by Dee Rapposelli

Created on: November 12, 2009   Last Updated: November 15, 2009

Following the Star: The Elemental North and Ritual Space

In contemporary Western Occultism, the Northern quarter represents the womb and tomb, the dark moon, night, winter, earth, and form and potentiality. Whereas the Southern quarter is associated with assertiveness and action, the Northern quarter is associated with the vehicles of action: the body and will. In it is the will and potential to exist. What can Exist is then realized in the east, asserted in the south, and fulfilled in the west.

In the idea of the elemental north is the seed of becoming where the realm of archetype and pure idea intersect with the physical world. This idea is an ancient one known to the pre-Socratic philosophers of the 6th century BCE, the Hermeticists and Neoplatonists of the ancient world (circa 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE), the Hermetic mystics and magicians of the medieval and Renaissance eras, and the mystics of the East. It is this: that the physical world is the manifestation of an ideal spiritual world. Therefore, the theme and mystery of the elemental North can be summarized in the Hermetic adage As above, so below.

A number of symbolic ritual objects are used to represent Elemental North. They include: The Pentacle or Pentagram, Paten or ritual offering plate, Mirror, and Stone or Crystal. The ritual Shield, Breastplate, or Lamen perhaps can be added to this list. With the exception of the pentagram, these items are reflective objects. What they symbolically reflect is the Higher sphere of Reality: the Macrocosm reflected in the Microcosm.

The Paten used in Wicca and Ceremonial Magick generally is a pentaclea pentagram in a circle, or in this case, a disc on which a pentagram in engraved. It is related to the paten used in Christian worship: a platter that represents the resting place that is the womb and tomb and the body of the Christian dying and resurrecting god. Even Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), in Liber ABA, Book IV, acknowledged this connection, saying about the pentacle: that which is merely a piece of common bread shall be the body of God.

Some antique patens areas the name implies large platters or bowls, and in fact are related to the grail. In Christian lore, the grail is described as vessel sometimes associated with the chalice used at the Last Supper and sometimes with the platter on which the Pascal lamb was served. The word grail and words like it originally meant something like big bowl or serving dish. So both the chalice and paten are

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