Introduction to the Five Elements
Building blocks of this creation - and ourselves
I want to write about the five elements, today — the great elements that are the building blocks of our creation, at the most fundamental, cosmic level of our whole planet and all the souls in it.
The elements: earth, fire, sky (ether), water, air.
In Vedic India, arguably the oldest spiritual source of information and reality in our history, they will say that the entire creation is formed from these five great elements (including the human form).
In Sanskrit, ‘pancha bhutas’ is the five elements, but bhutas is an interesting word because it has a double meaning; bhutas means ‘elements’ but it also translates as ‘demons.’ The deeper understanding here is that the very elements that form our manifest creation (fraught as it is with maya, illusion) are also the very ‘demons’ that give each of us what we have, karmically, to work out in our lives and lifetimes. The tug of the elements and unresolved karmas, through the elements, actually results in the five elements coming together as we show up in a human form, again and again, to work out our karmic backlog.
What we know from ancient India is that these five elements are the doorways to the source energy of the creation — any of them, all of them, will function that way. The elements are the doorways through which the miracle energy expresses in our world.
Indirectly, this is saying that the whole human system is comprised of the elements in the gross sense, yes, as we are in material forms — but also the subtle, miraculous energies of these elements exists in the human energy system, as well. And those energies can be purposed, and expressed, in such a way as to take us back, strongly, to the source energy from which we all emanated.
In case you’re feeling a little confused about how these elements show up in the human system, let’s talk about them individually, and practically.
In our world, the most dense, gross element is the earth element — and its most pronounced property is magnetism, or gravity. If I drop something, it’s always going to fall on the ground, correct? It will be ‘pulled’ to the earth by the earth’s magnetism.
In our human system, the earth element is embodied in our bones. The most dense, gross, lasting part of the human body. The only thing that remains once a body has decayed, or even been cremated — it’s the bones.
When we’re examining the subtle energy of the human system, we see a kind of corresponding resonance in the earth element: it’s where we hold things (old karmas, especially, but also characteristics, qualities, emotional blocks, and attachments too). That magnetic pull of the earth element is part of what pulls a soul to incarnate into a physical body, to work out its karmas in the trajectory of that soul’s journey in this world.
Another quality of the earth element, in addition to its holding, or magnetizing, nature, is its capacity to radiate energy (once it’s built up enough energy from holding, holding, holding, over time). What this looks like in our manifest world is the palpable energy of a given place — be it positive or negative — and how the earth element is causing the feeling you have when you ‘feel the energy’ of a given place.
Let’s take the example of an ancient temple or church or holy site, where people have been chanting their prayers, or meditating, or doing spiritual/religious services over centuries. The earth element — expressed in the floors, the walls, the ceiling, of that physical building structure, or the ground itself — absorbs and absorbs and absorbs all of those divine vibrations (prayers, meditations, rituals, etc.) for a while, and then begins to radiate those same vibrations, in an amplified way, in that place.
When we walk into such a temple, or church, or ancient holy site, then, we immediately feel those vibrations — they are pouring into our soul, without our conscious notice, and lodging in OUR earth element, in our form. We might feel a sense of peace, or love, or an inner quiet and relief, or even a release of old pains and traumas, in such a place. The heart opens, there might be a sense of being flooded with divinity and grace, with blessing and beauty. We might find ourselves in tears, without exactly understanding why we are crying.
This is the mechanism of the earth element — absorbing/magnetizing that divine energy, then radiating it outwards.
Conversely, the earth element can absorb high negative energy, as well — as in the case of battlegrounds, where thousands of souls died in a traumatic way, and their fear, shock, horror, pain, suffering, and cries of extreme duress in the end were all absorbed into that earth element. And over time, more of that negativity, that painful energy, starts to radiate from those grounds, that earth element, in such places.
You can feel it, if you visit the site of an historic battle, or a genocide, or a place where a lot of torture and death occurred (like the basement of the Roman Coliseum, for example). There is a cold, creepy, depressed, yucky feeling to such places… again, because the earth element is radiating all the negativity/traumatic energy that was put into it, there.
