Elemental

Overlap
An un-digni ed approach to
elemental correspondences

Tom Benjamin
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 Elemental Overlap
An Un-Digni ed Approach to Elemental Correspondences in Tarot

By Tom Benjamin

Cover Art by Vika_Glitter on Pixabay

Copyright © 2024 by Tom Benjamin - All Rights Reserved

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 Elementals: An Introduction

For many of us, the elemental associations of the tarot are key parts of how we read. In my
case, the elements tell me a few things: First, what area of life the card or reading applies to;
second, the way in which something is happening or manifesting; third, the areas both of
abundance and de cit in the client’s1 life. It’s rare that I’m not considering the elements in
some way. For me, when it comes to the minors, element and number are my starting point.

The ways we understand and interpret the elements will depend on who our teachers were
(what books we’ve read), whatever elemental cosmology we understood before we learned
tarot, and our experience over time working with the elements. Those of us who learned
about elements from learning tarot likely have a concept of them based largely on
esotericism and astrology.

There’s an ease and simplicity to those elemental correspondences that makes them easy to
remember. We know the aggressive suits (wands, swords) are complimentary, as are the
receptive suits (water, earth). We know that aggressive suits paired with receptive suits can
be con icted or adversarial—but it also depends on the elements, themselves. Fire and water
are more adversarial than air and water. Air and earth are more adversarial than re and
earth. Some might say that re/earth and air/water are neutral pairings, or even
complimentary. That of course depends on what we’ve studied and come to accept as true.

There’s a lot of bene ts to thinking this way. It can help you understand whether
combinations of cards are acting in the client’s interests or against them; it can suggest the
tenor of various relationships in the clients’ lives; it can also tell us where they’re putting too
much e ort and where they might bene t from more. It also can suggest times when things
are out of our control, purely based on the adversarial energy of the combos.

This is called working with elemental dignities. I have an old video on my channel explaining
how I learned them and how I used to work with them.

Over time, I’ve come to see the elements di erently. I’ve come to realize that the elements
don’t have binary relationships with one another. In fact, I’ve come to see binary thinking as

1I use this word regardless of whether the reader charges money. The client is anyone who
gets a reading. I just think it’s easier to say than “querent,” which I can also never remember
how to spell.
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relatively pointless in readings, because life is rarely binary—despite what the political and
religious right would tell us. Few things in life are either fully one thing or fully another.
Same with most relationships. Rare is the concept or experience that’s fully good or fully
bad.

Sure, there is some shit that’s terrible. But something being fundamentally awful, with zero
to gain or learn from it, is kind of an anomaly. Annoyingly, even things that happen that we
hate can yield progress in our lives. Of course, some of us experience greater volumes of
shitty stu , which makes it somewhat privileged to say that good can come from bad. Of
course. But, the number of things from which we can’t learn and understand ourselves is
small. Whether or not that’s fair is another question. (But I would say, look at people you
view as successful. How much growth are they really experiencing? If you look closely, what
you’ll likely see is their humanity and world shrinking. They become protected by their
success—until something happens, and the enablers of their bubble ee. Which happens
more and more in a world where people are starting to understand that they don’t deserve
shitty behavior from others just because those others have achieved a level of notoriety.
Notoriety often gets mistaken for skill and respect. It isn’t. But it is addictive, which is why
successful people—famous ones, anyway—begin to do awful things to keep the dopamine
hits coming.)

Another Way. I don’t view the elements as complimentary or con icting, not at least at
rst. Instead, I recognize that each element has its own behaviors, tendencies, preferences,
and its individual purposes. The other elements may be able to help or hurt those purposes,
or they may do none of that. It is the ways in which the elements interact in a reading that
tells us how they “feel” about one another; about how they’re acting and reacting in relation
to one another. Like the cards themselves, elements are neither good or bad. They simply
are. It is context that explains what they’re doing, why, and what impact that will have on
the client. This also goes for the majors and the courts. All of the pieces that make up tarot
are inert concepts without actual meaning—up to the point where they’re activated by
doing a reading. Once the reading starts, then the qualities of the cards’ contributing pieces
begin interacting. At that point, we begin to see how “good” or “bad” they are.

Before we explore how this happens, let’s rst explore the elements themselves.

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Fire

Before continuing, think about the idea of re. Imagine for just a moment that you are a
deity and you’ve gotten the impulse to create re. You’re not an all-powerful deity, though;
you’re part of a subcommittee of gods creating the world. You have found an impulse within
to create “ re.” Before you do that, you have to “sell” it to the rest of your peers. Think
about re and try to explain it to someone who has never experienced it. Focus, if you can,
on its purpose. What is it for? Once you’ve done that, you can think about what it does: how it
acts, behaves, moves, sings, dances, whatever. Finally, explain what re wants. What does it
crave, yearn for? Burn for, if you will? Tell your fellow gods what re is and what it belongs
on this planet. When you’e done that, keep reading.

My Fire: I think of re as hungry. It is a consumer. To exist, it needs fuel to burn. It is

relentless, insatiable, and hypnotic. In this way, re isn’t much di erent from the trope of
the sexy vampire. They’re hungry, relentless, insatiable—and hypnotic, too. We are lured by
them, and though they are beautiful, they’re also dangerous. They’re also necessary. As
humans, we like to think ourselves at the top of the food chain, but we’re not. One of those
reasons folks think vampires are hot is precisely because of that tension. We are drawn in
and repulsed. Whether this is good or bad for us is entirely context dependent. Fire really
could burn forever if it has enough fuel. But it eats fuel faster than it can sustain itself, so
most of the times it burns out. So, unlike a vampire, re is extremely fragile.

We don’t think of re as fragile, but when we consider how perfect conditions must be for
re to thrive, we can see that it’s actually not an easily sustainable thing. There not only
needs to be enough fuel to eat, there also needs to be enough air to keep it from su ocating.
Much like humans, re needs air and food. This neediness makes it dependent. We could
draw a line between re and the stereotype of the needy signi cant other who needs to be
reassured all the time. For an insecure human, the food is validation. For re, the food is
something to burn. Either way, a source of energy is used up. Eventually the partner of the
overly needy person will get tired and end things. Likewise, the fuel will get used up and the
re will go out.

