How to Work with the Element of Water: An invitation to sit at the shores of the inner self

This episode is an exploration into the element of water and how it teaches us emotional honesty, interconnection, and safe surrender. 

Working with the element of water is a lesson in opening the heart, channeling our emotions, and intuition. 

This episode explores the symbolism of the water element, working with it, and any water spirits, and what the cups in the tarot teach us. 

We end this episode with a beautiful poem (Love IX by Pablo Neruda and translated by W. S. Merwin.

Main themes:
• water as heart, intuition, dreams, symbolism
• channeling emotion vs flailing in ritual
• surrender, support, and altar practices
• working with bodies of water and spirits
• boundaries, protection, grounding, offerings
• cups suit as vulnerability, courage, power
• integrating water magick into daily life and advocacy

Links: 

Substack, Patreon post for free water element handout

Working with Water website article

Goddesses and Spirit of Water

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown 

Nature's Magick by the Extravaganja

Background track is Rainwater Epilogue by Rand Aldo

Chapters

• 1:32 Welcome & Water Focus
• 3:26 Elements as Craft Foundations
• 5:04 Water’s Heart, Flow, and Interconnection
• 8:53 Chaos, Safety, and Emotional Channeling
• 12:37 Surrender, Support, and the Altar
• 16:08 A Spell Gone Sideways
• 19:56 Boundaries, Direction, Tools, and Moon Water
• 24:10 Spirits, Deities, and Trickster Currents
• 26:58 Practice by a Real Body of Water
• 30:50 Protection, Grounding, and Offerings

