A Different Look at the Suits and Elements

Talking about the suit of Wands on one of the tarot lists I have been on - two people gave the following meanings.

Person #1
For me the suit of Wands is about spirituality, inner self, sexuality, energy, drive, motivation, etc.

Person #2
I generally see the suit of Wands as work, business, or career.


Humm, I just realized something interesting from these two peoples answers. Let's give it a try and see what we can come up with, add etc. to the suit of Wands.  Maybe later I will try to apply it to the other suits.

The way Person #1 and #2 have it we could break the suit of Wands into four (4) distinct areas - which is the same as the number of elements (what a surprise). Note: Health issues would fall under all 4 (or 5) elements so it would probably have it's own category (#5).

So what am I mumbling about? Check it out.

Category #1 Category #2 Category #3 Category #4
Spirituality Energy Sexuality Work
Inner Self Drive .......... Career
.......... Motivation .......... Business

We could add a lot to category #2 - and category #3 seems a little light but not considering it's only entry (Sexuality), LOL.

Is there something you consider 'Wand-like' that doesn't fit the 4 categories above?

So if each element has 4 categories of possible meanings (not counting health) what would be those of the suits of Swords, Cups, and Pentacles?

I was trying to figure out titles for the different categories when something else dawned on me.  What if each suit comprised some of the influences of each of the other suits?

Say something like:
a 28% - 24% - 24% - 24% breakdown,

or a 52% - 16% - 16$ - 16% breakdown,

or a 76% - 8% - 8% - 8% breakdown.

The main element would comprise the larger percentage.  So let me change my chart a little to reflect what I think is the prime motivational factor of the suit of Fire/Wands.

Category #1 Category #2 Category #3 Category #4
28% 24% 24% 24%
Fire/Fire Fire/Air Fire/Water Fire/Earth
Energy Spirituality Sexuality Work
Drive Inner Self .......... Career
Motivation Creativity .......... Business

Note that the prime motivating energy (28%) in Wands/Fire suit is 'energy, action, drive', with equal portions of the other 3 elements integrated with Fire to come up with the meanings for the suit of Wands.

So for headings we might have the following;

Breakdown for the Suit of Wands
Element Fire
Root of Fire
Fire of Fire		 Intellectual Fire
Air of Fire		 Emotional Fire
Water of Fire		 Material Fire
Earth of Fire
Energy Spirituality Sexuality Work
Drive Inner Self .......... Career
Motivation Creativity .......... Business

So the next time someone asks how you see/read the suit of Wands ask them if they are talking about the Fire, Earth, Air, or Water (or the Root, Intellectual, Emotional, or Material) part of the suit of Wands.

The elements are 'wondrous' things.

Let's move on to the suit of Earth/Pentacles to see how my chart breakdown works, or if it does work.

To continue, assuming anyone is interested, (LOL), let's see what we can do with the element of Earth/Pentacles.  Here are the meanings I use for elemental dignities and the element of Earth.

Stable, practical, strength, resources, money, wealth, commerce, labor, prosperity, security, value, generosity, charity, body, material possessions, family, home.  Here is what I came up with but it surely can to added to - or changed.

Motivational = Fire

Breakdown for the Suit of Pentacles
Element Earth
Root of Earth
Earth of Earth		 Intellectual Earth
Air of Earth		 Emotional Earth
Water of Earth		 Motivational Earth
Fire of Earth
Stable .......... Charity Resources
Practical .......... Security Money
Grounded .......... Sensuality Business
Strength Strength Family Home
Materialism .......... Note #1 Body


Note #1: Love of beauty and nature.

Motivational = Fire (energy, drive, etc.).  In other words the material drives (Fire influence) the suit of Pentacles, and the Home can be considered material (as in showplace).  And you might also see them as driving their body to achieve these ends, thus the Body meaning.

The Root of Earth would be Earth/Earth and the basic tenents of the suit, but if you go with the percentages of 28/24/24/24 there isn't that much difference between the strenght of the elements/meanings.