But it’s not only re’s neediness that makes it fragile. It’s also easy to control small amounts
of it and all it takes is a gentle gust of wind or a few drops of water to put it out. (This is
when it’s controlled.)

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In describing it this way, we can see how temperamental re can be: it needs the perfect
conditions, it needs the correct amount of fuel and air, and it needs to be constantly tended
to or it will either peter out or take over. It’s a prima donna, a diva, which is why it makes
sense that Leo is a re sign. We might point to Leo (which is xed re) as the core of re’s
tendencies. But we can’t reduce re (nor Leo) to simply a kind of fragile ego. Sure, that’s
part of it, but it’s not the only part. Leo/Fire is generous, warm, comforting, attractive, and
—not unlike those spicy vampires—quite seductive. There’s a charm to re. That’s why we
humans love sitting in front of a camp re or replace, it’s why we love to eat and fuck by
candle light, and it’s why we—like moths—can’t look away from it.

Fire is also useful. We cook with it, we heat our bath water with it, we stay warm with it.
There is even evidence, though this isn’t a popular thing to say, that the wild res that spread
across large swaths of the land are necessary for the continued health and growth of the
forests they destroy. See, it isn’t the re that’s the problem; it’s the fact that humans have
built our cities and towns wherever we wanted to. The problem is that, before our ancestors
exterminated much of the Indigenous population of the so-called US, we didn’t bother to
learn from those folks who knew the land better than we do how to work with re rather
than against it. There’s also the fact that many of the worst wild res in modern life were
caused not by lightning or storms, but by human recklessness and thoughtlessness. It is the
power companies and the cigarette- ickers who are to blame for the destruction caused by
most of these major res, not the res themselves. There have always been natural res and
the burning of parts of the forest are and have been important to feed the soil.

If you’re in the zone of wild res, I don’t say this to diminish the pain and su ering and loss
that these events cause. These are real. But it’s not the re that caused this; it’s our shitty
relationship to the world around us. And the same, as we will see, can be said about water—
especially as we encounter the dramatic impacts of climate change.

Fire destroys, yes, but not because it wants to. It’s simply eating. We could look at a bread
dough and say, “Ah, that yeast is destroying the our!” Objectively, it is; it’s eating the sugars
in the dough, causing it to burp, making the dough rise. Yes, it is destroying the our. But
it’s doing that in the service of the stunning human invention of bread. It is transforming
something that is unpleasant to eat in its normal state into something that is, simply put,
one of the greatest creations in living history. (I’m a carbs guy. Sorry to the folks who can’t
eat it. I probably should eat less of it.) Point is, the yeast in the bread dough—like a vampire
feeding on my neck—isn’t doing anything mean. It’s simply sustaining itself. It’s doing what
it’s here to do: eat. Which is exactly what re is doing when it burns up a forest or house.

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It’s eating. Like a vampire. Like yeast. Like a lion eating a lamb. Right? It’s simply
demonstrating its primary reason d’être: consuming.

When re destroys, it’s not doing it to be be cruel. It’s only motive is eating. (Much like
me.) When re does cruel things, that’s generally because it’s being used that way. And the
only creature on this planet capable of weaponizing re? Humans. So when re is bad, that’s
often because of human behavior. Sure, sometimes it’s an accident of fate. Those happen, too.
But, again, though they suck, they’re not deliberate. (I guess unless your cosmology is such
that something divine did this to you as punnishment, retribution, or a lesson. I do not rate
such things as divinely-incited.) If an electrical re starts, it’s not because the wires in the
wall said, “ah, time to fuck this person.” The wires in the wall aged and wore out, as all
human-made things tend to do, and the energy within it (which is also simply doing its
thing) starts a re. Bad, dangerous, possibly deadly—but not with intent. On the other
hand, dropping a bomb on people? That’s re with intent. That’s cruel. But it’s the humans
who make it cruel. Fire just is.

This is re in its most literal nature. Of course there are symbolic associations, too, which
are equally valuable.

Fire, of course, is synonymous with passion. That can simply mean generalized “enthusiasm,”
and it can also mean bone-deep attraction. Both are within the realm of possibility. Desire, in
all its permutations, lives here—how ever deep and intense that desire is depends on
context. A little bit of re might mean a little desire, a yen, a curiosity; a lot of re may
suggest total obsession.

And it’s not a long leap from passion to evangelism. Allow me to pause again and level set:
In the current landscape, evangelism is bad. What we understand today as evangelical is
associated with right wing misappropriation of the words of an itinerant, nomadic
philosopher who preached love and humility. What we understand as evangelical today is
right-wing hate-based legislation. The word now connotes those things because of its
association with right-wing “christianity,” but in this case what I mean is fervent belief or
dedication. It might also include the concept of vocation. In both cases, we’re heading into the
spiritual—but I don’t mean any particular path, or even a path at all. I’m evangelical in my
love of using a sous vide circulator to cook steak. I will spread this good news to anyone who
wants to listen. I love using that device so much, I’ve gotten them as gifts for loved ones. I
preach the gospel of the immersion circulator in the kitchen. I’m also somewhat evangelical
in my love of tarot, spreading the “good news” through my books and YouTube channel.

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Zealous, fervent devotion to something powerful isn’t bad—until that devotion is used to
hurt, control, or divide.

This all means that re is the element we look to when we’re seeking spirit, life purpose,
salvation, revelation, etc.—whatever the spiritual suggests to you lives here, because it is the
home of deep, deep dedication.

This is a lot to say about the element of re and much more could be said. We might feel
overwhelmed. “How am I supposed to remember all of this?” Well, you’re not. What are
supposed to do is be open to it. Having all of these concepts for re in our minds will help us
because we can call on it when we need it. We’ll know we need it either because what we’re
trying isn’t working, or because the thoughts just pop into our heads. We tend to undervalue
those sudden pops of realization or memory, especially if we’re easily distracted, but they’re
valuable. When an association comes up that you weren’t expecting, that’s usually a sign that
it’s important.

The other cards, the other suits in the spread, will also help us re ne how each element is
behaving. And that’s really what this whole little booklet is about. But before we get there,
let’s look at the other three elements.

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Water

As above, consider how you might describe water to your creation subcommittee. What
would you say about water if nobody knew what it was?

