tomasorban:

The discovery of the Four Elements is generally credited to
Empedocles, a fifth century BCE Greek from Sicily.  Although he
is commonly considered one of the founders of Western science
and philosophy,

Introduction to the Elements

Peter Kingsley has presented convincing evidence that it is better to view
him as an ancient Greek “Divine Man” (Theios
Anêr), that is, a Iatromantis (healer-seer,
“shaman”) and Magos (priest-magician). In his own
time he was viewed as a prophet, healer, magician and savior.  
His beliefs and practices were built on ancient mystery
traditions, including the Orphic mysteries, the Pythagorean
philosophy, and the underworld mysteries of Hecate, Demeter,
Persephone and Dionysos.  These were influenced by
near-Eastern traditions such as Zoroastrianism and Chaldean
theurgy.  Empedocles, in his turn, was a source for the major
streams of Western mysticism and magic, including alchemy,
Graeco-Egyptian magic (such as found in the Greek magical
papyri),
Neo-Platonism, Hermeticism and Gnosticism.  The
Tetrasomia, or Doctrine of the Four Elements,
provides a basic framework underlying these and other
spiritual traditions.  (See Kingsley’s Ancient Philosophy,
Mystery and Magic:  Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition cited at the end of this article,
for more on the Empedoclean tradition; a review is also available.)

The Elements or Roots

Empedocles did not call his four principles “elements”
(stoikheia), but “roots” (rhizai) or even
“root-clumps” (rhizômata).  This is significant
because Empedocles belonged to the tradition of Root Cutters
(Rhizotomoi) or herbal magicians, and especially
because he applied his theory to develop the doctrine of occult
sympathies in plants (
Kingsley 299).

Empedocles used a variety of words for each of the Roots,
and from their range of meanings we can get some idea of his
conception of the Elments.  (I capitalize words such as “Earth”
and “Element” to distinguish the magical or spiritual concepts
from the mundane ones.)  For Earth he also used words meaning
land, soil and ground.  For Water he also used words meaning
rain, sweat, moisture, sea water and open sea.  For Air he also
used clear sky, heaven, firmament, brilliance, ray, beam, glance,
eye, splendor, mist and cloud.  (This inconsistency between
bright clear sky – aithêr – and misty clouds –
aêr – will be explained when we discuss
Air.)  
For Fire he also used flame, blaze, lightning, sun, sunlight,
beaming and East.  
(See Wright, p. 23, for a table of the Greek
terms.)

However, Empedocles makes clear that the Elements are
more than just material substances.  He introduces them as Gods
(fragment 7 Wright = DK31B6, my translation):

Now hear the fourfold Roots of everything:
Enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus,
And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears.

As was common practice with Divine Men, Empedocles gave
his students knowledge in riddles to help develop their abilities,
and this seems to be one of those riddles (ainigmata).  
Even in ancient times
there was debate and differing theories about the
correspondence between the Gods and Elements, but Kingsley (Part I) seems to have solved
the riddle, as will be explained later . To avoid undue suspense I will reveal the solution here:  
Zeus is Air, Hera is Earth, Hades is Fire and Nestis (Persephone)
is Water.

Empedocles’ equation of the Roots with deities show that he
conceived of the Elements as more than material substances (or
states of matter).  It is better to think of them as spiritual
essences (modes of spiritual being), which can manifest
themselves in many ways in the material and spiritual worlds
(they are form rather than content, structure rather than
image).  Some of these manifestations will be explored when we
consider the individual Elements; here I will mention a few to
indicate the possibilities.

Most obviously there are the macrocosmic manifestations of
the Elements, for example, the land, the sea, the sky and the
sun.  They are also connected with the sublunary spheres:  
Heaven, Earth, Abyss (the subterranean water) and Tartaros
(the subterranean fire).  There are also microcosmic
manifestations, for example, as components of the human
psyche (mental, astral, etheric and physical bodies), which will
be
discussed later.  
The Elements also represent the stages in various processes
of growth and transformation (embodied, for example, in the
alchemical Rotation of the Elements), such as the stages in  the
Ascent of the Soul in Chaldean Theurgy (Divine Invocation), also
discussed later.

