The Tetrasomia Pentacle and Finding Balance Among the Four Elements

I call this little creation of mine the "Tetrasomia" pentacle, named after the title of Empedocles’ venerable  treatise on the four elements. I designed it in a way to illustrate the relationship among the elements according to classical Western wisdom: The red part on the right side represents the masculine element of Fire, while the blue part on the left is the feminine element of Water. Above and in the middle of them is the neutral element of Air (yellow), which unites and harmonizes the energies of the two opposing elements of Water and Fire. And finally at the center of them all is the pentagram, the symbol of Earth, which represents materialization brought forth from the balanced interaction of Fire, Water and Air.

The colors representing three of the elements are the traditional primary colors, and the assignment is based on the Golden Dawn system of correspondences. Incidentally, they are also the colors of the Philippine flag, and with the same positions too as on the pentacle.

Elemental tools on my Samhuinn altar

The elemental tools are also depicted on the pentacle and can be found on their corresponding elements: the feminine cup on Water, the masculine wand on Fire, and the double-edged sword on Air. The fourth tool is of course the pentacle itself, again echoing the concept of Earth being the embodiment and the material form of those elements.

I created this as a logo for a local organization called the Philippine Wiccan Society, whose initials “P.W .S.” are written in Theban script around the pentagram. The letters also stand for the three Platonic virtues alternatively named as: Patience (Temperance), Wisdom (Prudence), and Strength (Fortitude), with the central pentagram symbolizing the fourth virtue, Justice (which may be also considered as Balance).

A depiction of the four Platonic virtues at the Strasbourg cathedral, France.

More than just an altar tool, this has also been a sort of a personal mandala reminding me of the human quest for evolution, which for me is basically an unending series of dialectic: something new and better arising from the harmony of two conflicting elements.

Over the years I have come to derive more meanings from this symbol, but the most important one so far is one which I discovered when I entered the Druid path. The letters P V S, coincidentally, corresponds to the First Triad of the Druidic teachings of Árn nDraíocht Féin, namely Piety, Virtue and Study. (Note that W and V is written using the same character in Theban.)

Virtue is the duty of every person who wishes to live well within society. We consider the many things that the old lore has to teach about virtue, and do our best to apply our insights to our own lives.

Piety is the duty we owe to the Gods and Spirits, for which They bless us in turn. When we choose to learn ritual, when we make our home shrines and altars, when we keep the customs and rites of the High Days, we bring piety to our work.

Study is the duty we owe to ourselves to grow by effort in strength, wisdom and love. To be more then we are when we begin, we must absorb new ideas, new methods and new goals we seek these in both scholarship and the work of inspiration.

– Árn nDraíocht Féin

It's easy to see why balance among the elements of this triad is necessary: Focusing on Piety alone can make one a self-absorbed hypocrite, focusing on Study alone can make one a dry intellectual, and focusing on Virtue alone can make one a nice person - but dangerously naive.

I assume that Piety can also apply to magical practice or any spiritual work for self-transformation, so I think spiritual non-Theists can relate to this triad as well. What I like about it is that it teaches the balance of spiritual practice, scholarly learning, and applying the wisdom you gained to your actions in the everyday world. And of all of these points out to the development of the four elements in us - spirit (fire), emotions (water), mind (air) and body (earth).

Basbasan Nawa!

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Triple-Goddess Pantacle

I was just accepted into the artisans guild of Ár nDraíocht Féin and so, as my first project, I created something for the goddess of the arts herself.

I used three different colors of metallic paint for this one, each relating to one of the three main divine attributes of Brighid. Copper being a metal associated with Venus is for Brighid the muse of poetry, bronze, relating to Mars, is for Brighid the lady of smithcraft, and gold, the metal of the Sun, is for Brighid the healer.

The color correspondences are obviously hermetic, but hermetic correspondences have been so bored into my psyche that I just feel comfortable using it with other belief structures. I guess sometimes we just have to sacrifce a bit of integrity for the sake of art.

Basbasan Nawa!

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Double Double Cauldron Babble

"Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

-- Shakespeare, Macbeth

The cauldron must be on par with the swastika as one of the most misinterpreted religious symbols in history. It is a most auspicious symbol even in Pagan traditions outside of Wicca, but contemporary culture has done so much to tarnish its significance that it is now rare to find a depiction of the cauldron without bones, tentacles, ooze and evil-looking green smoke coming out of it.

