The Water Element

September 2, 2026

3 min read

Flow freely and release that which no longer serves.

When I think of water, the first thing that comes to mind is scale. All the water we have on Earth arrived from an ancient meteor impact: we're drinking the same water the dinosaurs drank, and there's something genuinely magical about that. From the water within our blood to the droplets forming a cloud, all the way up to a storm-surged tide and the unexplored ocean depths, water spans the full range of existence without contradiction. We can use that expansiveness in our practice.

Water is the element of the west, depicted with a downward-pointing triangle, its geometry orienting it toward the earth. In Sekhem, it lives in the thighs and organs, and is a source of life, freedom, creation, and emotion. Interestingly, despite the bright fiery orange of the Sacral Chakra, it too represents water, which is why you find the moon depicted within the lotus: Water and emotion are inseparable, and the Moon confirms it.

In Tarot and Sekhem, water represents emotion and cleansing, two of the most potent systems we can work with. Sekhem teaches that magic has ancestry: it's not generic, it's elemental, and it's born of a specific source within you. That source may not be your birth element. You may be born of Water and Air, yet find your magic ignites through Fire. The question worth sitting with is: where does your power actually come from? For those whose magic is rooted in Water, it comes from the gut, from the emotions, from the deep interior current that many people are taught to suppress or mistrust. Emotions carry extraordinary power: anger can incite change, grief can open us, joy can move mountains. But the mastery is in the balance, in learning to work with the current rather than being swept away by it. A voice raised in fury is often the last one heard. A voice rooted in feeling, steady and clear, is the one that changes things. That's where the real power lives, and I find that deeply empowering.

Flowing like the rivers, knowing that every drop can carve canyons, change coastlines with the force of tidal currents, and sustain life abundantly in rainforests and wetlands: Earth's most diverse ecosystems. Water doesn't force. It persists. And in that persistence, it changes everything it touches.

Did you know that clouds are extraordinarily dense? Thousands of tonnes, suspended in the sky. That the visible tip of an iceberg is typically less than 10% of its total mass? Water is inherently the element of illusion. In Tarot this is powerfully apparent, linking water directly to the energies of the Moon, which naturally makes sense given the Moon's pull on the tides and on us. The word "lunatic" has its roots here. So does the mythology of the werewolf. The Moon governs more than the tides.

We look to water in times of reflection, self-exploration, emotional healing, and deep cleansing. It's often overlooked in meditation, set aside in favour of the more dramatic elements, but it holds a deeply rooted history in our ancestry. When I work with Water, I like to channel it with intention: am I working on reflection, on breaking illusion, on healing, on cleansing, or on magic? These are distinct asks, and Water responds to specificity. It holds memory. It accepts vibrational frequencies and amplifies them, making it the perfect receptacle for intention.

I've always been called to the water. Snorkelling in the Red Sea, kayaking down the River Dart, exploring the Cornish coastlines: from Australia to Ibiza, Sri Lanka, and back to England, the coast has always found me. I remember celebrating Lionsgate on the Nile during my Egyptian pilgrimage, and there is a unique magic in that, in marking one of Fire's greatest annual moments on the back of one of the world's most revered rivers. It stayed with me. The Alchemy Bottles are made in honour of that depth, that source, that ancient power. The ocean on your altar, if you wish.

Water at a glance: