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Wiccan SymbolsThe classical elements are a key feature of the Wiccan world-view. Every manifest force or form is seen to express one of the four archetypal elements — Earth, Air, Fire and Water — or several in combination. This scheme is fundamentally identical with that employed in other Western Esoteric and Hermetic traditions, such as Theosophy and the Golden Dawn, which in turn were influenced by the Hindu system of tattvas. There is no consensus as to the exact nature of these elements. Some hold to the ancient Greek conception of the elements corresponding to matter (earth) and energy (fire), with the mediating elements (water, air) relating to the phases of matter (fire/earth mixtures). Other exponents of the system add a fifth or quintessential element, spirit (aether, akasha).
In geometry, the pentagram is an elegant expression of the golden ratio phi which is popularly connected with ideal beauty and was considered by the Pythagoreans to express truths about the hidden nature of existence. Each of the four cardinal elements (air, fire, water and earth) is typically assigned a direction, a color, and an elemental race. The following list shows a common categorization, but different traditions of Wicca may use different "correspondences":
Some variations in correspondences can be explained by geography or climate. It is common in the southern hemisphere, for example, to associate the element fire with north (the direction of the equator) and earth with south (the direction of the nearest polar area). Some Wiccan groups also modify the religious calendar to reflect local seasonal changes; for instance, most Southern Hemisphere covens celebrate Samhain on April 30th and Beltane on October 31st, reflecting the southern hemisphere's autumn and spring seasons. [Batten, Juliet. Celebrating the Southern Seasons. Auckland: Tandem Press.] This article is licensed under
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The five points of the frequently worn pentagram symbolize, among other things,
the four elements with spirit presiding at the top. [Valiente, Doreen
(1973). An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present. Custer, Washington: Phoenix
Publishing, Inc, 264.] The pentagram is the symbol most commonly associated
with Wicca in modern times. It is often circumscribed — depicted
within a circle — and is usually (though not exclusively) shown
with a single point upward. The inverse pentagram, with two points up,
is a symbol of the second degree initiation rite of traditional Wicca.
[Crowey, Vivianne Wicca: The Old Religion in the New World.]