This post originally went live on February 21, 2024.

Cardinal Symbols

I mentioned that there have been plenty of uses of the cardinal directions to create fantasy and mythological systems.  Sometimes, you even have a 5th direction of ‘center’, which is important when we get to Wu Xing.  I wanted to give a list of various cardinal systems that have been created in mythologies.  Many authors use these for inspiration even though only stick to the one that is from their own culture.

Four Classical Elements

This is very common in Western fiction because it is what we are used to.  Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire are the elements that we focus on.  They’ve been connected to many fictional stories such as ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’.  Now, authors may mess around with the connections here, but the traditional version is:

• Earth is North
• Air is East
• Fire is South
• Water is West

Authors will occasionally switch things around to make Fire vs Water and Earth vs Air oppositions.  This is because the compass is used as compatibility tool.

Wu Xing (Five Elements)

Similar to the four classical elements, Wu Xing comes from China with 5 elements.  They also use a 4 element system that ditches Earth, but this is typically done when the beasts are involved.  I’ll get to them next.  Before you ask, ‘Air’ is not one of the elements for a variety of cultural reasons.  This Five Element/Direction system looks like the following:

• Wood is East (One theory is that air is part of life and falls under wood)
• Fire is South
• Metal is West
• Water is North
• Earth is Central

It’s interesting how fire is in the same spot as the previous system.  Earth being central makes sense if you think of it more as the planet than dirt.  Don’t really know about the others off the top of my head.

Wu Xing Four/Five Auspicious Beasts

These guys get used in anime a lot. I can think of three series right off the bat that used them as either villains, monsters, or plot points.  Each of the beasts is a god-like guardian of each direction.  They are connected to a direction, color, season, emotion, and many other things.  Authors may use them as a simplified Zodiac sign determined by birth season or person’s natural temperament.  Either way, a direction tends to be associated with each one.

• Azure Dragon of the East
• Vermillion Bird/Phoenix of the South
• White Tiger of the West
• Black Tortoise of the North
• Yellow Dragon or Qilin in the Center

Japan uses a 4 beast system off this with names too.

• Seiryu the Azure Dragon of the East
• Suzaku the Vermillion Bird of the South
• Byakko the White Tiger of the West
• Genbu the Black Tortoise of the North

Greek Skies and Winds

Greeks actually had two cardinal direction systems.  Not sure if Rome copied the one that was about astral phenomenon, so I’m going to leave them out.  Does look like they made a 12 cardinal direction system. Anyway, the Greeks had one cardinal system to work off of sky events and another with where winds came from.  It was originally only North and South winds, but East and West were added.  These systems can be useful if you’re working with a large sailing culture who would be focused a lot on stars and wind.

• Arctos (Ursa Major) and Boreas the North Winds
• Anatole (Dawn) and Eurus the East Winds
• Mesembria (Noon) and Zephyrus the West Winds
• Dysis (Sunset) and Notus the South Winds

This is a simplified version of this.  From what I’ve read, more complicated systems were created over time.  Homer may have implied that there were 8 wind directions.  Aristotle made a 10-12 wind/direction system, which the Romans seem to have copied.  This just means authors have a lot to work with if they use Greek mythology and history for inspiration.

Native American

This one is difficult to look into because every tribe had their own symbols.  At least from what I can tell.  So, take this with a grain of salt because I’m trying to find connecting information.  Basically, the four cardinal directions can be connected to the four seasons AND the four stages of life.  This can be depicted on what are called medicine wheels in some cultures.  Each one has a season, stage, and an animal connected to it.  For example:

• North is Winter, Elderly/Death, and the Bear
• East is Spring, Birth/Childhood, and the Eagle
• South is Summer, Youth, and the Wolf
• West is Autumn, Adulthood, and the Buffalo

Now, this can be very problematic if you take it as this across the board.  First, not every area in the Americas has the same weather during each season.  Summer in Florida is WAY different than summer in Alaska.  So, the life stages might differ if you don’t have harsh winters and the summers are the most brutal season.  Second, those animals are not found in every region.  This is an important note for fantasy worlds too.  If an animal does not live within the territory of a culture, why would it be a symbol?  It shouldn’t even be known unless talked about by foreigners, which wouldn’t put it on the same spiritual level as the local fauna.

So, those are a handful of cardinal direction systems.  There are plenty more out there and much more details for each of these.