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:46

Hello, and thank you for tuning in to the Wolf Child Magic Podcast. My name is Ashley, your tarot reader, mountain witch, and overall wolf child, and I thank you so much for being here with me today. In today's episode, as the title indicates, I am going to be walking you through how to work with the element of water. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about the symbolism of this element, how to work with it, and I'm even going to bring in some quick information from the cups of the tarot so that way you can translate working with this element into your tarot practice. Please check the show notes as I have a bunch of references and resources, tabs that I used and links that I used for my own research. I am also going to have some pictures on Instagram and stuff. I am trying to get better about promoting more of the podcast and stuff. And I will have a picture today of the poem that I will be reading at the end of this episode by the famous and most wonderful Pablo Naruda. In the spirit of promoting and putting a plug out there, if you like this episode or any episode that I have put out on the Wolf Child Magic podcast, please consider rating or sharing, doing anything in the algorithm because that is what helps this podcast grow. You boosting it out through word of mouth. So thank you so much. It is so appreciated. And because of that, I decided that one, that sounds amazing, but two, if we want to start engaging in this together, it's helpful if we're all on the same page with some of this information, like knowing how to use our physical elements. Our physical elements are a building block that we use and rely on in our craft. We use them because they're tangible, we can manipulate them, but they're also symbolic. They speak to energies and themes and focuses that we will get into today, like with water. And once you have a better grasp on how to work with the elements, it's easier to step into more liminal or energetic spaces because you're using the physical as a launch pad into the energetic. So I want to give the same information to you here. In the show notes, I have some links for you to go and receive the handout of working with the element of water for free. It's just uh there's two different links so you can pick your direction. One is Substack and the other is Patreon. If you're interested in maybe joining our Patreon group, maybe go and look at that. Or if you just would like to stay with me on Substack, but wherever you go, please maybe consider connecting with me or following. That way you and I can stay in touch. Staying in touch with me in whatever form means that when I put out these episodes and give you the free handouts for those, you can start to build that resource up and you will know when these episodes drop. So let's go ahead and start talking about how to work with the element of water. Working with the element of water is a homecoming to our own emotional waters. We are connecting to what we feel. We are connecting to our intuitive knowing, to our dreams and our understanding through symbolism. We are connecting to our most vulnerable self. When we are working with the element of water, we are connecting to and using those inner waters within to help us relate to another. Now, this does not have to be another person, although it certainly can be. This could also be a pet, a memory, a place, a story, a song, a poem. But when we are working with the element of water, we are literally letting the inner waters of self move into the external, from internal to external, and we find how to connect on the deepest of levels to whatever it is we are connecting to. But what is so precious about working with the element of water is that the depths, the turbulence, the fingerprint of our emotional selves, the history that we carry with us often cannot be expressed through mere words or in a logical way. It has to be felt, it has to be processed through the heart in order to make more sense of it logically. And even when we are using logical words to describe these situations or moments in time, when we are listening to someone who speaks true and from the heart, we feel it. It's not just about hearing it, it's about feeling it as well. And that's what makes the element of water. This is where the element of water really takes hold, in my opinion, because as we said, it water speaks to our heart space, it speaks to our flow, it speaks to how we connect to other things in this world. Water speaks to the gift of life because every living thing on this planet needs water in order to survive. We cannot live without it. And in a metaphorical sense, that also means that we cannot live without a sense of this interconnection. We're not alone, we're not isolated, we are interconnected, and our heart thrives when that interconnection comes from a vulnerable and authentic and honest place, and when we have the space to do that in a way that is safe. And if we are looking to encourage spaces like that, we would do well to use the water, the element of water, because it softens us, it softens our ego, it returns us to some of the most pure parts of us. Water is therefore the force of life. There could be an argument, and we will make this argument when we get to the element of fire, that fire is the true force of life because fire speaks to that ambition, that hunger, that soul center, that wild spirit within that you cannot replicate. It's not physical, it's not tangible. But for now, I would say that water is the force of life. Water is a healer, a nurturer, a tender, and a creator. When we are connecting to the element of water, we are asked to nurture our life through those gifts that we just discussed because that is where we find so much meaning. That is where it transcends out of just the logical, the tangible, the linear into the felt, the palpable, the understood, the interconnection. However, like all the elemental forces, there is a chaotic, turbulent, and even violent aspect to water. Storms rage and leave destruction in their wake. Gentle rains can quickly turn into a flash flood, and that is certainly true of the heart space. There are times where we feel something and at first it feels manageable, it feels we feel okay, and then it just quickly, you know, becomes something much more, and that is human. So if that is you, that is everyone. And I know I have certainly been there at some times. When we are working with the element of water, water teaches us how to literally flow in the river of life, how to bravely dream and create, how to feel our emotions safely and maturely, which is something that takes a long time. And again, everything I say here is