I had a curious thought just now, which I might want to run by the Pnictogen Wing's science division (i.e. @alyx_woodward) for critique. It's roughly this:

Why NOT the "four humours"? The four bodily humours which persist as symbols and poetical language are among those old-fashioned concepts which it became fashionable to deride in the era of the European Enlightenment (so-called) which favored an atomistic perspective upon explaining issues with human health. The human body is compared to a fantastically intricate machine, and diseases of the body tend to be explained in terms of individual faults or agents.

A vague and flawed general conception of biology and genetics has encouraged this atomistic view, which (when allowed to fester) has engendered a great deal of "magical thinking" about the powers of genes, in service of various racial and eugenicist goals. For cultural reasons, the United States and "the West" has developed a strong emotional attachment to the notion that everything begins at the beginning and nowhere else—this irrational tendency to value only starting conditions and first impressions and single tests and so forth has inflamed belief in the mystically predetermining power of genes. This has the advantage of pushing the blame for all troubles into the past.

The preoccupation with atomistic models and itty bitty causes has obscured the simple fact that there's general value in modelling the bulk properties of the human organism in some systematic way, using a sensible basis set of general abstractions. The principle of four bodily humours was suggested by the general division of material things into four "elements", which correspond roughly to phases of matter. The body has its solid earthy bits, its liquid watery bits, its gaseous airy bits, and there's also a division between neutral and ionized matter in the human body that might be considered as some analogue to fire. After all, they do call the general aqueous substance of the blood "plasma", although that's distinct from plasma as a phase of matter.

~Chara of Pnictogen

#2025 #alnair #elementals #fourelements #mspaint

A little remake of https://www.deviantart.com/alexyorim/art/The-Elementals-275707227 on DeviantArt.
Yes, it's mostly made with MS Paint with a bit of tweaks. It's nice to revisit your first pieces, the first tools you've used for art, and how far you've come.

2025

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Four Elements -- A Symphony in Fire, Water, Earth & Air: I. Fire --Andrea Tarrodi -- Nordic Chamber Orchestra
https://youtu.be/V3l7WQuZL2w?si=UgQx5uMfsif1W4JN

After hearing this first movement on the radio, I had to go and find the whole work from this Swedish composer.

It's wonderful! Tarrodi exploits all the possibilities that an orchestra can offer. Given her Nordic origins, one might all too easily link her with Sibelius, but I'm not sure that's right. Her music is of our time but totally accessible; perhaps listeners who enjoy Holst's orchestral suite "The Planets" will find this work much to their liking too.

I heard this piece on "Feminine Fusion", which puts a spotlight on women in classical music in both the past and the present. The program originates with...

#ClassicalMusic #ContemporaryMusic #AndreaTarrodi #SwedishMusic #WomenComposers #FourElements

Let me get a bit metaphorical for a moment.

Since ancient times, the four #elements of nature: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, were seen as the basic components of our universe.

But what if we used that same lens to reflect on today’s economic systems?

(Thread continues…)

#EarthDay #EarthDay2025 #fourelements #sustainability

Four Elements

#elemnts #fourelements

Four classical elements nonbinary moodboard.

#nonbinarypositivity #nonbinarypride #nonbinary #fourelements