Six

The Four Elements

The Temperament of Man is hot and dry, and
that of the Woman is cold and moist. 141

Dr. Marin Cureau de la Chambre, France, 1665

Modern divinatory meanings in astrology and tarot are greatly indebted to the theory of four elements of Greek philosophy. Occultists have long associated tarot cards with the classical elements—Fire, Water, Air, and Earth—and have used the underlying qualities of the elements to suggest affinity or antipathy among the cards. The Golden Dawn, so influential in the development of modern tarot interpretations, explained the interaction of the tarot cards as follows:

To understand this system of the Golden Dawn, we need to study the four elements and their primary qualities. This topic can be complex, but it is worth the effort because these ideas underlie much of the symbolism of both astrology and tarot. Understanding the four elements will give the reader a fundamental understanding of tarot symbolism that cannot be achieved by any other means. Don’t worry if philosophy is not your cup of tea. I will explain things as simply as possible, though you may need to read certain sections more than once. No pain, no gain. Or perhaps a better refrain would be: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” The alchemical symbols of the elements are as follows:

Masculine/Active/Light

54391.png

54380.png

Fire. Air.

Feminine/Passive/Heavy

54470.png

54461.png

Water. Earth.

The symbols for the masculine/active/light phallic elements, Fire and Air, point upward. In contrast, the symbols for the feminine/passive/heavy receptive elements, Water and Earth, point downward. The resemblance in shape to human genitalia is no coincidence. Ronald Decker notes that Italian card players called the Cups and Coins the “round suits” and the Batons and Swords the “long suits.” 142 Tarot interpreters would later regard Wands/Batons (Fire) and Swords (Air) as phallic symbols, and Cups (Water) and Coins/Pentacles (Earth) as womb symbols. As the authors of Tarot for Relationships explain, “the male penis is seen as active, hard, and penetrating, while the female vagina is seen as passive, soft, and yielding, and the female womb as receptive and nurturing.” 143

Another way to view the four elements is to compare them to the classic figure of yin and yang of Chinese philosophy. Yin is considered the female, passive, receptive principle of nature; it is related to shade, cold, nighttime, and the moon. In the tarot, the even-numbered cards are considered yin. Yang is the male, active, assertive principle of nature; it is related to light, heat, daytime, and the sun. In the tarot, the odd-numbered cards are considered yang.

The ancient philosophers often based their ideas on analogies with nature, especially the form and function of the human body. Men were considered fiery (hot and dry) and were portrayed in Renaissance art as tanned and trim, with muscular torsos because the lightness of Fire (heat rises) causes male flesh to distribute itself preferentially in the muscles of the upper regions of the body. Women, on the other hand, were considered watery (cold and wet) and were portrayed in art with pale skin, rounded features, large hips, and bountiful buttocks because the heaviness of Water, a cold element, causes female flesh, to settle preferentially in the lower parts of the body (cold sinks, water flows downward).

Fire refers to radiant energy, like the light emanating from the sun and the stars. Ovid in his Metamorphoses mentions that Fire is the lightest and highest element. Its symbol is an upright equilateral triangle. Each element has a particular directionality. Being light and hot by nature, Fire and Air tend to rise above the surface of the earth. On the other hand, Water and Earth, being heavy and cold, tend to sink below the surface of the earth, and their triangular symbols point downward.

“Hot” Fire and Air expand upward and outward or, as Aristotle says, move centrifugally toward the outer limit. “Cold” Water and Earth contract downward and inward or, as Aristotle says, move centripetally toward the center. Earth, being the “heaviest” and slowest-moving element, can be found beneath the bodies of water that it sustains. From lightest to heaviest, according to Aristotle the elements run in order as follows: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. 144 Schwickert and Weiss make the following analogy between modern ideas about states of matter and ancient concepts of the four elements:

The idea of four elements is attributed to the Greek philosopher Empedocles of Sicily
(c. 492–c. 432 BCE) who explained the world in terms of four “roots of all things.” His writings contain many botanical metaphors, and historians believe Empedocles may have been a healer familiar with the curative properties of plants. Later philosophers renamed Empedocles’s four “roots” the four “elements” and used them to explain the natural world. The Greek word for “element,” stoicheia, is the same word used for the various letters in the Greek alphabet. Empedocles pictured the elements or roots as building blocks of matter much as the letters of the alphabet form the words of a language. Everything that exists in the material world is considered a combination of the four elements.

According to Empedocles, in the beginning there existed two primal and opposing forces in the universe: Love and Strife. These primal forces acted on the four elements, causing them to interact and form the material universe. Love (philia in Greek) seeks harmonious union and is associated with the Greek love goddess Aphrodite, or the Roman Venus. Strife (neikos in Greek) seeks differentiation and is associated with the Greek war-god Ares, or the Roman god Mars.

Love brings together. Strife pushes apart. Psychoanalysts will see a parallel between Empedocles’s notions of Love and Strife and Freud’s ideas about libido and thanatos, the death instinct. Physicists will recognize Empedocles’s description of the action of Love in the natural world in Newton’s theories about the force of gravity. Modern cosmologists will see a parallel between Empedocles’s Strife and the dark energy still pushing the universe apart so many years after the Big Bang.

In Empedocles’s theory, the cosmos begins as a divine harmonious sphere in which Love has homogeneously fused together the four eternal elements into a state of loving unity—something akin to homogenized milk. This perfect blending of the four elements into a loving homogeneous sphere renders the existence of matter impossible. All that exists in the beginning is an immaterial sphere of homogeneous “oneness” of the elements which are united by Love (a kind of hippie utopia from the 1960s). This loving Oneness has the as-yet-unmanifested potential to develop into material reality.

Along comes Strife, the nemesis of Love. Strife is the odd one out, relegated to the outer limits of the cosmos. Gradually Strife bores his way into the primal loving sphere and cleaved the One into many—a philosophical Big Bang. In our milk analogy, Strife caused the cream to separate from the homogenized milk. Love favors oneness and unity, but Strife fosters separation and differentiation.

In the tarot, the even-numbered cards come under the influence of Love and often depict scenes of harmony, giving, union, contemplation, or repose. The odd-numbered cards, lacking the balance of loving evenness, are minions of Strife and often depict tension, attack, challenge, defense, and separation. Under the influence of Strife, the eternal elements precipitate out from the primal sphere, like cream rising to the top of the milk. The four elements then combine with one another in various proportions, and the world of discrete matter takes form.

Under the ongoing pressure of Strife, material reality will eventually come to an end. Strife ultimately causes the elements to separate into their pure forms. Empedocles calls this new state, under the total domination of Strife, the whirl. In this whirl of Strife, the four elements have completely separated from one another into four distinct groups, each homogenously comprised of a single element. The world of matter as we know it ceases to exist. But then along comes Love, who reasserts herself against the whirl of Strife. Love’s embrace causes the elements to combine again, forming a new universe of material reality as the disparate elements unite in various proportions. Under the continuing influence of Love, the elements eventually reunite into the primal sphere of loving Oneness. The material universe again ceases to exist until Strife upsets the balance and the endless cycle begins anew.

We can view Empedocles’s theory of Love and Strife from the viewpoint of the lemniscate (the infinity symbol, a figure 8 turned on its side). The lemniscate—a popular symbol in many tarot decks—is a special case of the Cassini oval. In 1680, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini studied all the curves that could be formed in a plane by a set of points distributed such that the product of the distances of any point on the curve from two fixed points (or foci) remained constant. For the mathematically challenged, you take any point on the curve, measure the distance from that point to the two central foci, multiply those two distances together, and the product is always the same number. This particular Cassini oval plays a prominent role in the Waite-Smith and Crowley-Harris decks. It may not be obvious, but there is a connection between the lemniscate and Empedocles’s creation myth (Love, Strife, the four elements, and the cosmic cycle). Understanding this connection can give us a greater appreciation of this symbol on cards like the Waite-Smith Magician, Strength, and Two of Pentacles.

Empedocles’s Loving sphere and Strife-generated whirl correspond to the central point where the loops of the lemniscate intersect—the midpoint of the sideways figure eight. At this midpoint, the material world cannot exist. If we assign Strife to the right-hand loop of the lemniscate and Love to the left, then the right-hand side represents the world of matter as we know it, brought into existence by Strife’s increasing influence on the Loving sphere.

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Infinity Symbol (Lemniscate).

As we proceed around the loop of Strife, we eventually return to the central point, which under the influence of Strife now consists of four pure elemental groups of the whirl where matter as we know it cannot exist. Love reenters the picture and these elemental groups begin to combine again, producing a new material world on the left, a kind of parallel universe. As we travel around the loop of Love on the left, we eventually return to the central point, which now has the form of a homogenous sphere of Oneness, and the cycle starts over.

