Eight Elemental Glyphs

[ianphanes]

A few years back, I posted about doing Eight Element Quarter Calls in my ContraryWise work: http://ianphanes.livejournal.com/85875.htmlI've used glyphs from Ceremonialism for the traditional four elements for years, but didn't have glyphs for the new "elements".  With a little help from my friends, we came up with those last Friday

Comments

[mageoflamancha]

During some dog walks, I've been playing with your glyphs, and as of course your system should work perfectly for me, I have a question. The shapes all work for me, though I'd lean more toward an eight spoke cross for the air, I know the circle is more traditional. Where I ran into problems is with magic repeating the use of red. The pentagram is nicely traditional, but red strikes me as too limited for magic.
A tye-dyed or rainbow coloring, while hard to do by hand, is easy to picture or make on the computer seems like it would connect with the range of vibrations magic deals with pretty nicely. So, finally the question, what helped you decide to use red?

[ianphanes]

It's based on the fact that languages that only have three color terms, they equate with white, black, and red. You'll also notice those three colors showing up throughout Celtic myth and lore in reference to non-ordinary beings, such as dogs from the underworld, etc. I refer to those three colors collectively as the primal colors. It's obvious to use white for light and black for darkness. Since red is the vivid color that forms a triad with black and white, it seems the best color for magic.

Which moves orange to Fire, and purple is one of the colors many people use for Essence, leaving a nice balanced set of six colors on the color wheel teamed with white and black.

The remaining three color terms in English--grey, brown, and pink--don't have the same intensity, and thus wouldn't work as elemental colors for me.

P.S.: Just in case no one has mentioned it recently, you are a smart ass. ;)

[mageoflamancha]

Sure beats being a dumb one.....

I tend to go with the Celtic big three, so red for magic makes a lot more sense to me now- thanks. Of course that means editing down the elements to Earth, Sky, and Sea...but I'm guessing I've bothered you enough....for now.;)

[ianphanes]

Well, when assigning cord colors for Wheel-Dancing, the colors for the Three Realms are:
Land: Brown
Sea: Grey
Sky: Black

I find that somewhat less intense colors work better for me for the Realms, unlike the Elements. But I'm still not assigning pink to any of them.

And if you want to bother me about this some more, I'll be off work between Christmas and New Years, so feel free to phone.