According to the Five Element Theory, the human being is a small model of the universe. What exists in the human body exists in altered form in the universal body. Ayurveda believes that everything is made up of five elements, or building blocks: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Their properties are important in understanding balances and imbalances in the human body.
Earth is representative of the solid state of matter; it manifests stability, fixity and rigidity. We see around us rocks and soil standing against the wearing forces of water and wind. Our body also manifests this earth/solid state structure: bones, cells and tissue are physical structures through which our blood courses and oxygen is transported. Earth is considered a stable substance.
Water characterizes change. In the outer world we see water moving through its cycles of evaporation/clouds/condensation/rain, we see it moving around solid matter such as rocks and mountains, and we see it eventually wearing away solid, immovable matter as it flows from the mountains to the sea. We see rivers carrying dissolved soil and nutrients, carrying economic trade and exchange of information and culture—we see the earth’s bodies of water nurturing life everywhere. Our blood, lymph, and other fluids move between our cells and through our vessels, bringing energy, carrying away wastes, regulating temperature, bringing disease fighters, and carrying hormonal information from one area to another. Water is considered a substance without stability.
Fire is the power to transform solids to liquids, to gas, and back again. The heat of the sun melts ice into water that becomes vapor under its influence. Fire provides power to the water and weather cycles of nature. The sun’s energy is the initiator of all energy cycles on earth—including all food chains. Within our bodies it is fire (energy) that binds the atoms of our molecules together; that converts food to fat (stored energy) and muscle’ that turns (burns) food into energy; that creates the impulses of nervous reactions, our feelings and even our thought processes. Fire is considered form without substance.
Air is the gaseous form of matter which is mobile and dynamic. We do not see the air that blows through the tree’s leaves, but we feel it. We know how material it can be—how it can respond to energy, absorb it, and give it off—when we watch or experience a hurricane, typhoon or tornado. We feel air as it courses down our throats and into our lungs—cut that off for more than a few minutes and we know with our whole being how fundamental air is to life. Within the body, air (oxygen) is the basis for all energy transfer reactions—oxidation. Clean and pure, it is a key element required for fire to burn. Air is existence without form.
Ether is the space in which everything happens. Like outer space with millions of miles between celestial bodies, or the inner space of our bodies where our very atoms are only .00001 charged particle and .99999 emptiness. Space, the distance between things—which helps to define one thing from another. Ether is only the distances which separate matter.
