A breakdown of the meaning behind Elements in Astrology
THIS IS PART ONE OF MY SERIES OF HOW THE ELEMENTS, TEMPRAMENTS, PLANETS AND SIGNS ALL CONNECT. This first post will tackle the elements and temperament.
We all know that: Fire sign = Aries, Leo, Sag Air sign = Libra, Aquarius, Gemini Water sign = Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces Earth sign = Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo Further, that: Fire + Air = masucline/yang elements Water + Earth = feminine/yin elements
The relationship and meaning behind what it means to be of said element or such goes a lot deeper, however. To understand this we need to look at the primary qualities of these elements and tempraments (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic).
So, I want to essentially regurgitate my notes on the link between elements, tempraments, planets, and signs. You cannot understand one without understanding the others. Grasping these fundamentals will help in delienating charts better as you'll know more about how the signs and planets function. This requires unlearning a lot of modern/pop astro rhetoric though, as some things may not initially make sense or are 'unrelatable' (an unreliable, poor metric of accuracy in the first place) . This does not make traditional information false - just that a different frame of perspective is needed to understand and synthesise the information for charts. Pretend you know nothing about astrology and start from the very bottom up - its foundations - and keep an open mind; this is merely a stepping stone guide into broader delineation practices.
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All the information below comes from Avelar & Ribeiro's 'On the Heavenly Spehres' which I have split into: I. The Primary Qualities, II. The Elements, and III. Tempraments (and how to calculate it). Parts written in "((...))" are my own thoughts, and part of the Tempraments section is from Greenbaum's 'Temperament: Astrology's Forgotten Key' instead. Buckle in because this will be long af teehee. (I directly quote from these books but have formatted the information in note form to be more accessible and also made it way more succint.):
I. The primary qualities
✦ The 4 elements (building blocks) of the universe are composed of four fundamental principles, or primary qualities. These are: hot, cold, dry, and moist. These qualities represent energy, density, resistance, and malleability. ✦ It is their combinations which define the four elements and the nature of planets and signs.
✎ It all starts with Hot and Cold:
Hot: symbolises energy; what is active, radiant, centrifugal, luminous, light, and subtle. It is a masucline quality, meaning expansive and dynamic. The masucline principle represents activity, dynamism, exteriorisation and expansion. Cold: symbolises what is static; absorbent, centripetal, dark, heavy, and dense. It is a feminine quality, meaning contracting and static. The feminine principle corresponds with receptivity, contexmplation, internalisation, and contraction.
✎ The universe is shaped by opposing forces—light and dark, expansion and contraction, movement and stillness. This interaction between hot and cold generates two more poles: moist and dry.
Moist: symbolises fluid interaction. It is generated from the quality of cold, since an increase in coldness results in humidity (e.g. cold nights -> condensation). Represents: adaptability, malleability, plasticity, smoothness, and therefore things that are easily molded, slippery, and soft. It has no form in itself, but represents cohesion. Dry: symbolises tense interaction. It is generated from the quality of hot, since an increase in heat results in dryness (e.g. leaving things out to try in the sun). Represents: resistance, hardness, rigidity, and therefore things that are abrasive, breakable, and cold. It is the maintenance of form: containing, giving structure, and crystallising. Because M + D are generated from active qualities, they are cllaed passive qualities. They are connected to the concept of form (e.g. clay is malleable when moistened, but hardens when dried in an oven).
II. The Elements
╰┈➤ Each element is composed of two primary qualities: an active + a passive.
Fire = hot + dry. It is expansive, radiant action (hot) that imposes itself naturally without molding itself to the external environment (dry). Air = hot + moist. Dynamic (hot) but adaptable (moist). It is characterised by dispersive activity, adaptability, and changeability. ೃ⁀➷ They both share a hot quality and are therefore both masculine, dynamic, and extroverted ((energetically external, does not mean YOU are extroverted though)). They have a strong a strong centrifugal impulse (exteriorising). Earth = cold + dry. It is contracted , inert (cold), hard, and non-moulding (dry). Water = cold + moist. It is receptive and dense (cold), but extremely malleable (moist). ೃ⁀➷ They are both cold and are therefore feminine, reflexive, and introverted (energetically internal). They have a receptive and centripetal motion.
╰┈➤ The elements can also be grouped according to their passive/secondary qualities (as dryness and moistness come from hotness and coldness).