In our own human bodies, the earth element functions similarly. When we are living in prayer, meditation, spiritual rituals, engaged in service to others, our earth element (both subtle and gross) absorbs, absorbs, absorbs all of that divine positivity, for a while — and then it begins to radiate outwards.
People can feel a high soul, a spiritually awake being, just by being in the presence of such a one — because the energy is emanating from the highly purified, divine earth element vibration in that person. (And of course, the obvious opposite is there, as well — if someone lives a life consumed by negativity, stress, traumas, and toxic emotions, their system will absorb so much of that in the earth element that their system will begin to radiate that negativity outwards.)
It all hinges on the earth element, in our system — what kinds of energy we are absorbing, in our earth element, and radiating. (And yes, there are certain spiritual practices that can accelerate and amplify the purification/absorbtion/radiation of the earth element dramatically… I’ll talk about those at the end of this piece.)
Moving right along, into the fire element…
The fire element is fascinating, because it has so many applications in the human structure. The fire itself is a mutable, morphing element — it can inflame our worst tendencies and emotions, or it can drive our spiritual evolution and enlightenment in an extraordinarily powerful way, if applied in that direction.
Physically, we obviously have quite a bit of fire in our systems. We have a digestive fire, for example, to help us process our food and break it down into absorbable particles. We have the fiery emotions, like passions and anger.
We also have a more subtle but nonetheless palpable quality of the fire element: inspiration. (Literally, pira-tion, or pyration, from pyros, the Greek word for fire.) A brilliant idea, a deep creative impulse that wells up from inside, a flash of intelligence, or insight — inspired thoughts/emotions that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere — these are a physio-emotional experience, in our body, of that fire element and its correponding ‘inspiration.’
It’s interesting that in our human body system, the fire element mostly links to the two physical eyes (and to the third, or mystical eye, residing between the eyebrows). When a soul is awake, and strongly balanced with the fire element, we can see how brilliant that person’s eyes are — they seem laser-sharp, penetrating, expressive, fiery, clear.
We automatically use a lot of fire-related language in relationship to the eyes. We might say that someone has a spark, a twinkle, a flash, a warmth, a blaze, in their eyes. We know it when we see it, and we know it when we feel/perceive it — through the vehicle of the third eye’s perception.
Conversely, we can see when someone’s fire element is tamped down, depressed, suppressed… their eyes seem to have very little life force in them, indeed.
Our old phrase about the eyes being the windows to the soul is more than a cliché — it’s actually true. We can clearly see the state of another’s soul, based on how much fire (or lack of it) is in their eyes.
Human beings convey enormous ‘information’ — intention, emotional quality, a kind of communication, through the eyes — through the fire element. Sometimes a speaking glance is all that’s needed across a conference room table in a meeting, or between parents (over a kid’s head), on an athletic field or court, between lovers, friends, or a pet owner to an animal. If you’ve ever cut someone off in traffic, and received a Very Dirty Look from them, you know very well how powerful the eyes of another person are, and how clearly they can convey the pointed, deeper message that person is lobbing in your direction. The eyes definitely have it!
(I could go on and on, all day long, about just these two elements and their roles/resonance in the human system — but will go on to the other elements in us, for the sake of brevity here.)
The sky, or ether, element — I like to call it the ‘space,’ or ‘akash’ element (from the Sanskrit) — is the most subtle of all of the elements, and the most important, as the backdrop against and through which all the other elements exist, and play.
If you look at our universe, we here on the earth are just existing on a tiny dirt ball, one of many in our solar system, and our solar system is in turn a small system amongst many many many others that make up our galaxy. The majority of the whole solar system, and the galaxy by extension, is not dense matter, though — but space.
It is the same in the human body. There are those who say that if we were to condense the solid matter, the actual material, in the human system, it would fit on the head of a pin. In other words, the majority of our material body is nothing but… space.
Our physical world is the same — everything apparently solid is, we know, composed of atoms and molecules… which are held together by… space. (Not comforting to consider when you go to sit on a chair, wondering if all the space bits will line up suddenly and you’ll wind up on the floor?)
