In the physical world the Principle of Polarity is prevalent, meaning that there are two poles to everything: so fire can warm us and thus enable life, but it can also destroy. Controlling fire, MAN can heat his home and cook his food. Controlling the fire was probably the birth of civilization. But of course MEN have also used fire to willfully destroy their 'enemies'. But when fire gets out of control, is has enormous destructive powers, and then the fire can kill life and destroy forests, fields and cities. 

Fire has always fascinated MAN. Especially lightning roused their fear - it hit, it killed and caused fires, and because of the sudden strikes nobody could foresee nor avoid, they took it as an expression of an irate god or of divine punishment.

We know the power of destruction the eruptions of vulcanos have, like the eruption that destroyed the isle of Krakatau in ancient times, with a power equal to an atomic bomb, with burning liquid lava destroying all life around. 
And each summer we see the pictures on TV, showing the catastrophies of burning woods and fields because of draught, often enough ignited on purpose.

The Force of fire can be extensive and unbelievable: During the Allied Air war against German cities from 1942 until 1945, there were several occasions, where a fire storm occurred. This was man-made hell. It had carefully been planned and tested and was produced by a huge amount of different types of bombs being thrown in a certain order on the cities, where defenseless civilians lived, mostly old people, women and children. There still exist some private films of that time. The fire storms were described as a terribly roaring, unbelievably strong force, feeding themselves from the oxygen in the air, drawing it into its center with incredible strength, stronger than a hurricane, so people were not able to stand on their feet and the clothes were ripped from their bodies. There were large areas of the cities, whole districts, where white heat was burning with temperatures like in a melting oven, and no living being could escape. What kind of brain can invent that, even think of such things? Not to mention the terrible power of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb... those wars, those weapons have changed the dangers of war, the human power of destruction with the use of fire, even endangering our planet EARTH itself. 

'I am burning and devouring, destructing and preparing the ground for new life. I am transformation - LIGHT - as you can see it in the world of matter - I am SUN - I am LIFE - I am POWER. Do not approach me, MAN! You may have the illusion to control me, but I am helping you only as long as I WANT IT. Only the HIGHEST is my MASTER.'

Water is vital for life on earth, and there is hardly any life that can exist without water (a possible exception may be microbeings within the rocks: but perhaps even they need minimal traces of water). Water itself is basis for innumerous forms of life, and also  human beings can only exist in places with sufficient water for their needs. 

Water has an enormous power that MEN used to operate mills in former times, today for producing electricity by means of dams.
But water also has a terrible power of destruction, coming in  gigantic tidal waves and floods, and heavy rain that can turn a peaceful brook into a roaring stream, tearing down rocks, earth and houses including MAN himself...

Animals and MEN are cleaning themselves with water, the animals with their tongues and their watery saliva, the humans are washing themselves, their clothes, their cars and their places of living with water. For the last couple of centuries they have also been using huge amounts of water for the production of their factories, letting the waste flow back into the rivers, streams and oceans, leaving them poisened, dead and devastated, thus damaging nature and cutting themselves off from life.

Over long periods of time, MEN have been dominating Earth, behaving as if their own lives and their own wants and needs were the only things that counted, disregarding the lives, wants and needs of their animal brothers and sisters and the plants. 

Only now, after having caused vast destruction of nature, draughts and deserts in vast areas of land and the death of innumerous species, they are waking up and begin to sense that they, too, are responsible for the WHOLE, for the planet EARTH, whose stability, self-healing power and plenty they had always thought to be eternal and inexhaustible, if they had thought about it at all. Slowly MEN are beginning to understand, that NATURE is an unbelievably beautiful, wonderful, most complex system of life, in which everything should be working harmoniously together, interweaving in mutual influence and dependence, and in which a delicate balance is eminent. Human egotism has interfered with this balance in wide parts of the globe. But when NATURE dies, MEN will die, too. This is an important learning process for mankind, and it is still going on: It is the step from 'I' to 'YOU' to 'US'.
But the most important step for mankind is still to come:
To grasp that this Life System NATURE, symbol and expression for eternal Giving and Taking, is HOLY, and, being a symbol of Divine WISDOM and the LOVE of the CREATOR, has the function to create physical bodies for spiritual beings and to sustain those bodies, so that, by continuous learning and inner advancement, all the creatures should find their way back to LIGHT.
And MEN will have to learn HUMILITY again and to accept their responsibility for the WHOLE.

