This post is more for me than for my readers, but I'm sharing it anyway.
In the ancient world when a land was conquered the defeated lord or newly made vassal would deliver unto his new lord a jar or dirt and a jar of water to be symbolic of surrendering power over all the land and water of the realm to the new lord. I learned of this practice when I was maybe eight or nine. The few things that my fourth grade teacher did right was teaching science and history (sorry Mr. Podalack its true, if you ever read this know that I am significantly smarter than a box of rocks, I shall never forgive you for telling my family I was just 'Lazy' I really needed help. But I again thank you for chess club, it was the only thing I enjoyed that year.) Since learning that I have collected these bits of earth and water from the places I have lived and visited.
Since I began keeping an altar, I have always erected elemental altars, though their forms have changed over the years, something that remains constant is the physical presence of earth and water on my altar. I collect earth and stones from sacred sites as well as water to serve as an anchor to those places in my magick, I keep ash and char from balefires, you get the picture.. what I am pondering is capturing the essence of Air in a bottle.
I have heard of capturing a breath or using feathers (which I have done) but neither of those acts resonate with me spiritually. I have played with the idea of igniting incense and sealing it in a bottle to catch the smoke, but as the incense suffocates it creates a vacuum, i.e. removes all air. So I'm a little lost and I'll admit, air is sometimes the most difficult element for me to connect with. I would like to ask you all.. If you were to bottle Air how would you do it? (Open invitation to post in the comments).
The new set of vials that I have for this project are much slimmer than the spice jars that I use to use, so I may set each in a small box to use as an elemental shrine, another thing I have done for a while in creating a spirit house for each element. I may buy another set of vials so that I can have one for the shrine and one for my altar.
Since I work with Faeries, and practice traditional Witchcraft I think that I want to combine lore and symbolism,
For Earth I feel the pulse of the natural world, the Faery influences on the trees, grass and stone. I may grow alum crystals inside the vial, add sacred Earth (mound of Tara or Ewan Macha) and a piece of Schorl. I can color the Alum green for color association, and in magick it is used to silence gossip, so I can tap the Witches Pyramid pillar of "Be Silent" and Schorl or Black Tourmaline is used for grounding and protection, I also have a Preseli blue stone (think stone henge) that I can use. My connection to earth is far from lacking, it is the element that I am most in tune with.
For Air, which I have already admitted I have a difficult time connecting to, Its the dance of light and sound, the chime of bells and the flash of light from the will-o-wisp. I might decoupage a pigeons feather to the glass and then I thought about a layer of blue topaz chips to form the horizon, a small parchment scroll for Intellect. Air is the pillar of Knowing so I would have the scroll, air has dominion over communication and spirits we have Blue Topaz, freedom is gained from the feather, the pigeon an old world currier. Just an idea, however I am starting to consider suspending a small prism from the cork.
For Fire I want to channel the spirit of the Phoenix. More fiery spirit than either Dragon or Salamander the Phoenix is all that Fire is both creation and destruction, healing and rending and what's more through its cycle, it is immortal.
For water, I want something to represent, beyond just a vial of water, I fully plan on using water from a sacred source as I have water from one of Brigid's Wells in Ireland as well as the River Boine. I have an auger shell that I have decorated to closely resemble a unicorns horn, to call on the purification aspect of the element and associations between Unicorns and wells or rivers and lore of the horn being used to remove poison.
Sorry for being a little random, please share your ideas!
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