And all that would be in vain wouldn't there be the Earth on which everything could be grounded. The spirit of the Air is needed to add sense and mind to the primeval emotion to bring it from the unconscious to the conscious. Spiritual Water needs Fire as well, to add warmth to its bottomless depths, to provide the spark of animation to its passive placidity. And at least in the spiritual sense, the Fire even needs Water or else its flaming spirituality would be without depth, without emotion, nothing but an empty, meaningless combustion. Yet without Earth giving a base and the fuel to Fire the flames would be short-lived, without Air they couldn't fly. Now the element of Fire, which seemingly does not need the others to exist. In the spiritual sense, Earth alone is dumb, dull, dead and cold. Without the other elements, the Earth would be dead. The Earth, shown with green plants - it's nothing new that plants need Water, Air and Warmth to grow. What is the mind without the spark of inspiration, without the depth of emotion? And where would all the Air be if there wouldn't be an Earth? There would be no clouds without any warmth in the atmosphere coming from Fire. The Air, on the other hand, depicted as a sky with clouds - what are the clouds made from? Where do they come from? There would be no clouds without water. The element of Water, for example, depicted as an ocean with waves and foam - without Air there would be none of that, without Air the water would be a still, unmoved plain. One thing that you should always keep in mind is that no element can truly florish without the others.Ī mere look at the images I use on this site shows that they are actually never standing alone. What appears to be a 'weak' combination at first sight could be the last straw to hold on, and the most 'friendly' pairing could be a desastrous match. A Fire card influencing a Water card is a different matter than a Water card influencing a Fire card. Here the elemental dignities help to determine the strong and important cards, yet this should be done without trashing the rest.įurther, when going to the explanations below you will see that it is a tad too easy to just say 'This and that element weaken each other' or 'This and that element are a friendly combination'.Īs usual in Tarot, things are not as simple as you would wish them to be. No card in a spread is ever irrelevant, it can just be that it is not as important as others. Going as far as not reading such cards is like pouring out the baby with the bath. However, the peculiar habit of simply disregarding cards as 'irrelevant' because their elemental dignities appear to neutralize them seems a bit over-the-top to me. All other combinations strengthen each other.Here we reach the rough rules you can apply: Two symbols with a bar pointing in different directions are as much 'a negative combination' as two symbols without bars pointing in different directions. The very forms of the elemental symbols help to memorize their attributes - those who point upwards are active, those who point downwards are passive.Īlso mind the bar in the symbols of Air and Earth - the same shapes go well together if they point in the same direction if they point in different directions there should be one in a pair with a bar in it, but not two. You should also read my short article about the ' Dependence of the elements' to see why and how they need each other.) (If you are not familiar with the elements you can click the symbols (or the cards at top) to read more about them. These are the traditional symbols of the elements, I just filled them up so they can be easier recognized.
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