'I am flowing - I am flowing - from here to there - from there to here - moving endlessly. Constant motion is my aim - change and  renewal my way - my purpose is SHAPING, CREATING, ACTION in a formative WAY - will not be quiet, because standing still is the end. Do not hold me back, do not stop me, my flow is JOY, rigidity is death. I am holding in myself Eminence and Chaos, formative power and silence. I am flowing LIGHT - flowing LOVE. My murmur, my ripple, my splashing, my roaring are PRAYER - expressions of my JOY of serving HIM - also serving MEN, keeping them alive, just as I am sustaining life in general - but above all, I am serving HIM in everything.'

The 'Element EARTH' is part of the material bodies of all living beings on this planet, and of the material body and substance of our planet, but more than that, also of the material substance of all the other celestial bodies throughout the universe.

But the 'Element EARTH' does not concern the spiritual beings living in those bodies, and neither does it concern the spiritual Being MOTHER EARTH, living in the material body of our planet. Mother EARTH rules the four Elements of Her planetary body, represented by four Angels. 
Once I was shown the Being EARTH, a most beautiful LIGHT Being, in front of the planet EARTH. It was a woman of white and gold LIGHT, with long hair, wearing a long white gown, danccing Her way through space. 
Our planet is a living being just like we are. She is the MOTHER of all beings of NATURE, including MEN - She is NATURE's MOTHER. She gives a body to every spiritual being coming to EARTH, a body consisting of the four elements, just like the body of the planet herself. She is  feeding all Her children, the living beings on EARTH. She is also providing them with health (the deseases are created by mankind itself!).

MOTHER EARTH IS THE SAME BEING AS MARIA, THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN - THE FEMININITY OF GOD, WHO IS CREATING LIFE, IN UNION WITH HIM - ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
So She is not only the MOTHER of our bodies, but also the MOTHER of our souls - just like the Heavenly FATHER is the FATHER of our souls, as well as the FATHER of our bodies. (See also CREATION.)

The guardians fo the Element EARTH are Arcangels URIEL and HANIEL. The Element EARTH is standing for matter, money, property, food, but in an abstract meaning also for stability, weight, protecting darkness, the mother principle, security, for the MOTHER providing for Her children. The maternal aspect of EARTH is fertility, in old paintings often symbolized by her breasts.
Another symbol for EARTH is the steer, meaning: Elementary power, physical power, force, fight, fertility. 

EARTH has cleaning power, because the microorganisms of the soil are transforming dead organic material and poisenous substances into fertile humous soil, which will bring forth new life, new nourishment. 
Also the sand has cleaning power. While picknicking in natural surroundings, you may have washed your dirty hands with sand and noticed that they became very clean. 

Like the other elements, EARTH has the power for terrible destruction, too, in earthquakes and devastating landslides, burying villages and towns.

'I am solid and I AM - yet I am steadily in motion. My movements seem slow - but they are able to overrun you with unleashed, formative power. No human can escape my movements, when they get out of control - yet I apparently offer you a strong basis, a solid ground to carry my children. But my solidity, my rigidity are illusion: I am actually manifested LIGHT, LIGHT in the slowest of vibrations. I am shining with JOY, bringing the LOVE of GOD to all creatures by providing them with the body I lend them. I AM LOVE, expressing HIS MAGNIFICENCE here at the utmost rim of CREATION - and this ardent LOVE makes me glow inside. It is my ASSIGNMENT to care for undeveloped life and to serve its advancement as a mother - and I am advancing accordingly. MAN means advancement to highest maturity to me, just as his stay on me can mean advancement to highest maturity to him. A long time ago I had asked GOD for this ASSIGNMENT, from the deepest LOVE of my Heart. Now MAN is able to destroy me. I am praying for him in LOVE, and in LOVE I am serving him, because this means serving GOD. I still want to be MOTHER and HOME to him. And as I am now ascending, MAN could do likewise. My TRUE SERVICE is WORSHIP of GOD - may MAN realize that this is his service, too.' 

AIR makes most forms of life on EARTH possible, providing for the oxygen they need. Here, too, we can observe the principle of Giving and Taking, as we all have part in this principle when breathing. By breathing, we are all connected with each other and with MOTHER EARTH by way of the omnipresent AIR. Breathing is a very HOLY act - there is much more to it than just the exchange of air. By means of our breath we are able to cause spiritual actions and processes. For instance we can give expression to our will by freeing ourselves from dark energies with the help of our breath, by spreading LOVE, peace and harmony 'on the wings' of our breath, thus using our breath as a means of transport - but we can also use our breath for the conscious intake of the Divine POWER of LIFE. 

In a polaric sense, AIR, this source of life, can also be a terrible force of destruction, when out of control - we call this force: hurricane, storm, tornado... 
MAN is about to destroy the protecting and life-giving air shield of EARTH by exhausts, fumes and other poisenous gasses, like FCKW, and a great amout of contamination of the air is caused by airplanes alone. Like all the other sins against LIFE in general MAN has to answer for, his motivation for destroying this precious air shield is greed and power. Even now, where the problems are realized, some governments cannot agree on reducing the contamination, for fear of losing control over the international markets... again human selfishness is stronger than the responsibility for LIFE on EARTH. We find proof everywhere, every day, that we are living on a planet controlled by darkness.

'Blow - blow - winds - storm! - I am eternally flowing element, am airy LIGHT, related to SPIRIT, from where I come, and also to WATER. I nourish the flame, making it blaze, without me the fire must die. I am bringing LIFE and connect the sky and the earth, as well as HEAVEN and EARTH, just as you are connecting HEAVEN and EARTH by means of your breath, my gift to you. 
I taught MEN to fly - taught them what their remembrance had promised and what EARTH forbade. I function by order of HIM, WHO IS LIGHT, who created EVERYTHING and WHOM I am serving eternally.'

In the early state of EARTH, the elementary forces have caused the forming and destruction of continents many times, thus also causing the downfall of human civilizations that had passed their zenith, finished their assignments or had strayed, and also causing the death of many species of animals, who had finished their assignments as a group or would not follow evolution.
This way the Elements fulfilled their ASSIGNMENTS according to the order of GOD and the ARCANGELS. Nothing in the whole universe ever happens by chance!

Elemental spirits are the living expression of the physical elements of the planet EARTH, as well as of all the other physical manifestations in the universe. They themselves are purely spiritual beings. They are here to create the conditions for life in physical bodies and the conditions for sustaining life, as well as to clean, to clear, to clarifiy, to refresh and renew.
They have an immense power which no physical power can withstand. Like all polaric power, their power can sustain life and destroy life. 

Just like us, elemental spirits are conscious of themselves and enjoy life. Self-forgetting, they are playfully dancing their lives. Here, like in everything, you find male and female beings. There are numerous kinds of elemental spirits. 

The water spirits alone are of a great variety, among them the guardians and keepers of wells and the spirits of the different kinds of waters (wells, brooks, lakes, rivers...), as there are water-sprites, nixes, mermen and mermaids, naiads and water-nymphs. They can dwell on different planes or levels of being, in different dimensions, but they all have common ASSIGNMENTS: keeping, guarding and sustaining the conditions of life, preserving life and clearing the waters. The Great old Beings, like the spirits of seas, streams and oceans, are truly Divine Beings, full of WISDOM and LOVE. 

Also the spirits of earth are guardians of their element, for example as guardians of the mountains and rocks, of plains, of lands and countries, of islands and continents. They are molding precious stones and crystals according to the will of LIGHT, placing them at exactly the right spots, like the crossing points of the energy meridians of EARTH, where their energy is able to spread in an optimal way to allow EARTH and earthly life to strengthen and heal.