My Water: Water is the most obviously necessary of the elements, we can’t live without it.
But it’s also made, at least in part, from air—gases. It’s enriched by earth—nutrients. And it’s
made into things by re. This reminds us that the elements (with their own
correspondences, symbology, and qualities) are inseparable. We can’t have any one of them
without the others.

In esoteric traditions, particularly those with a focus on alchemy, re and water are the
primary elements, and air is created by their union. That makes sense, since steam is made
from that contact. I tend not to agree with that way of thinking, because none of the
elements exist without the others—and certainly re can’t exist without air. (They would
explain to me, I know, all the reasons that my distaste for their methods and symbols is
ignorant, and I still wouldn’t care. In fact, whenever anyone tries to explain esotericism in a
way that makes it clear they think I’m stupid, I become even more rm in my convictions
that esotericism is a philosophy based on smug exclusivity, rather than connection to
divinity. “But,” they might say, “not all esotericists!” No, I say. Not all anything. But enough
of them to make that perception valid.)

What’s water’s job or goal? To ow. That is what it wants to do. It ows. Water isn’t healthy
when it’s stagnant. That’s where disease grows. Water must be kept in motion to keep it
healthy, which is why pools and aquariums require circulation pumps and lters. The
movement oxygenates the water appropriately, but not so much that disease can fester.
When water is stagnant and gets over oxygenated, algae blooms grow that make the water
uninhabitable and unusable. (This happens when fertilizers from farms leeches into bodies
of water.) Without ow, water isn’t at its best. It needn’t be massive surging rivers, it might
be in the gentle waves at the edge of a lake or pond. But it needs ow, it needs movement.
That’s what water does best.

It’s true that water cleans and cleanses. That’s not what it’s “there” to do, that’s just a side
e ect of its tendencies. It doesn’t exist because it wants to clean, it’s just that as it moves it
has the tendency to clean. It’s job isn’t “clean”; it’s job is “ ow.” Water tends to be clean
because of its movement (see above). Look at a bucket of dirty mop water. Clean? No.

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Stagnant? Yes. What got the oor clean? They movement of the wet mop scrubbing against
the stains.

Like re, water is assertive. It’s a “receptive” element, but it is assertively receptive (compare
with earth, which is receptively receptive).

Note: I use the terms “aggressive” and “receptive” in place of the more common male/female
binaries for a few reasons. First, even as a cis male, I’m fucking exhausted by the endless
focus on “divine feminine” and “divine masculine.” I get it, I get it: it’s metaphorical. I get it,
it is the metaphor for creation, because for much of human history a penis being inserted
into a vagina was the principal way humans understood creation. I get it, the “old gods” were
seemingly mostly gendered, with some nonbinary exceptions. I get that for modern women,
the patriarchal history of our world makes a movement away from masculinity healing and
helpful. I get a l the reasons why people like to talk this way. And sti nd it limiting, cis
centric, heterocentric, and annoying. There is no such thing as the “divine masculine” or the
“divine feminine” because divinity is nonbinary. There are more things on Heaven and
Earth, Horatio, than can be summed up that way. Point to anything that has historically
been considered “masculine” or “feminine” in spirituality, and I guarantee that another
culture somewhere on the planet gave it the opposite designations. Even the moon,
commonly considered by modern alt-spiritualists to be the very icon of femininity, is
considered masculine in some parts of the world. Mythologies coming from two of the most
common cultures referenced in modern alt-spirituality (Egyptian and Norse) considered the
moon masculine. At least sometimes. Nothing is all one thing.

Back to the elements: The impacts of water or re are side e ects of it doing what they do. As
water passes over something, that something is refreshed and cleaned.

There’s a saying that you never step in the same river twice. This is because the water is
never the same. This highlights water’s deep need to move.

This is the “love” suit, right? Or anyway it’s commonly thought of that way. But it isn’t. Not
at all. It’s the sensation suit. Love is or can be a sensation, an emotion that causes physical
expression. But so is hate. And hate belongs with water just as much as love does. Because
while water cleans, it can also destroy—just like re. Too much water moving too fast can
wipe our entire cultures. Too much water moving too fast becomes oppressive,
overwhelming, irresistible in a bad way. Too much water moving too fast is oods,
hurricanes (actually, that’s a good example of water and air overlapping—more on that

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presently), storms, broken dams, breached levees. Too much water moving too fast kills life
while reshaping entire ecosystems. The phrase “I am become death, destroyer of worlds”
could easily be “I am become water, destroyer of worlds.” (In fact, it could easily be assigned
to any of the elements.)

The suit of water is associated with emotions because of all of this, good and bad. Emotions
can be lovely, refreshing, exciting, even cleansing; they can also be overwhelming, taxing, or
downright dangerous. An unchecked crush can become stalking.

The point of all this is, water represents emotion because they are so similar. But that’s a
emotions, not just love. When people look at the Two of Cups, they get excited! “I’m going
to nd my soul mate!” Alas, no, dear one: it means your drawing emotions to you. It doesn’t
mean you’re drawing love to you. The other cards will tell us what, exactly, is being attracted.
(This is because twos are magnetic.)

Water is unpredictable, like our senses, at least in some cases. See, water nds the easiest
path. If there isn’t a path, it will create one—but when there’s no “groove” to start with, it’ll
go just about anywhere, and it’s not always to see where or why. Take a glass of water and
dribble it on a at service. Does it spill where you expect it to? Probably not. There may be
some movement in predictable directions, for example if the at surface is tilted slightly, the
water will allow gravity to pull it to the lowest point. If it’s perfectly level, though, it goes
everywhere and anywhere. And it might all go in one direction even if it doesn’t make much
sense. Water is, to borrow a word, mercurial. So are our emotions. What was one day a mild
dislike could the next day blossom into full on loathing or total devotion. This is one of the
things that makes being human so di cult.

Of course our thoughts do that, too, and they’re the realm of swords. But we’ll see how
these elements are similar soon. Emotion and thought are inextricably linked, which makes
sense because we can’t have water without oxygen (air).

