Connected with the ancient five elements of Matter there are several traditions describing their character and their role in the material world. We have no idea if the Chaldean or Egyptian occultism had any perception of their presence and functioning, although there is a necessary connection between the occult practices and the five elements. But we do start seeing these elements in one form or the other even in the early Vedic revelations. The Upanishads expound them in different contexts, contexts particularly related with the manifestation of the eternal Spirit, the Brahman, in the universe. In the Puranas elaborate descriptions are presented when they speak of Nature or Prakriti working in the field of cosmic space and time. Later we also begin to notice their loud presence in the functioning of human body and related health aspects, in the science of life; humourology is a development connected with them. In the following we shall quickly trace just a few of these developments before we take up the details of how Narad in the Book of Fate of Savitri might have assumed a gross physical form when he was visiting Aswapati.   more »