Practical Witchery: Fire Elementals

 Dear Reader,

Way back in February, I did a post about Air Elementals. I have finally gotten my proverbial ducks in a row to write the next installment of this series of posts. This week we're meeting the Fire Elemental. Now, as I have said in my earlier post, this is not a comprehensive guide. This is an introduction and a guide to working with these spiritual beings.

Where Air Elementals are associated with slyphs, Fire Elementals are associated with salamanders. This is an association that goes back a long way to Medieval European thought. When wood was collected from the forests and put on the fire, the salamander that was living under it that had been collected with the wood, would come crawling out of the fire. This made many people think that salamanders lived in fire and were coming literally from the fire, not the wood. This idea became so prevalent that it stuck with us into modern occult thinking. Some people substitute the salamander with dragons. But, that doesn't really change much except the iconography of the spiritual being.

Fire Elementals are mercurial in temperament. They are the spiritual embodiment of fire, which means they can be warm, welcoming, and soothing or they can be destructive, terrifying, and harsh. The magical tool associated with Fire Elementals is the Athame or the Sword. (Others associate the Wand or the Stave with Fire, placing the Athame or the Sword with Air. It depends on the tradition you're following.) They're typically viewed as hailing from the South. Candles are especially associated with them because, well, fire.

Invoking Fire Elementals can be a fairly routine experience. They make excellent guardians. They can be good advisors because of their ability to shed light upon hidden things. And they are excellent at destroying things, because fire does that. When invoking the Fire Elemental for protection, you should do so with courage. They respect courage and view people with it favorably. If you're not feeling particularly courageous, still invoke them if you believe they will provide the best protection for you. Because the act of invoking the spiritual aspect of raw fire to protect you is an act of courage.

Appealing to Fire Elementals for assistance with problems is a mixed bag. They're somewhat chaotic in their workings. With patience, however, you can get a solution to your problem. It may not manifest in the manner you expected, however.