Connecting with the Elements

Why connect with the elements?  It is essential for anyone who hopes to master magickal arts.  The elements play an important role in helping your spells manifest on the astral plane.  When doing a ritual to honor the Gods, the elements/elementals protect your circle and your work.  To get aquainted or reaquainted with these powers we must immerse ourselves in that part of nature that is linked to the eleemnts that we wish to connect - listening to its stories, learning its lessons, and meeting its inhabitant spirits.
Air
-Go outside on a breezy or windy day and face the wind. Let it rush past you and open yourself to its influence. -Play with feathers or different birds and attune with the energy of each. -Listen to and/or play wind chimes, xylophones, bells or wind instruments -Play with the difference between hot and cold air. Stand in front of a fan, then in frton of an oven that's hot and cracked open. Focus on what the differences are besides just temperature. -Line up a number of different granular incenses. Light a piece of incense charcoal. Drop a pinch one at a time and see what the different smells do to your psyche. -Play with your breath. Make different sounds. See where the come from your body.
A Spell to Greet the Dawn
WHen you have made your connectionn with Air, consult your calendar. For 3 days, begin on the day of the next New Moon, spend 15 minutes of each day focusing on a project you want to begin or something in your life that has become stagnant. Then, on the 4th morning, wake up before dawn and go outside, preferably into a field or large yard if you can. Greet the dawn and ask the element of Air to help you clear the way for this change that you want to make. Repeat the following chant until the energy rises, then raise your hands to the sky and let the spell go: Blow wind blow, let my mind flow Change come in, stagnation go!
Fire
-Spend some time out in the noon sun -Visit a desert or rocky place, observe and attune yourself to the arid landscape -Dance around a fire -Light a candle and sit in a darkened room. Look a few inches above the flame (don't look directly at the flame or you will get eyestrain) and spend some time in meditation on the element of Fire.
Water
-Go for a swim, walk in the rain or through puddles -Take a shower or bath -Sit on the edge of a stream and observe the water -Skip stones across the water and watch the ripples
Earth
-Take a walk in the woods -Play in sand or potting soil -Plant and tend to a garden -Make herbal charms -Take a class about herbalism -Collect stones that catch your eye -Lie in the grass and observe what is going on