Lesson 05
Elements and modalities
Observe first. Interpret second. Research third.
Elements tell you the climate. Modalities tell you how the energy moves: start, hold, or change. Together they are one of the most useful bits of astrological thinking for tarot, because you can often see them in the picture without a correspondence chart.
Four climates
Fire: heat, appetite, will, spirit, the spark that wants to move. In decks, Wands often carry this. In images, look for actual flame, sun, desert, posture that leans forward.
Earth: body, time, money, craft, what lasts. Pentacles often carry this. Look for soil, stone, coin, plants, weight, hands that make.
Air: mind, word, truth, distance, the cut of thought. Swords often carry this. Look for sky, wind, blades, birds, space between people.
Water: feeling, bond, dream, memory, the tide. Cups often carry this. Look for sea, river, cup, rain, moon, faces that show weather.
A common elemental map for the suits is fire to Wands, water to Cups, air to Swords, earth to Pentacles. It is a widely used teaching map with this deck. It is not the only map in tarot history. Use it as a thinking tool. If a Cups card is full of dry earth and no feeling, believe the picture.
Three ways of moving
Cardinal: starts. Initiates. The first push. Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn in the sign list. In a card, look for a beginning, a claim, a move into the room.
Fixed: holds. Sustains. Will not be easily moved. Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius. In a card, look for staying power, stubbornness, a centre that will not yield, devotion, a box.
Mutable: adapts. Changes form. Prepares the next season. Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces. In a card, look for transition, many options, a figure in between, a skill of adjusting.
Some schools glue cardinal, fixed, mutable onto Ace-two-three, then four-five-six, then seven-eight-nine, with tens as a turn of the cycle. That can be a useful thought experiment. It is not a law, and I will not make you read every Three as cardinal. If the image is stuck, it is not cardinal just because a chart said so.
Cardinal fire, if it helps
The Emperor is often linked with Aries: cardinal fire. Start, rule, the ram, a throne you can act from. If that helps you feel the initiating heat in the card, use it.
Then look. Armour. A stone seat. Rams' heads. A river in some decks. The image may also be very earthy: structure, time, Saturn's cousin. A correspondence is a door. It is not the room. If this Emperor, in this question, is exhausted structure rather than initiating fire, say that. The modality on a list does not get a veto.
The Emperor
Major · IV
Practice
Element in the picture
Pull three cards. For each, name the element you actually see drawn, and the element the suit usually carries, if they differ. Then name whether the card feels like it is starting, holding, or changing. Write those six notes. No sign names required.
Open the practiceActivity
One suit, one climate
Spread four or five Wands, or Cups, or Swords, or Pentacles. What climate is this suit obsessed with? Where does an image break the elemental rule you were taught? Write the exception. Exceptions train your eyes.
Reflection