you know a few other measurements (calories measure how much the degrees change things).\u00a0 Now calories can also be converted to horsepower.\u00a0 That too measures how much change is made in overcoming inertia.\u00a0 Go to your local hardware store and ask for an electric motor and the salesperson will ask you what horsepower you want.\u00a0 That\u2019s basically how they\u2019re rated. The way we measure energy depends on what changes we\u2019re interested in.\u00a0 Magic is also interested in changes.\u00a0 Of course, magic is based on the belief that everything is connected to everything else.\u00a0 Modern physics has finally come to that conclusion as well, thank the gods.\u00a0 When magic users \u2018raises energy,\u2019 we don\u2019t necessarily make a big thing about what type of energy we\u2019re raising because we believe there\u2019s always some way to convert the energy we collect together into the type of energy necessary to get the job done at the other end of our spell.\u00a0 Please note that I\u2019ve said we collect the energy.\u00a0 This is actually a more correct way of phrasing it.\u00a0 Mostly, when we get to the part where we\u2019re supposed to \u2018raise energy,\u2019 what we do is insert some form of activity (usually through our own physical efforts, but not always) that we\u2019ve collected together in one place and one time.\u00a0 Now comes the tricky part: converting that energy into the form that will make the changes we want. Actually, this is only a small problem, a very small problem.\u00a0 Remember how thermal energy was converted to electrical energy?\u00a0 Basically, it wasn\u2019t changed; it was only put through some things that made us measure it differently and, viola, it was that form of energy.\u00a0 What happened in between is we used some physical device that allows us to measure energy in one way going in and another way going out.\u00a0 Ask a physicist how that happens and he might tell you about sub-atomic particles and dimensional exchanges, etc.\u00a0 That\u2019s fancy physics talk about stuff that we don\u2019t know very much about how and a lot more about what happens.\u00a0 But don\u2019t worry; we aren\u2019t demanding you become the next Einstein just to cast a spell.\u00a0 It\u2019s all magic; having a degree in physics doesn\u2019t make it anything less than magic. Spell crafting depends mostly on our Will.\u00a0 That is, it depends on our ability to formulate and hold a clear goal in mind and heart until that goal is reached.\u00a0 As I said before, physics and magic have come together nicely and this particular point is where there is close agreement.\u00a0 Quantum mechanics says that nothing in the universe actually happens until we measure it.\u00a0 Simple observation counts as measurement.\u00a0 With every observation comes an observer and that observer has expectations and a certain amount of Will.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t hard to connect the dots and realize that any energy we direct with a strong enough Will ends up doing pretty much what we expect it to do.\u00a0 All schools of magic train the student to focus their Will and the rest is easy (well, okay, easier). Our spells and rituals are the devices we use to collect and convert the energy all around us.\u00a0 Essentially, energy is change.\u00a0 So any change is some form of energy that we can use if we can create the correct spell to convert it to the form that accomplishes our goal. But hold on a minute.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go back to me and my stupid matches, or rather, my matches and stupid me.\u00a0 My mistake was not that I didn\u2019t understand that matches made fire and fire burned things.\u00a0 My mistake was that I didn\u2019t understand that at some point, I would be unable to control the fire.\u00a0 My young\/dumb self didn\u2019t respect the fact that energy was all around me and it could overwhelm me if I didn\u2019t put some safety features into the way I handled it. Energy is all around us\u2026 everywhere and all the time.\u00a0 A great deal of it is in the form we call matter.\u00a0 Matter is only one way energy hides.\u00a0 But as soon as you spark the right change (remember that all energy is measured by the changes it makes), the matter starts to convert into some other form of energy.\u00a0 In the case of my younger self, the wood around me began to convert mostly to heat and light\u2026 in other words, it began to burn.\u00a0 Given the right \u2018spark,\u2019 any bit of matter can be coaxed to convert itself to some other form of energy. The Fire Element requires us to exercise considerable caution.\u00a0 Otherwise, we can burn the forest down around us.\u00a0 Learning to use this Element isn\u2019t just a matter of knowing how to raise energy.\u00a0 It\u2019s also about learning how to handle the energy we collect and convert.\u00a0 All too often, students of magic concentrate on producing the right energy but forget to put safeguards in place.\u00a0 I guarantee this will lead to big problems. And that is why you are supposed to cast a circle.\u00a0 Circle casting is mostly a mental thing for most spells.\u00a0 And anything that deals with the mental aspects of the universe is relegated to the Air Element, which will be the subject of the next article in this series.\u00a0 Between now and then, think long and hard about various ways of safeguarding your energy raising.\u00a0 It well might keep you from getting burned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}