Water Element: Correspondences, Magick, Alchemy & Astrology

The water element can be so good if appropriately used in our practice. If not, read this article and learn all you need to know about this powerful and incredible energy to change the way you connect with it and its associated tools!

The Water Element: main features

Since ancient times, man has recognized water as the source of all life. The Egyptians revered it because they found that the waters of the Nile caused the fertility of their lands, so they imagined with great likelihood that water was the principle of all things.

For this reason, they held it in high regard, also distinguishing themselves in the veneration they paid to this element, culminating in the establishment of the cult of Canopus, god of the Nile waters.

Related:
A List of 4 Deities That are Associated with Water [With Stories]

Even the ancient Persians had great respect for water.

And the Pagans believed that the waters of the sea and rivers had the virtue of blotting out sins.

Water is one of the four fundamental dynamic modes of existence and universal organization. Water, Fire, Air, and Earth are the main factors that materialize from their corresponding substances. Water itself is the vehicle through which the symbol speaks, adhering immediately to Water within the Being.

Water is privileged over other elements because it possesses both the calmness, gravity, and abysmal depth of the Earth, the orbiting restlessness of the Air, and the mobility of Fire.

Water has no sex (there is no need for sex in the Drop and its differentiation). Its fecundating power is that of the female womb and seminal flow.

She is the impetuous “bridegroom and founder” of Mother Earth and Man and Woman.

Each Drop has the power to fertilize. The rain is responsible for material, earthly Life, and fertilizes plants, metals, stones, and oxygen.

Magickal Property	Description
Emotions	Water is connected to emotions, intuition, and the subconscious mind. It can be used in magick for emotional healing, accessing intuition, and enhancing psychic abilities.
Purification	Water is associated with cleansing and purification. It can be used in rituals and spells to purify objects, spaces, and energies, removing negativity and promoting a fresh start.
Healing	Water has healing properties and can be used for various healing practices, such as water-based therapies, herbal infusions, or creating healing baths and elixirs.
Adaptability	Water represents the quality of adaptability and flexibility. It can be used in magick to aid in navigating life changes, finding solutions to challenges, and promoting emotional resilience.
Flow	Water symbolizes the flow of energy and can be utilized in magick to enhance the flow of intentions, creative inspiration, and energy in various rituals and spellwork.

Water is the still enchantment of the lakes, tireless traveler of the skies, driller of the earth, and ruler of the abyss is a fascinating bond and vehicle.

The element of Water belongs to the zodiac signs Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.

Water is as essential to us as the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, and the fire we warm ourselves because we need it for our survival.

Our human body is 70% of this element, which is susceptible to the same forces of nature.

Water is in the air we breathe, in the plants we grow and eat, and in the animals that give their lives for us every day. It is all around us, not only in the rain. Water governs emotions.

Water is associated with the cardinal direction of the West, blue, and is in the top left pentacle. The water element is a downward-facing triangle. It is often associated with emotion, intuition, and uniqueness. It is wonderful to use if you wish to delve deeper into your psyche and self to discover the ups and downs of your mind.

Water is the vital element from which everything is born, the womb, and the source of nourishment.

The Water Element embodies the liquid state of flexibility, receptivity, and inertia. It assimilates, internalizes, softens, mixes, inhibits, homogenizes, fills, and dissolves. It wins by yielding, changing shape, adapting to circumstances, and bypassing the obstacles it encounters. Inexorably from the source where it is born it slowly reaches the sea, becoming first a stream and then a river in a continuous process of transformation which is its true strength.

Water is all liquids. It is fluid, in constant motion, in constant change, sometimes slow and almost invisible, sometimes fast and hasty. At no time is she equal to herself.

The water is deep, receptive, and purifying. It is a therapeutic bearer of secret energies and healing.

Water belongs to the deep emotions that flow, appear on the surface, or disappear underground. Water is elusive, unpredictable, indefinable, sometimes unknown, sometimes dominant.
Altruism, the ability to abandon, dependence, feelings of guilt, attachment, compassion, sharing are his most characteristic feelings.

