The Fifth Element, Empedocles and the Magian Order.

The Fifth Element (left) & Fragments of Empedocles (right).

The 1997 film The Fifth Element is an unusual entry in the history of cinema. The film has proven divisive among critics and fans alike, with some praising its visual effects while others criticising its over-the-top performances. Despite these differing opinions, the film incorporates the ancient theory of the four classical elements, as described by the Greek philosopher Empedocles, into its storyline. This essay will examine these themes and how they relate to the Magian Order and the Secret Fire - the fifth element described by the alchemists.

The Fifth Element begins in 1914 with Professor Pacoli (John Bluthal) examining hieroglyphs in Egypt that describe the five elements. He is interrupted by the arrival of an extraterrestrial race called the Mondoshawans, who tell the priest present at the temple, “war is coming. Stones not safe on Earth anymore…In 300 years, when evil returns, so shall we” (Besson, 1997). Three centuries later, in 2263, President Lindberg (Tom Lister Jr.) is told by Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) that an evil planet has appeared and can only be stopped by combining the five elements of life that the Mondoshawans have preserved. After an extraterrestrial race called the Mangalores destroys the Mondoshawan ship, the fifth element is retrieved from the crash site and physically brought back to life through biotechnology. The fifth element, or Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), escapes and is rescued by Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), who takes her to Cornelius, who tells them that the four elements taken from Earth 300 years before are with Diva Plavalaguna (Maiwenn Le Besco) and must be taken back to the temple in Egypt.

Using a rigged radio contest as a cover, Dallas, Cornelius and Leeloo travel to the planet Fhloston, where they are accompanied by Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker). At the same time, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and an army of Mangalores go to the planet to retrieve the four elements. They kill the Diva, and during the ensuing battle, Dallas kills their leader, forcing them to surrender. After retrieving the four elements, Dallas, Cornelius, Rhod, and Leeloo travel back to Earth and, at the temple in Egypt, set up the stones and activate them. However, Leeloo, who has learnt about humanity’s history of war and cruelty, has given up on life. It is only when Dallas declares his love for her and kisses her that the power of the four elements is combined to create a divine light that destroys the evil planet and saves the Earth. Dallas and Leeloo are hailed as heroes by the President, and the film ends with them kissing passionately in their recovery chamber.

Now that the plot of The Fifth Element has been summarised, it is important to outline the life of Empedocles and how his philosophies relate to the film. Empedocles was born in 492 BCE in Agrigentum, Sicily. He was the son of Meton, who came from a wealthy family that kept racehorses and participated in the Olympic Games. Trained as a physician, orator and poet, Empedocles was also an admirer of the philosophers Parmenides and Pythagoras, with the latter held in high esteem. In 440 BCE, Empedocles composed two philosophical poems, On Nature and Purifications, with the former addressing cosmogony and zoogony and the latter addressing morality and purity. He died in 432 BCE, although ancient and modern historians dispute the way he died, with some saying he leapt into a volcano while others say he drowned at sea. Indeed, according to Gordon Campbell, “He has been regarded variously as a materialist physicist, a shamanic magician, a mystical theologian, a healer, a democratic politician, a living god, and a fraud” (Campbell, 2026). Despite this difference of opinion, however, all scholars agree that Empedocles was one of the most important philosophers active before Socrates.

In his Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes Laertius summarises Empedocles’ philosophy by saying: “His doctrines were as follows, that there are four elements, fire, water, earth and air, besides friendship [love] by which these are united, and strife by which they are separated” (Diog. Laert. 8.76). The Four Elements define the material form of all things and should not be confused with the substances that share their names (Melville, 2002, p.72). On an exoteric level, the four elements of earth, water, air and fire can be seen as the four states of matter described by modern science: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. On an esoteric level, they also equate to the fourfold nature of the human being: earth corresponding to the physical body; water to the emotional body; air to the mental body; fire to the spiritual body. When combined, the four elements create a fifth element known as the Quintessence, which, according to Sarah Elkhaldy, “is what we also know as the force of unconditional love” (Elkhaldy, 2025). I will elaborate more on the fifth element later in this essay.

In addition to the four elements, Empedocles says that there are two opposing forces at work in the universe: love and strife, or attraction and repulsion. According to Empedocles, these two forces go through a four-stage cycle within the universe. Stage 1 is called The Rule of Love and is when the cosmos is in its most divine and harmonious state. Stage 2 is called the Advance of Strife and sees the cosmos begin to form, causing the elements and life to seek their own kind. Stage 3 is called The Rule of Strife and sees strife rule without any opposition or influence from love. Stage 4, known as The Advance of Love, sees love reappear and cause the separated aspects of the cosmos to seek one another and live in harmony again. As explained by the Academy of Ideas, “The process comes full circle when love again rules supreme, starting the eternal cycle all over again” (Academy of Ideas, 2013). Empedocles also taught that love and strife were moral forces that compelled the elements and individuals to behave virtuously or destructively, depending on their psychological state.

Empedocles was also the first philosopher to develop his own theory of evolution, long before Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 CE. In his evolutionary theory, Empedocles believed that plants evolved from mud, which in turn evolved into animals. Regarding how animals got their shapes, Empedocles says that:

   “Many creatures with faces and breasts looking in different directions were born; some, offspring of oxen with faces of men, while others, again, arose as offspring of men with heads of oxen, and creatures in whom the nature of women and men were mingled, furnished with sterile parts” (Emp. B61).

Although unusual, this parallels Darwin’s theory of evolution, in which random mutations give rise to different variations that are kept in balance by natural selection. Empedocles says that over time, these combinations kept changing, and the best combinations survived and populated the world, giving rise to the animals we see today (Webster, 2000, p.8). This is relevant because it was an early attempt to explain the origin and development of life in relation to Empedocles’ cosmic cycle.

Empedocles’ four-stage cycle also parallels Zoroastrianism. According to conventional historians, Zoroastrianism was founded by the Persian prophet Zoroaster in 588 BCE. However, some scholars place its founding sometime between the sixth and the second millennium BCE. Zoroastrians believe that there are two opposing principles in the universe: the Spirit of Good (Ahura-Mazda) and the Spirit of Evil (Ahriman) [In terms of Empedocles’ philosophy, Ahura-Mazda can be equated with the force of love, while Ahriman can be equated with the force of strife – BB]. According to their cosmology:

   “For 3,000 years Ormuzd [Ahura-Mazda] ruled the celestial worlds with light and goodness. Then he created man. For another 3,000 years he ruled man with wisdom, and integrity. Then the power of Ahriman began, and the struggle for the soul of man continues through the next period of 3,000 years. During the fourth period of 3,000 years, the power of Ahriman will be destroyed. Good will return to the world again, evil and death will be vanquished, and at last the Spirit of Evil will bow humbly before the throne of Ormuzd” (Hall, 2007, p.44).

As mentioned above, this is very similar to Empedocles’ cosmic cycle of love and strife. In my opinion, Persian religious beliefs influenced Greek philosophy more than previously thought during the fifth century BCE.

In relation to The Fifth Element, the priesthood that Cornelius serves can be seen as a counterpart to the Magian Order of Ancient Persia. According to R.C. Zaehner, “The Magi were considered to be philosophers, they were the teachers of the Achaemenian kings, they were the best of the Persians and strove to lead a holy life” (Zaehner, 1975, p.164). The Greek historian Herodotus recorded how the Magi worshipped the sun, moon and four elements, which were their original deities (Hdt. 1.131). They practised alchemy, astrology and other esoteric practices, which they passed down from priest to initiate and kept secret from the profane and uninitiated. In addition, some scholars believe that the Magi were the ancestors of the Gnostics who taught in the Mystery Schools before the rise of Christianity. According to Alexander Wilder, the Mithraic rites “became the foundation of the Gnostic system, which for many centuries prevailed in Asia, Egypt, and even the remote West” (Hall, 2007, p.46). This view is also held by John Lamb Lash, who dates the foundation of the Magian Order to 6000 BCE (Lash, 2006, p.397).

