Invoking the Four Directions
Image by Anahata Giri: Four directions of the Southern Hemisphere: East/Air, North/Fire, West/Water and South/Earth.
Honouring the four directions is a powerful way to open sacred space for a ritual or ceremony. Invocation of the four directions can also be done regularly on its own. We honour indigenous elders, give thanks to mother Earth, and then call on the qualities, energies and beings of each direction, that can offer us their protection, support and wise guidance.
The foundation of this simple template is based on nature, including the four compass directions, four seasons, four elements and the cycles of day and night. The template includes archetypes, qualities and symbols of each direction. It also includes the four windows of knowing as described by both Stephen Gallegos (1) and Bill Plotkin (2). I am based in Australia, so this template is for the southern hemisphere.
These are initial suggestions. You can invoke the directions in accordance with your cultural traditions or in your own way, calling on people, animals, plants and energies from your geographic area or spiritual heritage, and as relevant to the specific ritual you are undertaking. Make sure you actually face the compass direction that you are calling on. You do not have to be precise in your invocation - what matters most is your heartfelt intention. Alongside this invocation, if outside, you might use rocks or sticks to mark out a circle and each of the four directions - and the fifth direction as you will see below.
Creating this circle is a boundary of containment and protection, designed to enhance supportive energies and keep out unsupportive ones. In your invocation, you can ask that all energies come in the highest good of yourself and of all beings. If an energy or being appears and you are unsure of its intention, you can restate this intention. This can dispel unhelpful energies.
A note about the correspondence between the four directions and the four elements of earth, water, fire and air (as loosely depicted in the image above). Different traditions - Celtic, Native American, European and so on - will assign different elements to different directions. The elements may also be assigned according to a specific geographic location. For example, if you are on the beach and the ocean is in your East, then you may assign water to the East. Please follow your cultural or personal preference.
Before you begin this invocation you will need to choose a location for the ceremony. If this is in nature, you can hold your intention for the ceremony, then go for a nature wander, following your heart and your gut and see where you are led, and the location will choose you.
It is also important to close your circle, once your ceremony is complete. One way to do this, is to turn to each direction and gives thanks for any support or gifts you have received from that direction. Then from the centre gives thanks to all that has emerged. Once again, thank mother Earth and Indigenous caretakers of the land. You then name the closing of the circle with thanks, possibly sing a closing song, remove stones and sticks, and leave the land as undisturbed as you can.
Invoking the Four Directions
Begin by by acknowledging the Indigenous elders in your area. Give thanks to the ancient lineage of Indigenous people who have cared for this land. Give thanks also to mother Earth herself who gives us all we need to live. You might say a few words, or make an offering of a flower, leaf, stone, song, poem or a simple gesture. Then state your intention for this practice or ritual and ask for the blessing of mother Earth to be here.
Now turn to face East. East is the direction of Spring, renewal, beginnings and birth. It is connected with dawn and the element of air. The East offers us the vast holding space and perspective of spirit. We might call in wholeness, oneness, humour, wisdom and hope. “May there be light and hope on the path I walk.” We might call in an archetype like the wise sage, the trickster or priestess. The window of knowing that this directions represents is full-presence sensing. We might call in a creature of the dawn like the carolling Magpie or soaring Eagle. If there is a particular person, animal, symbol or energy that represents the East for you, you can include this in your invocation.
Next take a quarter-turn anti-clockwise to face the North. North is the direction of Summer and warmth. It is connected with noon-time and the element of fire. We can call in growth, flowering, abundance, life-force, wonder and delight. We can also invoke our kinship with all living creatures. The window of knowing here is full-bodied feeling, acknowledging the wisdom of the body and of emotions. Archetypes of the North direction include: wild woman, wild man and the inner child. If there is a particular animal, symbol or energy that represents the North for you, you can include this.
Now turn to face West. West is the direction of Autumn, a time of harvest and endings. It is connected with dusk and the element of water. This direction includes death, shadow, mystery, visions, dreams and descent. Here we can invoke our openness to the hidden meaning of things and our willingness to embrace change, to grieve, let go and to what is emerging from darkness, creativity and the underworld. The window of knowing here is deep imagination. Archetypes include the soul, a mythic guide or the muse. If there is a particular animal, symbol or energy that represents the West for you, include this in your invocation.
The next direction is South. This is the direction that points to winter and to the cold. It is connected with night, midnight and the earth element. The hardship of Winter brings forward qualities of leadership, service, parenting, guiding, teaching and healing. The window of knowing here is heart-centred thinking. Archetypes include leader, king, queen, mother, father, the inner nurturing adult. This direction honours compassion, service and competent care of self and others. If there is a particular animal, symbol or energy that represents the West for you, you can include this in your invocation.
And the Centre..
Finally, we turn to stand in the centre of the circle. This is the fifth direction, which represents here and now. This is the centre of our being and the centre of the mystery of life, soul and spirit. Here, I like to call in the moon who, with her waxing and waning, can help us trust in transformation. As we stand in the centre, we commit to being present to what is emergent, to what is right here, now. We call in our willingness to be guided by the question “What is here, now?”
Once we have made our invocation, the main ceremony can begin. At any point in the ceremony, we can call in one, or all, of the four directions again, as needed. For example, if we have a question that we want answered, we might consciously draw on the four windows of knowing. We might take a step towards the East and hold the question with awareness. We might step to the North and fully feel our body’s response to the question and notice what nature elements are present. We can step to the West and see where our imagination takes us and step into the south and attune to our heart wisdom. After visiting the four directions, I like to step into the centre once again and call on intuition to guide me. Gallegos mentions that the capacity for intuition can arise from any of the four windows of knowing, so it feels apt to call on intuition in the centre. The centre, like the hub of the spokes of a wheel, holds all the four directions in relationship.
I will finish here with an example invocation. Of course, an invocation is always tailored to suit the particular ceremony. An invocation for a grief ceremony will be different to a threshold ceremony, name ceremony, healing ceremony or soul quest ceremony and so on. Most of all, follow your heart, and you will be guided to find the invocation that serves you and your journey well.
An example invocation:
I pay my respects to the original and ongoing caretakers of this land, the Wurundjeri people. I acknowledge that I am doing this ceremony on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people. I honour their elders past and present.
I give thanks to mother Earth for giving us our home and all we need to live. I am here to listen to my soul, in service to the world. I offer to you this heart-shaped leaf and my own heart. Dear mother Earth, please give me your blessing for this ceremony.
I call in the energies, creatures, elements that serve the highest good of myself and of all beings.
I call in the East. I give thanks to the Sun and light. I call in the Magpie who sings at dawn. I call in presence and awareness to hold space for all that arises. I open my heart to Spirit.
I call in the North. I give thanks to the abundance of the web of life. I call on my own wildness and nature’s wildness to guide me. I call in my connection with all wild creatures.
I call in the West. I give thanks for the liminal time of the setting of the sun. I call in the creative darkness to help me let go and transform. I call in the power of deep imagination. I open my heart to soul.
I call in the South. I call in the stars to guide me. I call in Kangaroo’s strength, action, leadership and love. I call in the knowing of my own heart.
I give thanks to all the four directions. Now I stand here in the centre. I call in the moon who helps me to trust and to follow intuition. Now I wait and follow: what is here, now?
Anahata Giri
October 2024
Footnotes:
Eligio Stephen Gallegos, Animals of the Four Windows: Integrating Thinking, Sensing, Feeling and Imagination, Moon Bear Press, 1991.
Bill Plotkin, Wild Mind, New World Library, 2013.