Classical element#Classical elements in Hinduism

{{anchor|Ancient classic element systems}}

{{anchor|Classical elements in Greece}}

The ancient Greek concept of four basic elements, these being earth ({{lang|grc|γῆ}} {{transliteration|grc|gê}}), water ({{lang|grc|ὕδωρ}} {{transliteration|grc|hýdōr}}), air ({{lang|grc|ἀήρ}} {{transliteration|grc|aḗr}}), and fire ({{lang|grc|πῦρ}} {{transliteration|grc|pŷr}}), dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Early modern period, deeply influencing European thought and culture.{{sfnp|Curd|2020}}

File:Four Classical Elements in Burning Log.svg and Aristotle illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed.]]{{Main|Thales of Miletus#Water as the arche|Anaximenes of Miletus#Air as the arche|Heraclitus#Fire as the arche|Anaximander#Theories}}The classical elements were first proposed independently by several early Pre-Socratic philosophers.{{sfnp|Ross|2020}} Greek philosophers had debated which substance was the arche ("first principle"), or primordial element from which everything else was made. Thales ({{circa|626/623|548/545 BC}}) believed that water was this principle. Anaximander ({{circa|610|546 BC}}) argued that the primordial substance was not any of the known substances, but could be transformed into them, and they into each other.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=46}}{{sfnp|Curd|2020}} Anaximenes ({{circa|586|526 BC}}) favored air, and Heraclitus (fl. {{circa|500 BC}}) championed fire.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=61}}

{{Main|Empedocles#Philosophy}}

The Greek philosopher Empedocles ({{circa|450 BC}}) was the first to propose the four classical elements as a set: fire, earth, air, and water.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|pp=62, 75}} He called them the four "roots" ({{lang|grc|ῥιζώματα}}, {{transliteration|grc|rhizōmata}}). Empedocles also proved (at least to his own satisfaction) that air was a separate substance by observing that a bucket inverted in water did not become filled with water, a pocket of air remaining trapped inside.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=72}}

Fire, earth, air, and water have become the most popular set of classical elements in modern interpretations. One such version was provided by Robert Boyle in The Sceptical Chymist, which was published in 1661 in the form of a dialogue between five characters. Themistius, the Aristotelian of the party, says:{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Robert |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22914/22914-h/22914-h.htm |title=The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject |publisher=Printed by J. Cadwell for J. Crooke |year=1661 |pages=21–22}}

{{Blockquote|text=If You but consider a piece of green-Wood burning in a Chimney, You will readily discern in the disbanded parts of it the four Elements, of which we teach It and other mixt bodies to be compos'd. The fire discovers it self in the flame ... the smoke by ascending to the top of the chimney, and there readily vanishing into air ... manifests to what Element it belongs and gladly returnes. The water ... boyling and hissing at the ends of the burning Wood betrayes it self ... and the ashes by their weight, their firiness, and their dryness, put it past doubt that they belong to the Element of Earth.}}

File:Hippocrates (Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens).jpg

According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates ({{circa|460|370 BC}}) in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), blood (air), and phlegm (water). Medical care was primarily about helping the patient stay in or return to their own personal natural balanced state.{{Cite book |last=Lindemann |first=Mary |title=Medicine and Society in early Modern Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-73256-7 |page=19}}

File:Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377 (cropped).jpg

Plato (428/423 – 348/347 BC) seems to have been the first to use the term "element ({{lang|grc|στοιχεῖον}}, {{transliteration|grc|stoicheîon}})" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water.{{Citation |last=Plato |title=Timaeus |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Tim.+48b |at=48b}} The ancient Greek word for element, {{transliteration|grc|stoicheion}} (from {{transliteration|grc|stoicheo}}, "to line up") meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed.

