Air is one of the four classical elements along with

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

and

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

in ancient Greek philosophy and in Western alchemy.

Greek and Roman tradition

According to

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, it is associated with the

octahedron In geometry, an octahedron (plural: octahedra, octahedrons) is a polyhedron with eight faces. The term is most commonly used to refer to the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at ea ...

; air is considered to be both hot and wet. The ancient Greeks used two words for air: ''aer'' meant the dim lower atmosphere, and '' aether'' meant the bright upper atmosphere above the clouds.

, for instance writes that "So it is with air: there is the brightest variety which we call ''aether'', the muddiest which we call mist and darkness, and other kinds for which we have no name...." Among the early Greek Pre-Socratic philosophers, Anaximenes (mid-6th century BCE) named air as the ''

arche ''Arche'' (; grc, ἀρχή; sometimes also transcribed as ''arkhé'') is a Greek word with primary senses "beginning", "origin" or "source of action" (: from the beginning, οr : the original argument), and later "first principle" or "element". ...

''. A similar belief was attributed by some ancient sources to Diogenes Apolloniates (late 5th century BCE), who also linked air with intelligence and soul (''psyche''), but other sources claim that his ''arche'' was a substance between air and fire.

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...

parodied such teachings in his play ''

The Clouds ''The Clouds'' ( grc, Νεφέλαι ''Nephelai'') is a Greek comedy play written by the playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423BC and was not ...

'' by putting a prayer to air in the mouth of

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

. Air was one of many ''archai'' proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom tried to reduce all things to a single substance. However, Empedocles of Acragas (c. 495-c. 435 BCE) selected four ''archai'' for his four roots: air, fire, water, and earth. Ancient and modern opinions differ as to whether he identified air by the divine name Hera,

Aidoneus Aidoneus (Ancient Greek: ) was a mythical king of the Molossians in Epirus, who is represented as the husband of Persephone. After Theseus, with the assistance of Pirithous, concealed Helen at Aphidnae, he went to Epirus to procure for Pirithous ...

or even

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

. Empedocles’ roots became the four classical elements of Greek philosophy.

(427–347 BCE) took over the four elements of Empedocles. In the ''

Timaeus Timaeus (or Timaios) is a Greek name. It may refer to: * ''Timaeus'' (dialogue), a Socratic dialogue by Plato *Timaeus of Locri, 5th-century BC Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue *Timaeus (historian) (c. 345 BC-c. 250 BC), Greek ...

'', his major cosmological dialogue, the Platonic solid associated with air is the

which is formed from eight equilateral triangles. This places air between fire and water which Plato regarded as appropriate because it is intermediate in its mobility, sharpness, and ability to penetrate. He also said of air that its minuscule components are so smooth that one can barely feel them. Plato's student

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

(384–322 BCE) developed a different explanation for the elements based on pairs of qualities. The four elements were arranged concentrically around the center of the universe to form the

sublunary sphere In Aristotelian physics and Greek astronomy, the sublunary sphere is the region of the geocentric cosmos below the Moon, consisting of the four classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire. The sublunary sphere was the realm of changing nature. ...

. According to Aristotle, air is both hot and wet and occupies a place between fire and water among the elemental spheres. Aristotle definitively separated air from aether. For him, aether was an unchanging, almost divine substance that was found only in the heavens, where it formed

celestial spheres The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and others. In these celestial models, the apparent motions of the fixed stars ...

Humorism and temperaments

In ancient Greek medicine, each of the

four humours Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...

became associated with an element.

Blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...

was the humor identified with air, since both were hot and wet. Other things associated with air and blood in ancient and medieval medicine included the season of spring, since it increased the qualities of heat and moisture; the sanguine temperament (of a person dominated by the blood humour); hermaphrodite (combining the masculine quality of heat with the feminine quality of moisture); and the northern point of the compass.

