Air or Wind is one of the four

classical element The classical elements typically refer to Earth (classical element), earth, Water (classical element), water, Air (classical element), air, Fire (classical element), fire, and (later) Aether (classical element), aether which were proposed to ...

s along with

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

in ancient

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

and in Western alchemy.

Greek and Roman tradition

According to

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, it is associated with the

octahedron In geometry, an octahedron (: octahedra or octahedrons) is any polyhedron with eight faces. One special case is the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex. Many types of i ...

; 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 Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...

philosophers, Anaximenes (mid-6th century BCE) named air as the '' arche''. 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 parodied such teachings in his play '' The Clouds'' by putting a prayer to air in the mouth of

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

. 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 or even

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

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

(427–347 BCE) took over the four elements of Empedocles. In the '' Timaeus'', his major cosmological dialogue, the

Platonic solid In geometry, a Platonic solid is a Convex polytope, convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional space, three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the face (geometry), faces are congruence (geometry), congruent (id ...

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 (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

(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. 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 star ...

Humorism and temperaments

In ancient Greek medicine, each of the four humours became associated with an element. Blood 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 A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

(combining the masculine quality of heat with the feminine quality of moisture); and the northern point of the compass.

Alchemy

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

Modern reception

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 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 (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

, the angel is Chassan, the ruler is Ariel, the king is Paralda, and the air elementals (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 (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esote ...

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, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. 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". 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 atmo ...

"). 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 Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

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

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

with ''air'', others with wood due to the elemental association of wind and wood in the bagua. Enlil was the god of air in ancient

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

. Shu was the

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

of air and the husband of Tefnut, goddess of moisture. He became an emblem of strength by virtue of his role in separating Nut from Geb. 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." According to Jain beliefs, the element air is inhabited by one-sensed beings or spirits called vāyukāya ekendriya, sometimes said to inhabit various kinds of winds such as whirlwinds, cyclones, monsoons, west winds and trade winds. Prior to reincarnating into another lifeform, spirits can remain as vāyukāya ekendriya from anywhere between one instant to up to three-thousand years, depending on the

karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...

of the spirits.

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 Esoteric cosmology History of astrology Technical factors of astrology Gases Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics