Nature symbols: from part views to the overview

The five element system

In various traditions, the manifestation is based not on four, but five elements. The fifth one represents their unity into an undifferentiated state (For more details, see Unity & diversity). Contrary to simple or compound chemical elements, the traditional elements represent manifestation states. Within the Greek's and derived traditions for instance, four elements (Fire, Water, Air and Earth) are located on a vertical and a horizontal axis oriented according to the compass points. The fifth one (Ether), unifying them, stands at the Centre.

Elements within the Greek and derived traditions

As polarities of the Centre, of the unity, the four peripheral elements can only be strongly inter-related.

Fire

Fire and Water are often associated in purification and re-generation initiation rites. They complement each other, but at different stages. Water purifies the desires until the sublime goodness; Fire does it effectively through the realization of the highest spirituality degree, by enlightenment. With Water, the being is really progressing whereas he is completely transformed with Fire.

As the Sun rays, the Fire can be the nourishing or the creator as well as the consuming or the destroyer. Two aspects, nevertheless, closely linked as a destruction usually precedes a re-generation, a new creation.

Fire is graded according to three levels: terrestrial with the ordinary fire, intermediate with lightning and celestial with the Sun. These levels correspond, within the being, respectively to the body, the soul or psyche and the Spirit.

Water

The undifferentiated Water mass represents the whole potentiality of the manifestation possibilities. As such, it is divided into the Upper Waters associated with the formless or celestial potentiality and Lower Waters related to the terrestrial potentiality of form.

To immerse oneself into waters and re-emerge means passing a disintegration and dissolvation phase into the vast reservoir of potential followed by a re-integration and re-generation phase as in baptism and initiation rites. It is a death within a state of being prolonged by a re-birth into another one. As Fire, Waters are a source of death and life as well as of destruction and creation.

Rain and dew symbolize Heaven's semen or blessing which makes Earth fecund. Being gravid, Earth becomes fertile and germination can start.

Air

Occupying an intermediate space between Heaven and Earth, Air is filled with wind, which can be both a creator and a destroyer just like Water. It symbolizes the breath of the Spirit animating (from “anima” meaning soul) the whole sensitive world. Breath is universally regarded as a principle of life.

Fire and Air are active compared to Water and Earth, which are relatively passive. While the two latest elements are considered as material, Fire and Air are spiritual. Source of the universal life, breath evokes the lightening of the spiritual life.

Earth

Traditionally, Earth was perceived as the passive principle, which had to be fertilized by a germ, a seed, a semen, the active principle. It is the receptacle of celestial influences, the fecund womb, matrix, cave, valley where the germ can grow. Its maturation obeys to complex processes, which all refer to polarities: heat and cold, dry and humid, light and darkness etc.

To fully play this role, Earth needs to be both a creator and a destroyer. On the one hand, she is the bountiful Mother, bringing the beings she bears to life and nourishing them. On the other hand, she is the devouring Mother, demanding the dead bodies for her own nourishment. Earth is giving life and taking it back through the successive cycles of death and re-birth. As the Genesis says: “You are only dust and you will return to dust”.

According to different traditions, elements are interacting to actualize diverse manifested beings. Regarding nature, the interaction of Fire, Air and Earth generate the volcano whereas Air, Earth and Water produce the mountain, the forest and the valley as well as their appendages. All of them have a strong symbolic meaning.

Element interactions

Volcano, mountain, cave, forest and waterfall

To those who live at their foot, volcanoes are terrifying examples of the Earth's destructive power, but also godsend models of its productive and fertility power. The volcano chimney represents the communication channel between Heaven and the Earth's core.

Mountains are places where Heaven and Earth meet. Viewed from the valley, their peaks stand like “World Axis”. Seen from the sky, they look like “World Centres”. Their summits can either be reached directly from the inner cave alongside the symbolic vertical axis or climbed alongside their outer slope. There are numerous paths linking to the summit of a single mountain. Their differences, all the more apparent the lower we stand, are disappearing the higher we move closer to the peak, to the Centre.

Forest, as mountain's hair, allows the mountain to call down the salutary rain, the blessing of Heaven. As a symbol of life, the tree may be regarded as a link between the Earth into which its roots delve and the vault of Heaven, which its topmost branches brush. The downward movement of the waterfall carries the same meaning as the rainy descent of the celestial influences displaying in the valleys and the immensity of the ocean.

Mountains and forest are the chosen haunts of meditating ascetic beings as well as fairies, witches and robber bands. Within the valley, on the contrary, man opens himself to life.

Valley, river and ocean

As symbolic complements of mountains, valleys are opened to receive celestial influences and Waters to fecund Earth. Waters stream down the mountain sides and flow into the sea where they all gather to return to an undifferentiated state. From there, they go back to the sky as clouds. Blown by the wind, they end up into showers over summits and restart a new cycle.

