A Twist on Elemental Dignities

As a continuation of my work in blending the influence of the astrological modalities into the sign-and-planet meanings of the 36 minor, or “decan” cards of the tarot, I thought it would be interesting and possibly revealing to bring this idea into the use of Elemental Dignities (EDs). Melding the various elements and modalities of the decans across a series of cards in a fluid way seems to show some promise.

At present, EDs follow the assumption that the elemental qualities assigned to the cards are either “friendly, “neutral” or “hostile” to one another, which either increases or decreases their potency when combined in three-card sets. For example, a Fire card surrounded by two other Fire cards would be dramatically strengthened beyond its normal range, while a Fire card between two Water cards would suffer the debilitating “wet blanket” effect and be significantly weakened (although neither would change in fundamental import, just in magnitude). But as Jim Eshelman pointed out in Liber Theta, it’s not that simple since the position of the card in the line and its customary interpretive meaning — whether characteristically forceful or feeble — must have some play in the matter. For his part, Macgregor Mathers made a half-hearted effort to acknowledge the latter by appending the words “for good or ill according to their nature” to his definitions but he didn’t really “deliver the goods” in his example readings.)

To reiterate from my previous post, all of the Twos, Threes and Fours are Cardinal (active), all of the Fives, Sixes and Sevens are Fixed (stable) and all of the Eights, Nines and Tens are Mutable (changeable); each of these modes has its attendant pros and cons in “shading” the interpretation of the cards. My premise here is that cards of the same modality would reinforce one another according to their shared “posture” regardless of elemental affinity, while a blend of modalities would be more or less of “mixed disposition” based on how many of each are present and where they land in the set, very similar to how elemental combinations now work. Here is an example reading:

Here we have an Air card (9 of Swords; sullen Mars in nervous Gemini) bracketed by a Water card (4 of Cups; lambent Moon in restless Cancer) and a Fire card (6 of Wands; magnanimous Jupiter in steady-burning Leo). To evaluate the effect of the two outside cards on the primary, we consider that Water and Air are “neutral but mutually supportive,” not an especially energizing marriage of forces, while Air and Fire are quite compatible (except in anaerobic situations, Fire needs Air to exist). Water and Fire, however, are highly antagonistic. Mathers would say that this mixture of elements would “cancel out,” resulting in no elemental bias; therefore the potency of the 9 of Swords would be unaffected. If we look at this with “for good or ill according to their nature” in mind, it looks like the power of the 9 of Swords is somewhat “flattened” by its contact with the 4 of Cups, which may “pull its fangs” to some extent, but it is right back in the fray as it encounters the 6 of Wands, making me think it would come down on the “ill” side overall.

Examining the modality of these cards, we have a Cardinal card, a Mutable card and a Fixed card in that order. If I were to treat this as a “reading for the day,” I might say that things would start out on a pleasantly upbeat and active note that would soon give way to an unsettled and changeable period that could cause some aggravation and “harsh words” but, by the end of the day, the ship of life would be back on an “even keel.” To analyze this further, the Moon rules the sign of Cancer in the 4 of Cups, but it doesn’t have a lot of “staying power” there (according to Crowley, it introduces “the seeds of decay into the fruit of pleasure”); thus, the languid “Luxury” is likely to fade quickly, opening the door for the nastiness (“Cruelty”) of the 9 of Swords. Mars can be like a “scenery-chewing” actor (or as was once said about Donald Trump, “a bull looking for a china shop”), and in Gemini it’s likely to pick a fight; I could see this as dominating much of the day and reaching a shrill crescendo by late afternoon. Then Jupiter in Leo (“Victory”) steps in and pours oil on the water (maybe “Dad comes home from work”), saying cheerfully “C’mon, guys, this has gone on long enough.” Ruffled feathers are smoothed and the day rides out on a high note.

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on January 8, 2022.