elements, the four

Earth, air, fire, and water. The Greek philosopher Empedocles believed that these four elements made up the fundamental components of all matter and that they were destroyed and renewed through the action of love and discord.

This belief was shared by Aristotle who also claimed that the elements were mutable and contained specific qualities: cold and dry for earth, hot and wet for air, hot and dry for fire, and cold and wet for water. The transformation of the elements formed the basis of medieval alchemy, and the belief that base metals could be turned into gold. The theory of the elements prevailed until the 17th century when Robert Boyle redefined an element as a substance ‘simple or unmixed, not made of other bodies’ and proposed the existence of a greater number than four.

The symbolic significance of the elements still retains a hold on the modern imagination, and reference to them can be found in the writings of Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner.

In Chinese tradition there are five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.