See also: Element

The theory of the four elements is a traditional manner to describe and analyze the world, which is more used nowadays only in the field esoteric.

It was an assumption of some Philosophe S of the ancient Greece, and in particular of Empédocle d' Agrigente with the IV {{E}} century before Jesus-Christ, according to whom all the materials of the world would be composed of four elements:

• the Water;
• the Air;
• the Ground;
• the Fire.

Aristote lines up with this continuous model of the matter. Démocrite, him, had refused it, as will do it with its continuation Epicure: both are in favor of the assumption nuclear physicist .

Elementary symbolic system and qualities

Interpretation symbolic system of the four elements rests on their decomposition in quality elementary, along two axes of analysis which are the heat and the cold on the one hand; and dryness and the wet one in addition.

• the hot is generally a principle of energy, activity and impulse. By opposition, the cold is a principle of passivity and resistance.
• the dry is a process of analysis, separation, individualization, contraction and fold on the detail or oneself. It is held in a rigid and breakable atmosphere, going to the extremes. By opposition, wet is a process of synthesis, connection and collectivization, opening on globality and the collective. It is led in an atmosphere of relaxation and flexibility.

In this analysis, the ground inherits qualities cold and dry (they are qualities of ash), fire is dry and hot, the air is hot and wet (it is about the exhaled breath) and water is cold and wet.

The fifth element

There also exists in the esoteric tradition a fifth element, sometimes called Akasha, which means ether or spirit.

The whole perhaps represented by the pentagram, which points out this symbolic system: the air, water, fire and the ground, the whole linked with the spirit, form the way that the " sorciers" (or magicians) to use the magic elements use to be able.

The ether also represents this fifth element. It is called also Quintessence.

Solid of Plato

Plato associated the 5 regular polyhedrons which he knew with the elements: fire with the tetrahedron, ground with the cube, air with octahedral, water with the icosahedron. The dodecahedron has a fuzzier statute: it would be the structure of the universe. One thus attaches it often to ether.

Description Holistique and analogy

For the Greek philosophers, this theory describes the " nature élémentaire" world in general, in all its demonstrations. It thus treats " nature" matter, like physics or the modern chemistry, but also led to a classification of the " nature" plants and animals, and a classification of the " nature" characters, diseases and elementary feelings of the man.

The idea which underlies the analogical use of the four elements is that these various objective demonstrations (matter, plant, animal, disease,…) are structured by the same subjacent reality, commune with the various demonstrations; and that the imbalance which appears in a plan of demonstration can be corrected by analogy, through a specific action on another plan. It is this same approach which remains still used nowadays in many fields of the Occultisme.

This approach Holistique thereafter dominated the medicine, whose key of analysis has during centuries be to analyze elementary imbalances and to correct them by regulations based on the analogy of the substances. For the medical approach:

• Fire corresponds to a Bileux temperament, the muscular apparatus, all the voluntary activity. It is a dry and active temperament.
• the Air corresponds to a Sanguine constitution, with the breathing apparatus and circulatory, the sexual functions. It is a dilated and tonic temperament.
• Water corresponds to a Lymphatic constitution, the digestive system, the vegetative state and the sleep. It is a dilated but passive temperament.
• the Earth corresponds to a Nervous disposition, the nervous system and the cerebral functions, all the functions of control. It is a dry and static temperament.

According to the authors, this correspondence can interfere astrological Symbolisme more or less pronounced, whose typical example is " the man zodiacal" , correspondence enters the sign and the " nature occulte" members.

Elements in physics and chemistry

; Alchemical symbolic system Some alchemists will seek to carry out the Transmutation metals on the theory of four elements, a little as we carry out ourself the synthesis of any color of the arc sky or not starting from three phosphorus colors. We would say today that they regarded the matter as a vector Space of dimension 4 . What could be more logical on such a model to think that one will manage to make gold by combining the metal side of mercury with the yellow color of sulfur?

; Modern physics The physique of the 19th century, then 20th century, will confirm the assumption nuclear physicist , while making discover at the 20th century that Transmutation S (Nuclear fission) exist well in nature, which had been regarded as an alarming stupid thing at the 19th century (which knew only the Chimie). “The ceiling of a man is the floor of the another”, known as proverb.

Beyond the error of Empédocle, Aristote and alchemists, they are entitled probably to a small certificate of merit all the same to have correctly identified through these four examples the first four states of the matter: solid (ground), liquid (water), gas (air) and plasmatic (fire). The fifth, the Condensate of Bump-Einstein, will be imagined and highlighted only at the 20th century.

Other references to the elements

Five Asian elements

In the Asian cultures, one considers five elements in general:

• with the Japan, the the Lightning, the Wind, the Fire, the Water and the Ground;
• in the Chinese Astrology: the Metal (Gold), the Water, the Wood, the Fire, and the Ground;
• there exists a Buddhist analysis in four elements, Dhātu.

Tarot

In the Tarot divinatoire, the colors of the low blades are directly associated with the four elements: the cuts represent water, the sword (scraping-knife) represents the air, the stick (rod) represents fire, and the sums of money (pentacles) represent the ground. These four elements can be recognized on the asset of the juggler (the rod is in its hand, the remainder is on the table). This correspondence rises directly from the instruments of the magician (scraping-knife, rod, cut and pentagram) judicious to control the corresponding elements in ceremonial magic.

The modern correspondences would be ground = sum of money = square; fire = sword = clover; water = cut = heart; air = stick = spade.

See too

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