Some other possible fourfold paths: William Gray spoke of Hermetic, Orphic [I'll say "think Wicca for the modern version"], and Mystic paths, and Frater Barrabbas ( fraterbarrabbas.blogspot.com ) distinguishes "ritual magic" (as meaning roughly "witchcraft") from "ceremonial magic", also mentioning a distinct mysticism; yes, I noticed they're threefold (and identical?), and suggest the obvious 4th one would be the Hearthfire Path, with Hermetism corresponding to Air, Orphism to Fire (which I do notice may not be true for the original Orphism?), Mysticism to Water, and Hearthfire to Earth.
JMG distinguishes magic, occultism, and mysticism (yes, also threefold); I could imagine adding one of Hearthfire, "Orphic" (in the modern sense) magic as distinct, or natural magic - in any such case, the addition could be seen as corresponding to Earth, and ("Hermetic") magic to Fire, occultism to Air, and mysticism to Water.
Emil Stejnar, in his (IMO excellent, but I'm unqualified to judge; you can read reviews of his work by someone who can at https://theomagica.com/blog/book-review-emil-stejnars-the-four-elements-the-secret-key-to-spiritual-power and https://theomagica.com/blog/book-review-emil-stejnars-magic-with-astrology ; those are the 2 I have, and I intend to acquire more) The Four Elements, defines 4 methods of self-transformation: Hermetic (Fire - building willpower and dropping bad habits), alchemical (Air - purifying each of one's elements by balancing its basic qualities - cold/hot/dry/wet - a more thorough self-development work), mystical (Water), and magical (Earth - Stejnar, after Bardon (and other Central Europeans?) tends to describe Earth as the sum of the other 3 elements, so this is described as using the other 3 methods together, but also involves attention to one's life outside magic); there's also a Kabbalistic transformation, at times grouped with magical. (Note that with Stejnar, attaining elemental balance is *the entire point*.)
How does one become a successful programmer without Air? Also, let us ask jprussell what *he* thinks an Air path is like, since I think he's pretty familiar with that by now.
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Date: 2023-04-16 10:54 pm (UTC)JMG distinguishes magic, occultism, and mysticism (yes, also threefold); I could imagine adding one of Hearthfire, "Orphic" (in the modern sense) magic as distinct, or natural magic - in any such case, the addition could be seen as corresponding to Earth, and ("Hermetic") magic to Fire, occultism to Air, and mysticism to Water.
Emil Stejnar, in his (IMO excellent, but I'm unqualified to judge; you can read reviews of his work by someone who can at https://theomagica.com/blog/book-review-emil-stejnars-the-four-elements-the-secret-key-to-spiritual-power and https://theomagica.com/blog/book-review-emil-stejnars-magic-with-astrology ; those are the 2 I have, and I intend to acquire more) The Four Elements, defines 4 methods of self-transformation: Hermetic (Fire - building willpower and dropping bad habits), alchemical (Air - purifying each of one's elements by balancing its basic qualities - cold/hot/dry/wet - a more thorough self-development work), mystical (Water), and magical (Earth - Stejnar, after Bardon (and other Central Europeans?) tends to describe Earth as the sum of the other 3 elements, so this is described as using the other 3 methods together, but also involves attention to one's life outside magic); there's also a Kabbalistic transformation, at times grouped with magical. (Note that with Stejnar, attaining elemental balance is *the entire point*.)
How does one become a successful programmer without Air? Also, let us ask