I put Strength in columns one and two which I think is appropriate since to remain stable and practical takes strength of mind (Intellectual Earth) and of course Strength is one of the basic tenants of Earth (strong as an Oak, solid as a rock, and a bunch of other things denoting stability and strength).  Body was a toughie and I'm still not sure it fits under 'Motivation (Fire) Earth' but don't know where else you could put it since it is material. Perhaps under Earth of Earth - the Root.

Note the lack of meanings under Intellectual (Air) Earth.  Then check the table for Wands/Fire under 'Emotional (Water) Fire'.

Breakdown for the Suit of Wands
Element Fire
Root of Fire
Fire of Fire		 Intellectual Fire
Air of Fire		 Emotional Fire
Water of Fire		 Material Fire
Earth of Fire
Energy Spirituality Sexuality Work
Drive Inner Self .......... Career
Motivation Creativity .......... Business


Anyone see a pattern emerging?  Fire (Wands) and Water (Cups) are adverse to one another and so to are Earth (Pentacles) and Air (Swords) so it would only make sense to have few if any meanings under the unfriendly element of each suit/element.  In fact I had to really work to find just one meaning that would fit under Intellectual Earth for the meanings of Pentacles/Earth.  Also note that 'Business' falls under both Wands and Pentacles.  This could be business, career, work but I just used the Business meaning.

Let's see what we can make of the suit of Swords/Air.  Once again I'll start with the meanings I use for elemental dignities.

Mental activity, intellect, communication, thought, logic, reason, analysis, decision, action, conflict, stress, volatility.

Breakdown for the Suit of Swords
Element Air
Root of Air
Air of Air		 Motivational Air
Fire or Air		 Emotional Air
Water of Air		 Material Air
Earth of Air
Mental Activity Communication Conflict ..........
Intellect Decision Stress ..........
Thought/Ideas .......... Volatility ..........
Logic .......... .......... Logic
Reason .......... .......... Reason
Analysis .......... .......... Analysis


Although logic, reason, and analysis are very much mental activities to me - you have to be 'grounded' in facts, data, information, etc. for them to work properly and thus the reason I have them in both the Root (Air) and Material (Earth) categories.  These two elements, Root (Air) and Material (Earth) are unfriendly .. so logic, reason and analysis can often strangle the thought processes of Air.  It keeps it from just ... mentally creating from whole cloth.

As I suspected, even though the Root (Air or Air) and Motivational (Fire of Air) elements are friendly, and both are Active/Masculine elements there aren't very many Motivational (Fire of Air) meanings for Swords/Air.

Note: Conflict, stress, and volatility are not restricted to just the suit of Swords and the element of Air.  Wands/Fire and Cups/Water can also have these same negative results.  In fact, all the elements can cause stress and conflict.

Updated Wands/Fire Table


Breakdown for the Suit of Wands
Element Fire
Root of Fire
Fire of Fire		 Intellectual Fire
Air of Fire		 Emotional Fire
Water of Fire		 Material Fire
Earth of Fire
Energy Spirituality Sexuality Work
Drive Inner Self Desire Career
Motivation Inspiration Passion Business
Action Creativity .......... ..........


Desire and passion could both fall under the category of sexuality but they are different.  You can be passionate about many things and desire many things that have nothing to do with sexuality - like desiring a computer, being passionate about sports (or purses), LOL.  So there turns out to be more Emotional (Water of Fire) meanings in the suit of Fire/Wands than I orginally had.  I've also added a few more Intellectual meanings - as you can see in the above table.

Never did do a table for the Water element but most of the meanings would fall under the Root (Water of Water) anyway.

Here are the meanings I use for Cups/Water when doing Elemental Dignities.  You figure out where they would go!

CUPS (Water) Relationships, emotions, feelings, intuition, receptivity, reflection, subconscious, vision, imagination.

Don S.

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