Empedocles’s account of the origin of the universe resembles the modern theory of the Big Bang, in which there was a great initial explosion that created an expanding universe filled with matter and antimatter. These particles and antiparticles were originally together at a unified central point of homogeneous nothingness. For some reason (perhaps the influence of Strife), the laws of physics dictated an imbalance in the amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe. For every billion particles of antimatter there were a billion and one particles of matter (Love and Strife were not evenly matched). As these particles of opposite polarities proceeded to annihilate one other and return to their primal state of blended oneness (under the unifying power of Love), the remaining particles of matter combined to form the world as we know it.

After pondering Empedocles’s theories, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) offered his own view on how material reality comes into being and goes out of existence. 146 He began with the idea that the material world consists of objects that we can perceive, especially with our sense of touch. If we can touch something, we know it exists. Through touch we become aware of certain qualities of an object, qualities that fall into complementary pairs such as hot or cold, wet or dry, hard or soft, rough or smooth, viscous or brittle, and so on. These qualities also describe Empedocles’s four “immutable” elements because all matter consists of combinations of the eternal four elements. Aristotle believed, however, that Empedocles’s elements are not immutable because they can morph into one another. Thus, the four elements must be composed of something even more basic, namely qualities that truly are immutable.

Aristotle argued that the various tangible qualities can be grouped into two broad categories: those that are active or have the power to act, versus those that are passive or receptive and susceptible to being acted upon. In making this distinction, Aristotle had in mind the duality of male and female, that is, the active erect phallus versus the passive receptive vagina. He regarded four qualities in particular as being essential because all other tangible qualities can be derived from them. The four distinguishing qualities fall into the polarities: hot versus cold, and wet (or moist) versus dry. It is important to keep in mind that Aristotle is talking about philosophical principles rather what we mean commonly when describing things as hot, cold, wet, and dry.

Having narrowed the essential qualities down to four, Aristotle states that the two qualities of the first pair, “hot versus cold,” are active and have the power to act by associating. In contrast, the two qualities of the second pair, “dry versus wet,” are passive and involve being acted upon, that is, being susceptible or conforming.

Aristotle’s main idea about heat and cold is that they are active principles that associate things. Heat and cold differ, however, in the kind of things that they bring together. Citing various examples from nature, Aristotle notes that the heat of fire actively “associates things of the same kind” in a process of purification that burns away the dross. Cold, on the other hand, joins together and actively “associates things of different kinds.” Consider for example the modern alcoholic beverage, the frozen daiquiri, which brings together disparate ingredients into a slushy, semifrozen mix. Or better yet, think of a child who licks a shiny flagpole on a freezing winter’s day only to find his tongue securely united with the icy pole.

The quality of wetness (fluidity) is found in air and water because these elements flow and assume the shape of their containers. Something “wet” is fluid and malleable, adaptable in shape, plastic, conforming, easily molded, and not determined by a boundary of its own. Something “dry” is passive in the sense that its shape must conform to its essential nature and inherent definition. Dry things tend to be inflexible, rigid, shriveled, hard, distinct, resistant to change, and not easily molded. In Aristotle’s words, “dry” is that which is “readily determinable by its own limit, but not readily adaptable in shape.” 147 In other words, “dry” things are self-determined or self-defined. Aristotle had in mind Plato’s ideal forms (archetypes) to which objects in the natural world conform.

Having concluded that all tangible qualities can be derived from four essential ones, Aristotle argues that these four qualities cannot be further subdivided. Thus, they constitute the four most fundamental qualities of the universe:

It is clear, then, that all the other differences [in tangible qualities] reduce to the first four, but that these admit of no further reduction. For the hot is not essentially moist or dry, nor the moist essentially hot or cold: nor are the cold and the dry derivative forms, either of one another or of the hot and the moist. Hence these must be four. 148

Aristotle’s view is rather amazing. He maintains that all properties of physical matter can be described in terms of just four essential ones: hot, cold, wet, and dry. Let’s take a closer look. Remember that we are describing philosophical principles and not the commonplace meanings of these four words:

Volcanic eruptions demonstrate the contrast between hot and cold. During a volcanic eruption, hot lava is propelled upward and outward; but as cooling takes place the lava flows downward until it congeals and turns into solid rock. We call people who are unfeeling “cold-hearted” and those who commit heinous crimes without remorse “cold-blooded.” Cold actively brings together things of different kinds into a chilled mass of disparate entities, somewhat like a frozen asteroid in outer space. In human terms, cold seeks to join people into one big (happy or dysfunctional) family. In the ancient theory of body humors, “cold” women are inwardly focused and gifted at pulling people together and getting them to cooperate by uniting disparate points of view.