Water is also frequently associated with spirituality. But I just said that’s the realm of re, so
how could it be both? Because, again, the elements are all each other as much as they are
themselves. But if we want to get more practical, it’s because re is evangelical spirituality
and water is emotional spirituality. Water is the kind of religious experience we feel inside, it’s
the kind that comes from intuition or other deep knowings. When we’re expressing
spirituality in a watery way, we’re feeling it deep within. When we experience spirituality in a
ery way, we might be preaching or putting on a pageant (or, in less generous cases, putting a

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show for likes and subs). Fire spirituality is the external, the kind that gets others revved up;
water spirituality is internal, subtle, moody, quiet, and private. Neither is better, because
water spirituality can be just as performative and sel sh as re. We can allow water
spirituality to make us feel superior, precisely because it’s so internal and private. “Ah,” we
think, “I’m a real devotee because I don’t advertise!” And when the ego kicks in, you can bet
we’re in the shadow realm of the element for sure.

Water carries things, and it can carry us o . Sometimes that’s good—a vacation! Sometimes
it’s bad—we’re emotionally drained and need a week of non-stop therapy. It is powerful, just
as powerful as re, just as destructive, and actually just as seductive. It may seduce
di erently and may draw di erent kinds of folks, but it is just as potent. It’s just got a
di erent motivator. Fire feeds, water ows. They’re actually more alike than they are
di erent, but because they’re di erent sides of the same coin that can be hard to detect.

When re and water combine, all kinds of cool stu happens. But not yet.

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Air

As before, come up with a way of describing air to your fellow gods on the subcommittee to
create the earth.

My Air: Where re and water have pretty speci c natural goals, air and earth are a little
less direct. To say what air “wants” or “does” is a little more di cult, partly because we can’t
see it. But it’s just about everywhere, including water (where we tend to think in terms of
su ocation—which humans will experience if we spend too much time under water, but not
the entirety of marine life). Air s. Think of a balloon lling with helium (a gas which isn’t
air, but is air-y) or your mind lling with thoughts. It’s goal is to expand and touch
everything it can.

It’s true that air is what we breathe and so it keeps us alive, but that’s again just a side e ect
of air being everywhere. If air weren’t everywhere, humans would have evolved to breathe
di erently. We point to sea life again to see how underwater creates survive without a
constant ood of air. The oxygen in the water is absorbed into their bodies in other ways.
It’s also true that air “blows” (as in wind), but that’s a direct result of its interaction with re
(the sun, solar energy, which makes the wind blow). We could also say that air doesn’t have
any particular innate goal; it simply wants to be. That’s a little passive, but not untrue. For
me, it’s less useful as a metaphor. Because air is associated with the mind, and the mind may
want to “just be,” it rarely is capable of it—particularly for those of us with ADHD and
other divergences. No, air lls—the way it lls our lungs. That’s our primary relationship to
it, isn’t it? It’s just lucky that air wants to feel and we want to be lled with it.

Like the other two elements we’ve discussed, we tend to think of air mostly when its being
acted on by other forces. Air isn’t wind, but wind is air manipulated by solar energy. Air isn’t
water, but marine life can life in water because there’s air in water. Storms aren’t air; they’re
the air manipulated by weather fronts (again, a direct result of solar energy—and an
interesting combination of re, water, and air). When air moves or circulates, it’s with the
aid of some external force—almost always re. We’ve already talked about solar energy, but a
fan or air conditioner is also re energy because re is electricity. Air, though described as an
“active” (we already know I use the word “aggressive”) element, can be quite passive. Like
the light of the moon, it’s power is re ective. Air acts when pushed. Otherwise, it just lls
spaces. When air lls spaces too much or when air is sucked out of spaces, that’s again a
reaction to conditions—it isn’t air’s natural tendency. When air destroys that’s because it is

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being driven by other forces. We can think of a windstorm as air, and it is, but the storm is
the active part; the air is simply behaving accordingly. Similarly, smoking a cigarette is
dangerous, but a cigarette isn’t air. It includes air, but it is the human inhaling the air mixed
with tar and tobacco that makes the cigarette dangerous. Air and cigarette smoke ll our
lungs, but the cigarette smoke is the combination of re and human action. The air just goes
for the ride.

We could also say that’s the goal of air: to go for the ride. Again, a little passive but not
untrue.

The element of air is associated with the mind, with intellect, and with words. It’s a good
match in part because words are “wind.” They are exhalations of air from our lungs,
pressurized inside our bodies, and then activating our vocal chords as they pass through our
lungs and throats. Without air, those of us who speak cannot do that. So language is a good
t, because it is the direct result of air. The mentality of air is a little more metaphorical, but
like the helium metaphor above, thoughts do ll our brains—sometimes to the point of
bursting. Just look a balloon.

Thoughts also seem to be everywhere, like air. It’s di cult to escape them. And without
thoughts, some of us might even think we’re su ocating. We get so used to thinking, we
associate thinking with being alive. Of course any skilled meditator will tell you that’s false.
But for those of us to whom meditation seems like a fairy tale skill, it’s hard not to see
ourselves as our mind. Just as sure as we breathe, we think. And thoughts are pervasive. They
are seemingly limitless. Our imaginations are as extensive as air, they can go as many places
as air does, and they can even make us light headed if we have too much of it. “I think,
therefor I am.” “I breathe, therefore I am.”

Like water, we can get over oxygenated, too. When that happens, we get dizzy. If we’re
thinking metaphorically, we can get dizzy with possibility or indecision. If we’re thinking
literally, getting too much oxygen can cause us to feel drunk. And if too much oxygen gets
into our blood, we die. Similarly, if we don’t get enough oxygen we can get light headed and
die. Our minds, without enough stimulation, will atrophy. With too much stimulation, we
have panic attacks or we get overwhelmed and burned out. Air is an element that’s at its
very best when in balance. We need the right amount of air, just as we need the right amount
of thinking, talking, writing, and learning.

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Learning may not seem like it can be too much of a good thing, like air. But we can consume
so much information in such a short time that we fail to process any of it. Like drinking
from a re hose, we simply become overwhelmed. We cannot hold onto all of that
information, so we lose a lot of it—probably most of it. If we want to retain what we learn,
we have to allow that learning to settle into our minds. If we try to cram more information
into the old noggin before we’ve truly learned what we’ve just encountered, we’ll lose the old
information and the new. Only random details will stick. And for those of us with ADHD
and other divergences, the things that do stick will often be the weirdest but least useful
things.

