Water (classical element)

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Water (classical element)

Water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
has been important to all peoples of the earth, and it is rich in spiritual tradition.

ater is one of the four classical element

Classical element

Many ancient philosophy used a set of archetype classical elements to explain patterns in nature. In this context, the word element refers to a chemical substance that is either a chemical compound or a mixture of chemical compounds , rather than a chemical element of modern physical science....
s in ancient Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception....
and science. It was commonly associated with the qualities of emotion and intuition

Intuition (knowledge)

Intuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.?The word ?intuition? comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning ?to look inside? or ?to contemplate?."...
.

Water was one of many archai proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom tried to reduce all things to a single substance.

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Encyclopedia

Greek and Roman tradition

Water is one of the four classical element

Classical element

Greek philosophy

Intuition (knowledge)

Empedocles

Empedocles was a Hellenic civilization pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin of the cosmogenesis theory of the four classical elements....
of Acragas (c. 495-c. 435 BC) selected four archai for his four roots: air

Air (classical element)

In traditional cultures, air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance. Its fundamental importance to life can be seen in words such as aspire, conspire, inspire, perspire, and spirit, all derived from the Latin spirare ....
, fire

Fire (classical element)

Fire has been an important part of many cultures and religions, from pre-history to modern day, and was vital to the development of civilization....
, water, and earth

Earth (classical element)

Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition....
. Empedocles’ roots became the four classical elements of Greek philosophy. Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
(427-347 BC) took over the four elements of Empedocles. In the Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)

Timaeus is a theoretical treatise of Plato in the form of a Socratic dialogue, written circa 360 Before Christ. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world....
, his major cosmological dialogue, the Platonic solid

Platonic solid

In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex set polyhedron that is regular polyhedron, in the sense of a regular polygon. Specifically, the faces of a Platonic solid are congruence regular polygons, with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex....
associated with water is the icosahedron

Icosahedron

In geometry, an icosahedron isany polyhedron having 20 faces, but usually a regular icosahedron is implied, which has equilateral triangle s as faces....
which is formed from twenty equilateral triangles. This makes water the element with the greatest number of sides, which Plato regarded as appropriate because water flows out of one's hand when picked up, as if it is made of tiny little balls.

Plato’s student Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
(384-322 BC) developed a different explanation for the elements based on pairs of qualities. The four elements were arranged concentrically around the center of the Universe

Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them....
to form the sublunary sphere

Sublunary sphere

The sublunary sphere is a concept derived from Greek astronomy. It is the region of the cosmos from the Earth to the Moon, consisting of the four classical elements: Earth , Water , Air , and Fire ....
. According to Aristotle, water is both cold and wet, and occupies a place between air and earth among the elemental spheres.

In ancient Greek medicine

Medicine in Ancient Greece

The first known Greek medical school opened in Knidos in 700 BC. Alcmaeon of Croton, author of the first anatomical work, worked at this school, and it was here that the practice of observing patients was established....
, each of the four humours

Four humours

Erich Adickes, Eduard Spranger, Ernst Kretschmer, and Erich Fromm all theorized on the four temperaments and greatly shaped our modern theories of temperament....
became associated with an element. Phlegm

Phlegm

Phlegm is sticky fluid secreted by the mucous membranes of humans and other animals. Its definition is limited to the mucus produced by the respiratory system, excluding that from the nose passages, and particularly that which is expelled by coughing ....
was the humor identified with water, since both were cold and wet. Other things associated with water and phlegm in ancient and medieval medicine

Medieval medicine

Medieval medicine in Western Europe was a mixture of existing ideas from antiquity, spiritual influences and what Claude L?vi-Strauss identifies as the "shamanistic complex" and "social consensus." In this era, there was no tradition of scientific medicine, and observations went hand-in-hand with spirituality influences....
included the season of Winter, since it increased the qualities of cold and moisture; the phlegmatic temperament (of a person dominated by the phlegm humour); the feminine

Femininity

Femininity refers to qualities and behaviors judged by a particular culture to be ideally associated with or especially appropriate to woman and girls....
; the brain

Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
; and the west

West

West is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points....
ern point of the compass.