“Wet” people play softball rather than hardball. Wetness earns water its reputation as a universal solvent. Wet things, like air and water, do not determine their own shape but passively conform to an external limit. Because of their blurred boundaries, wet things are not clearly defined. Wetness accounts for our capacity for whimsy. We say politicians are “all wet” when they lack backbone and bend to the will of moneyed lobbyists. Dryness, in contrast, has a backbone that is rigid and unyielding.

Wetness goes with the flow and does not determine its own shape. “Wet” human bodies tend to be rounded and soft because of the abundance of fatty tissue overlying the muscles beneath the skin. In the ancient theory of bodily humors, women (considered “cold and wet”) had rounded bodies and soft features. Excessive wetness produces people who are passive and submissive; they morph easily, have poor boundaries, and tend to merge with others. Have you ever spilled water (wet) on a dry page of text written with a fountain pen?

Dryness has sharply defined limits, vehemently resists change, and does not go with the flow. What you see is what you get. If pressure is applied, dry things tend to snap. Like Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, dryness says, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” Unlike wetness, which regards separation as an illusion, dryness adheres to an inner ideal or limit, an inherent form that distinguishes it as unique and different from others. Dry human bodies tensely maintain their inherent form; they have sharply defined features and a “ripped” appearance because of the tension in the muscles and the scarcity of body fat. In the ancient theory of bodily humors, men were considered “hot and dry” and were depicted in art with chiseled muscles put to dynamic action.

The Four Qualities and the Elements

FIRE 63141.png

(hot > dry) **

HOT

(energizes, activates;
unites “like” things)

AIR 63137.png

(wet > hot)

DRY
(tensely self-determined form)

↑

(bonding)

← (conforming) →

↓

WET
(fluidly other-determined form)

EARTH 63143.png

(dry > cold)

COLD

(chills, sinks, slows;
unites “unlike” things)

WATER 63139.png

(cold > wet)

** In this text, I have used the mathematical symbol “>” for “is greater than” and “<” for “is less than.”

The vertical axis is active and bonding or affiliating;
the horizontal axis is passive and adapting or conforming.

Aristotle’s four qualities lie along two dimensions—one, active and associative; the other, passive and conforming. The qualities of hot and cold are opposites that lie along the active dimension of bonding, affiliating, or joining together. “Hot” purifies and joins together things of the same kind whereas “cold” combines and amalgamates things of different kinds. On the other hand, the qualities of dry and wet are opposites that lie along a passive dimension of conforming or adapting to some inner or outer structure. The shape of a “dry” object conforms to its inherent essential nature and is thus self-determined. In contrast, something “wet” conforms to the shape of its container and is determined by something outside itself.

Keywords for the Four Primary Qualities of the Elements

Essential Quality

Keywords

Body Type

Hot

Expansive, moving upward and outward, arousing, radiant, enlivening, energizing, vital, passionate, future-oriented, impulsive, active, speeding up, enterprising, “in heat”; bonds together things of the same kind in pure form

Full-bodied, muscular; warm
and rosy skin

Dry

Tense, vehement, unyielding, exaggerated, precise, sharply defined, hard, inflexible, bossy, self-defined, dominating; resists change, has a rigid structure, reduces things to their essentials, is self-determined by its own inherent form

Sharply defined; chiseled, “ripped” or tense musculature; coarse and dark skin

Cold

Contractive, moving downward and inward, centered, calm, settled, deliberate, heavy, concentrating, plodding, slowing, pessimistic, contemplative, fearful; tends toward inactivity, brings together things of different kinds

Thin; cool, dull, and marblelike skin

Wet

Fluid, yielding, obliging, softening, pacific, surrendering, merging, loosening, soft, flexible, adaptable, lacks its own form, impressionable, kind; goes with the flow, lacks backbone, passively conforms to the shape of its vessel

Rounded body, soft features; muscles not well-defined; warm, moist, and pale skin
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Properties of the Four Elements according to Aristotle.

Ten Essential Principles of Creation

In summary, in the beginning there was a dimensionless point of Loving Oneness that contained within it the potential to create the material universe. Strife acted on this primordial Oneness, to produce a “big bang” that set in motion the process of combination of the four elements to create matter as we know it. Aristotle believed that the four eternal elements (Fire, Water, Air, and Earth) have their own “subatomic” structure, namely, the four primary qualities (hot, cold, wet, dry). Thus, ten essential principles underlie all of creation: Love, Strife, the four elements, and the four qualities. The Pythagoreans regarded “10” as fundamental to all of creation, as did the Kabbalists who borrowed this idea from Pythagoras to explain their ten steps of creation. I believe it was Crowley who made a connection between the fundamental nature of the number ten(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10), the twelve signs of the zodiac (3 modalities x 4 elements = 12), and the twenty-two trumps of the tarot (10 + 12 = 22).

