The 4 Elements

According to Aristotle: Earth < Water < Air < Fire.

This hierarchy is sometimes represented by a triangle / pyramid having earth as its base and fire as its top.

The first reference to the four elements is made by the geek philosophy and Empedocles near 460 BC. It refers to four roots: Zeus (fire), Hera (Earth), Aidoneus (air) and Nestis (water).

Today the notion of element often refers to atoms (see Mendeleiv's periodic table).

Plato assimilates Earth to a cube, water to an icosahedron, air to an octahedron and fire to a tetrahedron. There is also the world (the whole) compared to a dodecahedron.

Example: See the names of geometric shapes.

Colors are associated with the elements according to their color in life:

Water: Blue / Gray, Earth: Green, Fire: Red / Yellow, Air: White / Cyan (Sky blue)

The air is generally associated with the East, the Fire is with the South, the Water is with the West and the Earth is with the North. The reason for this association is uncertain.

In the past, some theoreticians denied the nature of the empty, imagined a fifth element: the ether (or quintessence), above all others, for containing the stars.

1 - pruṭhavī-dhātu - solidity or attraction.

2 - āpa-dhātu - liquidity or relative motion.

3 - teja-dhātu - heat or energy.

4 - vāyu-dhātu - expansion or repulsive forces.