File:Statue_at_the_Aristotle_University_of_Thessaloniki_(cropped).jpg

In On the Heavens (350 BC), Aristotle defines "element" in general:{{Citation |last1=Weisberg |first1=M. |title=Philosophy of Chemistry |date=2019 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/chemistry/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=E. N. |edition=Spring 2019 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |last2=Needham |first2=P. |last3=Hendry |first3=R.}}{{Cite book |last=Aristotle |url=https://archive.org/details/onheavens0000aris/page/283/mode/1up?view=theater |title=On the Heavens |year=1922 |pages=3.3, 302a17–19 |translator-last=Stocks |translator-first=J. L. |orig-date=350 BCE}}

{{Blockquote|An element, we take it, is a body into which other bodies may be analysed, present in them potentially or in actuality (which of these, is still disputable), and not itself divisible into bodies different in form. That, or something like it, is what all men in every case mean by element.{{Citation |author=Aristotle |title=On the Heavens |at=III.3.302a17–19 |author-link=Aristotle |translator-last=Stocks |translator-first=J.L.}}|author=Aristotle|title=On the Heavens|source=Book III, Chapter III}}

In his On Generation and Corruption,{{cite wikisource |author=Aristotle |wslink=Περί Γενέσεως και Φθοράς/2 |anchor=Κεφάλαιο 3 |wslanguage=el |quote={{lang|grc|τὸ μὲν γὰρ πῦρ θερμὸν καὶ ξηρόν, ὁ δ' ἀὴρ θερμὸν καὶ ὑγρόν (οἷον ἀτμὶς γὰρ ὁ ἀήρ), τὸ δ' ὕδωρ ψυχρὸν καὶ ὑγρόν, ἡ δὲ γῆ ψυχρὸν καὶ ξηρόν}}}}{{sfnp|Lloyd|1968|pp=166–169}} Aristotle related each of the four elements to two of the four sensible qualities:

• Fire is both hot and dry.
• Air is both hot and wet (for air is like vapor, {{lang|grc|ἀτμὶς}}).
• Water is both cold and wet.
• Earth is both cold and dry.

A classic diagram has one square inscribed in the other, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties. The opposite corner is the opposite of these properties, "hot – cold" and "dry – wet".

Aristotle added a fifth element, aether ({{lang|grc|αἰθήρ}} {{transliteration|grc|aither}}), as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air, and water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.{{sfnp|Lloyd|1968|pp=[https://archive.org/details/aristotlegrowths0000lloy/page/133 133–139]}} It had previously been believed by pre-Socratics such as Empedocles and Anaxagoras that aether, the name applied to the material of heavenly bodies, was a form of fire. Aristotle himself did not use the term aether for the fifth element, and strongly criticised the pre-Socratics for associating the term with fire. He preferred a number of other terms indicating eternal movement, thus emphasising the evidence for his discovery of a new element.{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1971 |chapter=Aristotle's analysis of change and Plato's theory of Transcendent Ideas |publisher=SUNY Press |last=Chung-Hwan |first=Chen |author-link=Chen Chung-hwan |editor-last=Anton |editor-first=John P. |volume=2 |pages=406–407 |isbn=0873956230 |editor2-first=Anthony |editor2-last=Preus |title=Ancient Greek Philosophy}}. These five elements have been associated since Plato's Timaeus with the five platonic solids. Earth was associated with the cube, air with the octahedron, water with the icosahedron, and fire with the tetrahedron. Of the fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, Plato obscurely remarked, "...the god used [it] for arranging the constellations on the whole heaven". Aristotle added a fifth element, aither (aether in Latin, "ether" in English) and postulated that the heavens were made of this element, but he had no interest in matching it with Plato's fifth solid.Wildberg (1988): Wildberg discusses the correspondence of the Platonic solids with elements in Timaeus but notes that this correspondence appears to have been forgotten in Epinomis, which he calls "a long step towards Aristotle's theory", and he points out that Aristotle's ether is above the other four elements rather than on an equal footing with them, making the correspondence less apposite.

The Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus rejected Aristotle's theory relating the elements to the sensible qualities hot, cold, wet, and dry. He maintained that each of the elements has three properties. Fire is sharp (ὀξυτητα), subtle (λεπτομερειαν), and mobile (εὐκινησιαν) while its opposite, earth, is blunt (αμβλυτητα), dense (παχυμερειαν), and immobile (ακινησιαν{{cite thesis |last=Siorvanes |first=Lucas |date=1986 |title=Proclus on the Elements and the Celestial Bodies: Physical Thought in Late Neoplatonism |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1317977/1/311636.pdf |page=168 |access-date=}}); they are joined by the intermediate elements, air and water, in the following fashion:{{Citation |author=Proclus |title=Commentary on Plato's Timaeus |at=3.38.1–3.39.28}}

{{anchor|Classical elements in Egypt}}

A text written in Egypt in Hellenistic or Roman times called the Kore Kosmou ("Virgin of the World") ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus (associated with the Egyptian god Thoth), names the four elements fire, water, air, and earth. As described in this book:

{{blockquote|And Isis answer made: Of living things, my son, some are made friends with fire, and some with water, some with air, and some with earth, and some with two or three of these, and some with all. And, on the contrary, again some are made enemies of fire, and some of water, some of earth, and some of air, and some of two of them, and some of three, and some of all. For instance, son, the locust and all flies flee fire; the eagle and the hawk and all high-flying birds flee water; fish, air and earth; the snake avoids the open air. Whereas snakes and all creeping things love earth; all swimming things love water; winged things, air, of which they are the citizens; while those that fly still higher love the fire and have the habitat near it. Not that some of the animals as well do not love fire; for instance salamanders, for they even have their homes in it. It is because one or another of the elements doth form their bodies' outer envelope. Each soul, accordingly, while it is in its body is weighted and constricted by these four.{{cite book |last=Mead |first=G. R. S. |author-link=G. R. S. Mead |title=Thrice-Greatest Hermes |volume=3 |date=1906 |place=London & Benares |publisher=The Theosophical Publishing Society |pages=133–134 |oclc=76743923 }}

}}

{{anchor|Classical elements in Hinduism}}

{{anchor|The 5 Elements of Nature}}

{{Main|Mahābhūta#Hinduism|Pancha Bhuta}}

The system of five elements are found in Vedas, especially Ayurveda, the pancha mahabhuta, or "five great elements", of Hinduism are:

1. bhūmi or pṛthvī (earth),{{Cite book |last=Gopal |first=Madan |url=https://archive.org/details/indiathroughages00mada |title=India through the ages |publisher=Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India |year=1990 |editor-last=K.S. Gautam |page=[https://archive.org/details/indiathroughages00mada/page/78 78]}}
2. āpas or jala (water),
3. agní or tejas (fire),
4. vāyu, vyāna, or vāta (air or wind)
5. ākāśa, vyom, or śūnya (space or zero) or (aether or void).{{Cite book |last=Ranade |first=Subhash |title=Natural Healing Through Ayurveda |date=December 2001 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publisher |isbn=9788120812437 |page=32}}

They further suggest that all of creation, including the human body, is made of these five essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these five elements of nature, thereby balancing the cycle of nature.{{Cite book |last=Jagannathan |first=Maithily |title=South Indian Hindu Festivals and Traditions |publisher=Abhinav Publications |pages=60–62}}

The five elements are associated with the five senses, and act as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. The basest element, earth, created using all the other elements, can be perceived by all five senses — (i) hearing, (ii) touch, (iii) sight, (iv) taste, and (v) smell. The next higher element, water, has no odor but can be heard, felt, seen and tasted. Next comes fire, which can be heard, felt and seen. Air can be heard and felt. "Akasha" (aether) is beyond the senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch; it being accessible to the sense of hearing alone.{{Cite book |last=Meyer-Dinkgräfe |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGy0UglRz6IC |title=Theatre and Consciousness: Explanatory Scope and Future Potential |publisher=Intellect Books |year=2005 |isbn=9781841501307}}{{Cite book |last=Nath |first=Samir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cojAfyr04UAC |title=Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Buddhism |publisher=Sarup & Sons |year=1998 |isbn=9788176250191 |page=653}}{{Cite book |last=Tirupati Raju |first=Poola |title=Structural Depths of Indian Thought: Toward a Constructive Postmodern Ethics |publisher=SUNY Press |page=81}}

{{anchor|Buddhist elements}}

{{Main|Mahābhūta}}

Buddhism has had a variety of thought about the five elements and their existence and relevance, some of which continue to this day.