Fresh water recurs in many stories or tales as draught of life, knowledge and truth. Returning to the source or crossing the river from one bank to the other always means overcoming an obstacle separating two different states of being, moving from a lower to a higher state.

Through element interactions, the world manifestation is taking shape, weaving plenty of natural and symbolic landscapes. Standing in the valley, the place for the fecundating alliance of opposites, our eyes are distracted by many views, musing in front of the spectacle of the full development of nature of the substantial world. At this stage, we can only look upwards and turn towards a more essential world.

From part views to the full panorama

The Chinese ideogram for landscape means “mountain and water”. Nothing could be more appropriate. Indeed, most of the Chinese (and Japanese) landscape paintings show and mean exactly that (see picture). Landscapes are just so many journey invitations to go upstream on the river and back to the source. A source buried in the mountain womb, a place where we disappear into the cave depths. There, we lose the power of speech, our bearings and fall prey to our ignorance, fears, anguish feelings, aversions, phobias and terrors. Fortunately, we may also dig up our inner possibilities to get out of that state of utter confusion and rejoin the knowledge light on the mountain summit.

From the mountain apex, our eyes are cast towards the mounts lost in a patch of mist, moving down the wooden slopes and plunging into the valley where the river snakes between fields, groves and houses, towards a faraway sea. All part views perceived from the valley seem suddenly no more separated from each other. They are one. We breathe deeply the bracing air pushing the clouds and their shadow on the verdant background. We feel one with it. We are the air we breathe, the water we drink, the earth we set foot on... Quite often, no trace of living beings can be found in Chinese landscape paintings. In reality, they are still there. They have simply merged into the landscape, living in perfect harmony with their natural environment.

Going up to the summit means seeing the complete panorama, embracing the overall landscape. When surveying it, we do not need words to express our consciousness of all interactions embodied within the landscape and we fully understand what nature really consists of. We are back to the source, to our outer and inner source.

After the preceding developments, you may ask yourself what in the hell this all has to do with the environment ? To make oneself clear, we will consider three environmental themes, apparently far away from each other, and see how going back to the source may bring us closer to the full panorama.

What can we learn from this in relation to the environment ?

Noise nuisances

According to various surveys, noise nuisances represent, in people's minds, one of the first environmental disturbances. Apart from the neighbourhood noise, to which we can always put an end, no doubt that the background noise is growing and our addiction too. Do we have the choice ? Nothing to worry about, we have the perfect response, the double or triple glazing windows. At least, as long as we stay inside. What about the people having a garden ? Are they not allowed to enjoy it in peace ? Especially, people living close to an airport, a highway or simply in an urban area as half of the world population today.

Would it not be better to focus on the noise sources. Less noisy airplanes, lorries and cars or better road surfaces would certainly help, but it is costly and will not solve the question. What about reducing the traffic ? Oh! What an unrealistic answer. Really!

Do business people need to travel so much at the time of video conferences and telecommunication devices. Certainly, they have to keep up regular and personal contacts with their partners or competitors. Nevertheless, these contacts should be restricted to plenary meetings accompanied with bi-lateral contacts letting their interlocutors know that they are more than merely a cog in an enterprise. This implies travelling less for longer stays. Concerning daily needs, telephone calls, e-mails and letters can also personalize business relationships.

Discussions on road freight traffic reduction have occurred for decades. And what has happened ? The road freight transport has grown so much that it has become a major source of environmental disturbance. And what are we doing ? Building more highways. Of course, this will make the situation worse. We have lost so much time instead of really facing the question and finding a better coordination between the various transport means.

And what about each of us ? Will we continue to give greater importance to the private car to go to work or on holidays ? What about a better balance between private and public transports ? It is up to all of us to put pressure on public authorities and contribute to the improvement of a situation causing, each year, more than 40,000 dead and 2,000,000 injured or disable people on European Union roads. During my life, I have travelled a great deal with public transport, despite its lack of coordination. Meanwhile, it was incredible how many contacts I have got and books I have read. My own experience taught me also that it was easier to use public transport in India than in any European country, apart from Denmark. So, there is still plenty of room for improvement in our countries. Moreover, we could learn a lot from less developed countries (See the example of Curitiba in Brazil).

Living an unstressed and peaceful life, notably during our leisure time, is not out of reach. We have to face the nuisance causes, go back to their sources and be consequent. Going back to the noise nuisance source extends the question field to a much broader domain dealing with transport. Would it not be wonderful to kill two old bats with only one stone ? And I am not even talking about the beneficial repercussions on the global warming.

Notice that the noise of super tankers and large vessels, which can be heard thousands of miles away under water, may also stress and disrupt marine life.

Marine water pollution

Around two-thirds of marine water pollution originate from inland through river effluents and atmospheric fallout via rain. Their effects involve the source determination and their location. Point sources, though easy to identify, account only for a fraction of the marine pollution from land based origin. The main contribution to marine pollution comes from non-point sources, harder to identify and which can be located rather far away from coastal areas.

