Notes on the Earth

The earth element which represents the Jungian mode "sensation" is in turn represented by the pantacle.
Sensation typically refers to how we process information through our sense-organs, as opposed to how we analyze information with our minds, thus we are given the idea of body connected to earth. Or perhaps the connection between what we perceive as "us" and everything else. All of this is easier to understand symbolically than logically.

The pantacle is traditionally a disk with symbols engraved upon one or both sides. These symbols represent a magical perspective of the earth, the universe, a particular space which the magician has set aside, or even the magician himself, or may be a combination of any or all of these.

The pantacle is distinguishable from the pentacle which is a symbol- that of the five pointed star contained within a circle. The pantacle is an actual physical object.

In the Tarot, the pantacle is often seen, or at least represented, in the minor Arcana suit which is also represented by discs, coins, rocks, and in the common U.S. playing card decks as the diamond.

Within various magical systems, it is either derided as gross material substance which must be tolerated and transmuted, or, as in the case of Satanism, venerated as representing our sole known existence.

Crowley straddles somewhere between, and has a very interesting take on the symbolism of the pantacle in his BOOK 4:

"All Pantacles will contain the ultimate conceptions of the circle and the cross, though some will prefer to replace the cross by a point, or by a Tau, or by a triangle. The Vesica Pisces is sometimes used instead of the circle, or the circle may be glyphed as a serpent. Time and space and the idea of causality are sometimes represented; so also are the three stages in the history of philosophy, in which the three objects of study were successively Nature, God, and Man.
The duality of consciousness is also sometimes represented; and the Tree of Life itself may be figured therein, or the categories. An emblem of the Great Work should be added. But the Pantacle will be imperfect unless each idea is contrasted in a balanced manner with its opposite, and unless there is a necessary connection between each pair of ideas and every other pair."

It is interesting to note the mention of a glyphed serpent representing the circle. Many and far-flung cultures utilize the circle which is comprised of a serpent devouring its tail- to the point where it is an archetypal symbol in its own right. The Gnostic Ouroboros and the Scandinavian world-serpent number among interpretations which are found throughout Europe, Africa and North and South America. The Church of Satan's iconic Baphomet, which derives partly from the legend of the Knights Templar features a unique set of five Hebrew letters encircling the five-pointed star which translate to "Leviathan", the serpent of the watery abyss. It should be noted that the letters run counter clock-wise, the same direction which these serpent motifs typically seem to run, from tail to head.