In the Pali literature, the mahabhuta ("great elements") or catudhatu ("four elements") are earth, water, fire and air. In early Buddhism, the four elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility, characterized as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively.{{Cite book |title=The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: a New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya |publisher=Wisdom Publications in association with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies |year=1995 |isbn=0-86171-072-X |editor-last=Bodhi |location=Boston |chapter=28, Mahāhatthipadopamasutta |oclc=31331607}}

The Buddha's teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or energy content (fire). He promulgated a categorization of mind and matter as composed of eight types of "kalapas" of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are colour, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.{{Cite book |last=Thera |first=Narada |title=A Manual of Abhidhamma |publisher=Buddhist Missionary Society |year=1956 |pages=318–320}}{{efn|{{harvp|Thera|1956|pages=318–320}}: "the atomic theory prevailed in India in the time of the Buddha. Paramàõu was the ancient term for the modern atom. According to the ancient belief one rathareõu consists of 16 tajjàris, one tajjàri, 16 aõus; one aõu, 16 paramàõus. The minute particles of dust seen dancing in the sunbeam are called rathareõus. One para-màõu is, therefore, 4096th part of a rathareõu. This para-màõu was considered indivisible. With His supernormal knowledge the Buddha analysed this so-called paramàõu and declared that it consists of paramatthas—ultimate entities which cannot further be subdivided." "ñhavi in earth, àpo in water, tejo in fire, and vàyo in air. They are also called Mahàbhåtas or Great Essentials because they are invariably found in all material substances ranging from the infinitesimally small cell to the most massive object. Dependent on them are the four subsidiary material qualities of colour (vaõõa)., smell (gandha), taste (rasa), and nutritive essence (ojà). These eight coexisting forces and qualities constitute one material group called 'Suddhaññhaka Rupa kalàpa—pure-octad material group'."}}{{Cite book |last=Anuruddha |title=A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: the Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Ācariya Anuruddha |publisher=Buddhist Publication Society |year=1993 |isbn=955-24-0103-8 |editor-last=Bodhi |location=Kandy, Sri Lanka |page=260 |oclc=33088951 |quote="Thus as fourfold the Tathagatas reveal the ultimate realities-consciousness, mental factors, matter, and Nibbana."}}

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997) renders an extract of Shakyamuni Buddha's from Pali into English thus:

{{blockquote|Just as a skilled butcher or his apprentice, having killed a cow, would sit at a crossroads cutting it up into pieces, the monk contemplates this very body — however it stands, however it is disposed — in terms of properties: 'In this body there is the earth property, the liquid property, the fire property, & the wind property.'{{Cite web |title=Kayagata-sati Sutta |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.119.than.html |access-date=2009-01-30 |website=Majjhima Nikaya |page=119 |via=accesstoinsight.org}}}}

Tibetan Buddhist medical literature speaks of the {{IAST|pañca mahābhūta}} (five elements) or "elemental properties":{{Cite book |title=The Tibetan Book of the Dead |publisher=Viking Press |others=Introductory commentary by the 14th Dalai Lama |year=2005 |isbn=0-670-85886-2 |edition=First American |location=New York |pages=502 |translator-last=Dorje |translator-first=Gyurnme |translator-last2=Coleman |translator-first2=Graham |translator-last3=Jinpa |translator-first3=Thupten}} earth, water, fire, wind, and space. The concept was extensively used in traditional Tibetan medicine.{{Cite journal |last=Gurmet |first=Padma |year=2004 |title='Sowa – Rigpa': Himalayan art of healing |url=http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/9345 |journal=Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=212–218}}{{Cite web |last=Bigalke |first=Boris |date=2013-01-11 |others=University Hospital Tuebingen |title=Behavioral and Nutritional Therapy in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease According to Traditional Tibetan Medicine Protocol |url=https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00810992}} Tibetan Buddhist theology, tantra traditions, and "astrological texts" also spoke of them making up the "environment, [human] bodies," and at the smallest or "subtlest" level of existence, parts of thought and the mind. Also at the subtlest level of existence, the elements exist as "pure natures represented by the five female buddhas", Ākāśadhātviśvarī, Buddhalocanā, Mamakī, Pāṇḍarāvasinī, and Samayatārā, and these pure natures "manifest as the physical properties of earth (solidity), water (fluidity), fire (heat and light), wind (movement and energy), and" the expanse of space. These natures exist as all "qualities" that are in the physical world and take forms in it.