An Elemental Algebra for Tarot Readers

Aristotle noted that the four essential qualities are not evenly distributed among the elements. In fact, a different quality predominates in each of the four elements. If we use the letters H for hot, C for cold, W for wet, and D for dry, we can create a kind of “algebra” to indicate in an easy way the predominance of qualities of each element. This system of notation is a general guide and is not intended to be mathematically precise. In other words, our proposed algebra of the elements is more “wet” than “dry.”

This system of notation allows us quickly to see the inner composition of each element and to determine what would happen if we were to combine two elements. Heat (H) counterbalances cold (C), and wetness (W) counterbalances dryness (D). The element Fire (HH D) is the opposite of Water (CC W), and the element Air (WW H) is the opposite of Earth (DD C).

In Aristotle’s view, the elements can be converted into one another by making changes in the qualities that compose them. Two elements with a primary quality in common can easily be converted into one another. Two elements with no primary quality in common require considerable effort and a two-stage process to convert one into another. Occultists absorbed Aristotle’s distinction into the concept of “dignity.” Thus, two tarot cards that share a primary quality (e.g., Wands with Pentacles or with Swords, or Cups with Pentacles or with Swords) are said to dignify one another. Two cards that have no primary quality in common (e.g., Wands with Cups, or Swords with Pentacles) weaken one another.

In the occult worldview, when Fire (HH D) joins with Water (CC W), they appear to cancel each other out and seem to return to primordial nothingness (HH counterbalances CC, and D counterbalances W)—something akin to matter annihilating antimatter. In the world of Empedocles, however, the elements cannot annihilate one another. Fire and Water, being eternal, continue to exist; but if the amount of each element is perfectly matched by its polar opposite, the net result of their interaction will be a return to the perfect loving Oneness of the primal Sphere, which manifests as a kind of paralysis of action in the mundane world. 150

One can compare the combining of antagonistic elements to the state of the U.S. Congress when equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans are in power. The two political parties continue to exist but pull in opposite directions so that nothing gets done. A state of paralysis pervades the Senate and House of Representatives. This analogy is not perfect because even when the two parties are unevenly distributed, nothing seems to get done.

In any case, when Earth (DD C) joins with Air (WW H), they also appear to negate one another because DD counterbalances WW, and C counterbalances H. As in the case of Fire and Water, the elements Earth and Air continue to exist; but if they are in a perfectly balanced state, the action of one counterbalances that of the other, resulting in paralysis.

In the real world the elements are never perfectly matched and their elemental qualities are not able to cancel each other out. Generally there is a predominance of certain qualities over others. If something strongly Fire mixes with something moderately Water, then heat and dryness have an edge over cold and wetness, and the net result is mildly fiery. For example, the tarot Queens are associated with Water, but the Queen of Cups, a member of a feminine Water suit, is decidedly more “Watery” than the Queen of Wands, who belongs to a masculine Fire suit.

In summary:

Qualities of the Four Elements

++ Primary

+ Secondary

Hot:

H

Cold:

C

Wet:

W

Dry:

D

Directionality or Heaviness

Alchemical Symbol

Gender

Fire

(HH D)

+ +

+

↑ ↑

63145.png

Active, Masculine

Air

(WW H)

+

+ +

↑

63147.png

Active, Masculine

Water

(CC W)

+ +

+

↓

63149.png

Passive, Feminine

Earth

(DD C)

+

+ +

↓ ↓

63151.png

Passive, Feminine

In ancient Greek medicine, the four essential qualities gave rise to the notion of the four bodily humors described by Hippocrates. In a fascinating book entitled Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women: The Theory of Humors in Western European Art 1575–1700, art historian Zirka Filipczak shows how the idea of four temperaments influenced the manner in which the human form was depicted in Renaissance art. As one reviewer comments, “Explanations of sexual difference that were current then sound very strange now,” yet these are the views that underlie the symbolism of astrology and tarot as we practice them today. 151

The idea of temperaments, based on the four elements and four bodily humors, influenced Western medicine (and astrology) for roughly two thousand years and held sway from ancient Greece until the advent of modern medicine in the nineteenth century. Over the centuries, the division of personality into four basic types has undergone many revisions, most notably in recent years in the theories of Carl Jung and the related Myers-Briggs profile, which divides humanity into sixteen personality types closely resembling the sixteen court cards of the tarot.

