The Greek System of the Elements
Ever wonder where the use of the four elements comes from, be it in Wicca or some other source? I've asked the same question and done a fair amount of digging on the topic. I'm far from done with the research (but when is one *ever* done with research; there's always something new to read!), but I have done enough to present a general overview of the origins of the four elements and what it meant in its original context.
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The four element system commonly used in modern Paganism has its origins in ancient Greece. The Greek philosophers were looking for answers to very fundamental questions about the nature of the universe. The elements were part of a set of ideas designed to explain what the arche, or first principle was. Out of the arche comes all other things; it is a sort of primordial substance. Closely with ideas about the elements are ideas about how other things come out of the arche and how things might return to it.
Early Greek philosophers had conflicting ideas of what the primordial substance was. In the early days some philosophers proposed that ONE of the four elements was arche. Which of the four was arche was disputed. Critical to their justification of a single element as arche were the qualities attributed to the four elements: warm, cool, dry, and moist. These qualities relate to how the arche becomes other things and returns to its primordial state. For example, Anaximenes, who proposed Air as arche, believed that it became visible only when infused with one of these four qualities (e.g. when rarefied or condensed).
Empedocles is often hailed as the father of the four elements. While the idea of the four existed prior to him, Empedocles was the first to propose that all four elements together were arche. None of the four existed prior to any other. He also essentially believed in the conservation of matter; nothing is created or destroyed, there is only transformation. Only fragments of Empedocles survive, so some of how he saw the Four is up to speculation. One of the philosophical greats, however, picked up on Empedocles ideas and refined them. That philosopher was Aristotle.
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If you want to get a grasp of the basics of elemental theory, read Aristotle. In particular read "Physics," "On the Heavens," and "On Generation and Corruption." I'll summarize some of the ideas found here which are fundamental to understanding Greek elemental theory.
Per the early Greek philosophers, the four elements are associated with particular qualities. Aristotle in particular laid this out cleanly and goes into some detail on what these qualities mean. The first set of contraries is warm and cool. Aristotle explains that a thing warm associates things of the same kind (and thus dissasociates things of different kinds) while a thing cool associates things of different kinds together (and thus dissasociates things of the same kind). The second set of contraries is moist and dry. A thing moist is readily adaptable in shape and is not determinable by any limit of its own. A thing dry is readily determinable by its own limit, but not readily adaptable in shape.
Furthermore, each element is associated with two qualities. Since contraries refuse to be coupled there are four combinations. Most modern Pagan sources get this part right, but sometimes they'll neglect that each element has a primary and seconary qualit. Here Aristotle speaks plainly: "Earth by dry rather than by cold, Water by cold rather than by moist, Air by moist rather than by hot, and Fire by hot rather than by dry." There is a specific order in which the elements may pass into one another based upon these qualities.
In the natural cycle of the elements, contrary elements (Air and Earth, Fire and Water) do not transform into one another as only one quality may be changed at a time. The order of the elements must be, according to Aristotle, in accord with their contraries: Air to Fire, Fire to Earth, Earth to Water, Water to Air. This, interestingly, conflicts with the common layout of the elements used by modern Pagans and occultists, which breaks the cycle by switching Earth and Water's position. Part of my research goal involves tracing where this break occured.
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So to summarize the basic Greek model of the four elements:
Air is primarily moist so is readily adaptible in shape; it is secondarily warm and so disassociates things of the same kind.
Fire is primarily warm and so dissasociates things of the same kind; it is secondarily dry so is not readily adaptable in shape.
Earth is primarily dry and so is not readily adaptible in shape; it is secondarily cool and so associates things of different kinds.
Water is primarily cool so it associates things of different kinds; it is secondarily moist so it is readily adaptible in shape.
From this come a whole host of other potential correspondences and interpretations. I won't get into that here for now. Suffice it to say that using the Greek system will lead to different correspondences than those usually used by modern Pagans and occultists.
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Sources (apologies, not all have full citations)
-- The Oxford "Complete Works of Aristotle" volume 2.
-- Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy. Edited by John P. Anton with George L. Kustas. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1971.
-- Freeman, Kathleen. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1959.
-- Allen, Reginald E. Greek Philosophy: Thales to Aristotle. The Free Press: New York, 1966.
-- A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume I. W.K.C. Guthrie, F.B.A. Cambrige University Press: London, 1962.
-- A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume II. W.K.C. Guthrie, F.B.A. Cambrige University Press: London, 1965.
To view the essays that prompted me to undertake this research journey, see The Rotation of the Elements, by John Opsopaus and his broader overview of the elements HERE. Here you will find a ton of information in supplement to what I have said here. I have not gotten to verifying everything this author says, but I have verified a considerable amount of his assertions and his research appears sound.
