The Four Elements

The Four Elements — Fire (🜂), Water (🜄), Air (🜁), and Earth (🜃) — form the foundational quaternary of Western alchemical theory, inherited from Empedocles through Aristotle. Each element possesses two of the four qualities: hot, cold, wet, and dry. Fire is hot-dry, Water cold-wet, Air hot-wet, Earth cold-dry. The Oxford Cabinet's account of the Four Elements shows that transmutation proceeds by altering these qualities: Fire becomes Air by exchanging dryness for wetness, and so on around the wheel. The Tria Prima of Paracelsus later superimposed Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt onto this elemental foundation without replacing it.