The cauldron of the Welsh goddess Kerridwen is the most revered artifact in Druidism, being the source of Awen or, roughly translated, poetic inspiration. In the West African religion of Ifa, the cauldron is associated with Oggun, the lord of iron and of work. As such it represents the creative force, from which all actions are rooted from. Even in the wisdom of the Far East, in the I Ching, one should be very happy when Ting (the cauldron) comes out of a reading, as it denotes supreme good fortune.

A makeshift cauldron, with the symbol of the Awen.

Taking advantage of the moon in Aries, I managed to gather some rain water during the full moon and used it to wash my iron cauldron with along with a bunch of oregano leaves from my mom's flower pot. True to its meaning I was immediately inspired to take some 'witchy' photos of the cauldron for an online magic shop - despite having not slept for 24 hours. I had to use eight candles and a flash light to get the perfect lighting, and took me about an hour to get the right shot. But with all the toil and trouble, I'm happy with what I managed to come up with.

May the cauldron of the Lady Kerridwen continually grant us divine inspiration, and may the Lord Oggun guide our hands at its working.

Basbasan Nawa!

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Personalizing a Wand Naturally

The wand is the most used among the four elemental tools, so I make sure that my wands have a personal touch.

The oak wand I bought from La Dea is already beautiful as it is. I love the grain of the oak, and I didn't want to hide its natural beauty by painting on it or attaching gemstones, feathers, metal wires, etc. as I did with my previous wands. So I decided to do no other embellishments on it other than burning my name on the wood.1

Pyrography is tougher than I expected. What I used to burn the wood was a 40-watt soldering iron (as was recommended by woodburning articles that I googled), but I wished I had a hotter one so that I could burn the wood with a single stroke. The texture of the wood makes it hard to 'write' on, and the handle of the soldering pen becomes hot after some minutes. Thankfully I managed to inscribe my name recognizably in Theban letters after some sweat and finger-burns.

Write the inscription in pencil then burn them away.  

To protect the wand, I had to treat it with a special wood finish - which is linseed oil mixed with a few drops of dragon's blood. Dragon's blood has been used by magicians for centuries to increase magic power, but here I also use it symbolically for the fire element, and to represent the blood that would 'awaken' this ritual object to life. Wood varnish would make it look too glossy and artifical. Linseed on the other hand is natural, and not so sticky so I can use my hands to apply it on.

Linseed oil and dragon's blood.

I didn't realize I would need only a few drops of wood finish to cover the entire wand, so I still had some left  for my newly-made pentacle.

Basbasan Nawa!




[1] I was about to inscribe it in Ogham, but opted to go Trad Wiccan than Druidic, so I chose Theban.
[2] Visit La Dea's website : http://ladea.moonfruit.com

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Necklaces for the Gods

Bought these lovely pieces of magical jewelry from a lone merchant somewhere along Taft avenue. These were reasonably priced, and the merchant ("Bongbong") told me that he makes custom items too. There were a lot more cool looking stuff that I saw - like a rabbit's foot, wild boar tusks, and a dreamcatcher made from the tail of a stingray. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to get some more. I needed something to wear in the ileocha so I've chosen the ones which remind me of certain orishas.

[L to R] preserved scorpion with carnelian (Oshun Ibu Ikole), shark's tooth pendant (Oggun / Yemaya), skull and serpents (Santa Muerte), buffalo horn dreamcatcher with amethyst (Oya / Oggue)

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Bathala's Pentacle

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names."

Aleister Crowley was notorious for "bastardizing" words of magic and names of gods: from ABRACADABRA to ABRAHADABRA, from AUM to the awkward-looking AUMGN, from the Egyptian god Heru-Behdety to the Thelemic god Hadit. All of these name-changing were not done on a whim though; the new spellings were conscientiously formulated in order to give the words more meaning and power.

It's important to remember that the names of the gods are not their actual names, but titles given to them with respect to the archetypal forces they represent.

Sa Ngalan ni Bathala (In Bathala's Name)

The name of the supreme god of the ancient Tagalog people, Bathala, is traditionally spelled with three baybayin characters: B H L. Bathala's name, spelled thus, is in and of itself a symbol embodying a classical, naturalistic philosophy:

The bosom-shaped Ba stands for babae (the feminine/passive principle), while the phallic- or lightning-shaped La stands for lalake (the male/active principle). Together they are joined by the syllable Ha, an S-shaped glyph, similar to that which conjoins the Yin and Yang in the Taijitsu symbol. I would like to think that this Ha stands for hangin - the air that we breathe - which is also the essence of life. Hangin in this sense is similar to that concept of the universal, life-giving energy known in various philosophies as prana, ch'i, ashé, mana, élan vital, et cetera [1]. For this reason I personally associate the baybayin Ha with Halmista, the god of  magic of our ancestors.

