James,
It is difficult to explain to Turd but I can certainly try it with you.
Your explanation seems reasonable but It is all different concept altogether in Hinduism. And also, I do not think that you can get it anywhere on the net, especially in the English.
There are actually six basic elements in Hinduism.That ontology starts from the Shunya(zero), but it is not zero as we understand that generally. It is not even Emptiness of Buddhism. it is not void either.
This Shunya is one and only element from which each and everything that exists in this cosmos is made of or comes from, including mind, but except consciousness. You can call it omnipotence quality/nature of the consciousness, or rather simply potential of the consciousness, if you want it translate into RM/AO terminology.
Secondly, Hinduism does not say that Shunya starts manifesting all elements at once, like other schools say. Hinduism postulates a specific order of it. Thirdly, all elements do not come directly from the Shunya, but from one after one from its very next preceding phase. Fourthly, these are not exactly physical elements per se, as we understand those in science, but rather metamorphic representations of characters of the elements. We can call them essence or qualities of the physical elements.
Shunya manifests Akash (sky) alone, nothing else. Sky refers to Space and Time, a platform or time, where and when further events can happen. Then, events starts happening and Sky manifests Vayu (Air). Air refers to energy, which is vagabond, forceful, careless and uncontrollable in nature. This is the mightiest amongst all four elements. Now, Agni (fire) is manifested from the air, which represents to the qualities like heat, anxiety, anger and destruction. It is considered less powerful than Air. In the next phase, Water is manifested from the combination of Air and Fire. It is cool, soothing, absorbing and adjustable in nature. It is less powerful than the Fire. Now, As the last step, Prithvi (earth) is manifested from the combination of all other three already existing elements. Being the last manifestation, it is weakest amongst all four elements, thus least energetic too. It represents the qualities like immovability and laziness. But, at the same time, it has most tolerance, patience and bearing capacity.
There is a very subtle issue involved in this ontology, which most of the people tend to miss, even those who have some understanding of Hinduism. Any actual physical manifestation cannot happen unless and until the last element (earth) is manifested. Before that, there are only qualities, not quantities. The reason is that any physical thing needs all those elements to be physical. Even three elements cannot manifest any physical material. The only difference is all physical matters is that, they have different mix of all four elements.
So, when the Biblical God says that he made Adam from the clay, it merely means that Human realm has more (the most) earth element than all other existing realms. It does not mean that Adam was made of only clay and lacked other three elements.
Thus, when all these four basic qualities was manifested from the Shunya and Sky, the real physical manifestation of the realms started happening. Uppermost physical realms and their inhabitants have most Air element in their mix. Realms just below those, use to have the dominance of Fire element. That is why it is said that Jinns are made of Fire in Abrahamic religions. It is merely a figure of speech rather than a reality, just like that Adam was made of clay. In the same way, there are such realms and inhabitants also, which are made of water, as it is the dominant element there, just like the earth element is here, in the human realm.
Now, comes the issue how this ontology fits in gender interpretation.
Amongst four basic elements, there are two very distinctive groups, upper two and lower two. Upper two elements (Air and Fire) are bound to move upwards all the time. They never flow downwards. On the other hand, lower two elements (Water and Earth) never move upwards but bound to move below always.
That is precisely the difference between men and women too. Having air and fire more in them than women, men are more powerful (physically) and innovative. They like to challenge the boundaries, even if may cause harm to others and themselves too. They are also eager and restless, and want to dominate also because of having more ego. On the other hand, women displays qualities of water and earth more. They are calm and cool, and far more bearing capacity than men. Water adds adjustability to their nature. That is why our ancestors laid down the tradition of women leaving its home after marriage than men.
But again, the ratio of mix tends to change slightly in the genders, not much. Earth element is still dominant in both genders. The only difference is than men have slightly more air and fire than women, or women have slightly more water and earth elements in their mix.
The excess of air and fire in men is not always a good thing. More often than not, it harms more than helps. The extra energy of male needs a proper direction. It also needs adaptability of water and patience of earth element to succeed. Only then, men will be able to put aside its ego and use their innovativeness and energy in proper use. On the other hand, women are wiser than men generally, even having less intelligence. They always put their abilities and means to good use.
A scientist will never able to innovate if he would be restless and not have enough patience, no matter how intelligent he may be. All will become useless.
Lastly, i want to draw your attention to a very rare and strange but interesting thing about how this gender issue is played in Hinduism. People generally do not take notice of than, not even Hindus. You have been travelled India and must have seen statues of Hindu gods here, or at least on the net.
Hinduism is the one and only such religion in the world, in which you will never find any male god or deity having beard, not even mustache. You will not able to find even such a single picture on the net. All Hindu gods and deities have clean faces, not a hint of hair on their faces. Even founders of such subsets, who do not follow conventional line of Hinduism, like Buddhism and Jainism, are also always portrayed without any facial hair. I am sure that during your Buddsim tour, you would have not found any monk with beard. The same is true for Jain monks also, even now. On the other hand, you will not find any male god of deity from any other religion without beard, at least to my knowledge.
That tells how Hinduism interpreted gender issue, and how it realized and gave importance to female qualities. That means if you want to elevate, you have to control and refine your maleness. Raw and excessive maleness will lead you nowhere. You cannot elevate at the highest level, unless you develop some female qualities like patience and adoptability.
The only exception in this case is lord Brahma. He is always shown in dense beard and mustache, because he was considered pure male god. That is why he is considered at no 3 in the Indian Trinity, after Shiva and Vishnu. There are thousands of temples of other gods in the india, even besides Trinity gods, but there is only one temple of Lord Brahma, which falls under the definition of temple, though there are two more worship places but they cannot be called temples.
with love,
sanjay