Alchemy

The

alchemical symbol Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this pag ...

for air is an upward-pointing triangle, bisected by a horizontal line.

Modern reception

The

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( la, Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th ...

, founded in 1888, incorporates air and the other Greek classical elements into its teachings. The elemental weapon of air is the dagger which must be painted yellow with magical names and sigils written upon it in violet. Each of the elements has several associated spiritual beings. The archangel of air is

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

, the angel is Chassan, the ruler is Aral, the king is Paralda, and the air

elemental An elemental is a mythic being that is described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsus and his subsequent fo ...

s (following Paracelsus) are called sylphs. Air is considerable and it is referred to the upper left point of the pentagram in the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. Many of these associations have since spread throughout the occult community. In the Golden Dawn and many other magical systems, each element is associated with one of the cardinal points and is placed under the care of guardian Watchtowers. The Watchtowers derive from the Enochian system of magic founded by Dee. In the Golden Dawn, they are represented by the Enochian elemental tablets. Air is associated with the east, which is guarded by the First Watchtower. Air is one of the five elements that appear in most

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and w ...

n and Pagan traditions.

in particular was influenced by the Golden Dawn system of magic and

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

's mysticism.

Parallels in non-Western traditions

Air is not one of the traditional five Chinese classical elements. Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese concept of '' Qi'' or ''chi'' is believed to be close to that of air. ''Qi'' is believed to be part of every living thing that exists, as a kind of " life force" or "

spiritual energy Proponents and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine refer to a variety of claimed experiences and phenomena as being due to "energy" or "force" that defy measurement and thus are distinguished from t ...

". It is frequently translated as "energy flow", or literally as "air" or "breath". (For example, ''tiānqì'', literally "sky breath", is the Chinese word for "

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmos ...

"). The concept of qi is often reified, however no scientific evidence supports its existence. The element air also appears as a concept in the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

philosophy which has an ancient history in China. Some Western modern occultists equate the Chinese classical element of

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

with ''air'', others with

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

due to the elemental association of wind and wood in the

bagua The bagua or pakua (八卦) are a set of eight symbols that originated in China, used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each li ...

. Enlil was the god of air in ancient Sumer. Shu was the ancient Egyptian deity of air and the husband of

Tefnut Tefnut ( egy, ; cop, ⲧϥⲏⲛⲉ ) is a deity of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion.The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, George Hart She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the ...

, goddess of moisture. He became an emblem of strength by virtue of his role in separating Nut from

Geb Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to ...

. Shu played a primary role in the Coffin Texts, which were spells intended to help the deceased reach the realm of the afterlife safely. On the way to the sky, the spirit had to travel through the air as one spell indicates: "I have gone up in Shu, I have climbed on the sunbeams."Bob Brier, ''Ancient Egyptian Magic'', p.128.

Notes

References

* Barnes, Jonathan. ''Early Greek Philosophy''. London: Penguin, 1987. * Brier, Bob. ''Ancient Egyptian Magic''. New York: Quill, 1980. * Guthrie, W. K. C. ''A History of Greek Philosophy''. 6 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962–81. * Hutton, Ronald. ''Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001. * Kraig, Donald Michael. ''Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts''. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1994. * Lloyd, G. E. R. ''Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of His Thought''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968. * Plato. ''Timaeus and Critias''. Translated by Desmond Lee. Revised edition. London: Penguin, 1977. * Regardie, Israel. ''The Golden Dawn''. 6th edition. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1990. * Schiebinger, Londa. ''The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. * Valiente, Doreen. ''Witchcraft for Tomorrow''. Custer, Wash.: Phoenix Publishing, 1978. * Valiente, Doreen. ''The Rebirth of Witchcraft''. Custer, Wash.: Phoenix Publishing, 1989. * Vlastos, Gregory. ''Plato’s Universe''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Air (Classical Element) Atmosphere of Earth Classical elements Numerology Esoteric cosmology History of astrology Technical factors of astrology Gases