The rivers tend to meet, reunite, and grow together, so the water tends to bond and union up to dependence, even if interrupted by cyclical separations. The bonds are strengthened through liquids (sexuality, breastfeeding, drinking, and more).

How to connect with water with a prayer?

Chant a prayer for the water to connect with this element. You can find one online or create your custom prayer according to your practice.

Making Angel’s water

Water is considered the most important energy on earth. Scholars have shown that water acts as a receiver and transmitter of information through vibration. It gives life to all living beings. Thoughts, emotions, and communications easily influence it.

Imagine the water in a shower or jumping into a swimming pool. As soon as it hits you, you feel like all your worries are gone.

Ancient cultures considered taking a bath under a waterfall as a regenerative form of our spirit. Nothing cleans our soul better. Many of us are aware that 70% of our fabrics are made of water. We use a mixture of salt and water to clean our homes; water not only cleans but cures. Ancient cultures used it to solve many problems through spells.

When the water is charged with the energy it becomes ‘Angel’s Water’, blessed water, infused with moon water, the water of peace, water spirit, etc.

How to do it?

Collect myrtle leaves, orange flowers, rose petals and use the hydrosol method to create Angel’s water.

Add this water to your bathroom; this will add romance and excitement to your life. Use Angel’s water to wash your clothes.
To create moon water

This is a simple method with moon-charged water (leave your potion exposed during a full moon night) that improves psychic abilities. You need to retrieve a large crystal container and fill it with spring water and expose it outdoors on a full moon night. In the morning, take the container and transfer the water to a clean bottle, never used. Put it in the fridge to preserve the contents.

Every morning, after a bath, apply a little of this water energized by the moon with your fingers on the nape of the neck and on the third eye. Repeat the operation for nine consecutive days for optimal benefit.

Why connecting with water?

Water is privileged over the other elements, because, in its unpredictability, it possesses both the calmness, gravity, and abysmal depth of the Earth, as well as the orbiting restlessness of Air, as well as the mobility of Fire. Water, the still enchantment of the lakes, tireless traveler of the Heavens, driller of the Earth, and ruler of the abyss, is the most fascinating bond and vehicle.

The zodiac signs of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces belong to the element of water, representing respectively the emotions, the unconscious, and the spiritual feelings.

How to use all this in your practice?

While performing rituals of purification, love, psychic awareness, dreams, sleep, marriage, friendships.

While doing craft where these actions are involved: dilution, placing in water, washing, bathing.

To enhance the energy of these herbs containing a lot of humidity or are aquatic, such as water lilies and algae; fleshy as in succulents and lettuce. Rose and gardenia; generally, flowers.

To work with crystals and their energies like any blue stones such as blue tourmaline, transparent or translucent, such as amethyst and aquamarine.

Dawn’s Thoughts on the Water Element

Water is one of the classical elements of Greek philosophy and science. Pre-Socratic philosophers proposed it as an archai or a single substance to which all things could be reduced.

In the fifth century BCE, Empedocles proposed four archai to which all things could be reduced, water, air, fire and earth. 

Plato later accepted this concept and expounded on it in the Timaeus. Aristotle later elaborated on these ideas by giving order to the properties of the elemental substances. Water, being both cold and wet exists between air and earth among the elemental spheres.

In India

In Hindu tradition, water is one of the Panchamahabhuta or Five Great Elements and the word ”’Ap”’, plural ”’Apas”’ is also the name of the deva of water.

In China

Traditional Chinese philosophy classifies water of one of the Wu xing or ”’five movements”’. Water is yin; feminine and receptive with downward energy and still motion.

The Taoist mystery of water lies in its seeming weakness and pliancy contrasted against the power of floods and its ability to move mountains over the expanse of time. Water is spawned by metal, spawns wood, overcomes fire and is overcome by earth.

In Magic(k)

Water is used extensively in Magic as both a symbolic and a literal entity as well as a tool for purification and to contain and transfer energy. (i.e. moon water)

The ritual area, participants and tools are often cleansed by asperging with water at the start of a ritual or as part of a ritual.

Often salt is added to the water, either to make it more closely resemble seawater, or the waters of the womb, or to blend the energies of Earth with those of water.