The special characteristic of elemental spirits of all kinds is their way of moving in whirls. This may be in an unbound, stormy, roaring force or in a whispering, quiet, harmonic way - as a whirlwind, a tornado or a hurricane, as an eddying water, a swirling brook, a giant wave, as a flickering flame or a roaring fire wall, as moving soil, as an earthquake or a land slide. The earth is moving slowly most of the time, so it is much harder to recognize the pattern of whirl, according to its nature. But when its force is unbound and when several elements are whirling together, as is the case when a vulcano erupts or when rain causes land slides, or the coastal ground breaks away in a heavy storm, then earth beings whirl, too, roaring and raging in the ectasy of speed.

You can find more about the elemental spirits on the page The Realm of Elemental Spirits.
You find more about the 4 Elements on the page The Cosmic Cross and its Symbols.

I found an interesting passage about the Symbolism of the 'Four' in the book "The Kabbala - the Jewish-Christian Way of Initiation" by Heinrich Elijah Benedikt, in the chapter about the symbolism of numbers, here Number 4. Instead of the pictures in the book, I added corresponding explanations. Adding the passage to this page, does not mean that I totally agree with the author's opinion. In the following you will find some excerpts from this chapter, in my own translation: 

"...When we are looking for the 'Four' within our lives, we find it mainly in nature. Nature is its living expression.

At first there are the four cardinal points, the great Cross of the Universe, symbolized by the four 'Cornerstones of the World'. The four seasons of the year are assigned to these four directions of space, but also correspondingly the four times of the day. So morning and spring are assigned to the East, noon and summer to the South, autumn and evening to the West, and midnight and winter to the North.

From the view of natural science we recognize within the number Four the three dimensions of space plus the dimension of time. In the teachings of ancient Greece we find the Four as the number of elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Altogether, we recognize within the number Four the symbol of matter, of substance, actually of time and space. Four is the number of the manifestation of the Divine. The ONE GOD is manifested through the trinity of His Being as the Four. 

Four is also the number of steps in which the Divine LIGHT - descending from HIS source - is forming all the substances of this world. As we have seen in the preface, there are four spheres that are forming this world (=descending from the Source, the One White Light: 1. Azilut, transcendence, causal world; 2. Beriah, mental world, mind, world of differentiating; 3. Jezirah, Soul, astral world, world of correspondences; 4. Assia, matter, World of appearances. Added by MARIA). Their substances - corresponding to the four elements of the material plane - are nothing else but the four aggregate states of light. 

Here it is the original form, the primarily created Light itself, that is forming the purely divine or causal world. It corresponds to the Element FIRE. Its first condensation or thickening is the mental world, the world of thoughts - its corresponding element is AIR. The second condensation of Light is the Astral world. It is the substance of feeling, wishing and sexuality and corresponds to the Element WATER. The third condensation of Light is the material world, the world of solid matter, with the material elements. Its analogon is the Element Earth. This is the world of our actions. 

Four is also the number of the substantiality of Divine Being, with its three bodies: mind, soul and body.
If you regard it this way, the universe, the body and the four cardinal points are representing the four faces of GOD - His breath being the four winds (= blowing from the four cardinal points. M.). 
North, South, East and West are the four cornerstones of the world - symbolized by the four divine animals, the four representatives of the four powers of nature (=elements.M.). Above them Cosmic Christ is standing, called 'The solid Cross of Heaven'. It is symbol of the self-sacrifice of GOD in Creation and in the redemption of all creatures, because in sacrifying HIS essence for creation and creatures, HE Himself is limited by space and time. So HE is crucified in His creature, in us.

To us humans, the Four is a symbol of Earth, for the limiting bonds of time and space in earthly life. As the number Three is symbolizing spirit and mind, the Four is symbolizing the earthly plane, the solid matter and substance, the reality of our daily life. 