Finally, from the standpoint of Jung’s psychology, the
Elements (like the Gods) are archetypes; because they are
structures in the collective unconscious, they are universal
(present in all people).   As archetypes, they are beyond
complete analysis; they can be “circumscribed but not
described”; ultimately they must be experienced to be
understood.  Nevertheless Empedocles and his successors
(especially Aristotle) did much to illuminate the nature of the
Elements and their interrelationships (and I will be leaning on
their discoveries).  Since much of the meaning of the Elements
inheres in their interrelationships, I’ll begin with the Elements
in general before turning to Earth specifically.

If we want to understand the Elements as spiritual entities,
we must go deeper than metaphors based on material
substances; we must grasp their essences.  This was first
accomplished by

The Powers or Qualities

Aristotle in the century following Empedocles, who based his analysis
on the four Powers (Dunameis) or Qualities, which
were probably first enumerated by Empedocles.  This double
pair of opponent Powers, Warm versus Cool and Dry versus
Moist, are the key to a deeper understanding of the Elements.  
Like the Elements, they must be understood as spiritual forces
rather than material qualities (warm, cold, dry, moist).

The Powers manifest in as many ways as the Elements.  The
Pythagoreans identified one of the most important of these, a
natural progression that can be called the Organic Cycle.  The
first phase of growth is Moist:  spring rains, pliant green shoots,
rapid growth.  The second phase is Warm:  summer sun,
flourishing individuality, mature vigor.  The third is Dry:  
autumn leaves, inflexible stems, stiffening joints.  The fourth is
Cool:  winter chills, loss of identity, death.  This cycle is also the
basis for one form of the alchemical “rotation of the elements,”
from Earth to Water to Air to Fire and back to Earth.  Although
the Organic Cycle can be found throughout nature, Aristotle
discovered the deeper essence of the Qualities, which reveals
their spiritual nature, as we’ll explore in detail when we
consider the individual Elements.

Relations Between the
Elements

The relation between the Powers and the Elements is
represented in the well-known Elemental Square or Square of
Opposition
(

see figure). 
(It is most common to place the Elements at the corners and
the Powers between them, but it is better to place the Powers at
the corners, since they are absolute, and the Elements between
them, since they are mixtures of the Powers.)  The Square
shows that Earth is Dry and Cool, Water is Cool and Moist, Air is
Moist and Warm, Fire is Warm and Dry.

Aristotle further explains that in each Element one Power is
dominant.  Therefore Earth is predominantly Dry, Water
predominantly Cool, Air predominantly Moist, and Fire
predominantly Warm.  The dominant Power is the one in a
counterclockwise direction from the Element in the Square of
Opposition; thus the arrow by each Element points to its
dominant Power.  The vertical axis represents the active
Qualities (Warm, Cool), the horizontal represents the passive
(Moist, Dry). The upper Elements (Air, Fire) are active,  light and
ascending, the lower (Water, Earth) are passive, heavy and
descending.  The Elements on the right are pure, extreme and
absolutely light (Fire) or heavy (Earth); those on the left are
mixed, intermediate and relatively light (Air) or heavy (Water).  
The absolute Elements exhibit unidirectional motion (ascending
Fire, descending Earth), whereas the relative Elements (Air,
Water) can also expand horizontally.  The Organic Cycle (the
cycle of the seasons) goes sunwise around the square.

