Female, cold elements point downward, descending into the earth. Male, warm elements point upward, ascending toward the spiritual realm. The orientation of the triangle is determined by warmth or coldness, male or female. This is a strongly dichotomous system, where male qualities are things like light, warmth, and activity, and female qualities are dark, cold, passive, and receptive. In classical elemental systems, each element has two qualities, and it shares each quality with one other element.Įach element is either warm or cold, and this corresponds with a male or female gender. Each element is connected with aspects in each of these, and it helps correlate their relationship to one another. Some modern systems, such as Wicca, view the elements as equal.īefore we examine the elements themselves, it is important to understand the qualities, orientations, and correspondences that are associated with the elements. In traditional Western occult theory, the elements are hierarchical: Spirit, fire, air, water, and earth-with the first elements being more spiritual and perfect and the last elements being more material and base. Others call it Aether or Quintessence (literally " the fifth element" in Latin). The fifth element, which goes by a variety of names, is more rarefied than the four physical elements.
Alchemists eventually associated four triangular symbols to represent these elements. Of these, four were the physical elements-fire, air, water, and earth-of which the entire world is composed. The Greeks proposed the existence of five basic elements.
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