“The fish in the water, the bird in the sky . . .”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: When I encountered the above truncated haiku (which is apparently a fragment and maybe only a loose translation of a “traditional Japanese poem”), it brought me back to contemplation of the value of Elemental Dignity in tarot reading. This time I’m approaching the subject as a “one-on-one” proposition rather than according to its more common usage within sets of three consecutive cards. The title of this essay alludes to the following commentary on the Genjo Koan of Buddhism, which echoes the parable “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
“A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements.”
The premise behind Elemental Dignity is that the four “classical” elements – Fire, Water, Air and Earth – are variously friendly and cooperative, unfriendly and obstructive, or amiably familiar with one another but largely uninvolved in the drama. The following brief table sums this up. While not shown here, it goes without saying that a doubled emphasis of any one element – such as Fire paired with Fire – is the “friendliest” of all but is also likely to be the most unbalanced and intemperate in its action. (I once tackled this subject in a more comprehensive way in the post linked below.)
Fire and Air are friendly
Fire and Water are unfriendly
Fire and Earth are sympathetic but detached (the actual Golden Dawn description is “neutral and supportive”)
Water and Earth are friendly
Water and Air are “neutral and supportive”
Air and Earth are unfriendly.
Friendly elements work together for the mutual benefit of both; unfriendly elements are at odds with one another, which can hinder the smooth integration of their individual promise; neutral elements (I call them “complementary opposites”) enjoy a mildly harmonious affinity when brought together such that, while they won’t actively collaborate, they also won’t stand in the way of progress.
When they are taken in pairs from an elemental perspective, the inherent temperament of each card will also have a bearing on their interaction. For example, while Fire and Air are friendly and should cooperate to the fullest, with two cards of drastically different portent – say, the 6 of Wands (“Victory”) and the 5 of Swords (“Defeat”) – the best that might be expected is that they will “agree to disagree” in their fundamental approach to the matter. On the other hand, two favorably inclined cards – such as the 3 of Wands (“Virtue”) and the 2 of Swords (“Peace”) will be further empowered by the exchange, while two inimically disposed cards – like the 5 of Wands (“Strife”) and the 9 of Swords (“Cruelty”) – could be fiercely provoked in their affliction (think “greasing the skids”) rather than being rehabilitated by the elemental concordance. In short, elemental alignment alone doesn’t make their alliance any “better” or “worse” from an interpretive standpoint, just more or less potent “for good or ill, according to their nature” (to use the language of MacGregor Mathers).
In my own practice, where I frequently employ the Golden Dawn’s paradigm of “elemental positions” when creating spreads (see the introductory step to the First Operation of the “Opening of the Key” method with its Fire, Water, Air and Earth sub-packs), I look for cards landing in spread positions that significantly strengthen or weaken their own elemental signature. Cards that are strongly stimulated by the synthesis (once again, “for good or ill”) will often exhibit an exaggerated importance in the reading. A friendly emphasis from the elemental stratum will inspire and energize the active overlay of “reading” cards in its mission, an unfriendly stress could demoralize or undermine its behavior and compromise its effectiveness, and a neutral one will leave its expression largely untouched.
Either a card will be “in its element” (or at least in a compatible polarity) and behave with appropriate fluency or it will be estranged and flop around aimlessly like a “fish out of water” (or, more prosaically, it will be constrained in the fullness and freedom of its articulation). In paired arrays, this distinction plays into my “dominant-and-recessive” model in that elementally favored cards should stand out as more persuasive and less-advantaged cards will typically be diminished in prominence. All of the cards will of course have a say, some will just speak more loudly and convincingly than others.
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