Many ancient cultures believed that at the core of everything there are four principles: heat, cold, dryness and moisture, as Aristotle called them. Representations of these four principles were not only great civilizations but also many other cultures, for example, some Turkic peoples.
The doctrine of the four principles echoes the doctrine of temperaments, which Empedocles developed as well! Hippocrates also believed that the nature of the body consists of four liquids, and their combination determines not only health but also the constitutional characteristics of the body as a whole and its mental qualities.
Heat – activity.
Cold – activity with a share of passivity.
Dryness – passivity with a share of activity.
Moisture – passivity.
As in the physical world, in the world of sensory manifestations, these qualities are not found in pure form. In any phenomenon or physical body, these principles are presented in aggregate.
Heat in the world of matter is warmth, fervor, the result of dynamism, mobility, and activity of matter. It expands and spreads it.
Cold in the world of matter is coldness, severe cold, frost. This is a desire to capture and seize, pull together and thicken, concentrate and condense.
Dryness is tension and strain, drying and withering, consolidation and strengthening, numbness and stiffness, rigidity and perseverance.
Moisture is elasticity and fluidity, flexibility and compliance. It loosens and softens.
The influence of these elementary qualities in the organic world is viewed as it is generally seen in life and is perceived by our sensations.
In nature, the principle of heat is clearly expressed in all its biological diversity in the tropical and subtropical zones of our planet. Conversely, all phenomena occurring under the influence of cold, in their perfection, occur in the deserted zones of the Arctic and Antarctica.
Representatives of dryness are the deserts and of moisture are the world’s ocean.
His individual potential vitality (life force), which since ancient times is called “astral energy,” a person receives partly in the womb, but mostly at the time of birth.
The life force is situated in outer space, it is free and unlimited there, it has neither a definite place of origin nor a specific place of stay, being all over and everywhere. Each individual owns it during his earthly life, and after death, it again returns back to the universe, so that after some time come again to the Earth with other animated organisms after a while.
Briefly, we can say that vitality is the maximum energy of astral origin, derived from the flow of an infinite number of very diverse cosmic impulses at the time of birth.
In a living, healthy organism, under normal conditions, all four principles of astral energy are functioning. The strength of each individual principle constantly fluctuates and changes according to the conditions and circumstances of the given moment. Although it always strives to remain within known biological boundaries, deviations in one or the other direction violate the vital processes in the body, the body regimen.
Of the four basic elementary principles, the individual’s temperament develops. What this temperament will depend on the degree of manifestation of these principles. If one of the principles significantly prevails over the others, the equilibrium is disturbed, which can lead to an imbalance of the human body and psyche.
These four principles also have a strong influence on the physique of a person:
Heat gives plumpness and a pronounced muscular system, the skin has a healthy color, when touched, heat is felt;
Dryness is manifested through more sharply ounlined forms, the muscles seem to be taut, skin of a swarthy color, coarse and dense when touched;
Cold gives thinness, a skin is matte, dull color or ivory, when touch feels cool or cold;
Moisture imparts a rounded and diffuse shape, the musculature is weak, the skin is saggy, has a pale color, moist to the touch.
Now let’s consider these categories (qualities) in more detail.
HEAT
Heat is the creator of the ardent will and active feelings. The accumulation of heat leads to shock, strike, explosion and, as a result, to movement. With the predominance of heat, a person becomes active, initiative, even aggressive, acts instinctively, and not guided by reason. Heat gives the desire for action, for active influence on others through one’s own “I”, gives impulse, inspiration, courage, assertiveness, determination and enterprise. The warmth brings love to the neighbor, generosity, and magnanimity, here the feelings rule over the mind.
COLD
Cold is the ability to accumulate, concentrate and reflect. It increases resistance, perseverance, gives inertia, slows down all processes. Cold sometimes manifests through a sense of fear, leading to loneliness, pessimism, in extreme cases – to the rejection of the world.
The cold gives restraint, an attitude to contemplation, a penchant for a solitary way of life. It gives restraint of the senses, passivity in action, endurance, perseverance and stubbornness, the prevalence of the mind over the senses. Cold also gives a sobriety of thoughts, prudence.
DRYNESS
Dryness is a will, endurance, control, perseverance, sociability. Dryness gives a sharp, severe, always tense character, prone to exaggeration, which can lead to overstrain and weaken the body, to the brutality of the soul. It also gives decisiveness, severity, punctuality and accuracy, the desire to rule over others, to command.
MOISTURE
Moisture generates sensitivity and sensuality. By itself, it is formless, has no clear boundaries. Due to such properties as susceptibility, impressionability, and plasticity, moisture contributes to the creation of various forms. Her own “I” can easily merge with another “I”, but without losing her inner personality. In aggregate, the effect of moisture is of a mitigating nature, i.e. it weakens tension, soothes pain, calms the soul. Moisture is connexions, communications and intercourse. It gives the person a temperate and restrained character, a little passive, gentle, submissive, gentle, sensitive, dreamy, weak, unbalanced. It gives birth to a rich fantasy, gives a living imagination and the ability to adapt to everything, benevolence, and propitiousness.
These four principles of astral energy also affect the mental state of a person, his spiritual world. This sphere has special significance for astrologers and astropsychologists because the human psyche determines the behavior of a person. No wonder it says: “You sow a character – you will reap fate.” The psychic storehouse of a person (his temper, behavior, etc.) astropsychologists determine with a high degree of accuracy.
Heat and cold – the male principles and active. Dryness and moisture are female principles and passive. Heat and dryness are involved in creativity, motion, creation, cold and moisture – in an effort to remain in an unchanged state.
Heat is considered more active than cold, and moisture is more passive than dryness. Therefore, in this respect the coefficient of cold is negative, and the dryness is positive. Movement from heat is more vigorous than from cold, and if moisture only in appearance has a passive state, then dryness is always passive. Still, it should be said that it is easier to fight with a “cold” character than with a “hot” character, i.e. violent, quick-tempered, aggressive.
Vibrations of the astral, stellar or terrestrial character together influence all spheres of our life and correspond to each other. It is the knowledge of this correspondence that gives us the key to understanding that the temperament, moral and spiritual qualities of a person are a collection of cosmic influences that represent a certain combination of four principles known to us on all three planes – material, vital and spiritual.
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