Hey guys, I'm that old namefag Quapurgate. Anyway, I actually research things and discovered you guys are buying into the old bases of science. Those planes of existence are actually spiritual versions of dimensions, and those primordial elements are actually spiritual versions of states of matter. Observe how easily they line up with the modern-day scientific equivalents, much like how astrology lines up with astronomy.
Elements
Fire: Plasma
Air: Gas
Earth: Solid
Water: Liquid
Aether: Bose-Einstein Condensate
(this last one was a real fucking lucky guess on the part of the ancients)
They were using symbolic vaguely meaningful concepts as a means of conveying ideas that their primitive mathematics and science had no framework yet to back them up with beyond fictitious stories and spirituality.
There are exactly ten (0th is not technically a dimension since there is literally no dimension to 0) dimensions theorized to exist and exactly seven commonly agreed upon planes of existence among the esoteric community.
Dimensions
Physical Plane: 0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Dimensions
(Dot, length, heighth, depth, and time.)
Astral Plane: 5th Dimension
(Nearby measurably different possible universes.)
Mental Plane: 6th Dimension
(All possible universes with same starting conditions.)
Unity Plane: 7th Dimension
(All possible starting conditions.)
Spiritual Plane: 8th Dimension
(All possible sets of all possible starting conditions.)
Divine Plane: 9th Dimension
(All possible laws of physics.)
Logoic Plane: 10th Dimension
(All possible possibilities.)
Those descriptions below each of those are btw not esoteric, those are the real scientific definitions (in a nutshell) for each of those dimensions. (The dimensions are still a theory of course but they are responsible for filling a lot of the gaps math leaves for our science.)
So what I'm thinking, is the ancients were intuitively feeling for what their science lacked. This intuition was crafted alongside stories. Since they didn't have science to make people believe them, they took the only other option they had to make people believe them: RELIGION. Basically religion was being used as a tool to make people just 'go with it' since their science was too shitty to back them up at that point in time. That's my guess anyway.
Bottom line is you're all just using old spiritual descriptions bastardizing their contemporary scientific counterparts.
The only magic you might be able to justify, is how the ancients miraculously could intuitively guess such highly advanced concepts with no math to help them.
Discuss whatever you want I'm gonna go eat some food 99% of you are bullshitters anyway and the only magic people here are probably just utilizing the same high-level intuition the ancients used to make those generalized bases of science in the first place.
If you want to be constructive, discuss how one might tap into this intuitive power which is probably the only 'real' thing your magic has to offer, if it can even offer that.