We meet this world of outer manifestation with the outer part of ourselves, our skin and our other sense organs. A brief summary of this adventure is as follows:Įarth: We begin with the rock and the earth which we meet outwardly with our senses.
Richard Thornton Smith in his book Cosmos, Earth and Nutrition, the Biodynamic Approach to Agriculture, points out that Paracelsus (1493-1541) proposed the following the quality of physical manifestation is associated with the Element of Earth the Element of Water corresponds to the quality of life while the Element of Air is associated with the quality of space and the Fire Element corresponds with the quality of transformation.Īt one point in his book, Thornton Smith takes the reader on a guided journey to a landscape and shows us how to look at the layers of that landscape through the lens of the Four Elements. One way of identifying these formative forces is by way of capitalizing them Earth as an Element takes on a different value than earth as soil. Instead, we need to understand them in terms of their dynamic qualitative action. To better grasp these principles, it is helpful to overcome our habit of using these terms solely as they relate to nature. Ancient Greek tradition blended esoteric and practical matters into the idea that the universe hinges on four basic principles: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.