In alchemy

Alchemy

Alchemy , a part of the Occult Tradition, is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties....
, the chemical element

Chemical element

A chemical element is a type of atom that is distinguished by its atomic number; that is, by the number of protons in its atomic nucleus. The term is also used to refer to a pure chemical Chemical substance composed of atoms with the same number of protons....
of mercury

Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
was often associated with water and its alchemical symbol

Alchemical symbol

Alchemic symbols, originally devised as part of the protoscience of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century....
was a downward-pointing triangle.

Indian Tradition

Ap () is the Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is an Old Indic language. It is the language of the Vedas, the oldest shruti texts of Hinduism, compiled over the period of the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC....
term for "water", in Classical Sanskrit occurring only in the pluralis not an element.v, (sometimes re-analysed as a thematic singular, ), whence Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
. The term is from PIE

Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness or savoury ingredients....
h_xap "water".

In Hindu philosophy

Hindu philosophy

Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
, the term refers to water as an element

Water (classical element)

Water has been important to all peoples of the earth, and it is rich in spiritual tradition....
, one of the Panchamahabhuta
Classical element

Many ancient philosophy used a set of archetype classical elements to explain patterns in nature. In this context, the word element refers to a chemical substance that is either a chemical compound or a mixture of chemical compounds , rather than a chemical element of modern physical science....
, or "five great elements". In Hinduism

Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
, it is also the name of the deva

Deva (Hinduism)

Deva is the Sanskrit word for "god, deity". It can be variously interpreted as a god, spirit, demi-god, Celestial, deity or any supernatural being of high excellence....
, a personification

Personification

File:Wien Hofburg Constantia et Fortitudine.jpgPersonification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person....
of water, (one of the Vasu

Vasu

In Hinduism, the Vasus are attendant deities of Indra, and later Vishnu. They are eight elemental gods representing aspects of nature, representing cosmic natural phenomenon....
s in most later Puranic lists). The element Water is also associated with Chandra

Chandra

In Hinduism, Chandra is a lunar deity and a Graha. Chandra is also identified with the Veda Lunar deity Soma . The Soma name refers particularly to the juice of sap in the plants and thus makes the Moon the lord of plants and vegetation....
or the Moon, and Shukra

Shukra

Shukra , the Sanskrit for "clear, pure" or "brightness, clearness", is the name the son of Bhrgu and Urjaswathi, and preceptor of the Daityas, and the guru of the Asuras, identified with the planet Venus, one of the Navagrahas ....
or Venus, who represent feelings, intuition and imagination. Water is also linked to the north east direction.

In Modern Magic

Ceremonial Magic

Water and the other Greek classical elements were incorporated into the Golden Dawn system despite being considered obsolete by modern science. Practicus (3=8) is the elemental grade attributed to water; this grade is also attributed to the Qabalistic sphere Hod and the planet Mercury. The elemental weapon of water is the cup. Each of the elements has several associated spiritual beings. The archangel of water is Gabriel, the angel is Taliahad, the ruler is Tharsis, the king is Nichsa, and the water elemental

Elemental

An elemental is a mythological being first appearing in the alchemy works of Paracelsus. Traditionally, there are four types:*gnomes, earth elementals...
s (following Paracelsus

Paracelsus

Paracelsus was a Medieval physician, botanist, alchemy, astrologer, and general occultist. Born Phillip von Hohenheim, he later took up the name Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, and still later took the title Paracelsus, meaning "equal to or greater than Celsus", a Roman encyclopedist, Aulus Cornelius Celsus fro...
) are called Undines. Earth (Water) is considered to be passive; it is represented by the eagle, and it is referred to the upper right point of the pentagram in the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. Many of these associations have since spread throughout the occult community.