Symbol of the Four is the square, but also the cube, the right angle and especially the cross. The latter is mainly a symbol of the four directions or coordinates of space, but also the shape resulting from the unwrapped surface of a cube, which it is related to geometrically (here: the cross of the church, with the prolonged bottom side.M.). It is symbol of the Creator, our True Self, being crucified in us. 

Not only in Christianity, but since ancient times, the cross has been standing for humanity being bound in matter and for the acceptance of the contraint, the burden and the assignment of earthly life. Our lower nature, the persona, our EGO, being bound to matter and lust, is continuously crucifying Christ, our Higher Self, the divine spark within us. Jesus and the two delinquents, being crucified to His left and to His right, are symbols for our higher and our lower nature.
To free ourselves from this entanglement and to find redemption, it is necessary for us to accept the consequence of this entanglement, the troubles and plagues of earthly life, because if we had inner freedom and no obligations at all, with nothing to learn, we certainly would not be here. So it was said after the expulsion from paradise:'You should bear your children in pain... nourish yourself in trouble... work with sweat on your face...'

As the soul is being born into the material body, it is bound to the laws of matter. To become free from these bonds, it is necessary not only to obey these laws, but to accept them fully. This is what Jesus meant by saying, 'I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.'
But the troubles of material life do not only have a causal meaning, but most of all a final meaning, because the incarnation on Earth has a certain aim: The full consciousness of ourselves and the development of our immanent ability to Love.

Crucifying Christ within us, which means hurting ourselves and others again and again, is the consequence of our own ignorance and our deficient consciousness. The ignorant mass of people, having been spiritually unconscious, unawakened, crucifying Christ, is a symbol for our own ignorance, the blindness of our souls and our own deficient consiousness. So Jesus was calling, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'

Just like those blind people had failed to recognize Christ, we ourselves do not - or not yet - recognize ourselves, our True Selves. By ignorance and lack of knowledge, lack of perception and living in spiritual unconsciousness, we err and brake the rules of life again and again (=eating from the tree of knowledge). Being bound in matter and failing to realize our true being are the roots of all evil and suffering. 
As we are crucifying ourselves again and again through ignorance, creating new suffering, the only way out is actually the opposite, the acceptance of the cross, of the suffering and troubles, that would help us to free and redeem ourselves. By accepting life, we will find ourselves. 
The experiences of this process - our triumphs over matter and our EGO as well as the pain of our arrays - will transform us, so that one day, awakening from the grave of matter and ignorance, we will resurrect to life in spirit. 

Only in matter itself the true being of MAN is manifest, not in denial or in arrogant escape. By facing the problems of life, not by turning the back on them, we will find redemption. That is what Jesus meant when He said, 'Those who do not pick up their cross and follow me, are not worthy of me.' This means, that you should not burden yourself with unimportant troubles and problems you created for yourself, but that you should accept and answer to whatever life offers you - within and without. We will not advance by suffering, by letting ourselves be abused or by doing wonderful works of charity that are based on moral ambition, but without inner joy and compassion - but alone by conscious action, coming from the love of our hearts.

God does not want emaciated martyrs, but happy, loving and active people. Life is offering problems enough, so there is no need to burden yourself with self-made suffering. Neither self-excuse, easy escape nor fanatic martyrdom are opening the narrow gate of the Four, but only watchful perception, discerning the important from the unimportant, and answering to the problems of the time being. 

Accepting the cross means realizing the problems we have at this time and answering them from the heart. The task, the meaning of and the answer to life are only found in the consciously experienced moment, at this moment,  here and now. The Four, the intersection of space and time, is the gate to redemtion. Each moment we missed, is an assignment we missed, is missed advancement and missed life.

The Four symbolizes the realization of ourselves in solid matter by working with the four elements. By forming matter, we are forming ourselves, and refine matter as well. The alchimists regarded earth as the 'anathos', the melting oven, that changes us. What could that be other than life, melting us again and again, kneading us, changing us, re-forming us, letting us be reborn. The gold thus being won, is the NEW MAN.

