A Telling of Tales - Swaragini Writings' Index - Page 5

The Euphony of the Elements - An Exposition

This is the much improved banner, if I may say so - the one on the post (which was also an improved version when I posted it😆😆) is now appearing to be absolutely childish.

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I hope to answer the oft asked question - Why is Sanskaar the Fire element here as opposed to Viji's characterisation of Sanskaar as Earth?

I am not even sure as to how this idea, of writing a ballad about SwaSan, popped into my head. I just had to do it and somehow the thought of assigning elements to each of the main characters (four elements, four lead - too much of coincidence to ignore, it definitely must be a message from the Universe. And please do not ask, which Universe, mine, of course😆. And yes, we talk to each other, at least during the times when I am not screaming at its infuriating silences, which is almost all the time. Or maybe, we speak different languages.🤣).

I hesitated only once, as to whether using the word "elements" would fair, considering the beautiful series, Viji (@CogitoErgoSum) had penned, which was resolved when she graciously allowed me to use that word.

Then the assigning of the elements to the characters, I could already visualize the pairing, Sanskaar - Fire, Swara - Water, Ragini - Earth and Laksh - Air. There was no dispute with Swara / Water and Laksh/Air, but there was a small difference of opinion since Viji had considered Sanskaar as Earth and Ragini as Fire. We often have discussions that are fun, as we both assiduously stick to our respective stands, she is firm that Sanskaar is more of an earthy sign and Ragini is quite a fire breather, whereas I stubbornly hold on to the image of the a fiery Sanskaar and an earthy base Ragini.

Today I shall confess - when I started this ballad, I completely overlooked the zodiac implications of the four signs, I had purely focused only the Indian /Greek / Chinese / Wiccan interpretations of the four elements, in particular the article from "The Ancient Greek Esteric Doctrine of The Elements" By John Opsopaus, which gives a very detailed narrative about the four elements and very interesting myths about the personification of the myths. What is common is the most of the myths have a fire and water unification (not strange, considering GRR Martin's series " A Song of Ice and Fire).

The ancient Greeks did a lot of philosophizing about the nature of the First Matter (which they called hyle), and it from that thought the doctrine of the Four Elements emerged. The first philosopher to formalize these principles was Empedocles, a Greek philosopher and healer who lived around 450 BC. In his Tetrasomia ("Doctrine of the Four Elements"), he stated that all matter is comprised of four roots (or elements): Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

According to Empedocles, Fire and Air are "outwardly reaching" elements, reaching up and out, whereas Earth and Water turn inward and downward. In his view, and that of later alchemists, the elements are not only material substances but also spiritual essences. To show their archetypal power, Empedocles associated each element with a god. "Hera rules the fruitful earth," he wrote. "Hades the central fire, Zeus the luminescent air, and Persephone the mollifying water."

The elements were animated through the interaction of two great living energies Empedocles called Love and Strife (Eros and Eris). Love he associated with the goddess Aphrodite, and Strife with the god of war, Ares. This simple view explained nearly every aspect of the world of the Greeks. Love and Strife were primordial gods who predated the gods of Olympus. This idea is very much like the Eastern tradition Yin and Yang, with Yin being the passive feminine energy of Love and Yang being the aggressive masculine energy of Strife. Egyptian alchemists associated the feminine (Love) energy with the Moon and masculine (Strife) energy with the Sun, while European alchemists associated the feminine energy with the Queen and the masculine energy with the King.

Aristotle (350 BC) further developed the theories of Empedocles by explaining them in terms of their qualities. In his view, the elements arose from the interplay of the ideal (or archetypal) properties of hotness and coldness, and dryness and wetness. Fire (dry and hot) and Water (wet and cold) are polar opposites, as are Earth (dry and cold) and Air (wet and hot). Wet and dry are the primary qualities. Wet (moistness) is the quality of fluidity or flexibility, which allows a thing to adapt to its external conditions, whereas Dry (dryness) is the quality of rigidity, which allows a thing to define its own shape and bounds. As a consequence Wet things tend to be volatile and expansive, since they can fill spaces in their surroundings, whereas Dry things are fixed and structured, since they define their own form. Aristotle predicted that one material could be transformed into another by altering the mix of its archetypal elements and their qualities.

~from Azoth Alchemy.org~

And those articles gave me the assurance I needed, that my assigning of the elements was absolutely fine. Lastly, most of the readings mentioned Fire and Air to be masculine while Water and Earth are feminine in nature. Did I need more? I was convinced and read no further.

Would I have preferred Viji's interpretation if I had considered the astrological categorization of the zodiac signs into the four elements, at this point, it is hard to say - For me, Sanskaar as Fire is fixed, so Ragini has to be Earth.

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