Spirit is sometimes referred to as
the “fifth element.” This idea goes all the way back to Aristotle and his idea
that the celestial realm was made of a fifth element (quintessence), ether,
which is not found here in the sublunary world.
Spirit is the most difficult
element to describe, it is everywhere and nowhere, and is the force that unites
all things, in rituals it is our connection to the otherworld. The Spirit
element transports us beyond any narrow confines and allows us to open up to
something much bigger, it is present in all aspects of life, and goes beyond
thought and emotion. Unlike the other four elements it has no defined place or
location, even though we cannot specifically place it, we know it is there.
Four
is the number of order and stability. A house has four walls; there are four
cardinal points of the compass. The laying out of buildings and boundaries with
right angles was so important to our ancestors that our words for measuring off
squares are intertwined with our words for propriety and authority: rectangle,
regular, regulation, regiment, rex (king), ruler (both kinds), right (both
senses), rectify, direct (both senses), correct, rector…the list goes on and
on.
The
four-fold order is static, not dynamic. Every element has its quadrant, and
every quadrant its element. There is no room for mystery, for surprise, for
magic. Something is missing, and that something may be called Spirit. Here’s
one way to think about Spirit: if someone created a robot that looked and
behaved just the way you do, would the robot be you? Most of us would say no—being
alive is more than simply going through the motions. We also have
consciousness, a point of view, an interior depth; there is something more than
mind, will, heart, and body, some center of awareness that experiences our
thoughts and desires, feelings and sensations, without being completely defined
by them.
The
number 5 is the most dynamic
and energetic of all the single-digit numbers. It is unpredictable, always in
motion and constantly in need of change. Five is the number of the human being.
The number five symbolizes the four limbs and the head that controls the limbs.
There are five senses: sight – hearing – taste – smell – touch. Almost all
amphibians, reptiles, and mammals which have fingers or toes have five of them
on each extremity.
Most
Pagans believe that Spirit is not something we humans alone possess by virtue
of having a soul (in the Christian sense), or by virtue of having complex
brains (as the scientific worldview would have it). Rather, we see Spirit
manifesting everywhere: in the plants and animals we share this world with, and
in the grand, slow life of the cosmos as a whole.
Some
people use the word “Spirit” in connection with the element of fire. It has a
different meaning in that context. Compare the two words Spirited and Spiritual.
“Spirited” describes someone brimming with energies and desires and willfulness;
that is Spirit in the fiery sense. “Spiritual” refers to a connection with deep
sources of meaning that lie beyond the confines of the ego. That is Spirit in
the sense of the fifth element.
Spirit, in the Sanskrit
language is akasha, from this comes the “akashic records,” which is a record of
all knowledge pertaining to the material plane, it exists in the astral world.
Ether was referred to as the quintessence in the middle Ages, meaning fifth.
The alchemist’s quest was to find this fifth essence, which they believed
contained the secret of everlasting life. Ether was described as the substance
that made up the heavens.
The
pentagram, or five-pointed star, bears religious significance in various faiths
including Baha'i, Christianity, Satanism, Taoism, Thelema, Freemasonry and Wicca.
The Wiccan pentagram symbolizes this mystery by opening the four-fold cross of
the elements into a five-fold star. The pentagram gives physical form to a
truth that is not itself physical. We don’t call five “quarters” when we cast a
circle, and the four elements retain their own symmetries and contrasts. Spirit
is not one of the physical elements. It is everywhere and nowhere. It has no
list of correspondences, because everything can be an opening into Spirit.
The
qualities of Spirit are expressed through art, music, writing, religion,
healing, magic and ritual. Spirit is associated with the crown, or 7th chakra,
in the Tarot deck it is represented by the last card of the Major Arcana, The
World. Spirit colors are white and/or black, they are the colors that contain
or reflect all other vibrations of light and dark. Each culture has its
own definition of Spirit, In Buddhist tradition it is likened to a dewdrop
disappearing into the ocean of infinite being.
While
it is essential to recognize Spirit along with the other elements, it is also
essential to keep it somewhat distinct, and not trivialize it by simply tacking
it on the elemental quaternary.
starweaverwitch.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/Spirit-the-fifth-element/
witcheslore.com/bookofshadows/witches-workshop/the-five-elements/4683/
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