Fire and Earth both share a dry quality, giving them a tense, resistance, and non-molding expression. ೃ⁀➷ Fire resists by imposing its radiance; consuming and burning what it touches, but also illuminating, energising, and transmitting its heat to everything. Earth resists through its presistence, its premanence. It is immovable, creating obstacles but also providing structure, cohesion, and stability. Air and Water both share a moist quality. They are malleable, changeable, and adaptable. ೃ⁀➷ Air expresses this malleablity in an active manner, expanding freely in any direction. Water expresses itself in a more retracted manner; it molds, absorbs, infiltreates, and dissolves structures.
╰┈➤ Extra tidbit: The four elements are arranged in sublunar spheres ((this concept comes from Aristotle and Ptolemy, which divided the cosmos into the ever-changing realm below the moon aka our planet earth, contrasting with the perfect unchanging celestial realm above)) by density.
Earth: the densest, forms the central sphere. Due to its gravity (weight), it represents all that tends toward static permanence (e.g. a rock). It maintains fixed and structured forms, crystallises and turns substances hard, giving them permanence, durabiltiy, and stability. Continents. Water: less dense than earth. Although dense (cold), its moistness gives it plasticity and adaptability. It makes dense materials pliable and prevents obejcts from becoming dry/brittle with its adhesive propeties. Represents all bodies of water. Air: lightness + penetrability, great mobility and plasticity. Like water, it has a unifying role, though more subtle, and is associatived with transporation, (such as of smells and sounds as done through the air). Fire: the most subtle element as it is the outermost sphere. Its presence is detected through its qualities of luminosity, heat and 'electricity'. Drives energy exchange, creation, and vitality.
╰┈➤ Everything contains all four elements in varying proportions. Each planet and sign is linked to a specific element; planetary movement/celestial configurations are interpreted from the perspective of the movement and thus the combination of elements. Elements bridge terrestial events and celestial reality.
╰┈➤ ((Primary qualities therefore help us understand the THEMES of an element. There are a lot of buzzwords when trying to describe planets/signs (will be in my part 2 post), but it is important to remember their composition to better interpet them.))
III. Temperaments
Fire: choleric Air: sanguine Earth: melancholic Water: phlegmatic
✎Ancients defined temperaments as the complexion of an indvidual: their physical and behavioural traits, as well as psychological and metabolic predisposiitons. ((planets + signs also have tempraments which I will go into in part 2, this part is talking about overall temperament of the nativity, however.))
✎Each person will have a predominant temperament, but the remaining 3 are also present in their constitution, in smaller varying proportions.
(( N.B. Greenbaum (in her book , Temperament: Astrology's Forgotten Key) agreeably describes temprament as a person's inherent nature/disposition. This is NOT personality. It highlights the core characteristics that condition a person's behaviours, motivations, and personal dynamics - their character as a broader concept. Greenbaum also suggests (as do many other hellenistic authors) that the personality of a person is a mix of their ascendant, planets in the 1st house, lord of the ascendant, moon, and mercury. There is an issue of people thinking all the planets/signs are them and their personality, and falling into a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy of, subconsciously or not, acting like what they think their chart means vs what it actually does...especially under the misunderstanding of what the planets and signs mean - a double homicide issue if you ask me. I'll write another post on how sun sign and etc are not 'you' yourself. Astrology is not so wholly centred on or concerned about a psych evaluation lol. Temperament, however, is the first step in understanding the blueprint of the person. Greenbaum argues that things like planets or aspects to the ascendant in affecting 'personality' are accidental to the individual rather than essential. She explains this in deeper detail in her book. IMO, temperament therefore just provides a rough basic idea; the clean slate/blueprint, it will not give you the complete picture of one's personality. The things that define that are factors beyond what is just essential to our makeup. For example, I bake a lemon drizzle cake. It is essentially a lemon drizzle cake because of its composition. Realistically, though it has many more particular quirks and features which makes it different to other lemon drizzle cakes and adds more nuance)).
