Elements

the very basics

Elements describe pre-existing conditions for our being: the Sun (fire), the Earth, atmosphere (air), oceans (water). These are the essentials for life, which can be further elaborated into categories like plants, fungi, animals. In scientific terms, we speak about atoms and elementary particles.

Ancient Elements

the First Pair

circle with a linear greyscale gradient from black at the bottom to white at the top

If we’re going to categorize aspects of the ineffable chaos of existence, the binary complements of Dark and Light are as good a start as any.

a yin Yang symbol with the white Yang at top, and black yin at bottom. Each half is filled with fractally scaled circles.

Dao is an expression of the ebb and flow of light and dark.

black and white version of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. At centre, an eight by eight arrangement of the hexagrams from all black lines at top left to all white lines at bottom right. A second arrangment of the hexagrams encircles these. White is at top, black at bottom.

I Ching is a divination system that uses two types of lines, light and dark in the image above.

green binary numbers on a black background

binary codes at its simplest is composed of 0s and 1s.

Four plus One Elements

These four elements appear to be the most common, used in Europe, the Middle East, Central and North America. The four elements are Earth, Air/Wind, Water, Fire, and sometimes a fifth is added, Void/Space/Aether, at centre.

Fire
Eartha circle divided into four by an X. At bottom and moving clockwise, the colour of each quarter is Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red.Water
Air

The elements are associated with the Cardinal Directions and Seasons in many systems. The relationships between direction, colour, season, and element are diverse.

In theAbysmal system:

  • Air is blue North/Winter
  • Earth is green East/Spring
  • Fire is yellow South/Summer
  • Water is red West/Autumn.
  • Aether sits at colourless Centre.

Looking at our global environment:

tall image of Earth's atmosphere with zones marked off

Atmosphere (Air) – Lithosphere (Earth) – Magnetosphere (Fire) – Hydrosphere (Water)

East Asian Elements

The five elements in the Chinese system are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. There are a number of relationships between them, however, the image below follows the clockwise progression of Generation and the star’s path follows the progression of Overcoming.

Five-pointed star with the Chinese elements. Clockwise from Top: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. This sequence is labelled "Generating Interaction". Arrows form a star between the elements Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, Metal, labelled "Overcoming Interaction"

Chemical Elements

The Standard Model of Elementary Particles provides us with the building blocks for the chemical elements listed in the tables that follow. (images from wikipedia)

Elementary Particles

table of the standard model of elementary particles: quarks, leptons, gauge bosons and the scalar boson.

Chemical Elements

I appreciate this astronomer’s periodic table which colour-codes the origins of the element.

astronomer's perid=odic table of the elements. In addition to listing Hydrogen through to Plutonium, it identified which elements were formed by bing bang fusion, dying low-mass stars, cosmic ray fission, exploding massive stars, exploding white dwarfs, and merging neutron stars.

Rethinking the Periodic Table

A number of alternative periodic tables have been constructed in order to arrange the elements in order to emphasize different characteristics and relationships.

  • colour-coded polar grid of the chemical elements. Hydrogen and Helium are at centre, and each consecutive ring is a heavier series of elements.
  • circular arrangment of the chemical elements with an arc at the bottom. Hydrogen begins close to centre, and rings are formed of progressively heavier elements.
  • Spiral arrangment of the chemical elements beginning with Hydrogen at the outside and progressing inward as elements get heavier.
  • a circular arrangment of wedges of different sizes. Lighter elements at the outside.
  • chemical elements arranged as one small and two large circles. Hydrogen begins at centre of the large circle on the right, the small circle contains the actinides and lanthanides.
  • an arrangement of the periodic table of the elements which is part circular, and part three irregular peninsulas to the right side. Hydrogen begins at centre of the circle. One peninsula are the spueractinides, another is both lanthanides & actinides, and the third is transition metals.

Mythological Elements

Although the ancient elements listed above are an important aspect of Mythsystems, the following are derivative. In a sense, the Four Cardinal Elements are necessary for the Mythological Elements to exist, and those are necessary in order for us to exist.

cross-like symbol made of lines with circles at key intersections. The lines form five boxes, one at centre and four adjacent. Each of the four adjacent squares has a triangle attached opposite the centre square. THe four arms are coloured blue at bottom, green at left, yellow at top, red at right. The circle at centre is a double black and white spiral. In addition, there are 20 other circles.

Trees of Life

Etz Chaim, Yggdrasil, Somb, Kalpavriksha, Bohdi, Fusang, Wacah Chan, Yax Imix Che, Nookomis Giizhig, Skaronhiase’kó:wa.

Tree of Life, Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Death, Tree of Immortality, Tree of Peace. There is an entire forest of such trees. The character for the Chinese element, Wood, means “tree”.

  • Tree of Life by James Jacko Card

Holy Metal

Meteorites, gold, silver, iron, steel all play important roles historically, however, it is what we make out of these metals that become representative: the Black Stone at the centre of the Kaaba, gold thread, silver mirror, iron cauldron, steel sword.

the Esoteric tradition associates an object with each of the four elements.

Fire
Staff
Earth
Disc		a circle divided into four by an X. At bottom and moving clockwise, the colour of each quarter is Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red.Water
Cup
Air
Sword