not meant to create any sort of judgment. But with the elements of water, we want to feel what we are going through, what we are processing, but we want to feel it in a way where it grounds us. We want to feel it in a way where we're safe to explore the expression of the emotion, whether that's through just talking about it, creating something artful about it, or just crying. But we don't want to be uprooting ourselves in the quest to get these emotions out of us. When we are working with this element, we are literally connecting to the power of interconnection, and this is very important. We are learning how to surrender. And all of these things are going to aid your craft, your witchcraft, your spellcasting, and your rituals. And I'll tell you why. When we learn how to bring our emotions to our practice, our practice is so much better aided and supported and becomes more powerful because our emotions provide the why. We still want to make sure though that we are creating a space where we're channeling those emotions and we're not flailing. And I'm going to give you an example from myself in just one second. But when we also understand the power of interconnection that water brings to our practice, we recognize where the support comes in. We recognize where we are stepping into this craft with the love, the guidance, the tenderness, the empathy, the compassion, the joy for our own lives that we have from our loved ones, from our pets, from our guides. It just allows us to feel seen. And that helps us when we go to the altar or we're stepping into more energetic spaces because when we feel seen by those who love us the most, it helps to be reminded of that so that we also know we're being seen by the universe itself. I personally keep love letters that Grizzly has written me and pictures of my cats on my altar because that is where my heart is the most full, and that is where I feel the most loved and supported. And so that's a helpful reminder for me when I'm stepping into spell casting or into the craft because it reminds me that I have this at my back. So how can I how can I be led astray? You know what I mean? And also the power of surrender that comes with water aids our craft and our practice and our rituals because we have to surrender. We're not in full control over our spells. We are not in control over anything in our life. And when we recognize that we give and do our part in the spell, but we give it to our guides or our ancestors or however our craft takes form, we allow the energy to transcend past us and go to where it needs to go, even if it's a place we can't see, can't touch, don't even understand, maybe. And we also recognize that it's going to return to us in the way that it's going to serve us the most, which again, we don't have a lot of control over. So I'm going to quickly tell you about a time when I was not doing what I needed to do for my emotions when connecting to my craft. Last year, when Gelfling was not doing well medically, I felt so raw and bitter and resentful that I was dealing with another sick cat. My whole world just felt like it was torn upside down. So I was like, I have to do a protection spell, I have to do a healing spell for him. So I went to the store, uh, got all the things that I needed and came home. I was doing all the stuff, but what I wasn't doing was checking in with myself. I wasn't making sure that I was ready to do this spell because I wasn't. By the time that I had done the things that I needed to do, when I got into the craft, I was an absolute mess. Now I'm not saying that because of that, that's why what happened to him happened with him passing. That's obviously not true. But I was an absolute mess. I was sobbing, I was forgetting stuff, I was leaving everything, I was forgetting, you know, certain parts of the spell or certain parts of my ritual that I just do to enter into my craft. I was forgetting all of it. I was just flailing, constantly checking the candle, wouldn't leave things alone. It was it was not good. And what that did was instilled a level of doubt in my practice that I'm actually still unraveling today. It put a level of almost imposter syndrome that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, I'm not a good witch, because if I was a good witch, I would have saved him, and that's obviously not true. What was gonna happen happened, and my heart is still dealing with that as well. Obviously, the heart is so, so fragile, and that is where tending and nurturing with the water element is so important because the way that I could have engaged with that spell in hindsight would have been so much different. I would have taken the time to let all of my emotions just go out, just release them and then go to the craft, or I would have done a much simpler spell, I would have tailored it to feel much more supportive and nurturing instead of like this mountain to climb when I was already facing one of my biggest fears and I was already hurting so much. So when you step into your craft, your emotions, it's it's important to not shy away from what you're feeling because again, that is your why. That is the reason why you are doing this spell. But it's also important to know or to plan for how to engage in the spell where those emotions can be seen and witnessed, but also channeled. And that's very different than just throwing everything into the craft because then it just turns into this flailing desperation and it just leaves you feeling even worse at the end. And you want your spells and your rituals and your practice to make you feel better, it should feel supportive. So, whenever we work with the element of water, we want those emotions, that intuition to be able to flow honestly without judgment, but with a level of the boundaries and reservations that we need so that we're channeling it and elevating the experience or the moment instead of again just creating something that is more negative or a hindrance in some way. Some general connotations when working with the element of water, it is seen as being in the direction of west and has the season of fall or autumn. So if you have a practice where you call the corners like I do, when you get to west and casting your circle, you would call on the powers of west and connecting to the heart and to the waters of self and the world and interconnection. You would phrase it however you want, but you would generally be facing west when you do that part of casting your circle. The color connotation is generally blue, light blue, maybe some greens. Crystals would maybe be uh coral or shells, and then there are some that have watery connotations like moonstone might be good because it connects to the moon. Some jaspers have water