Elements

The classical elements (most familiarly earth, water, air and fire), are the basic qualities into which many traditions sort the material world. The four-element scheme runs from the pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles through Aristotle, who paired them with the qualities hot, cold, wet and dry, into medieval medicine, alchemy, astrology and magic. A fifth, the quintessence or aether, was often added as the heavenly element.

The elements are among the most productive of all the correspondence schemes: signs, temperaments, humours, directions, seasons and much else are sorted under the four, so that the elements become a common language linking many systems.

Other traditions divide differently, the Indian and Buddhist systems count five great elements, adding ether or space, and each scheme carries a distinct logic of how the world's basic constituents relate, not merely a different count. This category presents both the Western elements and the Chinese wu xing, the five phases (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), each entry labelled with the system it belongs to so the two are not confused.

The atlas gives each element its qualities and its correspondences. The Japanese godai and the Indian tattvas are treated in their own categories, within Eastern Systems and the body section.