Their action tends to be cleansing and soothing. Plants that grow in or near water are also sympathetically associated with the element. Herbs associated with the element of water tend to be juicy and cooling with a light fragrance. The alchemical symbol for water is a downward pointing triangle. The chemical element mercury is often associated with water. In traditional Chinese medicine, water is associated with the kidneys, ears, and bones. The cure therefore for phlegmatic conditions, that is, cold and wet, would be to balance the body with warm and dry through the use of herbs and other items related to the element of fire. Medieval medicine continued this course associating it also with winter and illnesses common in the winter. In ancient Greek medicine, water is associated with an excess of phlegm. In addition to this, the element of water or water elementals may be invoked or evoked in spells and rituals relating to purification, love, psychic awareness, understanding, dreams, sleep, peace and friendship. In Wiccan tradition, the element of water may be called in association with the Watchtower of the West. The elemental weapon of water is the cup or chalice. The Golden Dawn system has incorporated the ancient Greek elemental system into its ceremonial magical system and aligns water with the Qabalistic sphere Hod and the planet Mercury and is assigned to the upper right point of the pentagram in the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. Often salt is added to the water, either to make it more closely resemble seawater, or the waters of the womb, or to blend the energies of Earth with those of water. The ritual area, participants and tools are often cleansed by asperging with water at the start of a ritual or as part of a ritual. Water is used extensively in Magic as both a symbolic and a literal entity as well as a tool for purification and to contain and transfer energy. Water is spawned by metal, spawns wood, overcomes fire and is overcome by earth. The Taoist mystery of water lies in its seeming weakness and pliancy contrasted against the power of floods and its ability to move mountains over the expanse of time. Water is yin feminine and receptive with downward energy and still motion. Traditional Chinese philosophy classifies water of one of the Wu xing or ”’five movements”’. In Hindu tradition, water is one of the Panchamahabhuta or Five Great Elements and the word ”’Ap”’, plural ”’Apas”’ is also the name of the deva of water. Water, being both cold and wet exists between air and earth among the elemental spheres. In the fifth century BCE, Empedocles proposed four archai to which all things could be reduced, water, air, fire and earth. Plato later accepted this concept and expounded on it in the Timaeus. Aristotle later elaborated on these ideas by giving order to the properties of the elemental substances. Pre-Socratic philosophers proposed it as an archai or a single substance to which all things could be reduced. Water is one of the classical elements of Greek philosophy and science.