Elementally Speaking: The Story Behind the Elements

If you do any type of magic at all, then you have heard of the Elements. They are Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Together they are the energies that make up the Universe. By combining them in certain ways, they can add power to your magic workings and everything is made up of a combination of them. In fact, many of the things a magical practitioner uses have an element assigned to it. But where did all this come from?

Most theories date the use of Elements back to the magicians and mages of the ancient world. Greek philosophers debated on the nature of the elements and of which element was “arche” or “the primordial element. “from which everything came from. For example, Thales (626 to c. 545 BCE) believed that the primordial element was water; while Anaxmander (c. 610-546 BCE) believed that the primordial element was an element of which we don’t know.

Circa 450 BCE, a Sicilian Greek philosopher names Empedocles proposed the idea that the four elements worked together. He referred to them as the “roots” (rhizomata). He also suggested that the four elements could not only be tied to a humor, but also a season, a stage of life, a bodily organ, a temperature, and a temperament. Many of those assignments still show up in modern correspondence charts.

Within the human body, the elements were referred to as the “humours.” And the combination of humours within the body determined the temperament of the person being discussed and the nature of any illnesses said person may be inflicted with. A Greek by the name of Alcmaeon of Croton wrote extensively about the humours and created a list of the humours with “Earth, Air, Fire, and Water being the main four. So scholars believe that the humours originated with the Ancient Egyptians and were codified by the Greeks. Greek writers like Galen and Hippocrates studied the humours and expanded on the concepts. Being healthy was about keeping your humours balanced and medicine was about what could be done to bring about that balance.

Aristotle did his part to standardize the elements in his book, “On Generation and Corruption, he assigns qualities to each of the elements.

1. Air is hot and wet

2. Fire is hot and dry

3. Water is cold and wet

4. Earth is cold and dry

Aristotle also added a fifth element to the mix by adding Eather. Eather or spirit as it is known today, was considered to be a heavenly substance that was unchangeable and incorruptible. It is only capable of local motion, was what held the stars in place, and was transparent.

An Egyptian book written during the Hellenistic Era of Greece talks about the four elements. The book is called the “Kore Kosmou” (Virgin of the World) and is believed to have been written by Hermes Trismegistus. The elements are described in the books. This book is one of the foundation texts of Hermetic magic and thought.

Medieval alchemy was greatly inspired by the Greco-Roman philosophers and various anonymous writes from the Islam world. Through the years they expanded on the four elements and used them to explain the success or failure of their various experiments. These writings inspired the creators of ceremonial magic traditions, such as the Golden Dawn, and those early groups inspired many modern pagan and spiritual groups of today.

Astrology is not immune to the influence of the Medieval alchemist and their Elements. We see the four elements appear prominently in modern astrology. Think about your zodiac sign, what element is it associated with? In astrology, the elements are used to explain the temperament of the sign.

The elements are a syncretic concept. While the Greeks and Romans were developing the concept of the Elements, various Culture around the world were also developing them.

In Ancient India, they were developing the theories of Ayruvedic medicine and the doshas. According to Aruveda, there are three main types of doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha) and part of the system is to keep the 5 elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space) in balance.

In Japan, there is part of their Buddhist belief system something called Godai which contains the 5 elements: earth (chi), water (sui), fire (ka), wind (fu), and void (ku). This system may have originated from the Indian Buddhist concept of Mahabhuta, and by way of China adapted it to their own belief systems. The Chinese system that inspired Mahabhuta is referred to as wuxing.

There is even a Native American system of elements. They are often referred to as the medicine wheel. Each element is tied to a direction, a stage of life, a color, and an animal.

As we can see, the Elements has been around as long as written history. It was a way to define and categorize the world around a person. Like most human concepts, as societies change, the concepts adapt. Modern medical science has made the concept of bodily humours obsolete. Yet, they still exist as a metaphysical concept.