connotations. I like to also have I have a lot of stone animal carvings, like the little soapstone ones. So I like to have those in reference to working with the element of water because animals to me just are always going to be part of my practice. Sometimes I also like to have just a bowl of water, usually moon water. This is where you uh take the jar, put it outside under a full moon. You can even put some of your crystals and your animals and stuff in there. You can really dress it up and make it yours. And then you have moon water and you can use it in ritualistic purposes. And I like to have sometimes the elements in a way where I can touch. So I like to have like a little special bowl of water on my altar because then when I touch it, I can put it to my third eye where intuition is, I can put it to my heart where intuition also is, but also emotions. And sometimes I'll kind of sprinkle it on my fingers and then kind of sprinkle my altar with it as well. There's so many things you can do with it, but I sometimes like to have that bowl so that it's a reminder to touch the element and feel that movement, that adaptability, the coldness, and then use that as a way to drop into my spell even more. It's kind of a little white switch that gets turned on. Bringing in any sort of ancestors or guides you work with, deities that are connected to the element of water, or spirits that are connected to the water can be helpful as well. There's too many for me to name here, but but a few just general and kind of off the top are mermaids, selkies, kelpis, sirens, uhids, I think that's how you say it. Undines, the Nixon, Rusalkas. There's so many different water spirits from different cultures, so I would definitely just, you know, do your research. Many of the water spirits will also potentially have a trickster energy, which speaks to the chaos and the turbulence that water can often have. You may even work with some nameless, faceless water spirits. They may have a trickster energy. We'll talk about that in just a second. But I also have a website where you could look at some goddesses. Some of the names, just quickly off the top, are Yamaya. She is a major water deity in the Yoruba religion of West Africa, Amphitridi, Queen of the Sea from Greek mythology, she's the wife of Poseidon, Saraswati, the river goddess in Hindu mythology. And then again, some of the water spirits are listed. So maybe take a look at that if you want some very specific water spirits. But if you just want to open up, which I highly encourage you do, into the spirit of water, I recommend that you find a body of water near you. Um, it can be a small stream, it can be a river, it can be a lake. It doesn't have to be, you know, like the most beautiful fucking ocean on the planet. But when you go to this body of water, I want you to just sit with it and just start to open up into feeling what you feel. Some of the emotions that we carry are buried very deep, but they want to be expressed and felt and understood. And once you kind of feel settled into that, you're aware of what emotional weight you are bringing. And I don't mean weight as a bad thing, as a bad thing. I just mean it as this is what I'm carrying today. Try to start to feel the energy of that body of water. Does it kind of feel trickster-like? Does it feel calm? Does it feel joyful? Does it feel playful? Let a connection be formed. That is one of the most powerful things we can do with the elements is form a connection to them. They are the building blocks of our practice. They are also the building blocks of Mother Earth herself. That's a powerful connection to form. Once you have created a sense of mindfulness about what energies are being shared between you and this body of water, start to see if you can kind of feel into what magical work you want to do, could do, are doing, and how this connection can elevate that. Because this is where the energies of surrender, but also of flow start to form. You're here to do the work that you're called in to do, but you don't control everything. And again, that's just a beautiful reminder that comes from water. When we start to recognize this powerful play that we have with the elements of nature, we can see how to start using them and calling them in. And that creates a curiosity and an ownership in our practice when we work with any of the elements, not just water. It creates that ownership for us to recognize what work we want to do and how we're gonna call this element in. You want to be mindful and use your intuition to see if there is any sort of trickster energy that you feel. One of the women in my wolf pack said that she, when we were discussing the uh working with water, said that there's this river that she loves to go to. She would have this happen even after she had taken it in to be looked at from the last time. So she had to make a very clear declaration of I want to keep coming, but if this keeps happening, I'm gonna stop coming. And that's something to keep in mind and some other things to keep in mind, especially when working with bodies of water in nature. Working with water that comes from your tap is probably gonna have a different energy. Again, I encourage you to feel into that. This is, of course, more tailored though to bodies of water or working with water spirits in a more organic, natural setting. But like she did, you want to set clear energetic boundaries. These are also in no particular order, but setting clear energetic boundaries is a good way to begin because it's a declaration of what you will do and what you won't do in a spell. The next thing is to potentially bring in some protective herbs, charms, talisman, jewelries, stones, whatever feels protective for you. I'm one of the witches who believes that we can bring in an element of protection to any spell that we do. It doesn't matter the spell, because just like Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, once we have that protective feeling, that protective energy that, you know, is palpable, we can explore more. We can take more risks, we can step into some unknown territories, show up with more confidence. I feel like it just elevates the spell overall. So bring in some things that feel protective for you. The next thing is to ground yourself, like I mentioned with me in the time that I didn't ground myself. You can see why that's important. Notice what plants, animals, or objects are present around you. This is one of my favorite things to do because I feel like it helps me step into the living magic of that place, of that time. Even if it's a squirrel, even if it's a finch, a little flower, that is part of the magical tapestry of that place. And tapping into that helps boost