The Vedic understanding of the space element tells us that it is associated with Shiva, the infinite, unbounded quality of the divine. (Often referred to colloquially as ‘god the father.’) Shiva’s presence is endless, like the sky.
As such, the sky/space/akash element in us is that ineffable, infinite, pure silent soul essence that all human beings are carrying — all beings, in fact — as the common field of energy through which emerge all the other elements, and against which the other elements organize and play their drama of forms.
When saints and sages tell us the whole universe is inside us, this is part of what they are hinting at.
They’re also, indirectly, letting us know that the antidote to the field of activity of the earth plane (and its concomitant upsets, challenges, traumas, conflicts, losses, and overwhelming life circumstances) is the sky element, the Shiva (infinity of the universe), the deep pure stillness, the cosmic Silence, awake in its own bliss.
You could think of the Shiva/sky energy as the blank screen in the movie theater — the ‘nothing’ on which are projected the dramatic movies, the epic stories and characters, the villains and heroes and heroines, the triumphs, the failures, the comedies, the tragedies, the emotionally gripping dynamics and relationships, the whole gamut of the human experience, writ large.
Even after having watched an emotionally grueling, powerful, moving film, when the lights come up and the credits start rolling across that usually blank screen, we tend to collect ourselves, think, “Wow! That was such a great story!” and then go back to our ‘real’ lives unscathed by all the dramas we just experienced playing out, in the film, on that same blank screen.
Similarly, we can contact the deep inner Silence-with-a-capital-S, the blank, neutral screen inside our consciousness, our own inner sky element, via meditation. In so doing, we find extreme relief and refuge from the daily slings and arrows of outrageous fortune — the antidote to the ravages of the field of activity, in the pure inner peace and silence of the sky/space element.
We may even gain so much distance from, and detachment from, the ups and downs and dramas in our everyday life that it feels as though we are merely observers of the movie, as it were, of our own lives… rather than an overwhelmed character in that movie, fully engrossed and subsumed by the drama.
That stage of detachment from it all, identifying the self more with the deep inner silence (the neutral screen) rather than the surface level of the dramas (the movie!), is in itself an immense relief, accompanied by a good deal of resilience and clarity, so we can approach the challenges in our lives more effectively — and be far less prone to drown in them.
That quality of the inner silence, the reservoir of clarity, of detachment, of the feeling of not taking it all too seriously, is the Shiva energy in us, increasing. We can develop that inner reservoir of divine silence and strength through our relationship with the sky element.
Okay, so, whew, three down, two to go.
Next we come to the water element.
Like our planet earth, which is a solid earth ball (despite its molten core, another nod to the fire & water elements), the human form is comprised of approximately 70% fluid — the water element.
The water’s most important, inner, essential quality is that it generates energy. It creates. (Think of all the life forms, in the pre-historic times, that evolved/emerged from the waters of the planet.) In mammals, fetuses develop inside amniotic fluid in their mothers’ wombs during the gestation period, before emerging from those wombs, via the birthing process, as solid, independent life forms of various shapes, sizes, and species.
Water generates. (It also purifies, but majority, it generates.)
If you think about the human reproductive system — it’s mostly fluid. Our circulatory system is a miraculous energy conveyor, carrying oxygen to our millions of cells, through the blood… so much of our body is flesh, and soft tissues, and soft organs, all powered by and informed by the water element.
In the mystical, spiritual sense, it is through the water element that we can generate a new creation, internally, a new consciousness in ourselves, as we nourish our spiritual self through meditations, prayer, service, etc.
When the water element in us is purified, divinized, this process of generating goodness, divinity, blessing to others, healing, and all of the spiritual qualities we tend to prize in holy people, begins to happen automatically, with or without our conscious awareness. (Of course, when generating blessing or healing for others consciously, the impact is amplified dramatically.)
And finally, we come to the air element.
The air, the breath, is our most vital element in human life. We can live for days, even weeks, without food. We can live for days without water. The moment a human being stops breathing — we are considered dead.
In our system, the air element doesn’t only relate to our in-breaths and out-breaths, it relates to the mind (in all its stages/levels of function and complexity).
