I · Four Elements & Quintessence

Air (Aer), or Aer Spiritus, is the hot-moist classical element of breath and wind, marked by the glyph 🜁.

Aqua (🜄) is the cold-moist classical element and the lunar solvent that begins Solutio in chymistry.

Chymical fire (Ignis), glyph 🜂, the hot-dry agent of calcination, solar-martial heat, and laboratory combustion.

Quintessence (quinta essentia) is Aristotle's celestial fifth element and the chymists' fully rectified spirit of wine.

Earth (Terra) is the cold, dry classical element of fixity, glyph 🜃, linked to Saturn and the opus stage of coagulatio.