your understanding of local animals, plants, herbs, trees, whatever it is, but it also helps you recognize how all the little parts of an ecosystem create the magical tapestry that you're stepping into and that you're residing in. The next one is to do an act of devotion or give an offering of some kind. One of the things that I will do whenever I'm by a body of water is I will commit to picking up a few pieces of trash before I leave because I want to leave it cleaner than when I came to it. So some form of service like that or an offering that is safe. Giving thanks and gratitude is part of that. Not overly giving. This is especially important if you are working with some trickster water spirits. You just want to have that clear energetic boundaries and you don't want to overextend yourself because then you can tend to uproot yourself. So we just want to have very clear, concise understanding of what we're here to do and why. Never put anything harmful in the water. I know I don't have to say that, but I just will to make sure that I've done my part and then finally see where the work transcends past the spells and the magic. Can you now interact with water differently or more mindfully? Can you use this connection to help you branch into things like moon cycles or to working with some of the plants or animals that you found? And finally, can you show up and be supportive for either local or global water initiatives or causes? Because Mother Earth gives us the building blocks of these elements to support us physically in our physical life, but also in our craft. The least we can do is see where we can show up and engage with it differently and help support it where we can. So that was the focus of water element and how to work with it. And I want to transition now to talking a little bit about the cups before we end with our poem from Pablo Naruda, but I want to start talking about the cups with a section read from this book, Daring Greatly, by Renee Brown, because this perfectly encapsulates working with the cups in the tarot. It says the perception that vulnerability is weakness is the most widely accepted myth about vulnerability and the most dangerous. When we spend our lives pushing away and protecting ourselves from feeling vulnerable or from being perceived as too emotional, we feel contempt when others are less capable or willing to mask feelings, suck it up, and soldier on. We've come to the point where rather than respecting and appreciating the courage and daring behind vulnerability, we let our fear and discomfort become judgment and criticism. Vulnerability isn't good or bad. It's not what we call a dark emotion, nor is it always a light positive experience. Vulnerability is the core of all emotions and feelings. To feel is to be vulnerable. To believe vulnerability is weakness is to believe that feeling is weakness. To foreclose on our emotional life out of a fear that the cost will be too high is to walk away from the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to living. Our rejection of vulnerability often stems from our associating it with dark emotions like fear, shame, grief, sadness, and disappointment. What most of us fail to understand is that vulnerability is also the cradle of the emotions and experiences that we crave. Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path. And that is what the cups teach us. That is why I wanted to read that section. It so beautifully lays out how the cups teach us how to be open emotionally in safe and protective ways, but in ways that also challenge us and force us to confront preconceived notions or small-minded beliefs, especially around what it means to feel in this world. We often see that it's considered too much to feel in ways that are big and profound. We have to keep it all hush-hush and shut down and compartmentalized. And again, we don't want to be flailing and desperate, but the cups teach us how do we move from an emotional center? How do we move from an intuitive center? And that intuitive center has also been radically weaponized against us for centuries because people in power, the systems instructions benefit more when we go pleading to them for all of our answers instead of tapping into our own spirit and finding the answers within ourselves. The cups teach us how to move from the internal and to the external, to let the inner waves and the inner water of self move into external spaces instead of the other way around. And why I love working with the cups in this way and not in the silly romantic way of like finding your true love. I mean, yeah, that's great to find your true love, but to be perfectly honest, that's just so overdone and it's just, I don't know, it's just boring now. But um I think for me, one of the greatest gifts that the cups have taught me is how do we continuously come back to the inner waters of self and sit there and reflection and then show up in our external lives with that bravery and that courage to let those inner waters be a teacher, a guide, something that speaks to us and allows us to move from a place of internal reflection and not external reaction. In short, it just kind of allows us to truly and radically take our power back. So that is how to work with the element of water, what it symbolizes, and the cups and the tarot. I want to end with the poem by Pablo Naruta. So I first just want to again remind you that if you want the free handout that I read from and that you can use over and over again to go to either my substack or my Patreon, both are linked. And I also want to thank my patrons Depp Guy, Bobby McDermott, Lisa Zimmerman, Nicole Smith, Tracy Lanham, Kim Hartnett, Chris Ree, Miranda Snow, Colleen Twee, Charlie Ruggles, Shannon Konendike, Makai Rose, and Danica Favorite. Thank you all so much for your support in me and in Wolfchild Magic. Here is the poem Love No. 9 by Pablo Naruda. Drunk with pines and long kisses, like summer, I steer the fast sail of the roses. Bent towards the death of the thin day, stuck into my solid marine madness. Pale and lashed to my ravenous water, I cruise. And the sour smell of the naked climate, still dressed in gray and bitter sounds, and a sad crest of abandoned spray. Hardened by passions, I go mounted on my one wave, lunar, solar, burning and cold, all at once, be calmed in the throat of the fortunate isles that are white and sweet as cool hips. In the moist night, my garment of kisses trembles, charged to insanity with electric currents, heroically divided into dreams and intoxicating roses practicing on me. Upstream in the midst of the outer waves, your parallel body yields to my arms, like a fish infinitely fastened to my soul, quick and slow, in the energy under the sky.