Wicca

In Wicca

Wicca

Wicca is a neopaganism, nature-based religion. It was re-popularised in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired United Kingdom civil servant, who at the time called it Witchcraft and its adherents "the Wica"....
n tradition, water is associated with the West, autumn, and the color blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440?490 Nanometre....
on the physical plane. It is sometimes represented by a white crescent

Crescent

In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circle disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points ....
, a downward pointing triangle, the chalice

Chalice

A chalice can refer to;*A Chalice , or specifically the Holy Chalice*The symbol of the Unitarian Universalist religion.*A Chalice *Chalice Serrano ...
, the bell

Bell

Bell may refer to:...
, shells, sapphires, lapis lazuli

Lapis lazuli

Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense blue color.Lapis lazuli has been mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan for 6,500 years, and trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewelry to have been found at Predynastic Egyptian sites, and lapis beads at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the C...
, tears

Tears

Tears are the liquid product of a process of lacrimation to clean and lubricate the eyes. The word lacrimation may also be used in a medical or literary sense to refer to crying....
, and the cauldron

Cauldron

A cauldron or caldron is a large metal Cooking pot for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger....
. Water represents emotions, wisdom, the soul, and femininity. In rituals, it is represented in the forms of pouring water over objects, brew making, healing spells, ritual bathing, and tossing objects into bodies of water.

The manifestations of the element of water are rivers, oceans, lakes, well

WELL

The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, is one of the oldest virtual communities in continuous operation. It currently has about 4,000 members....
s, fog

Fog

Fog is a cloud bank that is in contact with the ground. A cloud may be considered partly fog; for example, the part of a cloud that is suspended in the air above the ground is not considered fog, whereas the part of the cloud that comes in contact with higher ground is considered fog....
, all drinks, and the rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation . On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into droplet heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface....
. Animals, especially the dolphin

Dolphin

File:Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178.jpgDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genus....
, seal

Seal

Seal may refer to:...
, turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the Order Testudines , most of whose body is shielded by a special bone or cartilage animal shell developed from their ribs....
, frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . The name frog derives from Old English language frogga, , cognate with Sanskrit plava , probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European language praw = "to jump"....
, and all types of fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, are also thought to personify the element of water. The astral

Astral plane

The astral plane, also called the astral world, is a Plane postulated by classical , mediaeval, oriental and esotericism philosophies and Mystery cult....
creatures of water, known as elementals, are the Ondine/Mermaid

Mermaid

A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature that is half human , half aquatic creature .Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures....
, Oreade/Naiad

Naiad

In Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks.They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid....
, and Sea Serpent

Sea serpent

A sea serpent or sea dragon is a mythological sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today....
/Dragon

Dragon

File:Ukiyo-e dragon 2.jpgThe dragon is a legendary creature with serpentine shape or otherwise reptilian traits that features in the mythology of many cultures....
. Water’s place on the pentagram is the upper right point.

Astrological Personalities

People born under the astrological signs of Scorpio

Scorpio (astrology)

Scorpio is the eighth astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the Scorpius. In western astrology, the sign is no longer aligned with the constellation as a result of the Precession ....
, Cancer

Cancer (astrology)

Cancer is the fourth astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the Cancer . In western astrology, this sign is no longer aligned with the constellation as a result of the Precession ....
and Pisces

Pisces (astrology)

Pisces is the twelfth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which originates from the Pisces . In western astrology this sign is no longer aligned with the constellation because of the Precession ....
being one of the two drawn elements meaning it is part of two of the classical elements are thought to have dominant water personalities. Water personalities tend to be emotional, kind, nurturing, sympathetic, empathetic and intuitive; however, they can also be needy, sentimental, over-sensitive and irrational.

Water (classical element)

Greek and Roman tradition

Indian Tradition

In Modern Magic

Ceremonial Magic

Wicca

Astrological Personalities

See also

External links