We also know what it’s like when people try to over communicate, over explain, or over
analyze. These are examples of too much of a good thing. It can be intoxicating at rst, and
then nally makes you sick. “Stop explaining!” we want to scream. “I get it!” And that’s totally
fair. We’ve gotten saturated with information, our minds are trying to process it, and
someone else is still going and going . . . it’s maddening. We need balance. We need breaks.
We need rest. Too much is just as bad as not enough.

Because air is pervasive and wants to take up as much space as it can, we need to make sure
that it’s not over lling. There’s a lot of exibility in air, but we for sure know when it’s too
much or not enough—and when we reach that point, we need to make an adjustment
immediately.

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Earth

As before, describe earth as though it were new.

My Earth: Of the four, this is the hardest to pin down. If re hungers, water ows, and air
lls, what can we say of earth? We generally can’t feel it doing its thing, unlike the other
three. But of course, if it weren’t doing its thing we’d be in big trouble. This is because
earth’s goal is to live.

I was going to say “to grow,” which is probably a more active, more understandable concept.
But it’s not entirely true, because earth itself a ows for growth, it creates a growth
environment. Things grow on and in earth. But earth itself is a home for those things; it
doesn’t itself do the growing. (This is a delicate semantic argument, I recognize that. If we
take the Earth in the divine sense, in the godly sense, then what I’m saying isn’t true—in
that case, it’s a very di erent desire. I would say, then, that the Earth wants to save, protect,
to o er succor. That could easily be how you go about it. But I’m thinking about the element
of earth, not the Planet Earth—if that makes sense. In this case, I’d say think more about
“dirt” than the planet and our home. That level of depth is partly for the majors.) So we
could say earth “facilitates,” which is true, but also kind of corporate. Because earth is so
alive, it makes living possible.

Eat, ow, ll . . . live. Not the most congruent evolution, but of course I’m not considering
the other elements much in guring out the main goal of the individual elements. I’m not
worried about how those four goals work together, because it isn’t really the goal that
matters. The goal or main action of the element gives us a way of understanding its
symbolism. It’s a way of saying, “this thing tends to do this, so when we interpret cards in
this suit we can see their behavior in uenced by their element.” It’s the way that elements’
goals impact our lives that matters. Fire’s hunger’s impact on us matters more than re’s
hunger, but we need to understand that re is hungry in order to understand what it’s
impact actually is.

If earth’s goal is to live, what does that say about its impact on our lives? Well, it should be
primarily a healthy one. Except that we as a species seem hell bent on doing all we can to
suck the life right out of earth. (Now I’m talking about the planet and the element.) We
wrap earth in a skin of tar, we dig deep into its esh to nd oil to burn that su ocates earth
and the other three elements. We take earth for granted (again, the element and the planet)

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and we act like it’s always going to provide additional stu for us to take. And that’s because
we think that earth’s goal is to provide. No. Like the other elements, the goal of earth has
nothing to do with the human race. Its desires are its own, not in uenced by our needs or
wants. It’s nice at the elements can provide for us, but that’s not why the elements exist.
Earth wants to live, we see that and we take advantage of it. That doesn’t mean earth wants
it, anymore than re is trying to burn down someone’s house. We aren’t a factor in the
desires of the elements. They existed before us and will exist after us. We are simply
bene tting from the fact that these elements exist and do things naturally that help us. It
would be symbiotic if we weren’t so fucking greedy. And I’m not exempting myself from
that. Like re, I’m a consumer, too. In fact, re may be the element we most understand
because it is the most like our human goals—eating, sex, and sleeping. Two of those three
things are very ery, and the third is what happens when the re goes out.

Because earth is so alive, it gives us life, too. But so do all the other elements. So what makes
earth speci cally impactful to us? It gives us a place to put our feet down, its force keeps us
planted on the ground and not oating into space. We are able to live because earth has these
qualities. And because we live, we then take on all the things that go with that: food,
fucking, and fallow periods. So in the earth suit, we nd the things that make living doable.
Once, we didn’t need money to survive, we didn’t need money for food. Now we do. So we
nd money, here. Many of us are born thirsty, by which I mean sexual, and sex is a way of
creating life. So, though we’re going to see sex with re, we’ll also see it in earth. (You could
say re sex is recreational, earth sex is procreational.) As we live, we discover certain things
are important to us: shelter, security, and loved ones. Because of that, our homes, jobs and
nances, and family all show up under this suit, too. These things also root us, keep us still
(for better or worse) or, what you might call “grounded.” So we are steadied by earth, too.
Earth inspires thoughts of living as well as describing the experience of living. And that’s
why all these “lifey” things show up in this suit.

I’ve often used the word “banal” to describe the parts of life covered by earth, but I’ve never
been satis ed with that word. When I use it, I mean the things I described above—but the
word banal removes any magic and mystery from the suit, and I don’t think the element is
devoid of that. In fact, what’s more magical than existence (for better or worse)? Life is
pretty fucking magical, even if we’re not particularly happy with it at any given time. So
“banal” isn’t the ideal word. I use it because that’s how life often feels. When we think of
living, we want to be doing “great things.” Fiery, watery, airy things. But we have to spend so
much of our time doing earthy things that we sometimes get resentful of earth. We want to
be more ery, watery, and airy, but life keeps making us be earthy. We feel frustrated by it,

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we ght it, and maybe that’s at least one of the reasons why we’re so cruel to the earth
(element and planet). Because we resent that we want to be and do more and life simply
won’t allow for it.

Of course, it’s not “life” that creates that reality; it’s capitalism and oppression. But we tend
to associate life with those two things because, for many of us, life has been shaped by and
often constricted by those things. But, like all else, it’s not the elements that make that
happen. Life isn’t boring because earth is; it’s boring because we’ve created a system where
we have to spend two thirds of our waking hours doing shit we weren’t designed to do. Earth
didn’t do that, though; we did. It’s like people who don’t like tarot because it’s “too mushy,
too psychological.” No. Tarot isn’t any of those things. It’s “just” a deck of cards. Where it’s
too mushy or psychological or anything, it’s because we made it that way. We pointed at the
thing and said, “you’re mushy and spiritual and don’t talk about practical matters.” Then we
started shitting on it for being those things. We so often forget that “life” isn’t the way it is
because “that’s just life”; life is the way it is because we made it that way. (Of course, when I say
“we,” I’m indicating that somehow you and I created the systems that we labor under. We
didn’t. That said, we [or many of us] do contribute to them—so though we didn’t start the
re, we sure keep tending it.)

