Compiler's Note: In a previous version of this article, we spent a great deal of text going over various elemental models that we weren't investigating and burying the lead, which is counter to the purpose of this article series. We apologize to anyone who read through that absolute mess.
THE ELEMENTS
Taking our first significant step into the abstract world of magical cosmology, we have opted to start at the ground level of material phenomenology. This subject should be something familiar to all readers: the four elements.
The four elements are an omnipresent motif in modern media. Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire serve as such a long-standing framework thematically that their use often degenerates into cliche. Whether the four elements are utilized with low conceptual resolution (Final Fantasy I) or with great care and attention (Avatar: The Last Airbender), many storytellers and game developers have found the model useful.
Despite the widespread and long-standing implementation of the four elements as an organizing model in fiction, our research has led us to regard this implementation as largely shallow, lacking in some of the model's most crucial features. Here, we want to demystify the four elements and maximize their potential as a tool for other writers.
THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS
The four elements naturally map onto the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.
EARTH/SOLIDS
Solids are typically opaque, dense, and heavier than the liquids or gases around them. The first point of reference for solids is the ground at their feet. On top of that, solid, opaque things were heavy and would fall down to other material of its kind. Therefore, nearly all solids were understood as earth or stone.
WATER/LIQUIDS
All liquids flow over, down, and into the earth, seeking the lowest point. The first and most essential liquid is water. Therefore, all liquid behavior is framed by water. All liquids, regardless of their actual water content, can be categorized as a variety of water.
AIR/GAS
Gasses are thin and typically transparent to the point of invisibility. They are primarily perceived through physical contact: a gust of wind, a foul smell, a burning of the eyes. Visible gasses like steam, fog, or mustard gas flow up into the atmosphere, and even the dense gases coalesce over earth and water, resting above the lower elements. The most ergonomic way for the ancient man to summarize the entire gas phenomenon was by analogy of the air in his lungs.
FIRE/PLASMA
Controlled human interaction through ionizing, light-producing processes has been limited throughout our history to fire. It was the only means by which we could produce our own light, and our most significant light source was the sun, which burned our skin and heated the world. Naturally, we connected all light production to some variety of fire, as the fire was the only light source we could regularly and tangibly interact with. We also observed that flames rise upwards as though reaching for the lights in the heavens, which themselves appear to float upon the air.
The above descriptions seem straightforward enough, and in many works, they utilize most of these features to inform character, culture, and design. What are we on about when we say most models ignore one of the model's most crucial features?
ELEMENTAL VERTICALITY
The four elements describe a vertical hierarchy of superior-to-inferior elements.
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| (Diagram shamelessly copied from The Language of Creation) |
We did not understand this until we read The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis by Matthieu Pageau. Pageau's book uses diagrams to describe the structure of biblical narratives and images and developed this model from Genesis 1, which represents the physical placement of the elements in the universe based on opacity and density.
Once we read this, we recognized the same model described in the Corpus Hermeticum, the body of Neo-Platonic texts that form the basis of the philosophy of Hermeticism, which in turn informed European alchemical and magical tradition. From the second book of the Corpus Hermeticum, Poemander, verses 6-7:
6. Then from that Light, a certain Holy Word joined itself unto
Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist
Nature upward on high; it is exceeding Light, and Sharp, and
Operative withal. And the Air which was also light, followed the Spirit
and mounted up to Fire (from the Earth and the Water) insomuch
that it seemed to hang and depend upon it.7. And the Earth and the Water stayed by themselves so mingled
together, that the Earth could not be seen for the Water, but they
were moved, because of the Spiritual Word that was carried upon
them.
and 16-17:
16. And the Circulation or running round of these, as the Mind
willeth, out of the lower or downward-born Elements brought forth
unreasonable or brutish creatures, for they had no reason, the Air
flying things, and the Water such as swim.17. And the Earth and the Water was separated, either from the other,
as the Mind would: and the Earth brought forth from herself such
Living Creatures as she had, four-footed and creeping Beasts, wild
and tame.