✎ Calculating temperament (YOU NEED AN EXACT BIRTH TIME FOR THIS):
- There are several methods, e.g. the one given in this book or the one in Greenbaum's book mentioned above (can find both online as a free pdf). I prefer Greenbaum's method (I think it is more accurate, and her book in general on Tempraments holds a lot of authority and solid reasoning) so I will be using that. Either way, just remember not to include the outer planets, and especially not as rulers (I'll write a separate piece on the benefits of using traditional rulers and why I ditched modern rulerships another time) Greenbaum's method: ((BTW you might need to know whether your mercury and venus are oriental or occidental for this, i.e. whether they are rising before/behind the sun (OR) or after/in front of the sun (OC). This can be confusing to do sometimes so the easiest way is to imagine your sun as the asc point and simply see what planets are above it and the dsc axis (those are OR), and below it (OC). Heres a guide i made:
✎These charts are of the same birthday but born at diff times (night v day) to demonstrate how to find oriental and occidental planets. The easiest method however is to just imagine your sun is in the 1st house/asc instead:
✎ Say the original chart is the night chart, it is clearly a lot easier to pretend/shift the sun into the ascendant position to easily see planets above (oriental) and below it (occidental). Remember to mark the opposition from the sun's position precisely degree wise. Otherwise, for example, you could mistake jupiter in the chart above as being oriental instead of occidental. ))
STEPS (cheat sheet pic further down): 1. The rising sign by element (2 points for the temprament it falls under. E.g. leo rising = fire sign = choleric gets 2 points) 2. Moon sign by element (2 points. E.g. Taurus moon = earth = melancholic) 3. The season you were born in (2 points. Sanguine is spring, Choleric is summer, Melancholic is autumn, Phlegmatic is winter.) 4. 1L/Ruler of the ascendant by intrinsic quality, aka planet (1 point. E.g. leo asc = ruled by sun = 1 point for choleric ) ✎ IMPORTANT: If the planet is mercury or venus: they are BOTH SANGUINE WHEN ORIENTAL in your chart, when OCCIDENTAL - Venus is PHLEGMATIC and Mercury is MELANCHOLIC. 5. Ascendant almuten by intrinsic quality (1 point. This is the planet with the most essential dignity at any degree of the zodiac.). (( USE A DIGNITY TABLE: ✎E.g. Aries rising 28 degrees. Take the sign of Aries and calculate its possible dignities, aka hypothetical, aka not where the planets are in your chart (domicile is 5 points, exaltation 4, term 2, triplciity 2, face 1) . THEREFORE from the dignity table we can see that : Aries' Domicile is mars = 5 points, Exaltation sun = 4, Term saturn (28 degrees) = 2, Triplicity is the sun in a day chart = 2, Face venus (28 degrees) = 1. The almuten of the asc is the Sun because 4 + 2 = 7 points for the sun = choleric. )) ✎ IMPORTANT: If your asc almuten is mercury or venus: they are BOTH SANGUINE when ORIENTAL, when OCCIDENTAL - venus is PHLEGMATIC and mercury is MELANCHOLIC.
6. Ruler of the moon by sign ( 1 point. i.e. its dispostier. E.g. moon in taurus, taurus ruler is venus in aries = choleric 1 point) 7. Moon phase (1 point. see table below). Greenbaum provides a cheat sheet here and an example of scoring:
╰┈➤ THE TEMPRAMENTS (back to OtHS):
✎ Choleric:
- Hot + dry (fire). Enthusiastic, energetic, rapid actions. - Produces resolute, courageous, and ambitious people, ready for action, enterprising, enthusiastic. Does not give up easily. Leadership + strong will. - Can change their mind frequently, start several projects in life. But enthusiasm is not necessarily lost. The focus is action and conquest, details cannot deter them. -Can be precipitated and inconstant. Impatient and not academically/investigation inclined. - Not overly emotional, 'dryness' may cause rigidity and insensitivity. Impatience may cause a lack of grace which may be rude or hostile. - Reacts intensely to threats/external challenges. In extreme cases, their insensitivity and easily expressed rage can result in cruelty. - If the choleric's secondary temprament is melancholic, they may be more moderated in actions. This combo is predominantly dry, indicating a tendency to retain ire, and a tendency for mistrust or bad temper. Has greater emotionaly constancy, curiosity, and capacity for study as the melancholic coldness moderates the choleric's heat. - If it is phlegmatic, this cools the constant activity and impulsive reactions as it involves a mixture of complimentary primary qualities (hot and dry , but also cold and humid). Has greater range of emotional reactions, generating contradictory attitudes. - If it is sanguine, they will be lighter and more sociable, attenuating their cholericness. More sensible and adaptable (humidity moderates the harsh dryness), but as they both have hotness, there is agitation and inconstancy. Physically: cholerics are slim, muscular, hairy. Average frame or short. Coarse skin, hot, and shiny, of a yellow/reddish tone. These traits may be modified by other tempraments. In physiognomic terms (humors and stuff) associated with yellow bile which is centred in the gall bladder. Used to process the remaining humors; confers movement and actions and heats the body.
