Water and air are recognised as elements of life , elements of survival , for all living beings. It is at the level of living systems that water and air are hereby being considered elemental - they are two of the elements of life. The element earth is the name given to all material living and non-living substance on the planet, with the exception of air and water. The diversity of the ancient element earth is thus of extremely high order.
Earth is the generic metaphysical name applied to all substances within the terrestrial environment.
Whereas by chemical and atomic analysis, the hundred plus different atomic elements are uniquely specified as the atomic elements, the ancient element earth encompasses them all. In the form of food, to be ingested into the metabolic matrix of living systems, it shares, along with its fellow ancient elements of nature, its status an element of life , an element of survival . The element fire is the ancient name given that which is known by the contemporary scientific program as electromagnetic energy. The distribution of the elements in the cosmos reflects the image of remote terrestrial islands scattered in an ocean of cosmic fire. The ubiquitous nature of the cosmic fire can be perceived and understood by a simple Thought Experiment .