Anecdotally, this compiler has run into this model repeatedly in these texts, and the assumptions that come with this model are clear as day when one digs into magical tradition.
We'll refer to this model hereafter as the Hierarchy of Elements.
THE HIERARCHY OF ELEMENTS
Hierarchy? In my Cosmos?
We recognize why this feature has been under-utilized, as vertical hierarchies are tricky and often unfashionable. Many audiences would read "the superiority of fire" as a moral or value statement rather than a description of its normative spatial position. Why, if the Fire Nation in Avatar: The Last Airbender was given a model of the world that placed their inherited element closer to the stars, there'd be no convincing any of them they weren't rightful rulers of the world!
We recognize that Avatar's political and cultural considerations are not well-suited for this dimension of the four elements. However, Avatar is not the only story that can be told (or re-told) using these devices. Understanding the hierarchical nature of elemental phenomenology is essential to making an informed decision on whether to cut or incorporate. Regardless of your decision as a writer, it will most certainly be a decision after reading this.
Okay, so Hierarchy
This vertical hierarchy operates along the axes of density, opacity, animation, abstraction, and complexity, which are reinforced by the ancient notion of "like-attracts-like" (which can be directly observed as noted in the phenomenology of the states of matter).
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| (Diagram shamelessly refined from The Language of Creation) |
EARTH
Earth is the densest material, composing the lowest point of our phenomenological reality. Earth falls to earth. Earth is opaque, too complicated for us to see through. Earth is the least animate and most feminine (generative) of the elements, passively generating stone, metal, and plant life. All other elements rest atop the earth.
WATER
Earth is less dense than earth but denser than air. Water flows together down to the lowest point it can reach. Water can be opaque, translucent, or transparent and possesses an opacity gradient at depth. Water is more animate than earth but less animate than air. Water acts upon earth, changing it to mud, facilitating chemical reactions, and instructing the plant seed to grow. Water is active on earth but passively conforms to the earth's shape where unchanged, and is brought to animation by the shaping of the wind which whips it into waves.
AIR
Lighter than water but denser than fire, air moves as if under its own accord. When it flows into a container (earth), it does not occupy the lowest point but instead the whole of the shape. When released, it escapes the earth and out of any liquid, up into the sky and out in all directions. It is usually transparent, more typically invisible, and far less complicated than earth or water. Air blasts stone and whips water but is compelled to move this way and that by the heat of fire.
FIRE
Fire is the lightest of the elements, the tongues of its flames not shooting outward into the atmosphere but reaching up to the celestial fires of the sun, moon, and stars. The inverse of opacity is not transparency, but the production of light and fire reveals and clarifies what is shrouded in darkness. Fire converts the complicated unknown into the simple known. Fire dances and imparts its animation to the other elements, changing the composition of earth, boiling water, and warming the air. Fire is the most masculine (shaping) element, forcing change onto the other elements, especially to the ends of an active human will.
AETHER, THE FIFTH ELEMENT
The fifth element, aether, can be summarized as the principle of animation. The exact meaning of "animation" will be explored in its dedicated article, in conjunction with individual articles on earth, water, air, and fire (articles forthcoming).
VERTICAL SCARCITY
If Wikipedia is anything to go by, then yes! At the time of this writing, the verticality of the elements featured nowhere in the classical elements* article, which instead focuses on the interpretations of Aristotle and Proclus. While these are reasonably simple to understand, they don't translate well to a broader understanding of ancient cosmology, which was influenced heavily by the verticality of observed phenomena.
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| The Aristotelian Model |
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| The Proclean Model |
The dryness and relative temperature of the elements can have value in your narratives if that's how you choose to parse them. Still, the model needs to translate to an easily observed cosmic structure. This is how you get weird things like the plane maps from Dungeons and Dragons.
