For centuries, the ancients in all cultures
- Greek, Indina, Chinese -
believed that the entire universe is made up of four elements:
Earth, Water, Fire and Air.
When these elements are in the right balance,
then there is harmony.
Otherwise, there is tension or dis-ease.
Occasionally, a fifth element is mentioned,
in the manner of aether, that was nothing, 'not a thing'.
The Hindus called it akas - sky;
the Buddhists referred to it as sunya, the Void.
-Sehdev Kumar
Although the elements may be called
earth, water, fire, air and ether,
this must not be taken literally...
'Ether' is not ether in a scientific sense; it is capacity.
"Water' is not water as we understand it
in everyday language; it is liquidity.
'Fire is understood differently;
it means glow or heat, dryness, radiance, all that is living.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Ether manifests the memory of intelligence.
Air is the capacity for the memory of thoughts.
Fire is the memory of changes,
the sense of transition from one state to another.
Water manifests the emotional memory.
Earth is the crystallized memory that manifests our shape.
-J. P. Gallien
Fire expresses codes, as divine intelligence and vision.
Air focuses on making and working with connections,
as relationships of ideas.
Water expresses energy flow with emphasis on emotions
and the way energy flows between connections.
Earth emphasizes substance, as what is manifested.
-Rowena Pattee Kryder
Metal is that which purifies and solidifies.
Water is liquid, flowing, downward-traveling.
Wood is piercing, growing upwards, and linear.
Fire is heat, light, expansion, and consumption.
Earth is flat, broadening, and neutral.
-Deng Ming-Dao
Fire represents energy rising;
water represents energy sinking;
wood represents energy expanding;
metal represents energy solidifying;
and earth represents stable or centered energy.
-Mantak Chia
Wood denotes upward growth, like a tree or young shoot in spring.
In life it represents growth, expansion and creativity.
Fire denotes energy and life at its fullest, radiating heat.
In life it represents motivation and movement.
Earth denotes a nurturing stable environment,
In life it represents stasis - solid and reliable with little movement.
Metal denotes gathering an accumulation.
In life it is associated with money and financial success.
Water denotes stillness on one hand and hidden depths and currents on the other.
In life is associated with communication and knowledge.
-Gill Hale
Earthly joy is riches and impediment;
aquatic joy is softness and repose;
fiery pleasure is desire and love;
airy delight is liberty and movement.
-Gaston Bachelard
Consider the four great elements: earth, water, fire and air.
A moment free of doubt, and earth cannot obstruct you.
A moment free of desire, and water cannot drown you.
A moment free of anger, and fire cannot burn you.
A moment free of joy, and air cannot blow you around.
-Hengchuan
Swift as the wind
Quiet as a forest
Fierce as fire and
Immovable as a mountain.
-Samurai Saying
Air, soil, water, fire - those are words,
I myself am a word with them -
my qualities interpenetrate with theirs -
my name is nothing to them,
Though it were told in the three thousand languages,
what would air, soil, water, fire, know of my name?
-Walt Whitman
May the earth open and swallow me,
May the sky fall upon me,
May the seas rise and cover me,
May fires consume me,
If I am forsworn.
-John Matthews
Life, light and love are symbolized
by the three elements of air, fire and water.
-David Frawley
When you act in any domain,
you must have a good knowledge of these two principles:
fire and water, the emissive aspect and the receptive aspect.
-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
Water and fire are the symbols of the heart and mind,
of feeling and thought.
The heart, like water, is feminine,
and the mind, like fire, is masculine.
-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
Where fire is adventurous, quick and exciting,
water is slow, quiet and steady.
Fire has an element of surprise;
water and element of predictability.
Water is symbolized by the mood of aliveness, too,
but one which is "heavier," "slower,"
and more comforting than exciting.
-Erich Fromm
Water is so much more fine and sensitive
an element than earth.
A single boatman passing up or down
unavoidably shakes the whole of a wide river,
and disturbs its every reflection.
The air is an element which our voices shake
still further than our oars.
-Henry David Thoreau
Water speaks in long syllables,
air in short.
-Chazal
Water and rock are two archetypes -
water symbolizing the manifesting flow of movement,
rock the passive receptivity through ages of hard resistance.
-Willem and Helene Koppejan
