Elemental Dignities (ED's)
Part-1

The Elements

ED's = Elemental Dignities

Your tarot deck should have the suit to element correspondences below.  If it doesn't then find one that does. It will make more sense and be easier to learn with a deck which has the correct correspondences.

Chart #1

Suit	Element	Elements/Qualities/Energies
Wands		Fire - Active - Masculine
Pentacles		Earth - Passive - Feminine
Swords		Air - Active - Masculine
Cups		Water - Passive - Feminine

Our ancient ancestors saw the world as being built around and consisting of these 4 elements.  This we know today in our technological society is hogwash but for the symbolic/esoteric purposes of using them with tarot they work fine as indicators to help you read the cards.  But you need to 'suspend' your knowledge of the real world somewhat or it will just get in your way.

You can add the 5th element of Spirit if you want and this element is associated with the Major Arcana cards but thus far I have found absolutely no need to use this 5th element as it honestly has no valid meaning in reading elemental dignities - but as time passes this may change.

Element Meanings

To put things in context we need to associate these different elements to something meaningful, so we give each different meanings. Most of these come from Astrology and have been passed down to the tarot.

As I said above, many times if you try to look at these elements as real you will just confuse yourself since much of what is written about them is symbolic/esoteric and NOT meant to be realistic.

For Example: Fire and Water don't mix well.

WHY? Because Water will put out the Fire, or Fire will turn Water into steam and thus lessen or completely over-ride it's effects.

Now using the meanings for the elements exactly what does this mean?

Here we would have the action, energy and drive of Fire being weakened/opposed by the emotions and feelings of Water. Which is stronger and which weaker is one of the things we look for, and hopefully find using ED's.

You might look at this elemental combination as the beginning of an intense sexual relationship that;

1.) Burns itself out
2.) Takes on a deeper emotional context
3.) Becomes an emotional roller-coaster ride

This again would depend on the strength and weakness of the two different elements when reading ED's.

Example #2: Air and Earth don't mix well.

WHY? Because Air can't possibly go into Earth (solid rock and so on) no matter how hard it tries, and Earth can NOT possibly become part of Air. Air may flow over and around Earth but never really be a part of it. So these two elements don't mix well.

Looking at the meanings for these two elements here is what we have.

Here we have the intellect, thought, and reason of Air being weakened/opposed by the stableness and practicality of Earth which will often lead to conflict of some type.

As an example say you have a Boss who is down to earth, cautious and practical (Earth). You on the other hand are an 'idea' person (Air) and you submit what you think is an excellent advertising idea for your product.

Your Boss rejects your idea! Conflict ensues and you may;

1.) Become angry and storm out of his office
2.) Become so angry you quit
3.) May become so angry that you hit your Boss

The stable Earth is trying to strangle the intellect of Air, or at least keep it in check. On the other hand if Air gets its way and becomes out of control chaos could ensue. These two elements can be a very volatile combination!

Example #3: Fire and Air DO mix well for obvious reasons since both are Active elements. Air feeds the Fire, and Fire can ride on Air in the form of burning embers and so on.

Try to think of situations where these two elements combine well.

Example #4: Earth and Water DO mix well since both are Passive elements. This combination is harder to explain so you'll just have to take my word that these two elements mix well.

Try to think of situations where these two elements combine well, for instance a stable emotional relationship.

Example #5: Air and Water don't really mix well but they do manage to get along. There is Air in Water (H2O) and Water (rain) falls from the sky and so on. I consider these two elements 'Neutral'

To most who use ED's these two elements are considered friendly unless you are using the ED system where all Active and Passive elements are unfriendly (or enemies). In that case these two elements would be unfriendly or ill-aspected since Air = Active and Water = Passive.

Try to think of situations where these two elements might combine.

Example #6: Fire and Earth don't really mix well but they do manage to get along. You might look at these two elements as Fire needing a place to exist (Earth), and Earth being cleansed by Fire. I also consider these two elements 'Neutral'.

To most who use ED's these two elements are considered friendly unless you are using the ED system where all Active and Passive elements are unfriendly (or enemies). In that case these two elements would be unfriendly or ill-aspected since Fire = Active and Earth = Passive.

Try to think of situations where these two elements might combine.

Our ancient ancestors also had another way to referring to the different elements and to many these also don't make much sense since these too are symbolic/esoteric and NOT realistic. This is just another way to associate one thing with another. To say that Earth is always Cold and Dry is assinine and not meant to be taken literally.

These, if recollection serves are actually old Astrological associations. Using the chart above it's easy to see which elements are friendly and which are unfriendly.

Shared Primary Meanings - Friendly:

Cold: Earth and Water
Hot: Fire and Air

Shared Secondary Meanings - Neutral:

Dry: Earth and Fire
Wet: Water and Air

No Shared Meanings - Unfriendly (enemies):

Water and Fire
Earth and Air

Rules for Elemental Dignities

This can be written out in a set of simple Rules for ED's.

The Simpliest ED Rules

Although the following ED rules are the simpliest they are also the LEAST accurate in my opinion.

Rule 1	Fire and Air are 'Active - Masculine' and are 'friendly' and strengthen each other
Rule 2	Water and Earth are 'Passive - Feminine' and are 'friendly' and strengthen each other
Rule 3	Active-Masculine (Fire-Wands and Air-Swords) and Passive-Feminine (Earth-Pentacles and Water-Cups) elements are 'Unfriendly' (enemies) and they weaken each other
Rule 4	Read all Major Arcana cards as 'Neutral'. They neither strengthen or weaken the other cards around them including other Major Arcana cards
Rule 5	There is no special way to handle Court cards.

Original Rules

Alternate ED Rules

Note from Don: These are the rules I'm using more and more of late.

Why Use ED's

Here are just 'some reasons' why you might look into using elemental dignities.

With ED's you can:

1. Actually read just the elements as the reading and disregard the card meanings altogether.
2. Add to a reading by indicating which card or cards have the most strength and which are weaker.
3. Indicate over-riding tendencies or missing tendencies in the seeker.

Next up ... using ED's with the Major Arcana and Court cards.

ED Exercise

Look at the following image.

Which card is Weakest?
Which is Strongest?

Try doing a reading using just the elements and what was contained in this tutorial. Use whatever Rules above you want but state which one you went with - Simple, Original or Alternate!

Don S.