A question on elemental correspondences?

Question

Hello, I have seen many sources associating east with air, south with fire, west with water, and north with earth, but lately I read a rather convincing argument for switching earth and air. Also, looking at elemental associations by Aristotle and the ancient Greeks ( http://occult-advances.org/elements.shtml ) suggests a completely different setup of water in the north, air in the east, fire to the south, and earth to the west. From my understanding the traditional european craft correspondences stem from geographic location, but the Aristotlean model seems more based on general logic. My question is, what correspondences do you use, and why?
Please, save all sarcastic answers and cut-and-paste bible verses.
Be well!

Answer 1

The elemental associations do not need to be hard, fast rules. I am a Mageia (basing my reconstruction on Pre-Platonic models), and I personally don't use them at all. But, those who do do not always use the same ones. The oldest "original" associations, if you will, would have been determined by the geography of the area they originated in. Fire may be South, to those who associate South with heat, but what about folks who live on the equator? And of course, if people in temporate regions never travelled south, they'd never know it got warmer, and if you're basing your correspondance on where the sun hangs out, well it doesn't look the same everywhere on the planet. And why not the East, where the sun comes up, and in some places look as if the mountains are on fire, but then, if there are mountains there, you could call it Earth. Water should, of course, be in the direction of the Ocean or, failing that, the nearest large body of water, or the direction your river flows. Or it could be the direction from which the rain comes most often.

What I'm saying is that these things are entirely arbitrary and you needn't do it some other person's way. You should decide on the elemental directions, assuming you want to use them at all (I find them not at all useful, personally) based on your own environment and a true Sage will attempt to contact the elemental spirits in the area and proceed accordingly, rather than using cut-and-paste correspondances from books written by people in other places and times.

Answer 2

I use the basic one:
Earth/green/North
Air/yellow/East
Fire/red/South
Water/blue/West

But that's because it's the first one I learned when I started studying and so it resonates with me. It seems to me that whatever way resonates with you is the method to follow.