Unlike the chemical elements, the spiritual Elements can be
transformed into each other, but only in accord with laws
discovered by Aristotle
(see Gill).  
Understanding these laws is a prerequisite to transforming
and combining them in their various manifestations.  In brief,
one Element can be transformed directly into another only if
they share a common Quality (and are thus adjacent, not
opposed on the Elemental Square).  For example, Water is
transformed into Air when the Water is acted on by a larger
quantitiy of Air, since the Water’s Coolness is “overpowered” by
the Air’s Warmth; the common Moist quality is retained through
the transformation.  This process is reversible, since Air can be
transformed back into Water by acting upon it with sufficient
Water.

Direct transformation between opposed Elements is
impossible.  Thus Water cannot be transformed directly into
Fire, since they have no common Quality to give continuity to
the process, but the Water can be transformed indirectly by
changing it first into Air or Earth.  This occurs when the Water
is acted upon by a larger quantity of Fire.  We can move around
the Square, but not across it.

Raymon Llull
(c.1229-1315), known as “Doctor Illuminatus,” extended the
Aristotelian analysis by explaining how two Elements can act
upon each other.  Whenever we have similar quantities of two
Elements with a common Quality, the Element in which it’s not
dominant is “overcome” or “conquered” by the one in which it is.  
For example, when Water combines with Earth, the Earth is
overcome, because they are both Cool, but Coolness dominates
in Water.  Therefore, the result will be predominantly Cool, with
an additional Quality of Moistness, which makes it Watery.  
Llull’s analysis leads to a Cycle of Triumphs, which is shown by
the arrows on the Elemental Square.  Thus Fire overcomes Air,
Air overcomes Water, Water overcomes Earth, and Earth
overcomes Fire.  Notice that in each triumph (except the last),
the more subtle Element overcomes the grosser Element.

Aristotle
(see Gill)
also explained a process by which two opposed Elements can
be irreversibly transformed into a third.  For example, if Fire
acts on a mixture of Earth and Air, these two opposed Elements
will be transformed into Fire, which takes its Dryness from the
Earth and its Warmth from the Air.  The transformation is
irreversible, although some of the Fire could be transformed
back into Earth and, separately, some of the Fire back into Air.  
This process cannot be used to transform two adjacent Elements
into a third, for example Fire and Air into Water or Earth.  If we
kept the Fire’s Dryness and the Air’s Wetness, we would have
contradictory Qualities; if we kept the Fire’s Warmth and the
Air’s Warmth, the result would be neither Wet nor Dry.  In both
cases the result is impossible (either by the law of
noncontradiction or by the law of the excluded middle).  (The
other two possible combinations of Qualities yield Air and Fire,
in which case there is no transformation.)

Finally, whenever we have two opposed Elements acting
upon each other, they tend to neutralize, leading to a result that
is weakly one or the other.  However, the essence of the
alchemical Great Work is a proper unification of opposed
Elements (especially Fire and Water), a Coniunctio
Oppositorum (Conjunction of Opposites) in which they
form a higher unity, rather than annihilating each other; this
will be discussed when we come to Water and Fire.

Before proceeding to a detailed consideration of the
individual Elements, it will be worthwhile to consider some of
the meaning embodied in the familiar Elemental Signs (as
shown in the figure of the Elemental Square).  The triangles
represent the active Power (Warm or Cool) in each Element.  
The elemental signs of Earth and Water have in common the
pubic triangle, because these Elements are traditionally
feminine and more passive, since they have in common the
contracting, uniting Cool Power
(see below on Coolness); the
downward triangle also shows these elements are descending
(Water and Earth fall).  Conversely Air and Fire have the phallic
triangle, because they are traditionally male and more active,
since they have in common the expanding, separating Warm
Power (discussed with Air); the upward triangle shows these
elements are ascending (Air and Fire rise).  Thus the Stoics
associated the analytic, masculine Elements with Word
(Logos) and the synthetic, feminine Elements with
Matter (Hulê).  Finally, in the elemental signs
for Air and Earth, the crossbar represents a denser or grosser
(less subtle) form of the Element, as Earth is of Water, and Air
of Fire.

© 1998, John Opsopaus