The main proponent of the theory of humoral temperaments was Galen (c. 129–c. 216 CE), a prominent Roman physician of Greek ethnicity. Galen associated the bodily humors with the essential qualities of Aristotle and the four “roots” of Empedocles. The ideal temperament consisted of a balanced mixture of all four qualities. A predominance of a particular humor led to a specific temperament with psychological as well as physical ramifications. When we study the sixteen court cards of the tarot in the next chapter, we will see how each court card represents a different mixture of primary qualities and thus displays different temperaments. Dr. Stephen Montgomery believes the idea of four temperaments dates back thousands of years. 152 He cites the book of Ezekiel of the Old Testament, which describes an apparition of four faces of humankind:

As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. (Ezekiel 1:10, King James Bible)

This passage is echoed in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation:

And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. (Revelation 4:7, King James Bible)

Astrologers view the four faces mentioned in Ezekiel as representing the four fixed signs of the zodiac: Leo the Lion, Taurus the Bull, Aquarius the Water Bearer, and Scorpio the Scorpion/Eagle. These are the same symbols that appear in the four corners of tarot trump XXI, the World or Universe of many tarot decks.

Fiction writers use ideas about temperament to create characters. In the Star Trek series, for example, Captain Kirk was an exuberant Fire type; Mr. Spock, an analytical Air type; Doctor McCoy, a nurturing Water type; and Chief Engineer Scotty, a pragmatic Earth type. The watery doctor often kept fiery Kirk’s wild enthusiasm in check. The engineer’s nuts-and-bolts approach to problem solving often conflicted with the precise theoretical logic of Mr. Spock.

The Golden Dawn looked to the elemental qualities to determine how the tarot cards interact with one another. As mentioned above, cards of the same element greatly strengthen one another whereas cards of opposite elements (Fire versus Water, Earth versus Air) cancel out or neutralize each other’s influence. All other card combinations are considered friendly.

A more subtle picture emerges when we consider the sixteen (4 x 4) possible ways of combining the four elements with one another. Two cards, A and B, can be: (1) kindred spirits—having an identical makeup because they share the same primary and secondary qualities; (2) B can be a close friend of A because the primary quality of A matches the secondary quality of B; (3) B can be a friendly acquaintance of A because the secondary quality of A matches the primary quality of B; and (4) A and B can have nothing in common, that is, no qualities in common. To summarize in obsessive detail for the nerdy among us, myself included:

  1. When one tarot card is paired with another of the same element (suit), the two cards greatly reinforce one another because they have an identical makeup. Example: Steve and Jim both love heavy metal music and like jazz to a lesser extent. Their interests are identical and they thoroughly enjoy each other’s company.
  2. When the primary quality of card A matches the secondary quality of card B, then A thoroughly enjoys B’s company and benefits by it. Card A feels it has found a good friend in B because they both share A’s primary interest. Through its primary quality, Fire gets along well with Air, Water with Earth, Air with Water, and Earth with Fire. Example: Steve is crazy about heavy metal music but enjoys jazz to some extent. Jim is crazy about jazz but enjoys heavy metal to a lesser degree. Steve is happiest when he and Jim attend a heavy metal concert, but Steve is willing to accompany Jim to a jazz concert though it’s not Steve’s first choice, and vice versa. This same example applies to the next point (#3).
  3. When the secondary quality of card A matches the primary quality of card B, then card B has a primary connection with A and benefits greatly by the relationship. B considers A to be a good friend. Because card A has only a secondary connection with B, however, A regards B as a friendly acquaintance rather than a close friend. Fire connects through its secondary quality to Earth; Water to Air; Air to Fire; and Earth to Water.
  4. When two cards have no primary qualities in common, they possess opposite traits and don’t support one another. They pursue divergent interests and effectively neutralize each other, which can lead to a state of paralysis when they spend time together. Having contrasting qualities, they could even become enemies. Fire is the opposite of Water, and Earth is the opposite of Air. Example: Jim loves extreme sports and heavy metal concerts. Mary loves sitting at home to read a good book and listening to opera. What are the chances that Mary and Jim will have a successful date?