The Golden Dawn system has incorporated the ancient Greek elemental system into its ceremonial magical system and aligns water with the Qabalistic sphere Hod and the planet Mercury and is assigned to the upper right point of the pentagram in the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. The elemental weapon of water is the cup or chalice.

In Wiccan tradition, the element of water may be called in association with the Watchtower of the West. In addition to this, the element of water or water elementals may be invoked or evoked in spells and rituals relating to purification, love, psychic awareness, understanding, dreams, sleep, peace and friendship.

Healing

In ancient Greek medicine, water is associated with an excess of phlegm. Medieval medicine continued this course associating it also with winter and illnesses common in the winter. The cure therefore for phlegmatic conditions, that is, cold and wet, would be to balance the body with warm and dry through the use of herbs and other items related to the element of fire.

In traditional Chinese medicine, water is associated with the kidneys, ears, and bones.

In Alchemy

The chemical element mercury is often associated with water.

The alchemical symbol for water is a downward pointing triangle.

Water Plants

Herbs associated with the element of water tend to be juicy and cooling with a light fragrance. Plants that grow in or near water are also sympathetically associated with the element. Their action tends to be cleansing and soothing.

Water lily, seaweed, apple, Balm of Gilead, buckthorn, burdock, belladonna, coltsfoot, bulrush, lobelia, lotus, periwinkle, reed, spearmint, turtlehead, aloe vera

Water Stones

Crystals and stones associated with the element of water are often blue in color, transparent or opalescent or they may be more likely to be found in and around water.

Beryl, aquamarine, amethyst, chrysocolla, rose quartz, coral, opal, pearl, blue tourmaline

Metals

• Silver, 
• mercury, 
• copper

Water Element Correspondences

Correspondence	Symbolism
Direction	West
Season	Autumn
Color	Blue, aqua, silver
Astrological Signs	Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Tarot Suit	Cups
Elemental Being	Undines (Water nymphs)
Ritual Tools	Chalice, cauldron, seashells, water-related symbols
Crystals	Aquamarine, amethyst, moonstone, lapis lazuli
Plants	Water lilies, seaweed, willow, lotus, cucumber
Animals	Fish, dolphin, turtle, swan, crab
Qualities	Emotions, intuition, dreams, purification, healing, flow

In Astrology

The signs Scorpio, Cancer, and Pisces are associated with the element of water. Water personalities are associated with the positive traits of kindness, empathy, nurturance, sympathy, and intuition. On the negative side, they are associated with the traits of neediness, over-sentimentality, irrationality and the tendency to assume they understand, whether they do or not.

Chinese

In Chinese astrology water is included in the 10 heavenly stems (the five elements in their yin and yang forms), which combine with the 12 earthly branches (or Chinese signs of the zodiac), to form the 60-year cycle.

Yang water years end in 2 (eg 1992), while Yin years end in 3 (eg 1993). Water governs the Chinese zodiac signs Pig, Rat, and Ox.

Tarot

The suit of Cups symbolizes the element of water and relates to those things relating to the family, loving relationships and emotions.

The Hanging Man is also associated with the element of water.

Other Associations

According to various Western traditions, the element water is associated with the color blue, the Winter, the West, the brain, the womb and feminine energy.

Animals associated with water include eagles, snakes, scorpions, bears, dolphins, seals, turtles, frogs, and fish. The astral creatures of water, include the Undines, mermaids, oreads, naiads, sea serpents, the archangel Gabriel, and the angel Taliahad.

Also, cymbals, bells, and all resonant instruments are aligned with the element of water.

In Hindu tradition water is associated with ”Chandra”, or the moon and ”Shukra” or Venus who represent emotions and imagination and it is associated with the northeast direction.

In Chinese and Taoist tradition, water is associated with the moon which causes dew to fall. It is representative of flexibility, softness, wisdom, and pliancy and an overabundance leads to difficulty staying on track with plans and commitments.

A black tortoise represents the Primal Spirit of water.

In many traditions, the soul travels westward after death. Many traditions also tell that the soul crosses water of some sort to go to the afterlife. Moving bodies of water are a good conduit for messages to those who have crossed over.