The four elements (1)

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Beneath the lowest planetary sphere, that of the moon, the zones of the elements are placed in tiers: the zones of fire, air, water and earth. To these four principles, as well as to the constellations, the Greeks gave the name stoicheia, and the Chaldeans already worshipped the one as well as the other. The influence of Oriental religions, like that of Stoic cosmology, spread throughout the West the worship of these four bodies, believed to be elements, whose infinite variety of combinations gave rise to all perceptible phenomena. In the mysteries of Mithra, a group of figures was frequently reproduced, in which a lion represented fire, a bowl water, and a serpent the earth symbolized the strife of these gods, at the same time kindly and hostile, which constantly devoured each other, and whose perpetual opposition and transmutation brought about all the changes of nature. By the end of the pagan period, the divinity of these physical agents was a religious principle accepted by all heathendom. These elements were not only deified: they were themselves haunted by formidable powers; especially the zone of air, which envelops the earth, was the chosen home of demons, kindly or malignant beings, who occupied the middle space and served as intermediaries between gods and men, superior to the latter, inferior to the former.

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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