Four-Play: A Review of Deborah Lipp’s The Way of Four

by Calypso

I had terrible trouble writing this review.  Yes, I did.  This is a book that sets out to help you deepen your sense of your elemental make-up and help you achieve elemental balance in your life.  It takes a serious approach to the subject matter, but it’s a lot of fun along the way: it’s packed with exercises, meditations, quizzes, even decorating suggestions.  I had a great time with it.

And yet I found myself writing a review which seemed dry and overly academic and kind of boring, which didn’t seem to capture the spirit of the book at all.

And then I remembered that, according to the results of Lipp’s quizzes, my own personality is most strongly dominated by Air.  “The Air person thinks before he [sic] feels,” says Lipp, “and sometimes thinks instead of feeling.”         

In the spirit of trying to feel more and think less, I can categorically state that I love Deborah Lipp’s work.

(Now for the dry and academic parts.)

Lipp begins with an in-depth look at the elements and their current occult associations, and gives a history of elemental associations in spiritual practice, from Bronze-age Europe to Hinduism to Greek philosophy.  The overview is brief, but well researched and interesting.  She then moves on to the use of the elements in Wiccan philosophy, and explains the theory of both the Elementals and the Guardians, with appropriate caveats and caution.  She is also one of the few Pagan authors I’ve ever read who has taken the time to explain what a Watchtower is – and she is also one of the few who counsels leaving out the mention of the Watchtowers if you’re not using an Enochian system of magic.  This is one of the reasons I love Lipp’s writing – while she emphasizes the validity of solitary and Eclectic paths, she is also very concerned with promoting coherence in spiritual practice, and she frequently advises against the token inclusion of material in ritual if the student doesn’t fully know what it’s about.

That said, I’d like to reiterate that this book is a lot of fun.  Lipp includes a number of quizzes to determine your elemental make-up and how it manifests itself in your life – your personal style (including jewellery and perfumes!), your relationships, and your job.  She also suggests exercises and meditations both for getting to know the elements better and for bringing elemental balance into your life.  Some are tough, some are practical, others are inspiring.  All are unusual: she doesn’t simply go for the obvious (swimming for water, exploring caves for earth) but explains the purpose of each exercise and what you should take from it.  My favourite is the exercise “Becoming Balanced” in which she has readers check off a list of their most positive qualities corresponding to each element – for example, “I am creative” is listed under Fire, and “I am generous” under Water – and then uses these positive qualities as affirmations to address negative personality traits.  For example, she assigns “stubbornness” to Earth, and addresses it with a meditation and chant made up of positive affirmations that relate to Air: “I am unconventional” and “I think things through.”

A later chapter, “The Elements in Daily Life” suggests pragmatic ways in which the elements can be brought into your (you guessed it) everyday life: through home décor, clothing, and beauty treatments (which, she emphasizes, she recommends for men as well as women).  I was a little skeptical about the inclusion of beauty treatments at first, but again, Lipp sets herself apart from more superficial Pagan writers like Fiona Horne by not only explaining her reasoning for including cosmetic recipes and treatments, but by also recounting her own thought process in developing them.  “As in previous sections,” she says, “we are looking at the elements here in two ways.  First, how is the treatment given; that is, does the treatment itself partake of the nature of Air, Fire, Water or Earth (or some combination)?  Second, what are the elemental associations of a treatment’s ingredients?”  This kind of detail, which permeates the whole book, is really helpful if you’re a beginner, as it outlines the kind of thing you need to think about in order to develop your own treatments and exercises.

Lipp’s thoughtful approach and careful research make The Way of Four a valuable workbook, and anyone who’s ever enjoyed a magazine quiz (and really, who hasn’t?) will love the structure of her approach to self-discovery.  The book is packed with information, and the focus is firmly on self-development rather than insta-spells.  As in The Elements of Ritual, Lipp focuses on fully examining a single aspect of Pagan spirituality in depth; she explains her ideas clearly and invites her readers to think them through along with her.  I am really looking forward to reading more of Lipp’s work.

But then, I’m an Air person, and I like that sort of thing. :)