✎ Sanguine:
- Hot + moist (air). - Similarly to choleric they are dynamic and active. Moistness makes them more versatile and adaptable. Vivacious, spontaneous, enthusiastic, and very communicative + sociable. - Have many interests. When properly tempered, they are curious, studious, and inquiring. - Emotionally very sensitive . Does not harbour anger easily, naturally happy and friendly. -Exteme fluidity can lead to dispersion, lack of concentration, lack of perseverance. Negative aspects include lack of organisation and dicipline, unsettled, and restless. Immense sociability may also cause superficiality and futility. - Melancholic as the secondary temprament: their dynnamic and changeable nature is more structured and consistent. Their vivacity and joy becomes more contained and the person is more serious or conservative. Balanced combination due to contrasting primary qualities (hot and moist v cold and dry), well suited to study and investigation. - If phlegmatic: dissolution of sanguinity. Its coldness makes the person less exuberant/happy, more self-oriented yet still changeable and adaptable due to their shared moistness. - If choleric: intense and bellicose with loss of natural flexibility (due to predominance of hotness). Yet, the dryness confers greater determination and perseverance to the sanguine's actions. - Physically meaty and full but not fat. Robust frame, medium height to tall. Smooth skin, hot and moist to the touch with white or rosy hue. Associated with blood. This humor eliminates and transports substances in the body.
✎ Melancholic
- Cold + dry (earth). - Reflective and focussed. Reserved and moderated, tendency to be underestimated and seen as uninterested in things. - Focuses on objective reality as it provides a sense of firmness and security. Deals better with facts than ideas, resourceful, a good investigator, has a lot of patience and perseverance. - Not very outwardly emotional, rigid in sensibilities (like choleric). Its coldness, however, makes them especially susceptible toward pessimism and depression. Their dryness results in difficulty crying, can retain anger for a long time to the point of resentment. - Rigidity can make them obstinate, distrustful, anti-social, loneliness. Critical and a perfectionist. Extreme cases = intolerant and cold hearted. - Sanguine as the secondary temprament: more sociable, bold, joyful, less pessimistic and defensive. Measured combo. - If choleric: greater vitality, sociability, determination. But predominance of dryness confers a solitary and individualistic attitude. - If phlegmatic: the predominance of coldness reinforces reservedness and withdrawal. Similar behaviour to a pure melancholic type , but more flexible and adaptable. -Physcially: medium frame and slim. Coarse skin, cold to touch, yellowish or dull colour, spare hair that tends to be dark. Associated with black bile. Function is retaining substances in the body, bestowing consistency to muscle tissues and liquids, solidifying the bones, strenghtening memory and sobriety. Containing organ is the spleen.
✎ Phlegmatic
- Cold + moist (water). - Sensitive, reserved, powerful emotional drive, making decisions help maintain security and emotional wellbeing, introverted. Moistness confers plasticity and adaptability. - By favouring emotional reasoning, they can be subjectvie and inconstant to the point of incongruence. Interested in what they feel and in what promotes seucirty, love new people and new situations, can easily adopt a passive and slightly lazy attitude. Timid and serene. -Very emotional but seldom openly expressed. Senstive and sympathetic, avoids commitments and not v expressive. Tends to assume conciliatory roles and is excessively patient. When emotionally disturbed , they can become reclusive and apathetic. Excessive malleability can cause extreme laziness and indolence. - Has difficulty disaplying courage and determination. Extreme case = their emotional self-centredness lads to greed, cowardice, deceit, and emotional manipulation. - Choleric as their secondary temprament: greater agility and daringness. More tempered due to opposing qualities. - If Sanguine: adds hotness which gives greater joy and vitality, minimises their staticness. Predominance of moisntess reinforces flexibility and elasticity. - If melancholic: emphasis on coldness, enhancing introversion. Yet, addition of dryness confers greater solidity and perserverance. - Physically: medium to short frame, meaty body that can easily put on weight. Soft, cold to touch skin that is generally pallid or white and with little hair. Associated with phlegm humor, responsible for maintenance of the body's temprature and its lubrication (aka mucus and lymph).
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I hope this was a solid, comprehensive summary (thanks to the information from the books mentioned, ofc there are lots of other great traditional astrology books covering these topics but I haven't gotten around to digging into all of those yet so am going off of these for now) of elements and tempraments and that you can begin to see how these are vital and crucial to understanding the planets and the signs - stay tuned for part 2 byeeeee B)
