Reference · Elements
The four elements
Fire, Earth, Water and Air each combine two of four qualities and share one quality with their neighbours. Tarot suits, zodiacal triplicities, the three Mother letters, alchemical texts and the Golden Dawn's four weapons all use this elemental vocabulary.
What the books say they are
There are four Elements, and originall grounds of all corporeall things, Fire, Earth, Water, Aire, of which all elementated inferiour bodies are compounded; not by way of heaping them up together, but by transmutation, and union; and when they are destroyed, they are resolved into Elements.
In plain English Agrippa opens on four elements as the grounds of every bodily thing, and insists they are not a heap of four ingredients: a compound is a transmutation and a union, and when it comes apart it comes apart into elements again. No element a reader can point at is pure.
Agrippa describes a compound body not as four ingredients stacked together, but as their transmutation and union; no material body is a pure element. The same doctrine can therefore describe a stone, a planet or a temperament without claiming that any is literally on fire.
There are then, as we have said, four Elements, without the perfect knowledge whereof we can effect nothing in Magick.
In plain English The claim that makes the elements a practical subject rather than a cosmological one: Agrippa says the work cannot be done without knowing them.
Two qualities each, and what that explains
Now, every one of the Elements hath two specificall qualities, the former whereof it retains as proper to it self, in the other, as a mean, it agrees with that which comes next after it. For Fire is hot and dry, the Earth dry and cold, the Water cold and moist, the Aire moist and hot. And so after this manner the Elements, according to two contrary qualities, are contrary one to the other, as Fire to Water, and Earth to Aire.
In plain English Each element holds two qualities: one its own, one shared with the element next to it. Fire is hot and dry, Earth dry and cold, Water cold and moist, Air moist and hot. That shared quality is what lets one turn into another, and the two that share nothing are the two that are contrary — Fire against Water, Earth against Air.
Each element has two qualities and shares one with each neighbouring element, which explains how one changes into another: heat evaporates water into air, while cooling condenses it. Elements that share no quality are contrary. Aristotle sets out the pairs at 330a30, and Agrippa restates them nineteen centuries later.
| Element | Sigil | Qualities | Contrary to | Shares with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Dry and Hot | Water | Earth (Dry) Air (Hot) | |
| Earth | Cold and Dry | Air | Fire (Dry) Water (Cold) | |
| Water | Cold and Moist | Fire | Earth (Cold) Air (Moist) | |
| Air | Hot and Moist | Earth | Fire (Hot) Water (Moist) |
The table derives the pairings from those qualities. Fire and Water share none and are contrary; Earth and Air are contrary for the same reason. The remaining pairs share one quality each.
Elemental fire is not the fire in a grate
Of the first Order are the pure Elements, which are neither compounded nor changed, nor admit of mixtion, but are incorruptible, and not of which, but through which the vertues of all naturall things are brought forth into act.
In plain English Agrippa divides each element in three, and the first order is the pure element — not a thing anything is made OF but a thing virtue comes THROUGH. It is the distinction that keeps elemental fire from being the fire in a grate.
Agrippa divides each element into three orders. The first is the pure element: material bodies are not made directly from it, but it brings elemental qualities into action. Elemental Fire in a tarot suit or grade ritual refers to this order rather than to ordinary flame.
Active and passive
There are two things (saith Hermes) viz. Fire and Earth, which are sufficient for the operation of all wonderfull things: the former is active, the latter passive.
In plain English Quoting Hermes, Agrippa reduces the four to a working pair: Fire acts and Earth is acted upon. This is the root of the active/passive division the later orders put on the wand and cup against the dagger and pentacle.
Quoting Hermes, Agrippa reduces the four to a working pair: Fire acts, Earth is acted upon. He does not extend the division to Water and Air in that sentence, so neither does this page. The Golden Dawn later put the same division on its weapons, giving the wand and cup one hand and the dagger and pentacle the other.
Each of the four
Each element's page gathers its two qualities and contrary, its Mother letter where applicable, its zodiacal signs, tarot cards and Golden Dawn weapon. The individual entries link to their sources.