The following table provides an overview of the main marine pollution sources as well as their effects and some responses to address them.

Main marine pollution causes and sources

Causes	Sources	Effects	Responses
Storm water, runoff: Water runs over lawns or solid surfaces, washing pollutants into streams, rivers or bays; Seepage.	Urban and constructed areas; Improper use of pesticides, herbicides or nutrients in farming, gardening, golf courses etc.; Industrial and waste water discharges; Seepage from disposals containing poisonous materials (chemicals, batteries, tires, paint, household cleaners etc.)	Algae booms in coastal waters causing oxygen depletion (eutrophication) killing marine life; Contaminate seafood; Poison coastal marine life.	Storm water ponds collecting and filtering rainwater before it reaches water bodies; Proper use of pesticides, herbicides, nutrients or natural substitutes; Safe disposals and/or poisonous material treatment.
Soil erosion: loose soil carried off by rain.	Mining, farming, construction and other land use.	Impede photosynthesis below surface waters; Clog fish gills; Carry other pollutants such as chemicals.	Plant soil cover.
Organic compounds scattering.	Human sewage, animal waste and plant residue.	Bacteria decomposing organic material and producing additional nutrients; Contamination of coastal swimming areas and seafood; Disease spreading.	Waste and waste water treatment plants.
Various oil products scattering.	Road vehicles, heavy machinery, industry; Oil transfer operations and tanker cleanups; Offshore oil drilling and seepage.	Kill marine and bird life; Coagulation oil litter spoiling marine water, coastal habitats and beaches.	Various oil litter treatment; Development and implementation of oil transport legislation.
Ballast water: transport of alien species.	Marine transport.	Competition with native species; Introduction of new marine diseases.	Ballast water collectors and filters.
Plastic scattering.	Discarded fishing gear; Beach litter; Industrial and household waste.	Plastic debris or bags entangling marine life or mistaken for food.	Cautious behaviour, especially when plastic can last from 100 to 400 years.
Warm water runoff; Global warming.	Cooling water from power plants and industrial sites; Greenhouse gas emissions from various economic sectors.	Kills off corals; Affects temperature sensitive sedentary species.	Retention water pools; Measures reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Over and above the complexity of facing so many aspects, this non-exhaustive table teaches us three things:

• Firstly, the cross-border characteristic of environmental concerns implies to reinforce the international cooperation if we no longer want to consider marine waters as the biggest bin at our disposal.
• Secondly, we are all involved, in a way or the other, in marine pollution and can not say: “This is none of my business”. As actors of this nightmare, we should wake up and not merely delegate to national and international public authorities the huge task of solving this question.
• Thirdly, solving environmental questions entails a whole range of various and costly means.

Therefore, looking for the best cost-efficiency responses should guide each of us in this task. To feel concerned, is certainly the first step on this track and certainly not a waste of time.

Waste management

Regarding waste management, it is usually common to refer to the triple-R rule (Reducing waste volume; Reusing so called out of use products; Recycling waste components) before treating the remaining waste.

Today, we focus on recycling. A lot of the people are sorting their bins and feel proud of doing it. And the more waste we will have, the more we will have to recycle. Is it not prodigious ? However, would it not be better to focus on the waste sources, on their reduction ? Particularly regarding packaging filling up half of our rubbish bins! Less waste means less recycling, less costs and less taxes. A developed society does not recycle more, but wastes less.

Putting the accent on the waste reduction aspect signifies also reusing and maintaining so called out of use products. Some people say that it would be better to buy new products, which consume, in principle, less energy. What about the energy and resources used to manufacture them ? What about the new TV sets left on stand by when not switched on ? Is it really a progress ? What about the computer almost outdated after a few years if not months ? Should we change it to get the benefit of the latest technology or keep them longer ? Notably when most of the people use, at most, 10% of their computer capacities. What a waste of energy and resources. If it turned out that our neuronal connections are not more efficient, would we change our brain after a few months or years use ? By the way, do you not feel more proud to repair any household device yourself than buying the latest fashion model subject to ad campaigns ? And as nobody can repair everything, this would not cut down the employment within the production and distribution sector, but transfer it to the maintenance domain.

After having fully exploited waste reduction, product reuse and maintenance possibilities, we should really focus on recycling, which concerns essentially metal, paper, glass and some plastics for the time being. This would end up in less remaining waste to be finally treated, which is a pollution cause as well.

Implemented in the mentioned order and not the other way round, the triple-R is an excellent waste management strategy. Decoupling waste and economic growth and finding best cost-efficiency solutions implies getting closer to waste production sources and to reduce them.

Bibliography

François Terrasson:

“The fear of nature”. Sang de la terre Publisher, 1991;

“The anti-nature civilization”. Du rocher Publisher, 1994.