In her book Plato Prehistorian, Mary Settegast describes the founder of the Magian Order, Zarathustra, as “a primitive ecstatic, a kind of “shaman”; at the other, as the worldly familiar of Chorasmian kings and court politics” (Settegast, 1987, p.215). Historically, the shaman’s role was that of an intermediary between the human realm of culture and the non-human realm of nature (Lash, 2006, p.146). During the reign of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE), the Magi acted as advisors to the Persian kings from Cyrus the Great onwards. They were also associated with the development of mass agriculture and urban civilisation in the Middle East during the sixth and fifth millennia BCE. Settegast writes that “The spread of the agricultural way of life and the acceleration of material progress seem everywhere to have been associated with increases in population and, in some regions, with the development of cities” (Settegast, 1987, p.265). With these changes came the need for social systems that could govern these centres of power, and some Magi subsequently became advisors to the kings of the Near East on matters of statecraft and social morality.

According to John Lamb Lash, the extension of the Magian Order into politics around 4000 BCE caused a division between those who sought to nurture human potential through the Mysteries and those who sought to control humanity through social engineering. In The Fifth Element, Zorg tells Cornelius that “Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos…by creating a little destruction, I’m, in fact, encouraging life” (Besson, 1997). Although Zorg seems to be saying that we need the negatives to bring out the positives, he also represents the dominator mindset, which Riane Eisler describes in The Chalice and the Blade. Eisler wrote that “the way they [the dominators] characteristically acquired material wealth was not by developing technologies of production, but through ever more effective technologies of destruction” (Eisler, 1988, p.45). Leeloo refers to this when she says to Korben Dallas, “Humans act so strange. Everything you created is used to destroy” (Besson, 1997). In a sense, the struggle between love and strife, partnership and domination, is one between evolutionary and entropic forces.

The celestial body that threatens the Earth in The Fifth Element also has parallels in Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrian scriptures, the end of the world will come when a comet called Gochihr strikes the Earth 3,000 years in the future. Zoroaster said, “Its “fire and halo” will melt all metals and minerals and will burn up the world in a general conflagration” (Peterson, 1997). In the film, Cornelius tells the President, “The goal of this thing is not to fight over money or power…but to exterminate life. All forms of life” (Besson, 1997). The evil planet, therefore, is a force that works against humanity’s capacity to live and thrive. However, Cornelius also says that the four elements, when combined with the fifth element, produce a weapon that can destroy evil. In his words, “Together they produce what the ancients called the Light of Creation…able to bring life to the farthest reaches of the universe” (Besson, 1997). As we have seen, this is the force of unconditional love, which is also the Secret Fire of the alchemists.

The Secret Fire was one of the most closely guarded secrets of alchemy. In Mystery of the Cathedrals, Fulcanelli describes the Secret Fire as “an occult agent…which, to give a hint about its form, is more like water than flame” (Fulcanelli, 2016, p.82). In other words, it is more feminine than masculine, which is why the fifth element is portrayed in the 1997 film as a woman. Fulcanelli also describes the Secret Fire as the universal spirit, which has the same nature as the Philosopher’s Stone. Francis Melville stated that, “It is the divinity in all things, the inner sun in which all things find their true identity” (Melville, 2002, p.75). Indeed, Cornelius describes the fifth element as the supreme being and the ultimate warrior who protects all life. This mirrors Friedrich Nietzsche's words in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “Untroubled, scornful, outrageous – that is how wisdom wants us to be: she is a woman and never loves anyone but a warrior” (Nietzsche, 2003, p.68). This helps explain the film’s unconventional performances and Leeloo's knowledge of martial arts.

