The four elements are the alphabet of Western magick. Before a student learns the planets, the signs or the Tree of Life, they learn to see the world as fire, water, air and earth, and to find the same four in themselves. The scheme is ancient, simple and surprisingly penetrating. It was never a primitive chemistry. It is a way of classifying kinds of activity.
In brief
- The doctrine of four elements comes from Greek philosophy of the fifth century before the common era.
- Each element combines two of four qualities: hot, cold, wet and dry.
- In a person the elements appear as will, feeling, thought and bodily life.
- A fifth element, spirit, is the point at which the four are balanced.
Where the elements come from
The Greek philosopher Empedocles taught that everything is made of four roots, mixed in different proportions by the opposed forces of love and strife. Aristotle refined the idea by deriving the four from two pairs of qualities. Fire is hot and dry, air is hot and wet, water is cold and wet, earth is cold and dry. Because neighboring elements share a quality, each can be changed into the next, and nature is a continual cycle of such changes.
This picture governed European medicine, cosmology and psychology for two thousand years. The four humors and four temperaments of older medicine are the elements applied to the body. The magical tradition took it over whole and has kept it, because as a description of how things behave it continues to earn its place.
The four elements
Fire
Hot and dry / South
Energy, will and transformation. Fire rises, consumes and gives light. In a person it is initiative, courage and enthusiasm, and in excess it is anger and impatience. Its tool is the wand and its power is to will.
Water
Cold and wet / West
Feeling, receptivity and connection. Water flows downward, takes the shape of its vessel and reflects. In a person it is sympathy, intuition and devotion, and in excess it is moodiness and drift. Its tool is the cup and its power is to dare.
Air
Hot and wet / East
Thought, speech and movement. Air is invisible, quick and everywhere at once. In a person it is clarity, curiosity and wit, and in excess it is restlessness and talk without substance. Its tool is the dagger and its power is to know.
Earth
Cold and dry / North
Form, stability and substance. Earth is solid, slow and fertile. In a person it is patience, practicality and endurance, and in excess it is heaviness and stubbornness. Its tool is the pentacle and its power is to keep silent.
The triangular signs are the traditional symbols. An upward triangle is fire, a downward triangle is water. A bar across the triangle marks the less extreme element of each pair: air rises like fire but is gentler, earth descends like water but is denser. Laid one over the other, the fire and water triangles form the hexagram, the sign of opposites united.
Table of the elements
| Element | Qualities | Quarter | Time | Faculty | Tool | Power | Signs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | Hot, wet | East | Dawn, spring | Intellect | Dagger | To know | Gemini, Libra, Aquarius |
| Fire | Hot, dry | South | Noon, summer | Will | Wand | To will | Aries, Leo, Sagittarius |
| Water | Cold, wet | West | Dusk, autumn | Feeling | Cup | To dare | Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces |
| Earth | Cold, dry | North | Midnight, winter | Sensation | Pentacle | To keep silent | Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn |
These are the attributions most widely used today. They are conventions, not laws of nature. The assignment of elements to directions in particular reflects the climate of the lands where it was devised, and other arrangements exist. Choose one scheme and keep to it, since a symbolic language works by consistency.
The fifth element
Aristotle added a fifth substance, the aether, of which the heavens were made. The alchemists called it the quintessence, the fifth essence, and sought to extract it from the other four. In magick it is called spirit. It is not a fifth thing alongside the others so much as their source and their point of balance, and it is represented by the upper point of the pentagram, which stands above the four and governs them.
The symbolism states the aim of elemental work. The student is not trying to become more fiery or more earthy but to stand at the center, able to call on each element as it is needed and ruled by none.
The elements in character
Most people are well supplied with one or two elements and poorly with the others. The quick thinker who never finishes anything has air without earth. The reliable worker who cannot adapt has earth without water. The warm friend who avoids all conflict has water without fire. Seeing this in oneself without flattery is the first use of the elemental scheme, and remedying it is a large part of what the tradition means by training.
The remedy for a deficiency is practice in the neglected element. Fire is built by doing hard things promptly. Water by listening, and by allowing feeling. Air by study and by putting thoughts into exact words. Earth by routine, bodily exercise and finishing tasks.
Practice
An elemental inventory
- Divide a page of your diary into four columns headed fire, water, air and earth.
- Under each, list your strengths of that kind and then your faults of that kind. Be specific and give examples.
- Note which column was easiest to fill and which was nearly empty.
- For four weeks, give one week to each element in turn, beginning with your weakest. Each day do one small deliberate act in the spirit of that element, and record it.
- Repeat the inventory in three months and compare.
The elements in ritual
In ceremony the elements are assigned to the four quarters of the circle, so that the operator standing at the center is surrounded by the whole of nature in balance. The four tools on the altar are the same idea in portable form. Elemental work is the traditional foundation of practical training: the student spends a period with each element, studying it, meditating on it and correcting it in the character, before going on to the planets.