The Elements (western)
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The Alchemical Elements
The four elements from which everything else is composed are (in western alchemy) Fire, Water, Air and Earth.
These have many correspondances with many different occult systems.
Additionally some systems use Quintessence, the fifth essence described by Plato, similar to Akasa. It is basically Spirit or Consciousness. John Dee called it Spirit and described it as the force which both unites and keeps seperate the other four elements.
The Elements
Only a brief description is given here and the alchemical symbol. For more details see the specific page for that element.
| Image:El f.png | Fire | The first element. Forces of creation and inspiration. |
| Image:El w.png | Water | The second element. Forces of change and mutation, intuition and imagination. |
| Image:El a.png | Air | The third element. Forces of reason, communication and division. |
| Image:El e.png | Earth | The fourth element. Forces of solidity and practicality. |
| Image:El s.png | Spirit | Not always included. The force which both unites and seperates the other elements. |
Correspondences
Tarot Suits
It is interesting to note that the attributions of the "passive" elements are almost always the same, while the attributions of the "active" elements are controversial. The tradition that has swords as fire is somewhat associated with the tarot de marsaille and the french tarot tradition.
There are other decks with ideosyncratic attributions for the elements, but these are rarely used because everyone is acustomed to the traditional ones.
One Example would be the spanish tarot tradition, which has:
Decks implementing this are the Tarot Gran Esoterico, The Tarot Balbi and the Crystal Tarot. While the first two stem from spanish creators and were done mid 20th century, the Crystal Tarot is a modern art deck that was vaguely modelled after them for the sake of novelty.
Some authors see the Royalty Cards as having a special relationships to the elements. The following is the most usual attribution system:
Combined with the elemental attributions of the suits, that makes for interesting possibilities of interpretation. See the Royalty Cards article for details.
Genders
Don't take the gender mapping too far, it can confuse and upset people, or seem sexist. They are just symbols.
The Four Worlds
The four worlds of the Tree of Life are also related to the elements:
