Elements

The Elements, in many philosophies and religious views, are said to be the simplest essential parts and principles of which everything consists. In ancient thought (such as the Greek, Hindu and Buddhist) there is reference to four elements (Earth, Water, Air, and Fire), sometimes including a fifth element or quintessence called Aether or Akasa (space). The Chinese had a somewhat different series of elements, namely Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood, which were understood as different types of energy in a state of constant interaction and flux with one another, rather than the notion of different kinds of material. In the Theosophical literature there is mention to one ultimate element that differentiate in seven, although only four are completely manifested at this stage of evolution.

Elements in Theosophy

H. P. Blavatsky wrote:

Metaphysically and esoterically there is but One ELEMENT in nature, and at the root of it is the Deity; and the so-called seven elements, of which five have already manifested and asserted their existence, are the garment, the veil, of that deity; direct from the essence whereof comes MAN, whether physically, psychically, mentally or spiritually considered.

The process of cosmic manifestation proceeds gradually, manifesting six of these elements one after the other. Stanza VI.3 says:

Of the Seven (elements)—first one manifested, six concealed; two manifested—five concealed; three manifested—four concealed; four produced—three hidden; four and one tsan (fraction) revealed—two and one half concealed; six to be manifested—one laid aside.

Mme. Blavatsky applies this sloka to the manifestation of the elements on the lowest plane, one at a time, with the succession of Rounds:

Although these Stanzas refer to the whole Universe after a Mahapralaya (universal destruction), yet this sentence, as any student of Occultism may see, refers also by analogy to the evolution and final formation of the primitive (though compound) Seven Elements on our Earth. Of these, four elements are now fully manifested, while the fifth—Ether—is only partially so, as we are hardly in the second half of the Fourth Round, and consequently the fifth Element will manifest fully only in the Fifth Round.

The succession of primary aspects of Nature with which the succession of Rounds is concerned, has to do, as already indicated, with the development of the “Elements” (in the Occult sense)—Fire, Air, Water, Earth. We are only in the fourth Round, and our catalogue so far stops short.

Four elements only are generally spoken of in later antiquity, five admitted only in philosophy. For the body of ether is not fully manifested yet, and its noumenon is still “the Omnipotent Father—Æther, the synthesis of the rest.”

The elements can also be seen as the objective aspect of the seven Dhyani-Buddhas:

“These Brâhmanas (the Rishi Prajâpati?), the creators of the world, are born here (on earth) again and again. Whatever is produced from them is dissolved in due time in those very five great elements (the five, or rather seven, Dhyani Buddhas, also called “Elements” of Mankind), like billows in the ocean. These great elements are in every way beyond the elements that make up the world (the gross elements). And he who is released even from these five elements (the tanmâtras) goes to the highest goal.”