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Many ancient philosophies used a set of archetypal 'classical elements' to explain patterns in nature. The Greek version of these ideas dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, deeply influencing European thought and culture; but the concept is far older in Asia, and was widely disseminated in India and China, where it forms the basis of both Buddhism and Hinduism, particularly in an esoteric context.
The modern scientific periodic table of the elements and the understanding of combustion (fire) can be considered successors to such early models.

Contents

Classical Dharmic elements

Classical elements in early Buddhism

Classical elements in Hinduism

Classical elements in Japan

Classical elements in China

Classical elements in Bön

Classical elements in Māori tradition

Classical Western elements

Classical elements in Greece

Classical elements from the Middle Ages to the early modern era

Astrology and the classical elements

Tarot divination and the classical elements

Classical elements in popular culture

See also

Bibliography

Notes

External links

Classical Dharmic elements

Classical elements in early Buddhism

Main articles: Mahābhūta

In the Pali literature, the ''mahabhuta'' ("great elements") or ''catudhatu'' ("four elements") are earth, water, fire and air. In early Buddhism, the Four Elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering.
The Buddha's teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. Perhaps the word 'property' has a better connotation now that the word element is used in modern chemistry. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or calorific content (fire). He taught that all mind and matter is ultimately composed of eight types of 'kalapas' of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are color, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.
The Buddha's teaching of the four elements does predate Greek teaching of the same four elements. This is possibly explained by the fact that he sent out 60 arahants to the known world to spread his teaching.

Classical elements in Hinduism

Main articles: Tattva

The ''Pancha Mahabhuta,'' or "five great elements", of Hinduism are ''Prithvi'' or ''Bhumi'' (Earth), ''Ap'' or ''Jala'' (Water), ''Agni'' or ''Tejas'' (Fire), ''Vayu'' or ''Pavan'' (Air or Wind), and ''Akasha'' (Aether).
Hindus believe that God used Akasha to create the other four traditional elements, and that in it the Akashic records, the knowledge of all human experience, are imprinted.

Classical elements in Japan

Main articles: Five elements (Japanese philosophy)

Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the 五大 (''go dai'', literally "five great"). These five are earth, water, fire, wind, and void. These came from Buddhist beliefs; the classical Chinese elements (五行, ''go gyô'') are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the Edo period.

★ 'Fire' represented things that destroyed.

★ 'Water' represented things that were liquid.

★ 'Earth' represented things that were solid.

★ 'Air' represented things that moved.

★ 'Void' represented things not of our every day life.

Classical elements in China

Main articles: Wu Xing


In Taoism there is a similar system of elements, which includes Metal and Wood, but excludes Air, which is replaced with the non-element ''qi'', which is a force or energy rather than an element. In Chinese philosophy the Universe consists of Heaven and Earth, Heaven being made of ''qi'' and Earth being made of the five elements. The five major planets are associated with and named after the elements: Venus is Light, Jupiter is Darkness, Mercury is Water, Mars is Fire, and Saturn is Earth. Additionally, the Moon represents Yin, and the Sun represents Yang. Yin, Yang, and the five elements are recurring themes in the I Ching, the oldest of Chinese classical texts which describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy.

Classical elements in Bön

In Bön, the five elemental processes of: earth, water, fire, air and space are the essential stuff of all existent phenomena or aggregates (ref. Skandha). The elemental processes form the basis of the calendar, astrology, medicine, psychology and are the foundation of the spiritual traditions of shamanism, tantra and Dzogchen.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (2002: p.1) comprehensively states:

"...physical properties are assigned to the elements: earth is solidity; water is cohesion; fire is temperature; air is motion; and space is the spatial dimension that accommodates the other four active elements. In addition, the elements are correlated to different emotions, temperaments, directions, colors, tastes, body types, illnesses, thinking styles, and character. From the five elements arise the five senses and the five fields of sensual experience; the five negative emotions and the five wisdoms; and the five extensions of the body. They are the five primary ''pranas'' or vital energies. They are the constituents of every physical, sensual, mental, and spiritual phenomenon." (NB: original quotation not meta-enhanced.)

The names of the elements are analogous to categorised experiential sensations of the natural world. The names are symbolic and key to their inherent qualities and/or modes of action by analogy. In Bön the elemental processes are fundamental metaphors for working with external, internal and secret energetic forces. All five elemental processes in their essential purity are inherent in the mindstream and link the trikaya and are aspects of primordial energy. As Herbert V. Günther (1996: pp. 115-116) rather unfathomably states:

"Thus, bearing in mind that thought struggles incessantly against the treachery of language and that what we observe and describe is the observer himself [''sic.''], we may nonetheless proceed to investigate the successive phases in our becoming human beings. Throughout these phases, the experience (''das Erlebnis'') of ourselves as an intensity (imaged and felt as a "god", lha) setting up its own spatiality (imaged and felt as a "house" ''khang'') is present in various intensities of illumination that occur within ourselves as a "temple." A corollary of this Erlebnis is its light character manifesting itself in various "frequencies" or colors. This is to say, since we are beings of light we display this light in a multiplicity of nuances." (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/8240/resources/guenther.html; accessed: Monday January 15, 2007)

In the above block quote the trikaya is encoded as: dharmakaya "god"; sambhogakaya "temple" and nirmanakaya "house".

Classical elements in Māori tradition

Earth, Water, Wind/Air, Flora and Fire work together respectively. In native Māori tradition,
Earth makes water, water makes flora, flora makes air, air makes fire. Water and Fire are considered opposites, as are Air and Earth, where Flora is neutral. Each element had two properties:

★ Fire is hot and dry.

★ Earth is warm and dry.

★ Flora is lukewarm and wet.

★ Air is cool and wet.

★ Water is cold and wet.
''Earth'' was said to cause earthquakes, ''Water'' to cause tsunamis and floods, ''Wind'' to cause typhoons, and ''Fire'' to cause volcanoes and firestorms. ''Flora'' was the element of serenity, as there was no natural disaster that occurred with flora.

Classical Western elements

Classical elements in Greece

The Greek classical elements are Fire (), Earth (), Air (), and Water (). They represent in Greek philosophy, science, and medicine the realms of the cosmos wherein all things exist and whereof all things consist. The ancient Greek word for element (''stoicheion'') literally meant "letter (of the alphabet)", the basic unit from which a word is formed.
Plato mentions the elements as of Pre-Socratic origin, a list created by the Ionian philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). Empedocles called these the four "roots"; Plato seems to have been the first to use the term "element (''stoicheion'')" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water.^[1]

★ 'Air' is primarily wet and secondarily hot.

★ 'Fire' is primarily hot and secondarily dry.

★ 'Earth' is primarily dry and secondarily cold.

★ 'Water' is primarily cold and secondarily wet.
One classic diagram (right) has one square inscribed in the other, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties.
According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (Fire), black bile (Earth), blood (Air), and phlegm (Water).
Some cosmologies include a fifth element, the "aether" or "quintessence." These five elements are sometimes associated with the five platonic solids.
The Pythagoreans added idea as the fifth element, and also used the initial letters of these five elements to name the outer angles of their pentagram.
Aristotle added aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas Fire, Earth, Air, and Water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.^[2] Various physical aether theories employed ''aether'' to provide the proposed invisible medium which permeated the universe, and was responsible for the action of gravity or the propagation of light.
In 1987 composer Robert Steadman wrote a chamber symphony each movement of which musically depicts the characteristics of the Ancient Greek elements: Fire, Water, Wind and Earth.

Classical elements from the Middle Ages to the early modern era

The concept of the classical elements proved extremely persistent. Just as the Aristotelian dogma was related to the Greek world view, the idea of classical elements in the Middle Ages composed a large part of the medieval world view. The Roman Catholic Church supported the Aristotelian concept of aether because it supported the Christian view of earthly life as impermanent and heaven as eternal.
References to the classical elements in early modern literature are frequently found in the work of many writers, including William Shakespeare:



:Thou hast as chiding a nativity
:As 'fire, air, water, earth, and heaven' can make,
:To herald thee from the womb
::-PERICLES, from Pericles Prince of Tyre


:::::::I have heard
:The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
:Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
:Awake the god of day, and at his warning,
:Whether in 'sea or fire, in earth or air',
:Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
:To his confine.
::-HORATIO, from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Astrology and the classical elements

Main articles: astrology and the classical elements

Astrology has used the concept of classical elements from antiquity up until the present. Most modern astrologers use the four classical elements extensively, and indeed it is still viewed as a critical part of interpreting the astrological chart.

Tarot divination and the classical elements

In divinatory tarot, the suits of cups, swords, wands (batons) and pentacles (coins) are said to correspond to water, air, fire, and earth respectively. These correspond in the modern deck of playing cards to hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds.

Classical elements in popular culture

Main articles: Classical elements in popular culture

The classical elements are often used together thematically in modern fantasy, literature, movies, television shows, and comic books. Typically, a magic wielder has the ability to influence one of the elements, or can use the elements to affect the world around him or her.

See also

★ Phlogiston theory

★ Table of correspondences

Bibliography

★ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (2002). ''Healing with Form, Energy, and Light''. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1559391766

★ Günther, Herbert V. (1996). ''The Teachings of Padmasambhava''. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill. Hardcover.

Notes

1. ''Timaeus'' 48b-c
2. G. E. R. Lloyd, ''Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of his Thought'', Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1968, pp. 133-139, ISBN 0-521-09456-9.

External links

★ Different versions of the classical elements

★ Overview the 5 elements

★ Section on 4 elements in Buddhism