In classical elemental systems, each element has two qualities, and it shares each quality with one other element.
Warm/Cold
Each element is either warm or cold, and this corresponds with a male or female gender. This is a strongly dichotomous system, where male qualities are things like light, warmth and activity, and female qualities are dark, cold, passive and receptive.The orientation of the triangle is determined by warmth or coldness, male or female. Male, warm elements point upward, ascending toward the spiritual realm. Female, cold elements point downward, descending into the earth.
Moist/Dry
The second pair of qualities is moistness or dryness. Unlike the warm and cold qualities, moist and dry qualities do not immediately correspond to other concepts.
Opposing Elements
Because each element shares one of its qualities with one other element, that leaves one element completely unrelated. For example, air is moist like water and warm like fire, but it has nothing in common with earth. These opposing elements are on opposite sides of the diagram and are distinguished by the presence or absence of the crossbar within the triangle:- Air and earth are opposites and have the crossbar
- Water and fire are also opposites, and lack the crossbar.
Hierarchy of Elements
There is traditionally a hierarchy of elements, although some modern schools of thought have abandoned this system. The lower elements in the hierarchy are more material and physical, with the higher elements becoming more spiritual, more rarefied, and less physical.That hierarchy can be traced through this diagram. Earth is the lowest, most material element. Circling clockwise from earth you get water, air and then fire, the least material of the elements.
