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Chapter Three ELEMENTARY, DEAR READERS

Walk groundly, talk profoundly, drink roundly, sleep soundly.

WILLIAM HAZLITT

The zodiac divides people into 12 different types. Underlying the signs, however, is an even more basic division into what the ancients called the four elements: Fire, Earth, Air and Water. These were seen as the basic building blocks of all life. In this chapter, we will look at this four-fold division in detail.

PEOPLE AS ‘TYPES’

The 19th-century English critic William Hazlitt may not have known much about astrology, but his off-the-cuff summing-up rhyme of how a person should behave (quoted above) actually touches closely upon the four element types and the thing they each tend to do best. But before we look at these four types and why they are good at certain things, it is helpful first to think about categories and why we categorize people at all.

People are different, and yet the same. Sameness and difference are what make the world go round. The sameness and difference about human beings has been argued about since the dawn of human life on Earth, but the differences are in fact what attract us to one another and bind us together in the tension of creative conflict. We say tension because if we can be attracted, we can also be repelled, but we are still bound by that repulsion – the repulsion of difference – and remain in some kind of dynamic relationship because of it.

Something which is very different from us tends to fascinate us, and often we are compulsively attracted to it in order to develop and nurture something which is deficient in ourselves. An example, and a very common occurrence: the well-organized, logical ‘thinking’ type of man is often found in relationship with the romantic, somewhat dreamy and chaotic, emotional woman. Both irritate and yet fascinate each other. Communication is often difficult; each thinks the other quite odd at times; and their own particular realities are so different. They each develop typical defences which become more pronounced if they cannot recognize their mutual dependence on each other’s strengths. They may become accustomed to a habitual sort of tension and conflict and yet they need each other. They live in different universes but each affords the other more than a glimpse into another universe that enriches and expands their own. If they want more than a superficial understanding of the differences between them, they would be well advised to look into their own astrological strengths and weaknesses – and differences.

So categorizing difference is just a natural way of trying to make sense of what we experience in life in all kinds of ways. People are different, need and want different things, see and value different things, and understanding just how ‘we’ are different from ‘them’ makes us feel better about ourselves. It gives us a starting point, a handle with which to negotiate with the ‘unknown’. Categorizing is also about defining, and defining is about affirming and respecting uniqueness.

Harking back to Hazlitt’s rhyme, an astrologer can see the four element types poetically evoked by this ditty. The earthy individual tends to ‘walk groundly’ and seems rooted in the world like a 200-year-old oak. In fact, we rely on him to be that way: solid, immovable, absolutely dependable. The airy individual can usually ‘talk profoundly’, and we envy that gift of the gab and dexterity with ideas and people which make the air type the socializer par excellence. When we say the fiery individual ‘drinks roundly’, we are alluding to the intensely dramatic joie de vivre of this type which fuels his childlike faith in life, his romantic visions and his celebratory, dare-devil approach to most endeavours. And what do we mean by asserting that the watery individual ‘sleeps soundly’? A bit of poetic licence perhaps, but nevertheless, in human terms, water rules the realm of feelings and the instinctual, unconscious process of making evaluations. Water seeks union, safety and relatedness, and responds irrationally, always from the sleeping depths, from the heart, and from a need to safeguard his or her precious emotional possessions.

No, William Hazlitt may not have known much about astrology, but as a good Sun-Aries he must have sown a few wild oats and learned a thing or two. It is said of Hazlitt that he ‘was possessed of a peculiar temper, which led to his quarrelling with most of his friends’. Maybe if they had known that he was a fiery Sun in Aries, for whom being assertive and argumentative is as natural as birds taking to flight, they would have chuckled and taken no offence. Indeed, understanding what makes others tick can help us get beyond stereotyping, which tends to make us dismiss people before we have a clue about where they are coming from – and what they might have to offer.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS

The four element types are of special interest to astrologers and psychologists. Ever since the Greek philosopher Empedocles offered his thoughts on the subject in the 5th century BC, there has been the idea that all things in the Universe are composed of a mixture of these four elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. An ancient Eastern myth describes the Great Mother Kali as apportioning the elements to create life, with water giving blood, earth forming the physical body, air providing breath, and fire producing vital heat.

The elements can be seen to represent four different types of energy, four distinct states of consciousness or approaches to the world. They have their counterpart in the four states of matter identified by modern physics: plasma (Fire), solids (Earth), gas (Air) and liquid (Water). Equally, the elements can be seen to correlate with the Great Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s four main psychological types: Intuition (Fire), Sensation (Earth), Thinking (Air) and Feeling (Water). These correspond to the medieval personality classifications of choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic. Early on, the Greeks allocated these elements in an orderly sequence around the zodiac, starting with Fire for Aries and repeating the sequence Fire, Earth, Air, Water, three times, as shown overleaf.

As you can see, three signs are allocated to each of the elements. The fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius; to Earth belong Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn; Air governs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius; and the Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. You can begin to understand the dominant characteristics of each element type by thinking of the imagery each element evokes.

The signs of the zodiac and their elements.

Fire

The most obvious characteristic of this positive, ‘yang’ element is its power to transform (whether we like it or not!). When we speak of a fiery temperament, we are referring to a quality of behaviour that pushes ahead into life. It is unpredictable, even unstable, active and forceful, and usually extremely noticeable! Fire types need to make things happen, and to be in the absolute centre of their lives. They can sense the potential of a situation and make that crucial leap into the unknown either to fall on their face or to create a ‘roaring success’.

