Stepping out on the occult path and reading a lot of books on the subject can be a confusing experience. What soon becomes apparent to the aspirant is that different systems of magic proliferate and that even arrangements that come under the same heading (such as ‘The Western Magical Tradition’) are disparate in fundamental ways, so it becomes clear that if one is to succeed in a quest to learn the ways of magic then it will be necessary to discern and cherry pick what makes sense and feels right. One soon realises too that a need to be inventive and invest in new ways that improve functionality is also of value.
Likely, the first morass to be sorted is the attribution of correspondences such as the directions and elements to the ‘equal-armed cross’. This cross is essential to the workings of ceremonial magic and I personally spent many hours working through various depicted arrangements of correspondences to reach something satisfactory.
What I found is that a ‘be here now’ approach in which I look at the landscape where I live and proceed from there is helpful.
By facing the east (I know where that is because the sun rises there) I then consider that I am standing in the west. To my left is the north and to my right is the south, always.
With this in place one can now attribute accordingly, starting with the elements and the colours that go with the elements.
This sense of direction is fundamental to ceremonial magic because where one stands in the circle (or outside the circle) determines what direction to face when addressing entities etc.
Not mentioned yet are ‘above and below’ directions, also fundamental to the scheme of things. It’s important to fully understand how these two points are arrived at in 3D space as well as the four cardinal points, such are the meta-properties of a ceremonial sphere. In this age of technical accuracy, magical venues are often becoming increasingly mathematically meticulous in construction. The term ‘Techno Mage’ is now more of a reality for many who follow this path than ever it was and aspirants are insisting on creating magical spaces that sing perfectly in all ways mathematical and metaphysical..