It is worth noting that the Magi revered the Secret Fire in their religious practices. According to Strabo, the Magi in Persia and Anatolia oversaw special temples dedicated to the sacred flame. He says, “in the midst of these there is an altar, on which there is a large quantity of ashes and where the Magi keep the fire ever burning” (Strab. 15.3.15). To the Magi, fire symbolised the eternal light and the presence of Asha (truth), and many Magian fire-temples were flanked by twin columns which symbolised the cosmic dualities of light and darkness. According to Aksel Suvari, “Humanity’s task was to align itself with Asha, the cosmic truth, and thereby become a conscious participant in the maintenance of the world’s divine order” (Suvari, 2025). Vito Cornelius and his son David (Charlie Creed Miles) represent this tradition, whose task is to serve the sacred flame and align humanity with cosmic law.

Another alchemical theme prominent in The Fifth Element is the language Leeloo speaks when she first meets Korben Dallas. Cornelius calls it “the divine language. The ancient language spoken throughout the universe before time was time” (Besson, 1997). In Mystery of the Cathedrals, Fulcanelli calls it the Language of the Birds and dedicates several pages to it. He explains how it is based on the phonetic law and pays no attention to spelling, relying instead on wordplay. He writes:

   “People think that such things are merely a play on words. I agree. The important thing is that such word-play should guide our faith towards certainty, towards positive and scientific truth, which is the key to the religious mystery, and should not leave us wandering in the capricious maze of our imagination…If the usual sense of words does not allow us any discovery capable of elevating and instructing us, of bringing us nearer to our Creator, then words become useless. The spoken word, which gives man his indisputable superiority, his dominion over every living thing, loses its nobility, its greatness, its beauty” (Fulcanelli, 2016, p.43).

In essence, the Language of the Birds is a harmonic language that evokes beauty and relies on wordplay and symbols to spark an intuitive understanding of life’s mysteries (Melville, 2002, p.64).

Korben Dallas and Leeloo also represent the Red King and White Queen, with their hair and clothing embodying this symbolism. In alchemy, the Red King and White Queen represent the masculine and feminine principles present in both men and women. As Dan Brown explains in The Da Vinci Code, “The ancients envisioned their world in two halves – masculine and feminine…When male and female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced, there was chaos” (Brown, 2013, p.56). Korben Dallas’s desire for the ideal partner reflects a collective memory of a time in our evolutionary past when men and women did live in harmony with each other and the power to give and nurture reigned supreme. Indeed, Empedocles says that during the Golden Age, “Nor had they any Ares for a god nor Kydoimos, no nor King Zeus nor Kronos nor Poseidon, but Kypris the Queen” (Emp. B128). Kypris was another name for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, so Empedocles is saying that the force of love reigned supreme during the Golden Age.

To conclude this essay, I would like to present scientific evidence that confirms the underlying message of The Fifth Element. Since 1991, the HeartMath Institute has conducted numerous studies about the role of the human heart in raising a person’s mental-emotional state and influencing world events. In a 2012 study, it was shown that when a person is in a state of heart coherence, they radiate a more coherent electromagnetic signal that nearby animals and humans can detect (McCraty, 2012, p.71). From this discovery, the HeartMath Institute has hypothesised that the bioelectromagnetic fields of the human heart and brain can affect world events and increase global consciousness. In their words, “Every individual contributes to the global field environment, and each person’s attitudes, intentions, and emotional experiences count” (McCraty, 2012, p.75). This is empowering because it shows that negative predictions and conflicts on this planet can be mitigated through the power of heart-centred states of love and compassion. This is the ultimate message of The Fifth Element.

The Fifth Element has received different opinions among fans and critics alike. Although the film was lauded for its special effects, others criticised its excessive acting. Nevertheless, the incorporation of the four elements of Empedocles into its plot gives the film a rich mythology to draw upon. Combined with Persian and alchemical philosophy, The Fifth Element has become a cult classic that shows how the power of love can overcome evil and make the world a better place.

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