In many mystical traditions, each character that comprises the name of god is associated to one of a set of universal concepts, so that the name of god taken as a whole signifies the unifying and all-encompassing principle. Examples of these are the Kabbalistic YHVH, the Gnostic IAO, and the Pythagoreans' YGEIA [2].

Fortunately babayin, like Hebrew letters, due to its apparent lack of vowel characters, are very capable of mystical wordplay [3]. As a supplement to B H L which symbolizes the heavenly forces, I formulated the spelling B' A T H L to illustrate the earthly forces (the realm of the elements). Each of the baybayin character stands for one of the classical elements of Western Esotericism or the Hindu Tattwas. Note that the order of the elements, fire-water-air-earth, corresponds to the four worlds of the Kabbalah:

B - binhi - akasha or the cosmic egg, the quintessence

A - apoy - fire, tejas

T - tubig - water, apas

H - hangin - air, vaju

L - lupa - earth, prithivi

Tala ni Bathala (The Star of Bathala)

The five-pointed star, a timeless symbol of cosmic order, and the pentacle, a tool used by Western esoteric traditions to represent the material plane, is an apt symbol for Bathala as lord of the earth. On the pentacle, the five characters of the name B A T H L is assigned to each of the five points of the star in a clockwise manner. The pentagram is surrounded by hangin (the baybayin Ha) depicted as flowering vines, to symbolize its life-giving essence and all-permeating quality.

Bathala, the god who is neither male nor female, is the laws and forces of nature themselves. To submit oneself to Bathala is to let the natural course of things unfold. In our modern culture, we are taught to become tough and to persevere and are often advised against yielding and letting go. But I am Pagan. I have my faith in nature. As we Filipinos say: "Bahala Na."

Or in the older tongue...

Bathala Nawa!

[1] In the Hebrew language, air, breath and spirit uses the same word: ruach

[2] YHVH and YGEIA, are associated with the four classical elements earth, air, fire and water, with idea being the fifth element in YGEIA. IAO comprises of the first, last, and middle vowels of the Greek alphabet.

[3] The literal Kabbalah is a practice wherein Hebrew letters are manipulated to find or develop new meanings from an existing word.

More Reading:

[1] The Bathala Code:
http://www.pilipino-express.com/history-a-culture/in-other-words/460-the-bathala-code-part-1.html
[2] Bathala spirituality:  http://www.babaylan.com/

[3] Reviving Baybayin:  http://baybayinalive.blogspot.com/

[4] Modern baybayin fonts:  http://nordenx.blogspot.com/

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El Mio Altar de Orishas

Yemaya / Our Lady of Justice. Mother of the orishas. Ruler of the moon and the seas. At her feet is a dried sea poison which is her favored offering. Elegua / Santo Nino de Atocha can be seen in the background.

Oshun / Nuestra Senora de la Caridad del Cobre. Orisha of love, beauty, prosperity and mirth. Her image sits on top of a squash, which is sacred to her. On the foreground is Our Lady of Loreto, representing a camino (aspect) of Oshun: Oshu Ololodi, the wife of Orunmila. My opa iku (death staff) is painted green, in honor of my principal ori, Ogun.

Shango / San Miguel. The orisha of thunder and fire. A bundle of six (drying) okras is offered to him.

Oya / Santa Teresa. The skull represents iku (death); the graveyard is Oya's domain. Oya is distantly related to St. Briget of Ireland through her syncretism with Our Lady of Candelaria, hence the Briget's cross.

Obatala / Mary Mediatrix of all Graces. Obata, creator of man, is presented as both male and female, signifying transcendence from duality.

Babalu-Aye / San Roque. Orisha of healing. It is said that Babalu Aye both causes and cures disease.

Ogun / San Pedro. Orisha of war, iron, and technology. Beside him is his sopera, painted in his color: green. By his feet is the caldero de oggun, containing miniature weapons, as well as some ashes from the ile ocha.

Orunmila / San Francisco de Assissi. The lord of divination, the seer of the orishas. The obsidian crystal ball is part of orunmila's herramientos (tools).

Maferefun Orisha!

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