Likewise, we can imagine how people living with a Fire type can be inspired and encouraged by their partner’s enthusiasm, but also how easily they might get ‘burned’ by the flames of fire’s passionate ego and outrageous escapades. Fire evokes descriptive phrases such as ‘burning with zeal’, ‘hot-blooded’, ‘can’t stand still’, ‘hot stuff’, ‘energizing’, ‘stimulating’, ‘inspiring’, ‘ego-centric’ and ‘visionary’.

Earth

The Earth is usually referred to as a feminine, ‘yin’ element – Mother Earth, the ever-dependable source of all life. In the realm of Earth all material forms stand out and are distinct: we receive our ultimate material definition as well as our material limitation from Earth. No matter how fiery and wonderful our visions of what could be, the final test of their reality resides in the world of matter. How does it act, taste, feel, measure up in the ‘real’ world?

The predominantly earthy individual tends, therefore, to be matter-of-fact, solid, reliable, sensual, productive, grounded in the practical everyday world, and preoccupied with the here and now. The virtues of this type are obvious: they know how to get things done, run a household and a business, balance the books and make flowers grow. But Earth types go for security, not risk; order rather than chaos; and, as a result, often have a problem expanding beyond their known, quantifiable and controllable universe.

Air

Like Fire, Air is a positive ‘yang’ element, but has a more impersonal quality. Just like the wind, it is all-pervasive and constantly moving, and connects and relates everything it touches in the outer world. Hence the need for airy individuals to socialize and share ideas with many different people. Unlike the intensity of Fire, Air is more detached, abstract and non-intimate in its mode of operation. To find the rational principle at work behind the operations of nature and human behaviour is what the airy individual seeks. And so we usually find that the airy temperament is breezy, intellectual, communicative, curious, co-operative, sometimes ‘airy-fairy’ but always interested in cause-and-effect, in the past-present-future relationship of things, and in understanding people and situations with their minds.

Air types handle ideas well, they are logical, cool, civilized, witty and usually the life of the party where they can indulge themselves in the sheer variety of people. In the realm of feelings, however, the airy individual is often insecure and naive, as feelings do not lend themselves easily to the logical measurement of the rational mind.

Water

When we think about the ‘yin’ element of Water, we immediately enter the realm of the mysterious Feminine. Images arise such as the refreshing, nurturing, cleansing, cooling qualities of spring rain and also the power, enchantment and mystery of the deep, blue sea. Water flows, dissolves and unifies, and indeed the watery temperament desires to be intimate, to merge and to experience the bliss of emotional security and containment. Containment is an important clue to understanding this type, as water will be contained by its boundaries, or else, as with the terror of a flood, it overwhelms, engulfs, saturates and drowns.

The watery individual is moved by feelings, by the irrational realm of romance and imagination, and seeks meaning through relating at a deeply personal and unexplainable level. Unconcerned with whether or not someone or something makes ‘logical sense’, they ask instead ‘does it feel right?’ The emotional, watery individual is concerned with feelings, values, rapport, belonging and memories.

THE ELEMENTS AND TIME

The subjective experience of time is one of those perennial mysteries of the human condition. Our state of mind – our temperament – seems largely to determine whether we constantly look at the clock or sail through the day as if it consisted of a few interesting moments. Some people are constantly harping back to the ‘good old days’, whilst some are focused on the immense possibilities of the future. Others are ploddingly preoccupied with the here-and-now, and other types are happy to scan the past, present, and future and how they relate in a cause-and-effect way.

Fire is preoccupied with the future, with the hidden meaning and potential of things and what can be made of them. Earth is interested in the here-and-now, in facts and figures, concrete accomplishments, and getting things done in a practical way. Water is concerned with personal feelings and emotions, with safety, security, and connectedness, and is especially concerned with the past. Air is concerned with the abstract reasons behind things and their cause and effect; air scans past, present, and future in an attempt to get the broad picture and the abstract principle.

INTERPRETING THE ELEMENTS

The elements can at times be taken literally. Thus those with a strong Earth element in their charts will be strongly physical in some way – they will like and feel at home with the earth, gardening, farming, pottery, building and working with their hands to make things. Water types will often thrive beside the sea or next to a lake or a stream. Fire types can quite literally enjoy piling up a roaring open fire and even being the blacksmith. Air types often love the open air, walking in the wind, bird-watching, flying, gliding, or simply flying a kite or listening to their wind chimes.

It is not quite that simple, however. A person may be strongly Water, yet be an airline pilot, or strongly air and be deeply attached to farming or become a master builder. Strength in an element or elements shows us an approach to the world. This can be illustrated by considering the chart of Gertrude Ederle. One of the great pioneer women swimmers of early this century, she became, in 1926, the first woman to swim the English Channel. Surely someone who spent so much time in the water would have to have her Sun, the focus of her life, in a Water sign? In fact, Ederle had Sun in Libra and Moon in Capricorn, making her an Air-Earth type. So what is an Air-Earth type doing spending their days immersed in the salty deeps?

First of all, it should be said that her birth chart does have a great deal of Water in it, not least a conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Cancer trine Saturn in Pisces, indicating watery ideals and ambitions, and Mercury in Scorpio, indicating a mind attracted by oceanic depths. But what is her approach to swimming? Listen to what she has to say on the subject:

To me the sea is like a person – like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.

So although she spent much of her life immersed in water, her approach and attitude to swimming was utterly airy.