File:Kongo Cosmogram 3.png

In traditional Bakongo religion, the five elements are incorporated into the Kongo cosmogram. This sacred symbol also depicts the physical world (Nseke), the spiritual world of the ancestors (Mpémba), the Kalûnga line that runs between the two worlds, the circular void that originally formed the two worlds (mbûngi), and the path of the sun. Each element correlates to a period in the life cycle, which the Bakongo people also equate to the four cardinal directions. According to their cosmology, all living things go through this cycle.{{Cite book |last=Fu-Kiau |first=Kimbwandènde Kia Bunseki |url=http://archive.org/details/africancosmology00kimb |title=African cosmology of the Bântu-Kôngo : tying the spiritual knot : principles of life & living |date=2001 |location=Brooklyn, N.Y. |publisher=Athelia Henrietta Press, Pub. |isbn=978-1-890157-28-9}}

• Aether represents mbûngi, the circular void that begot the universe.
• Air (South) represents musoni, the period of conception that takes place during spring.
• Fire (East) represent kala, the period of birth that takes place during summer.
• Earth (North) represents tukula, the period of maturity that takes place during fall.
• Water (West) represents luvemba, the period of death that takes place during winter

In traditional Bambara spirituality, the Supreme God created four additional essences of himself during creation. Together, these five essences of the deity correlate with the five classical elements.{{Cite book |last=Lugira |first=Aloysius Muzzanganda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S79wsrvX_-MC&q=Ndomadyiri |title=African Traditional Religion |date=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-2047-8 |pages=39 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Bambara Religion {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bambara-religion |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}

• Koni is the thought and void (aether).
• Bemba (also called Pemba) is the god of the sky and air.
• Nyale (also called Koroni Koundyé) is the goddess of fire.
• Faro is the androgynous god of water.
• Ndomadyiri is the god and master of the earth.

File:Vitriol.png

{{anchor|Elements in Medieval alchemy}}

The elemental system used in medieval alchemy was developed primarily by the anonymous authors of the Arabic works attributed to Pseudo Apollonius of Tyana.{{sfnp|Norris|2006|pp=43–65}} This system consisted of the four classical elements of air, earth, fire, and water, in addition to a new theory called the sulphur-mercury theory of metals, which was based on two elements: sulphur, characterizing the principle of combustibility, "the stone which burns"; and mercury, characterizing the principle of metallic properties. They were seen by early alchemists as idealized expressions of irreducible components of the universe{{Cite book |last=Clulee |first=Nicholas H. |title=John Dee's Natural Philosophy |publisher=Routledge |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-415-00625-5 |pages=97}} and are of larger consideration within philosophical alchemy.

The three metallic principles—sulphur to flammability or combustion, mercury to volatility and stability, and salt to solidity—became the tria prima of the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. He reasoned that Aristotle's four element theory appeared in bodies as three principles. Paracelsus saw these principles as fundamental and justified them by recourse to the description of how wood burns in fire. Mercury included the cohesive principle, so that when it left in smoke the wood fell apart. Smoke described the volatility (the mercurial principle), the heat-giving flames described flammability (sulphur), and the remnant ash described solidity (salt).{{sfnp|Strathern|2001|p=79}}

{{Main|Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)}}

Chinese traditional concepts adopt a set of elements called the {{lang|zh|五行}} (wuxing, literally "five planets"). These five are Metal or Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth or Soil.Theobald, Ulrich (2011) [http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Diverse/yinyangwuxing.html "Yin-Yang and Five Agents Theory, Correlative Thinking"] in ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art These can be linked to Taiji, Yinyang, Four Symbols, Bagua, Hexagram and I Ching.