Applying these ideas to the tarot suits:

Elemental Affinities among the Tarot Cards (read across)

Suit:

Kindred Spirit (Birds of a Feather)

Close Friend

Friendly Acquaintance

Nothing in Common, Potential Enemies

Wands (Fire) →

HH D

Wands (Fire)

HH D

Swords (Air)

WW H

Disks (Earth)

DD C

Cups (Water)

CC W

Cups (Water) →

CC W

Cups (Water)

CC W

Disks (Earth)

DD C

Swords (Air)

WW H

Wands (Fire)

HH D

Swords (Air) →

WW H

Swords (Air)

WW H

Cups (Water)

CC W

Wands (Fire)

HH D

Disks (Earth)

DD C

Disks (Earth) →

DD C

Disks (Earth)

DD C

Wands (Fire)

HH D

Cups (Water)

CC W

Swords (Air)

WW H

A Tarot Reading Using Our Elemental Algebra

Let’s look at an example to bring these philosophical ideas to life. Recall the reading done by Kevin in Japan regarding his search for a teaching job. Kevin finally decided to do volunteer work to gain experience in the classroom. Because he was anxious about his first day as a volunteer at school, we did a three-card reading to ask how the day would go. The cards that appeared were:

Four of Wands—The Star—Five of Wands

The Four of Wands seemed to mean that his first day as a volunteer was an important and harmonious milestone in his life. The Star in the middle is a card of hope, suggesting that his dream is in the process of manifesting. The Five of Wands on the right suggests Kevin spending a spirited time with a group of youngsters. Kevin was delighted with the reading and said it was right on target. He added that he had been invited recently to join a karate class, which he felt was also indicated by the Five of Wands.

Let’s consider an elemental overview of these three cards. Wands are an active masculine suit associated with Fire, whose qualities are hot and dry. In the Golden Dawn system, the Star trump is an active masculine Air card (Aquarius), whose qualities are wet and hot. The fact that all three cards in the spread are active and masculine suggests that Kevin is taking charge and making things happen in his life. Had the cards belonged to the passive feminine suits, he might have been more laid back and less willing to assert himself on his first day in the classroom. Now let’s look at the specific elemental qualities in the spread:

Four of Wands (HH D)—The Star (WW H)—Five of Wands (HH D)

How will Kevin’s first day at school go? In terms of the combined elemental qualities of the three cards, his day will be five parts hot, two parts dry, two parts wet, and not the least bit cold: HHHHH DD WW. Applying our keywords to these qualities, we can say that Kevin’s day will be predominantly hot (dynamic, animated, enthusiastic, energizing), somewhat dry (tense, conforming to an inner ideal, true to his inner self), somewhat wet (fluid, flexible, going with the flow), and not at all cold (inhibiting, slowing, depressing, lacking animation). The dryness (DD) and the wetness (WW) are in perfect balance, allowing heat (HHHHH) to predominate.

Fire and Air, being active masculine suits, are friendly toward each other; hence, the enthusiastic Wands that flank the central airy Star support Kevin in realizing his hopes. Although he was a bit tense, Kevin reported that he did go with the flow in the classroom and enjoyed an animated and expansive day as a school volunteer.

The Elemental Properties of the Planets

The following section is included for tarot readers who are particularly interested in astrology. In the second century CE, Ptolemy wrote that the planets possess natural powers to heat or cool, and to dry or moisten. These powers depended on the planet’s proximity to the hot dry Sun and the wet cold Moon. 153 In Chaldean order, Ptolemy viewed the planets as follows:

Over the centuries, various authors modified Ptolemy’s theories. For example, in the seventeenth century, French astrologer Morin de Villefranche studied the existing literature and assigned numerical proportions to the elemental qualities of each planet. Morin concluded:

The properties of the elements can be applied to the signs of the zodiac and help us to understand how the planets fare in each of the signs according to how well their elements mix with each other. The Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) are hot and dry. The Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) are wet and hot. The Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) are dry and cold. Finally, the Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) are cold and wet.

Let’s apply these ideas to a couple of the pip cards in the Golden Dawn system: the Ten of Cups and the Two of Wands. The Golden Dawn links each of these cards to a decan of the zodiac ruled by Mars. The Ten of Cups is associated with the final decan of the zodiac, the Mars decan of Pisces. The Two of Wands is connected with the first decan of the zodiac, the Mars decan of Aries. Below is a schematic analysis of the planet and decan associated with each of these cards.

Ten of Cups:

Mars is primarily dry and secondarily hot (DD H). Pisces, a Water sign, is primarily cold and secondarily wet (CC W). The predominant effect of this combination is coldness and dryness (CC DD W H), which is characteristic of Earth, an element associated with matters related to family, health, security, stability, and material comfort.

