Courses

The ancient injunction, “Know thyself!” begins and ends with knowing yourself as a living composite of the four traditional elements. At the most basic level, our bodies and souls are elemental in nature. Fire burns both inside and outside us, in one manner or another. Water courses through our cities as well as our veins. Air enters and exits our lungs, as well as our psyches, until our last living breath, at which point earth takes back into its safekeeping the bones it gave substance to. In their dynamic interactions, the four elements take on a great number of material as well as spiritual forms, some of which this course will explore. In a spirit of open, interdisciplinary inquiry, we will investigate the science, mythology, and panpsychism associated with earth, water, air, and fire. Poets—from antiquity to our own time—will guide our inquiry, as will select scientists, philosophers, and cultural historians. The course will journey through spirit gardens, the underworlds of the dead, the etheric bodies of rivers, the fractal descent of rain, the funeral pyre, the Vestal Virgins’ sacred fire, and the many voices of air and wind. Music and the visual arts will supplement literary, philosophical, and scientific readings.