It’s an observable relationship, actually, between the breath and the mind/emotions — when we are stressed, we tend to breathe more shallowly, and rapidly. When we are relaxed, our breath is longer, deeper, easier. The body — the breath of the body — tends to follow the mind/emotional state, and the mind/emotional state follows the body and its breathing/stress reactions. Mind and breath have a kind of symbiotic relationship.
This explains, in part, why so many spiritual traditions are focused on breathing techniques — if you regulate the physical breath (usually slowing it down, deepening the breath itself), you can effect a correlating regulation of the mind, calming it down as the breath slows and deepens. We can literally use the breath patterns to calm down, minimize the stress reactions, slow the heart rate, pacify the racing mind, and quell the wild reactivity that might otherwise be our natural response to a stressful situation.
There’s another aspect to the air element — its intimate relationship with the heart chakra. When our hearts are open, especially in the service of others, our minds tend to calm down, as well. When our hearts are closed, our minds reel with anxiety, tension, over-thinking, self-absorption, and it’s easy to spin out in spirals of fear, depression, angst.
In the Vedic tradition, Hanuman, the monkey god, is associated with the air element — one of his epithets is ‘vayu putra', the son of the wind. Hanuman, although he is in a monkey form, has managed to do that which all meditators from all walks and traditions are working on, in meditation: he has conquered the monkey of the mind. How did he do it? By having a pure open heart, and only ever thinking on how he can be of service to his master, Ram (the light).
You could rightly say, esoterically, that Hanuman sits at our heart area, in the human energy system, and by being of constant and selfless service to Ram, the light of the consciousness (which we all have, inside), he represents a strong, obvious road map to how each of us can come up out of our mind-dominated anxiety and stress… by serving the light inside ourselves — through being of selfless service to others. That way lies the high consciousness, or the enlightenment stages.
In the way that the breath and the mind are in relationship with one another, the heart and the mind are, as well. In the latter case, by opening the one, the other automatically calms down, and comes into balance.
This is just a tiny fraction of what is in each of the five elements, but I hope it serves as an introduction to the elements, and inspires some curiosity in you to want to learn more about these fundamental components of your own energy system.
The study of my life in spirituality could be distilled down to a study of the five elements; how they play in the human system, how they reflect our balances and imbalances to us (through physical issues, mental/emotional health issues, even our larger life circumstances and challenges), how they are practical doorways from the seen, material, physical world to the unseen, divine, miracle energy source behind the surface appearances, and how the elements can be used to address the conditions faced by human beings — through using them to create miraculous healing in others.
One could say my religion is a religion of the five elements, these mysterious, powerful, all-present building blocks of our creation (and ourselves).
The foundational practice of the spirituality I learned decades back in India, and have been teaching/sharing during all of those decades is a process called The Five Elements Process, a system of mantras and meditations that re-align a person with the divine, pure quality of each of the five elements in our system (both on the gross and subtle levels).
After a short period of practicing these mantras and purifying each of the elements in turn, one can wield a given element’s energy to help re-align the elements in another person — healing their issues, be it physical or mental/emotional, rapidly and effectively. (Dare I say, miraculously?)
The brilliance of the system is that it works.
But don’t take my word for it — if you’re intrigued by this discussion on the elements (and gyah, I could write so much more about each element, and their interplay, but am stopping before any reader’s brain, reasonably, fries), you can try the practice for yourself.
And validate it for yourself, both in terms of the experience of doing the elements’ meditations, which are insanely powerful, and in terms of applying the elements’ energies to heal others.
Exploring the elements, the building blocks of your own energy system, in this profound way, is like being in the laboratory of your own self, testing testing testing, and validating, what these elements are, and how they really operate.
You can find the Five Elements Process here at the UCBK website, complete with full video teachings about the elements, plus audio files of the mantras, and PDF handouts to help you receive a thorough grounding in these luminous teachings.
I hope you’ll try the Elements. It’s rigorous, in the beginning especially, but as we know, hard work is good work. And the results — they really do speak for themselves.
Here’s to your on-going research into the richest source of spiritual understanding you can ever have: your self!