expressing your truth blog: Elements in Different Systems

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Elements in Different Systems

	DYT		Seasons	Astrology	Tarot	Feng Shui	Humors
Air	1	round	Spring	Triangular mental	Swords Winter	-	Sanguine	balanced
Water	2	tearshape	Summer	Round emotional	Cups Summer	Round	Phelgmatic	Round
Fire	3	triangle	Fall	Square physical	Wands Spring	Triangle	Choleric	Triangle
Earth	4	oval	Winter	Oblong practical	Pentacles Autumn	Square	Melancholic	Square
Wood	-	-	-	-	-	Long	-	-
Metal	-	-	-	-	-	Oval	-	-

Wood might equal Air and Metal might equal Aether.

The Golden Dawn's Elemental/Directional Correspondences

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn codified some of these correspondences in the 19th century. Most notable here are the cardinal directions. The Golden Dawn originated in England, and the directional/elemental correspondences reflect a European perspective. To the south are the warmer climates, and thus is associated with fire. The Atlantic ocean lies to the west. The north is cold and formidable, a land of earth but sometimes not a lot else. Occultists practicing in America or elsewhere sometimes do not find these correspondences to work.
http://altreligion.about.com/od/westernocculttradition/ig/Elemental-Symbols/Elemental-Correspondences.htm

WHEREAS:

season	element	humour	body fluid	location
Spring	air	sanguine	blood	heart
Summer	fire	choleric	"yellow bile"	liver
Autumn	earth	melancholic	"black bile"	spleen
Winter	water	phlegmatic	phlegm	(various)

http://www.kheper.net/topics/cosmology/elements.html

Element	Suit	Quarter	Astrological	Elementals
Earth is YIN	pentacles	north	Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn	Gnomes, Leprechauns, Elves, Brownies
Water is YIN	cups	west	Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces	Nymphs, Tritons, Mermaids,Undine, Sirens
Fire is YANG	wands	south	Aries, Leo and Sagittarius	Salamander, jin (genies)
Air is YANG	swords	east	Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius	Sylph, Faeries, Storm Angels

Four Elements vs. Five
In classical thought, the four elements Earth, Water, Air, and Fire frequently occur; sometimes including a fifth element or quintessence (after "quint" meaning "fifth") called Aether in ancient Greece and India. The concept of the five elements formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduismand Buddhism. In Hinduism, particularly in an esoteric context, the four states-of-matter describe matter, and a fifth element describes that which was beyond the material world. Similar lists existed in ancient China and Japan.

According to Aristotle in his On Generation and Corruption:

Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot.
Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry.
Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold.
Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet.

According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), blood (air), and phlegm (water).

The Chinese had a somewhat different series of elements, namely Fire, Earth, Water, Metal and Wood, which were understood as different types of energy in a state of constant interaction and flux with one another, rather than the Western notion of different kinds of material.

In Taoism there is a similar system of elements, which includes metal and wood, but excludes air, which is replaced with qi, which is a force or energy rather than an element. In Chinese philosophy the universe consists of heaven and earth, heaven being made of qi and earth being made of the five elements (in the Chinese view, the attributes and properties of the Western and Indian Air element are equivalent to that of Wood^{[citation needed]}, where the element of Ether is often seen as a correspondent to Metal^{[citation needed]}).

The five major planetsare associated with and named after the elements: Venus 金星 is Metal (金), Jupiter 木星 is Wood (木), Mercury 水星 is Water (水), Mars 火星 is Fire (火), and Saturn 土星 is Earth (土). Additionally, the Moon represents Yin (陰), and the Sun 太陽 represents Yang (陽). Yin, Yang, and the five elements are recurring themes in the I Ching, the oldest of Chinese classical texts which describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy. The five elements also play an important part in Chinese astrology and the Chinese form of geomancy known asFeng shui

Japanese elements

Main article: Five elements (Japanese philosophy)

Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the 五大 (go dai, literally "five great"). These five are earth, water, fire, wind/air, and void. These came from Buddhist beliefs; the classical Chinese elements (五行, go gyô) are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the Edo period.