The Five Elements of Home Remedies

The five elements show different combinations of qualities such as dryness and moisture, heat and cold, lightness and heaviness, mobility and inertia. These are not present in absolute form, but are tendencies within a continuum and are relative to their opposites.

- Earth manifests the qualities of solidity, firmness, heaviness, density and cold.
- Water manifests the qualities of heaviness, fluidity, cold and moisture.
- Fire manifests yet more activity, also heat, light and colour, and less density.
- Air manifests to a greater degree the qualities of mobility, lightness (less weight) and dryness, and also tends to be colder.
- Ether manifests as emptiness, that positive space within which the other elements function, find their expression and communicate or interact with each other. The qualities of ether are clarity and subtlety. At the emotional-mental level, it is the space that allows the free expression of one's true nature. Spiritually, ether is the inner space, emptied of mental activity, wherein the individual consciousness becomes aware of the cosmic spirit. This is the most subtle manifestation of the life force.

Each of these elements is present to greater or lesser extents in all of nature from stones to sub-atomic particles. For example, in humans, Earth would be the most obvious and most characteristic element of bones, teeth and, to a lesser extent, muscles, because these are the most dense and solid tissues in the body. Water is present in great quantities in our bodies but is most obvious in mucous membranes, in the lubricating fluid around joints, in blood and in lymph fluid. Similarly, Fire is manifested in the digestive acids, in that veritable chemical factory, the liver, and in the warmth and redness of blood. Air is represented in the electrical impulses of the nervous system with its qualities of rapid communication and instigation of movement. Even Ether — space — is necessary in the body and is represented in, for example, the thoracic cavities, the colon and the synaptic space through which nerve impulses are transmitted.

In herbs, the elemental energy is expressed in such things as the earthiness of bark and roots; the fluidity of sap; the fire of colour in flowers and the chemical process of photosynthesis; the breathing of air by leaves; and the space within which the seed forms.