The Four teaches us to realize, accept and solve the problems of daily life. It teaches us to realize that there is a hidden purpose behind everything we experience, everything we meet, no matter how unimportant it may seem - a purpose we have to find, accept, solve and fulfill. As long as we are not able to fully accept our sojourn on earth, as it is enrolling in apparently profane daily life with all its details, little things, nice and uncomfortable happenings, its joys and obligations, and, like Hiob, are still quarreling with God and our fate, we will never find the deeper meaning in life. Nothing can release us from this obligation, neither circumstance nor pretext, neither upbringing nor parents, not our standing in life, not politics nor weather. We are carrying our purpose and heritage within ourselves - each of us!

We will find the meaning and the message of our purpose, our assignments, not by philosophy or by pondering, but alone by doing. It is natural law that we will meet the same problems over and over again, until we have found and accepted their message and fulfilled our purpose. There is no way of escape.

So the Four is also the symbol of accepting the problems of life on earth, and the symbol of the birth of the New Man and his realization within our hearts. It is by solving all the many small problems of daily live, that we are accomplishing the higher task of becoming the New Man, symbolized by the Four and the cross. This way their deeper meaning and archetypal contents are revealed. 

So the Four is - generally speaking - symbol of life on earth, its problems, sufferings, tests, but also its joys and triumphs. In actual daily life we are confronting our inner limits, duality, conflicts, tensions and unbalance, and at the same time have the chance to solve them.

As we have seen, development is enrolling in the continuous rhythmic change of separation and union: from the One (unity/uneven number. M.) to the Two (separation/even number. M.) and back again to the union (Three). While having just regained a more solid basis in life by way of the Three, now the Four as an even number (divisible by 2, thus being a polaric number), bringing full confrontation with life, is jeopardizing everything we had achieved until then, dividing everything that had so far seemed to be whole.

The Four as a polaric... number equals the Two on a higher level: 2 x 2 = 2 + 2 = 4.
But - unlike the Two - it is not expression of polarity as such, but an expression of polarity in a twofold and specific sense. While learning with the Two that all of life is based on contraries, on polarity, thus learning to handle this in a harmonious way, we now find, while confronting the Four - building up from the meaning of the Three - the much deeper going questions concerning the purpose of our sojourn on earth, of our origin as well as the nature, the determination and the assignment of being human. Only those questions are  touching the immanent mystery and the archetypal meaning of the cross and the Four, as plumb-line and scale, the two beams of the cross, are not only mirroring ourselves being crucified between the four dimensions of time and space, but they are also symbolizing the twofold polarity we are expressing: being stuck between Heaven and Earth, between the two poles of receiving and giving (= action), the 'I' and the 'YOU', our male and female aspects. 'Heaven' and 'Earth' are the two souls within us, symbolizing the strife between our spiritual and earthly nature.

We actually are inhabitants of two worlds, being children of Light as well as of Earth. And it is difficult enough and demands a long and difficult struggle to reconcile and combine these our two natures, which seemingly are contradicting each other often enough. Many times we are actually feeling torn between our (spiritual) ideals and our worldly needs and wants. And yet one of the two most basic tasks of us human beings is to unite those two aspects within ourselves. 

Again and again men are taking positions of 'either - or', either building their lives on the material principles of the so-called necessities, duties, the struggle to survive, competition, struggle for lust and external values, or striving for higher ideals and values alone, despising and evading the worldly affairs, meaning to be of higher standing. And thus we have the discrepancy between earth-bound 'realists' and dried out 'idealists', moralists and fanatics, being one the roots of suffering, separation and fighting in the world. 

Actually we should unite both sides within us, expressing our divine-spiritual qualities and aspects, living and realizing them here and now in every day life. We are assigned to realize higher ideals on earth, founding the Kingdom of  Heaven on Earth! It was the message of Christ, not to lose ourselves in unrealistic moralism and diffuse dreaming. Earth and  physical life is our basis for expressing and realizing ourselves and our spiritual principles. And so we are achieving fullfillment and redemption of our human existence by spiritualizing worldly life, by living divinity in everthing we are doing, making each of our actions a sacrament of life..."