The Four Elements

The Four Elements, fire, earth, air and water, are the symbolic foundation shared by astrology, tarot and Western magic. Inherited from Greek philosophy, they describe four ways of experiencing the world: action and enthusiasm, matter and constancy, thought and communication, and emotion and intuition. In astrology each element groups three signs; in tarot each corresponds to a suit of the Minor Arcana. The balance between them in a natal chart describes the person's temperament and what they tend to lack or overuse.