• Gold (West) represents the lesser yin symbol, autumn, the white color, and White Tiger mascot, Taotie creature (Earth).
• Wood (East) represents the lesser yang symbol, spring, the green color, and Azure Dragon mascot, Feilian creature (Wind).
• Water (North) represents the great yin symbol, winter, the black color, and Black Turtle-Snake mascot.
• Fire (South) represents the great yang symbol, summer, the red color, and Vermilion Bird mascot.
• Soil (Center) represents the Qi symbol, intermediate season, the yellow color, and Yellow Dragon mascot, Hundun creature (Void).

{{anchor|Japanese elements}}

{{Main|Godai (Japanese philosophy)}}

Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the {{lang|ja|五大}} (godai, literally "five great"). These five are earth, water, fire, wind/air, and void. These came from Indian Vastu shastra philosophy and Buddhist beliefs; in addition, the classical Chinese elements ({{lang|ja|五行}}, wu xing) are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the medieval Edo period.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-22 |title=Encountering the '5 elements' in Japan's national parks |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/paid-content-encountering-the-five-elements-in-japans-national-parks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223012427/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/paid-content-encountering-the-five-elements-in-japans-national-parks |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 February 2022 |access-date=2023-05-07 |website=Travel |language=en}}

• Earth represented rocks and stability.
• Water represented fluidity and adaptability.
• Fire represented life and energy.
• Wind represented movement and expansion.
• Void or Sky/Heaven represented spirit and creative energy.

The Islamic philosophers al-Kindi, Avicenna and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi followed Aristotle in connecting the four elements with the four natures heat and cold (the active force), and dryness and moisture (the recipients).{{Cite journal |last=Rafati |first=Vahid |title=Lawh-i-Hikmat: The Two Agents and the Two Patients |url=http://bahai-library.com/rafati_hikmat_agents_patients |journal='Andalib |volume=5 |pages=29–38 |number=19}}

The medicine wheel symbol is a modern invention attributed to Native American peoples dating to approximately 1972, with the following descriptions and associations being a later addition. The associations with the classical elements are not grounded in traditional Indigenous teachings and the symbol has not been adopted by all Indigenous American nations.{{cite magazine |last=Shaw |first=Christopher |date=August 1995 |title=A Theft of Spirit? |url=https://thetrackingproject.org/a-theft-of-spirit/ |magazine=New Age Journal |location= |publisher= |access-date=28 April 2021}}{{cite web |last1=Thomason |first1=Timothy C |title=The Medicine Wheel as a Symbol of Native American Psychology |url=https://www.jungpage.org/learn/articles/culture-and-psyche/908-the-medicine-wheel-as-a-symbol-of-native-american-psychology |website=The Jung Page |publisher=The Jung Center of Houston |access-date=28 April 2021 |date=27 October 2013}}{{cite web |last1=Chavers |first1=Dean |title=5 Fake Indians: Checking a Box Doesn't Make You Native |url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/5-fake-indians-checking-a-box-doesnt-make-you-native |website=Indian Country Today |access-date=28 April 2021 |date=15 October 2014}}{{cite web |last1=Beyer |first1=Steve |title=Selling Spirituality |url=https://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/selling-spirituality/ |website=Singing to the Plants |access-date=28 April 2021 |date=3 February 2008}}{{cite book |last1=Bear Nicholas |first1=Andrea |editor1-last=Hulan |editor1-first=Renée |editor2-last=Eigenbrod |editor2-first=Renate |title=Aboriginal Oral Traditions: Theory, Practice, Ethics |date=April 2008 |publisher=Fernwood Pub Co Ltd |location=Halifax, NS |isbn=9781552662670 |pages=7–43 |chapter=The Assault on Aboriginal Oral Traditions: Past and Present}}

• Earth (South) represents the youth cycle, summer, the Indigenous race, and cedar medicine.
• Fire (East) represents the birth cycle, spring, the Asian race, and tobacco medicine.
• Wind/Air (North) represents the elder cycle, winter, the European race, and sweetgrass medicine.
• Water (West) represents the adulthood cycle, autumn, the African race, and sage medicine.