Two of Wands:

Mars is primarily dry and secondarily hot (DD H). Aries, a Fire sign, is primarily hot and secondarily dry (HH D). The net effect of this combination is a mixture of heat and dryness (HHH DDD), which is characteristic of Fire, an element that is expansive, outwardly directed, future-oriented, and enterprising. The strong dryness of Mars emphasizes the features of self-assertion and dominion, which are associated with this card.

Another Reading Using Elemental Dignities

A woman asked for a reading because she was worried about her daughter’s upcoming surgery. She happened to be an experienced tarot reader but was having trouble being objective in reading the cards about her daughter’s health. I did a three-card reading to answer her question, “What will be the outcome of my daughter’s surgery?” The following cards appeared:

Two of Swords—Three of Wands—Judgment

The Two of Swords perfectly captured this woman’s state. She was worried about her child’s upcoming surgery, but she could not decide what the tarot was telling her because she was too emotionally involved in the outcome. The Three of Wands has to do with planning for the future. In this case, the three people involved in the planning were the woman, her daughter, and the surgeon. The sequence of cards suggested that she was feeling “blindfolded,” like the woman on the Two of Swords, and could not clearly perceive the outcome in her tarot readings about this matter.

The outcome card was trump XX, Judgment, which in health questions usually means renewal and restoration to a better life. Modern occultists relate Judgment to the planet Pluto, lord of the underworld and a symbol of deep transformation. In astrology, Pluto rules Scorpio, a sign connected with surgery and healing, but also with death. Given the ambiguity of XX–Judgment, I drew a clarification card, which turned out to be the Six of Wands, a card of victory. The ambiguity of the Judgment trump probably reflected the mother’s worries about the outcome of the surgery. The six on the Six of Wands reminded me of the sixth house in astrology, which refers to illness. I felt confident in this case that the Judgment trump could be interpreted as “victory” in health matters, that is, a successful outcome.

For further confirmation, I looked at the elemental dignities of the cards:

Two of Swords—Three of Wands—XX Judgment—Six of Wands

Air (WW H)—Fire (HH D)—Fire (HH D)—Fire (HH D)

All four cards of the spread share heat (H) and are thus compatible and support one another. Heat is the quality most closely associated with life-giving energy. The Golden Dawn links Judgment to Fire. The Judgment trump lies between two fiery Wands cards, which greatly strengthen it. The compatibility of all four cards and the fortification of trump XX in the outcome position further confirmed that her daughter’s surgery would be successful.

An Important Caveat

This chapter has been devoted to the contribution of the four elements to the divinatory meanings of the cards. We must not forget, however, the crucial role played by the images by which we identify the four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Fire is assigned to Wands, which were originally polo sticks in the Mamluk deck. Competing teams on horseback made use of these sticks to play the lively, high-energy game of polo. The tarot’s fiery Knights are now portrayed on horseback, and the tarot Wands are generally depicted as budding with new life. Cups were bowl-shaped containers or chalices, implements for drinking and sharing good times with others. In medieval times, Cups also had a special significance as containers for the communion wine of the Catholic Mass. Swords were weapons of war used for piercing, severing, settling conflict, and exacting justice. Pentacles were originally coins (dinars) employed to exchange goods, amass wealth, and meet life’s material needs.

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141 . Marin Cureau de la Chambre (French physician), The Art of How to Know Men, trans. John Davies (London: Thomas Dring Publishers, 1665), p. 12.

142 . Ronald Decker, Art and Arcana, p. 73.

143 . Jocelyn Almond and Keith Seddon, Tarot for Relationships (Northamptonshire, UK: The Aquarian Press, 1990), p. 12.

144 . G. E. R. Lloyd, Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of his Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1968), chapters 7–8.

145 . Friedrich Schwickert and Adolf Weiss, Cornerstones of Astrology (Dallas: Sangreal Foundation, 1972), p. 7.

146 . Aristotle, De Generatione et Corruptione, trans. C. J. F. Williams (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1982).

147 . Aristotle, De Generatione et Corruptione.

148 . Ibid.

149 . Genesis 3:19 (King James Bible).

150 . Aristotle believed that the four elements can be converted into one another by making changes in the qualities that compose them.

151 . Robin Davey, review of Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women: The Theory of Humors in Western European Art 1575-1700, by Zirka Z. Filipczak (New York: American Federation of Arts, 1997), at http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Dry-Men-Cold-Women/dp/1885444060/ref=cm_cr-mr-title (accessed 19 Jun. 2011).

152 . Stephen Montgomery, People Patterns: A Modern Guide to the Four Temperaments (Del Mar, CA: Archer Publications, 2002).

153 . Robert S. Westman, The Copernican Question: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011), pp. 52–57.