We view life as banal, and if we do that we wind up viewing the suit as banal. And I’m not
saying I don’t do that. I can be as morose about life as anyone, and I’m incredibly cynical—
so though I recognize life could be more than we’ve made it, I also don’t have any faith in
humanity’s ability to change things. At least not yet. But that’s not life. Life, like re, water,
and air, simply is. Life, earth, wants to live in the same way water wants to ow. The way we
experience life living comes from the constructs we’ve sustained. And so when we see crappy
stu or boring stu in the earth suit, that’s not earth’s fault. It’s ours. Or, anyway, the
creators of the fucked up power structures we’re forced to uphold.

Lately, when I see earth, I think of The Witch and the question, “Wouldst thou like to live
deliciously?” Earth, life, is what we make it. I for sure would like to make it into something
delicious. I don’t know about you.

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Elements in Readings

One of the ways I nd elemental associations helpful: when a client doesn’t have a question.
I can narrow down the theme of a reading based on a dominant element. If I see a lot of
water, say, I understand the reading likely focuses on feelings or relationships. (That said, I
still really prefer a question. Just that so few folks have them.)

Sometimes a reading will be about one thing (based on the question), but the elemental
associations seem to talk about something else. Some readers will follow the elements and
ignore the question, but I’m not a fan of that. When the dominant element in a reading isn’t
related to the theme of the question, I don’t throw out the question. Say the client wants to
know about whether their new boyfriend will turn out to be a longterm relationship. If the
dominant element in the reading is air, I don’t say, Don’t worry about your boy iend, you need to
go back to school. That’s not what the reading is saying. It’s saying that the answer lies in the
realm of air, or that the way to the answer is through air’s associations.

Let’s imagine I’m working with this question and I’ve drawn the Six of Swords, the Ace of
Wands, and the Two of Swords. I might be tempted to say that because there are no cups/
water cards, there isn’t any hope of the relationship developing into something long-lasting.
That’s not it, though; it simply means that cups/water isn’t a factor in the answering of the
question—at least in the context of this three-card reading. The presence of so much air
might suggest a few things, all of them about this relationship: communication is important, or
is a factor that will determine the relationship’s longevity; it’s a subject that’s on the client’s
mind a lot and/or they’re talking about it a lot, maybe obsessing; they are someone who is
attracted to and turned on by intellect, wisdom, language, and/or learning; the relationship
is combative (swords and wands are weapons), particularly prone to arguments. All of these
could be true. The airiness of the reading doesn’t negate that we’re talking about a love
relationship. The presence of air implies the reality of water because, remember, air is part
of water’s makeup and none of the elements can exist without the others.

The elemental associations help me understand how the relationship functions, not that the
reading is about something other than the relationship. The cards always answer the
question asked. When they don’t, it’s not the cards—it’s the reader. If the reader takes the
reading away from the question, it’s not because the wrong cards came up; it’s because the
readers lacks the willingness to connect the cards that did come up (and the “right” cards
always come up) to the question. That sounds judgmental. It’s not. This is one reason I

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rarely read for myself. I’m (or I used to be) too lazy to gure out what the connection is
between the cards I got and the question I asked. I’m never that lazy with clients, but for
me? I don’t bother. (That’s actually changing. I’m getting better at reading for myself,
weirdly, and I think it’s mostly because I’ve just kind of let go of the pressure to do it well.) I
do have strong feelings about this, mostly because I’ve seen clients watch themselves erased
by readers who don’t understand how to contextualize earth cards in a question. And I think
that’s partly because it’s something of an advanced skill that most readers kind of gure out
on their own. Or not. I don’t know. Anyway, whatever the reason, I have strong feelings
about it—mostly because I think of divination as a client-centric rather than reader-centric
event. If you’re my client, your question matters more than what I think the reading thinks
is “more important.”

In this example, about whether or not this new boyfriend will turn into a longterm
boyfriend, I understand that the swords/air cards suggest certain qualities about the
relationship or the client’s experience. I keep digging to get the actual answer.

Twos are magnetic, so the Two of Air/Swords suggests attraction to airy things—words,
language, learning, music. Sixes are associated with balance and beauty (sometimes vanity
and ego), and so I think this client nds this boyfriend attractive at the intellectual level—
and the appearance of a re card suggests there’s physical attraction, too. Because we’re
looking at a ery ace, it’s not a full- edged sexual inferno. It’s the seed of budding sexual
attraction. (The esotericists, and their love of penises, might suggest that there’s my client is
getting a lot of cock—as the Ace of Wands is usually super phallic. I can’t imagine saying
that to a client, but who knows what life holds in store for me as a reader?) The Two of
Swords can indicate indecision. The Six of Swords, though beautiful, also has associations of
loss and moving on. Despite all the attraction, the client isn’t sure what they want and they
may even feel their mind drifting to other possibilities (or maybe they’re prone, even, to
physical wandering—which Waite-Sith Six of Swords typically shows).

The Ace of Swords suggests impulsivity, attraction, re—but it doesn’t necessarily suggest
sustainability. None of these cards do, in fact. Nothing in this reading says serious commitment.
That said, we have an ace and a two. This suggests to me that the bulk of the energy is new.
It’s simply too early to tell if this turns into something larger. It could. The attraction is
there. But an innate sense of restlessness in my client (the air) may be an impediment to
sustaining this relationship after the rst blush of attraction has faded. It’s possible that they
could make this stick, but right now it seems less likely because they have a wandering mind.
If they can rein that in, it might work out. But, again, it’s still too early to know if that’s

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worth their energy. Right now, their best bet is to go for the ride (the one depicted on the
six).

The elements don’t ght the question, they work with it. It is through elemental
associations that answers to questions achieve nuance and speci city. A pendulum could tell
you yes, no, or maybe—just as the card did—but the elemental associations help you
understand why the answer is what it is, and even what the client might do about it.
Sometimes elements may take a backseat because they’re not giving as much information in
a certain situation, but they never (or rarely) override the question. Frankly, nothing
overrides the question in my opinion, unless you are getting a message that is so strong, so
powerful that you understand it as something the client absolutely needs to know. These
situations are rare, and I think when they happen you’ll know. Otherwise, nothing trumps
the client’s question.