{{anchor|Modern elements}}

File:Artus Wolffort - The Four Elements.jpg, The Four Elements, before 1641]]

{{See also|Chemical element#History}}

The Aristotelian tradition and medieval alchemy eventually gave rise to modern chemistry, scientific theories and new taxonomies. By the time of Antoine Lavoisier, for example, a list of elements would no longer refer to classical elements.{{Cite book |last=Lavoisier |first=Antoine |url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/index.html |title=Classic Chemistry |editor-last=Giunta |editor-first=Carmen |chapter=Elements of Chemistry |chapter-url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/lavtable.html}} Some modern scientists see a parallel between the classical elements and the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas and weakly ionized plasma.{{Citation |last=Kikuchi |first=Mitsuru |title=Frontiers in Fusion Research: Physics and Fusion |page=12 |year=2011 |place=London |publisher=Springer Science and Business Media |isbn=978-1-84996-411-1 |quote=Empedocles (495–435 BC) proposed that the world was made of earth, water, air, and fire, which may correspond to solid, liquid, gas, and weakly ionized plasma. Surprisingly, this idea may catch the essence.}}

Modern science recognizes classes of elementary particles which have no substructure (or rather, particles that are not made of other particles) and composite particles having substructure (particles made of other particles).

{{anchor|Elements in western astrology and tarot}}

{{Main|Astrology and the classical elements}}

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Western astrology uses the four classical elements in connection with astrological charts and horoscopes. The twelve signs of the zodiac are divided into the four elements: Fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, Air signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, and Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.{{sfnp|Tester|1999|pp=59–61, 94}}

The Dutch historian of science Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis writes that the theory of the classical elements "was bound to exercise a really harmful influence. As is now clear, Aristotle, by adopting this theory as the basis of his interpretation of nature and by never losing faith in it, took a course which promised few opportunities and many dangers for science."{{sfnp|Dijksterhuis|1969|p=71}} Bertrand Russell says that Aristotle's thinking became imbued with almost biblical authority in later centuries. So much so that "Ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century, almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine".{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=173}}

{{portal|border=no|History of science}}

• {{annotated link|Arche}}
• {{annotated link|Bagua}}
• {{annotated link|Elemental}}
• {{section link|Jabir ibn Hayyan#The sulfur–mercury theory of metals}} – Early Islamic alchemy
• {{annotated link|Periodic table}}
• {{annotated link|Phlogiston theory}}
• {{annotated link|Prima materia}}
• {{annotated link|Qi}}
• {{annotated link|States of Matter}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite SEP |title=Presocratic Philosophy |url-id=presocratics |last=Curd |first=Patricia |edition=Fall 2020 |ref={{harvid|Curd|2020}}}}
• {{Cite book |last=Dijksterhuis |first=Eduard Jan |title=The Mechanization of the World Picture |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1969 |location=Princeton, NJ |translator-last=Dikshoorn |translator-first=C. |author-link=Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis}}
• {{Cite book |last=Lloyd |first=G. E. R. |url=https://archive.org/details/aristotlegrowths0000lloy |title=Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of his Thought |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-521-09456-6 |location=Cambridge |author-link=G. E. R. Lloyd |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Norris |first=John A. |year=2006 |title=The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science |journal=Ambix |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=43–65 |doi=10.1179/174582306X93183 |s2cid=97109455}}
• {{cite web |year=2020 |first=Kelley L. |last=Ross |title=The Greek Elements |url=https://www.friesian.com/elements.htm |access-date=2023-03-02}}
• {{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Bertrand |title=History of Western Philosophy |publisher=Routledge |year=1991 |isbn=0-415-07854-7 |edition=2nd |location=London |oclc=221108071 |author-link=Bertrand Russell}}
• {{Cite book |last=Strathern |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qCzoF9sjTkAC |title=Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements |date=21 April 2001 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-26204-4}}
• {{Cite book |last=Tester |first=S. J. |title=A History of Western Astrology |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=1999}}

{{Refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Classical elements}}
• [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/khin/wheel231.html Section on 4 elements in Buddhism]

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