Elements – History

I love a bit of history, a bit of background info always helps put a few things into perspective.

It seems that across all our religions and countries and everything in between the 4 basic elements are everywhere. Earth, Air, Fire and Water. There is also… the fifth element, I need to get my head around the 4 big ones first but Spirt will come along this journey with me.

Early Cultures

Humans once understood the universe through elemental forces, as living principals. Early cultures viewed fire, water, air and earth as spirts, gods and cosmic powers. These forces were seen as the core of our existence on earth as we know it – life, death, weather, fertility and catastrophe and it’s perhaps where many ritualistic practices evolved as rituals were used to appease, balance and invoked these powers.

Greeks

A lot of my reading so far credits the Greeks (specifically Empedocles) for developing a greater understanding of the elements. Empedocles developed his cosmogenic theory of the four elements. Not only did he come up with this theory but he also proposed there were two huge forces “love” and “strife” that have the ability to mix with and separate the elements.

• Earth – solidity, stability
• Water – fluidity, emotion
• Air – movement, intellect
• Fire – energy, transformation

Principals

• Love (attraction)
• Strife (repel/separation)

Not to be outdone, along comes Aristotle. Not sure he was a huge fan of Empedocles but he did refine/extend Empedocles theory into a metaphysical system and identify that each element had two qualities. Hot or Cold and Wet or Dry and… he is also the person who has been credited for adding… the fifth element… Aether (Quintessence) which he describes as the device substance of the heavens.

Interesting because I am a huge fan of the movie “The Fifth Element” and I am sure that movie pointed at the 5th element being “Love”. Looks like the movie took a principal and made it an element :-O.

Egyptians

Next we move along to the Egyptians.. like religion every culture seems to have their own interpretation and advancement of the thoughts and purpose of the elements.

The Egyptians had two core traditions – Hermeticism and Alchemy.

Hermeticism (Hellenistic)

Transforming the elements from physical reality into a spiritual state of existence.

• Earth – Body, materiality
• Water – Soul, emotion
• Air – Mind, reason
• Fire – Spirt, will
• Aether – Devine unity

Alchemy (Medieval)

In terms of the Alchemy tradition, the Alchemists used the elements symbolically. Elements existed on physical, psychological and spiritual levels. Alchemy taught that “mastery of the elements equals master of the self”

There is a few other smaller bits and pieces references where for example that Indian Pancha Mahabhuta linked the elements to the chakras, senses and consciousness.

The elements became embedded deeply in magic, astrology and medicine during the Medieval and Renaissance period, it was here where each element was linked to the cardinal directions, seasons of the year, humors (blood, phlegm and bile), zodiac signs, magical tools, angels and demons. From what I can tell this was right throughout Europe – especially seeing as it was during this period that the elements were aligned with the Cardinal directions.

I did some research to see which direction represents the elements and its relevance to me in Australia and a lot of the details I found identified Europe is the starting point.

Summary

I am so glad I have taken this little trip down history lane to find out about the beginnings of the elements. I can already see how things interact and play their part and why they are so core to everything.

I acknowledge there is a lot more in this space but for now this covered the core of what I was looking for, where it all started and by whom. The rest I think will play out as I move future into the elements.

• Fire
  • energy
  • transformation
  • spirit
  • will
  • moist
  • warm
• Earth
  • solidity
  • stability
  • body
  • materiality
  • dry
  • cold
• water
  • fluidity
  • emotion
  • soul
  • dry
  • warm
• Air
  • movement
  • intellect
  • mind
  • reason
  • moist
  • warm