A digression: Incidentally, telling the client things you think they “need” to know but that
aren’t in the cards is generally problematic. Some diviners think of themselves as stand-ins
for divinity and they feel they get to decide what the client needs or wants to know, and
when. This is almost always a violation. It almost always has a negative outcome for the
client. I have heard the rare story where a client’s health issues were discovered during a
reading. It can happen. But what I’m talking about now is the reader who gives unsolicited
readings to people.

Never give readings to people who haven’t asked you for them, even if you have “that kind”
of relationship. [To be clear, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t read about people who aren’t
there or didn’t ask for a reading—that’s up to the reader. I mean going o and telling a
person something you “know” about them based on a reading you’ve done, whether or not
they want to know what you “discovered.”] Ask them rst. And when you deliver the news,
especially if it’s upsetting, consider the words you use to do it. If your mission to help
someone, recognize that telling them they’re going to die a horrible death isn’t helpful. It’s
poisonous. “I’m getting a feeling a visit to the doctor might be important” is very di erent
from “I see your heart stopping.” I’m a fundamentalist about few things in life, but this is
one of them. Do not poison someone’s we just to make yourself feel special, gi ed, or like a savior.
Ever. This is the height of ego and nearly always has devastating consequences for the person who
receives the message. I have had several occasions in my career where I’ve had to clean up the
mess made by a “psychic” who couldn’t keep their trap shut about supposedly impending
devastation—and honestly, every time I’ve had to do that, the devastating prediction never
came true. Because no prediction is 100% accurate, no matter what the readers say about

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their skills. Prediction often works in metaphor. Some readers can’t tell the di erence
between a metaphor for an experience and the literal experience. This is one reason I only
ever say what I see in the cards.)

Now that we’ve looked at the elements individually and in the context of seemingly
unrelated themes, let’s explore the larger goal of this booklet. Elemental overlap.

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Elemental Overlap

We’ve talked about the elements individually and looked at how one can work with their
innate qualities even when the question isn’t necessarily connected to that element. Now,
let’s broaden the scope. Here we get into what the whole inspiration for this booklet really
is: what happens when elements overlap.

We’ve already started seeing how this can happen. When we looked at the individual
elements, we explored spirituality and sex through the lens of re rst and then the other
elements respectively. I said that ery sex might be recreational and earthy sex might be
procreational. Both elements have sexual qualities, but they manifest in di erent ways. In
the same way, I said water and re can both describe spirituality, but that water spirituality
is more internal and emotional, while re spirituality is more external and performative. All
of these is still focusing on the elements individually, but how they can share topics. (Note
please that even when I’m using words with a negative implication, that’s our perception. I
said re spirituality might be “performative.” That can mean theatrical in the sense of
exciting and moving ritual as much as it can mean doing it for attention—and, sometimes,
both are true at the same time. This is another thing we as readers would do well to
understand.)

Sex is a good example, because it really can live in all four of the elements. Watery sex is
going to be deeply emotional (maybe even spiritual), and airy sex is going to be more
“intellectual.” With watery sexuality, we’re going to nd sex that is at its most intense when
there is a spiritual connection between the players. We’ll also nd people who are aroused
mostly or entirely by the spiritual or emotional. In my youth I had a tendency to only be
attracted to people I’d imagined a whole deep relationship with, because what was sexiest to
me was someone being so in love with me that I became their religion (Leo sun, me—talk
about problematic). I couldn’t get turned on unless I was emotionally connected to other
people, and that sometimes meant inventing a relationship so that I could get turned on—
though that didn’t always work, because I’m also annoyingly logical.

On the other hand, airy sex is where we’re going to nd people who are aroused by words,
logic, data, or learning—or where people who are turned on by “dirty talk.” In a way, we can
think of the element highlighting the subjects’ erogenous zones. Airy sex exists when the
erogenous zone is in the brain, watery sex when it’s in the heart, earthy sex when it’s in the
act of creation, and ery sex when it’s balls-to-the-wall hot. (Incidentally, “balls to the wall”

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doesn’t have anything to do with gonads. It’s got to do with the ball-shaped brakes on
airplanes being pushed all the way to the oor—the “wall.”) We could describe spirituality
the same way. Also work.

Watery work is connected to the heart, ery work to our passions, earthy work to our daily
lives, and airy work to our minds. You can do this with literally anything. And it might be
helpful to think about the things you do in your life and what element might best describe
them. I say “best describe,” because there you could probably describe your job with all four
—that’s because it isn’t always the same thing and it will change which parts of you it’s
activating and taxing. But thinking generally, your job may be watery and your marriage
earthy. This is a helpful way of understanding how, though the elements speak to one area of
life, they also speak to all areas. That’s useful for the reasons we talked about when I said
that the question matters more than the elements. If the elements don’t match, we have to
make them match—we don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But this is all still focusing on the element at the essential level, at the individual level.
Where we’re headed is what happens when they blend or overlap.

Often we’ll nd in readings that there are two dominant suits, with maybe one or two
complimentary ones. This is mostly common where we’re using more than three cards. I see
this a lot when I use my beloved nine-card box spread, which really is the only spread I
need. It works so well for me. But I’m not here to sell you on it, I’m here to talk about
blended elements.

Let’s consider a couple simple examples before doing a whole reading.

Imagine we’ve got nine cards laid out. Three of them are cups/water, three are swords/air,
one is a re/wands card, two are majors, and the ninth is pentacles/earth. In this case,
though we have all elements present, water and re are by far the strongest. They’re well
balanced, which probably means they’re working together fairly well. So what does this
mean?

I want to be careful rst and remind you that it doesn’t “mean” anything. In exploring the
potential meanings, we’re not creating a list of things that should be memorized. What
we’re really doing is a kind of mental math similar to what we do in readings, but without
the context of an actual reading. When we’re approaching the cards, it’s not so much that
we say, “Ah! I see three water and three re cards! Time to remember what that combo

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means!” Rather, we’re saying, “Ah! I see three water and three re cards, what can that
combination suggest in this moment and in this reading and with these cards, question, and
client?” Nothing I’m about to suggest may ever occur to me in a real reading, but some of it
could. That isn’t the point. If it does come up again, I likely won’t remember where or when
I thought of it before. It’s not about that. It’s about being open to the possibilities. The
examples we give in books and classes and videos aren’t dogmas, they’re examples of what
happens when a reader contextualizes things. And that’s why you may come up with
di erent answers, because you’re going to contextualize things in your own way. That’s
actually the point. Don’t memorize any of this, including your own studies. Have the
experiences and then be open to other experiences every time you read. That’s what it’s all
about.

