Tarot Elements: Four or Five?
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’m aware that some diviners read the tarot as partaking of five elements: the four of Empedocles (and Zoroaster before him, apparently, although I haven’t researched it) — Fire, Water, Air and Earth — with the Major Arcana as the fifth element of Spirit.
As an astrologer for a couple of years before I became a tarot reader back in 1972, I’ve always stuck with the four “classical” elements shown in the Minor Arcana because in Medieval and Renaissance thought Spirit was alluded to reverently rather than envisioned as a mundane force; it was seen as residing in or supervising the numinous aetyhr as the “quintessence” that over-arched the rest. Philosophically and religiously, this concept has merit but I don’t see it directly embodied in the tarot cards, which are more down-to-earth as I use them.
In considering Aleister Crowley’s descriptions of the interaction of the four elements in the court cards, it’s obvious that Fire and Air conspire to produce a rarefied state that comes close to the general idea of Spirit (in fact, Fire is coincident with Spirit in Qabalistic theory). In my own list of “natural phenomena” for the court cards, I describe Air modified by Fire (specifically in the Prince of Wands) as “thermal convection” when ascending and “a tornado” when descending, which might be viewed respectively as the “grace and wrath” of Divine judgment.
Crowley makes it even more explicit in his discussion of the relationship between the Lovers (airy Gemini) and Art/Temperance (fiery Sagittarius); the second “consummates” the “alchemical marriage” of the first. A judicious reading of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz metaphorically substantiates a lot of these ideas, and I highly recommend it.
Because most of my reading involves action-and-event-oriented circumstances (yes, at this point I’m primarily a “fortune-teller,” having already spent almost 40 years crafting my “personality profile” with the cards as well as natal astrology), Spirit doesn’t fulfill a crucial role in my interpretation. It comes into play mainly during my occasional forays into psychological matters; as a non-religious person I don’t see it as an ethereal essence apart from corporal experience, but more in line with Spinoza’s idea of an indwelling or immanent god-consciousness that resides in all things, animate and inanimate.
In that sense, I think we can get at it through a little creative leveraging of the four basic elements. I’d rather not have my nose rubbed in it anyway (I’m also not much of a psychic who can tap into the mystical motherlode at will), preferring the random intuitive flash of inspiration based on the imagery and my fertile imagination rather than trying to convince myself that I have a “hotline to God” as I see some readers claim.
I know those who bend the tarot to the purpose of self-awareness and self-development love to assume that they can get in touch with Universal Spirit through the cards, believing it will make them a better person. Maybe, but I think they should ideally start closer to home by examining their ambitions (Fire), emotions (Water), thoughts (Air) and actions (Earth), then proceed to refine them. Spiritual aspiration should take care of itself when the rest are optimized and sublimated; it would seem to be a foregone conclusion that was traditionally attributed to ennobling “character development.”
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.org on February 16, 2025.
