Element Star 101

This page was initially written in 2021, and preserved here more-or-less-as-is. At the time, this was the only symbol I had made and was using. Now, I have a whole section of them, and my favourite is the column star, this same diagram but stretched out to make the Solar-to-Stellar journey more clear.

This is one true diagram of the underlying forces in Landcraft. There are others that look very different, and they are also true. This one is intended to communicate colours, elemental attributions, and flesh out some of the meanings of the Domains when they relate to the landscape and physical elements.

The Element Star landing page was created with the help of Image-Map.net

I never really got my head around the four elements as used in other magics, possibly because of encountering them mostly through the "mechanical" mood of Ceremonial tech. And so, dropping them to find an alternative was an early design goal, in favour of finding something that felt more authentic and organic, and not linked with other magical aesthetics. Over time, however, the imagery, landscapes, themes and colours seemed to coalesce in predictable ways, and slowly - a form of elementalism returned. I think, by and large, they are to be percieved more materially than metaphorically.

Within Landcraft, physical elements are seen as subsidiary or a lower-order-of-creation than the Domains

A list of things which
don't mean anything

On the diagram, the lines overlap. This does not indicate anything. I just had to make an artistic decision about how to paint the lines. There's some indication that these overlaps might also be "points" of significance in future, places where the colours blend.

There is no real significance to this being a 6-pointed star. I had three Domains, and wanted to find out what lay between them - giving me six "points", and this is a way to lay them out. No interaction with Jewish mythology/culture, or Western ceremonial magic should be implied (although the influence of "let's have some spheres you can visit plus paths between them" will be clear)

In the Western ceremonial tradition, 6-pointed stars represent the planets. There is basically no way to make this diagram cohere with that planetary hexagram, and Fencraft does not yet incorporate planetary magic or symbolism (mostly because I've never done planets, and so my knowledge is very superficial).

There's a couple of hexagram shapes on the Tree of Life. Again, not sure this slots onto any of those, primarily because of the centrality of Stellar/Void within our system that has no conceptual equivalent there.

It is possible that tipping the star onto its side is correct:

This discourages superficial resemblence to the 6-point-star of other magical traditions and faiths, and fits with the tripartite Solar-Lunar-Stellar spectrum better and with moderate accuracy - though you can see it introduces new errors I'm yet to quite clear up.

Note 2023: hence painting the column star shortly afterwards

What is the meaning of the clockwise/anticlockwise orientation here? Habit. And I know I tend to percieve time as laid out anti-clockwise so it's quite possible that other orientations might work better for you. Try flipping the star vertically to see what results you get.

When you map the Element Star onto the Year, it fits very pleasingly - but as it is my diagram, time appears to move backwards. Perhaps this is correct.

How do I use it?

These elemental attributions have been stable in the system for long enough that it is now time to share them; however, I am in the early stages of experimenting with the symbol: there are no out-of-the-box rites just yet.

Still, I'm an old Chaote at heart, and if you've been around the magical block a few times, you'll probably have a good idea already what to do with symbols, sigils, shapes and correspondences. Experiment with what you can use it to do!

• Meditate on each triangle in turn, envisaging the character of a door, and visiting its landscape
• Create banners, altar cloths, floor cloths, or artworks for each. Assemble an altar box for each, considering their materials and character. Collect digital images for each
• Select a personally satisfying "gatekeeper" or "guardian" figure at each point, from your favoured lore.
• Use it to lay out six points in a room for a circle, and stand at the center. Do ritual and magic.
• I'm not sure, as written, that pulling this diagram through the body a la Qabalistic Cross or chakras is going to work, there are six distinct and unmixable energies here; but try it, if you like. My instinct is, some kind of practice of this kind will be derived from the symbol, but not using it directly
• Noodle around with the pantheons, archetypes, forces and concepts in your tradition and figure out how to fit them into this.
• Try out a LBRP adaptation, but with six triangles in place of the four pentagrams, and archetypal figures drawn from the imagery as seems best to you.
• Practice opening, encountering, and manipulating each energy, and learn their differing qualities
• Place crystals, offerings, or candles within a small representation of the diagram on the altar
• Use it as a tarot layout (instructions forthcoming)
• Use it as the underlying correspondence system for deity or magical work of any kind.

Time to get to work!

You can go as deep or as shallow with correspondence systems as you like. If your vibe is more on the informal end, you can pop representations of the six elements around your bedroom floor and call it done so you can get onto casting spells and meeting gods. However, as the sort of person who routinely browses Mystery School Outlines of Work and Grading Schemes for fun and gets a hit of dopamine for working through a nice long to-do list, I must inform you that there's another way of doing this which is spending a minimum of 6 months doing nothing but studying, pathworking, recreating and meditating on this image. You know which one is right for you.