The Elements

I am fascinated by all mythologies, fables, and urban legends. Curiosity is a component in which makes us human, after all. I was and am that child/person who asks a million questions and probably will never change. Are mythologies answers we still can’t reasonably answer or prove with science? 

I think what I love most about mythology is the imagination, skill, and talent it takes to evolve a good story that holds up for hundreds of years and has a message for humanity’s greater good.

Lately, I’ve been studying local mythology and folklore. It’s no surprise that most are connected back to religion or mythology. 

I decided to focus on the elements since they seem to be universal and kept popping up in my research. 

Historians believe that as early as the 8th century BCE, the idea of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind, was introduced to explain our natural world. The theory that all things or matter are from these four elements were the cornerstone of science, philosophy, and medicine for over two thousand years! Hippocrates developed a theory about the same four elements found in the body called “humors”. The four humors needed to be in balance with each other for a person to be well, both mentally and physically. Humors theory lead to zodiac signs assigned an element.  

We know now that this isn’t entirely true, but in a way, the four elements do align with the four states of matter that modern science has agreed on: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire). 

A philosopher, physician, and chemist name Paracelsus produced another theory of the elements. He believed the elements were elementals, mythical beings. 

He regarded them not as much as spirits but as beings between creatures and spirits, generally being invisible to mankind but having physical and commonly humanoid bodies and eating, sleeping, and wearing clothes like humans. 

Paracelsus gave common names for the elemental types and correct names, which he seems to have considered somewhat more proper, “recht namen“. He also referred to them by purely German terms, which are roughly equivalent to “water people,” “mountain people,” and so on, using all the different forms interchangeably. (Carole B. Silver, Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness)

At one time, many people believed this all to be true. How magical the world must have been at one time, where anything could have been possible. Or one may argue how incredibly dumb people were in our early existence. Either way, our history is fascinating. My imagination began to run wild with ideas. I’m not sure why, but I think of a woman when I think of the elements having a body. So I gave the elements a body with attributes I thought would be shared or assigned. 

This art is for enjoyment and not to be taken seriously. I had fun creating them just so I could tell this story, lol. I hope you enjoy!