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| Unsure which sourcebook this map is from. |
How do we read the orientation of the elemental planes? Is fire closer to the lower planes than the upper planes? Are they coequal with the material plane? What governs these choices of presentation? Without clear guiding principles, the subject is easily confused.
*While Wikipedia is far from an ideal source, it's suitable for broad strokes and can be used as a rough gauge of public knowledge on (uncontroversial) subjects. The fact that the vertical hierarchy needs to be included in this article speaks to the ignorance of the subject on the part of Wikipedia editors and, by extension, the public.
VERTICAL VALUE
Okay, So What?
The vertical hierarchy of the elements is missing from our media, so what? Other than some thematic features that a few authors might exploit, there only appears to be direct application outside the elements themselves.
This might be the case where the elements themselves are descriptions of the normative phenomena in the universe. When ancient peoples witnessed things that violated this simple model, what they perceived was not a failure of the model to describe the universe but instead an instance that transcended the model. In other words, they were looking upon something divine.
Transcendence of Boundaries and Magical Substances
One of the most important advantages of the hierarchical model is that it places the normative states of matter on a ladder that scales from concrete at the bottom to abstract at the top. Materials transcending these boundaries therefore bridge the concrete and abstract, allowing room for idea to become instance, and for instance to touch platonic ideal. These substances and devices that cross boundaries are a vector for magical action, allowing you to start from the four elements and into more derived materials as vectors for magical action. Quicksilver is celestial for its metallic qualities but behaves as a simultaneous manifestation of earth and water, the passive elements of generation. Sulfur is a stone that burns brilliantly and produces a powerful fumigant, revealing itself as a simultaneous manifestation of fire and air, the shaping elements.
We can even find magic in seemingly mundane substances, like pumice!
Magical Pumice
Pumice is a volcanic orthoclase feldspar that is lightweight, porous, and full of gas cavities. As a result of its low density, pumice can float on water. The properties of density and buoyancy are well understood today and were understood well enough in the ancient world that they could sail the seas. However, not everyone had ready access to this material, and the idea of a stone that floated upon the water unassisted violated the very definition of stone! This categorical disconnect led to the mystification of the material and fabulous stories of willful stones that floated upon the sea at night and hid themselves from the sun by diving into the depths during the day (a sort of story that would later be conflated with pearls).
This "willful stone" that acted on its own desires by floating was imbued with magical powers and, in the romantic tales of Alexander the Great, was one of many mystical stones the young conqueror was said to have used. Under the name "eldor," these stones were attached to the harnesses of his men's horses, enabling them to ambush their enemies in the Land of Darkness.
If this one little deviation from normative phenomenology can spiral into sentient stones and magical powers, you have a framework that creates windows for magic constantly! The elements stop being boxes that you have to write within or bones you have to work off of, but a toolset that can bring to any instance to reinterpret mundane material into an opportunity for dramatic action!
TAKEAWAY
The hierarchy of elements not only serves as an organizing principle of cosmology but also as a valuable tool for the reinterpretation of all matter. They are as grand as the fixed structure of the cosmos and as versatile as any tool you carry in hand. The model is dynamic and naturalistic and leaves plenty of room for writers to refocus, reframe, and reinvent old relationships.
Our future articles on the elements will explore the numerous ideas tied to the individual elements and the creative possibilities to be found there, and articles on transcendent materials are likewise forthcoming.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wikipedia
“Classical Element.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 May 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element.
Texts
Lecouteux, C. (2012). E: Eldor. In A lapidary of sacred stones: Their magical and medicinal powers based on the earliest sources (p. 137). essay, Inner Traditions.
Pageau, Matthieu. “Chapter 11.” The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis: A Commentary, Manufacturer Not Identified, Columbia, SC, 2018, p. 40.
Trismegistus, Hermes. “Book II Poemander by Hermes Trismegistus.” Magick Books Library, https://darkbooks.org/pp.php?v=1018287740.
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