In this example, let’s say there’s no particular question—which is, alas, the bulk of readings.
I won’t do my number on why I prefer questions, particularly because I’m learning that if I
never did general readings, I’d never read at all. But I will say, questions are easier. With no
question or theme, the cards will guide me toward the area of life that the client needs to
focus on. In this case, the fact that we have two dominant suits suggests that a blend of
these two is what we’re looking at.

What if there were four water cards and only two wands? In that case, only water would
dominate. Fire isn’t strong enough anymore, and we also have two major cards—so there’s
nothing “special” about the water/ re relationship. That said, if this were a larger spread, or
if there were no majors, say, and there were one more water card than re—but no less re
cards—I would still consider the relationship special because re is still powerful in a unique
way. It doesn’t have to be an exact balance, but if there are other suits that gure in the same
way, then this technique isn’t super relevant. It mostly matters when there’s a fairly even
array. (If you were doing a four-card reading and you got one card of each element, that
would also be special in this unique way. When no element dominates, then they’re all
blending.)

Without looking at what cards we drew (remember we only know the suits in this case) and
without a question to guide me, I start thinking about what it means when re and water
balance each other out. Here are some quick concepts that come to mind:

• Religion (an even blend of re and water suggests an ideal spiritual moment);
• Alchemy (the combining of seemingly opposing elements is core to the alchemical
process);

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• A strong, romantic bond (a balance of re/passion and water/feeling is a good sign);

• Steaminess ( re and water make steam);
• Bubbling, burbling, boiling, cooking (sort of the evolution that happens when re
and water meet before steam is created);
• Storms (here, we get metaphorical—but remember that re [as solar energy] creates
weather and when that combines with water, we get rainstorms);
• Non-binary (we take the two “classic” gendered elements and blend them into
something without gendered limits. It’s important to say that, when we’re talking
about the human experience of being non-binary, we’re often not talking about
someone who is both male and female, but rather a third experience—that of being
nonbinary);
• Hot and wet (do with that what you will);
• Motion (think in terms of a steam engine moving a train);
• Being “hot water” (an idiom suggesting being in trouble—again, adjacent to the
cooking and boiling above, but we’re playing with concepts here and this is totally
relevant);
• Heating systems (see above);
• Electrocution (electricity and water);
• Menopause, exercise, sex (body heat leading to the expression of sweat);
• Orgasm (the heat of sexuality often produces liquid discharge—an unfortunate
word);
• Missionary work (the re of spirit bringing water to the people. It’s worth
mentioning that missionary work is latter-day colonizing);
• Preaching (similar to the above, although I’d say the presence of more swords card
would be required to really hit that one home);
• Art (the passion of re meeting the expression of water);
• Politics (similar to the several above, but again swords might be necessary to take
this fully in that direction);
• Plumbing (pipes carry water, often hot water);
• Forging (associated with metal, but it requires thrusting something blisteringly hot
into water to cool it immediately—and in so doing, makes the subject stronger);
• Spas and beaches (warmth + water).

We could keep going, but that would in a way be too limiting. It’s best to get a sense of what
could happen when these elements are blended, rather than coming up with an exhaustive
list of what wi happen. Again, this is meant to inspire rather than dogmatize. When we lay
out the cards and discover we’re in the position of an elemental blend, the response should

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be “oh, what could this mean?” and not “oh, I know exactly what this means.” The rst is
open, the second closed.

We can do the same for each elemental combo. This is an activity worth doing. I’ll give you
a few more examples, but I don’t want to be too exhaustive partly because this booklet is
meant to be brief, and partly because I’d be denying you the chance to do it yourself. These
are just a few quick concepts that I nd exciting.

Fire/Air:
• Bellows or smolders (the impact of breathing into ames)
• Dirty talk, erotic writing (hot words)
• Passionate writing or speaking or oration (hot words in a di erent way)
• Deserts (hopefully that one is clear—hot and dry)
• Blowhards, pomposity (people who don’t shut up about nonsense, they’re full of “hot
air”)
• Flare-ups (suddenly blowing air into a re makes it rear up)
• Saunas (particularly when there’s some water in the elemental mix)
• Religious books or tracts (fervent words)
• HVAC service (heating and cooling the air)
• Air fryers (again, hopefully clear)

Fire/Earth:
• Being overworked (this is maybe a leap—but it’s the heat of working too hard)
• Pottery (baking clay in a kiln—earth+ re)
• Childhood illness (fevers are ery, earth is connected to family)
• Droughts (here we take re as drying, which seems like it’s airy—but hot air dries
fast. Swords might amp this up.)
• Climate change (hopefully obvious)
• Ovens (in that they were originally made in the ground)
• Forest res (again, hopefully obvious—trees are uniquely connected to these two
elements)
• Well fertilized ground (you can see steam rising o fertilized farms in cool morning
air)
• Family feuds (again, hot and earthy—swords would de nitely add to this)

Water/Fire (See above)

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Water/Air:
• Poetry or scripture (romantic, spiritual words)
• Moodiness (our thoughts impact our feelings and the other way ‘round)
• Intoxicants (this is a substance [water] getting you high [air]—probably not smoked
intoxicants, unless there’s re)
• Meditation (spiritualizing the mind)
• Music (sounds are airy, like words, and of course music makes us feel)
• Incense (yes, this requires re—but it’s the holy [water] scent [air] that matters)
• Potions (this takes the intent of the mind, air, and mixes it with liquids, water)
• Religious rivalry or oppression (the sword as weapon turning spirituality into a
weapon)
• Poisons (whenever water and air are totally still, we’re in trouble)

Water/Earth:
• Irrigation, farming (adding water to the earth—but recall that this often has
consequences elsewhere)
• Mud, landslides
• Fertility (a bit metaphorical)
• Child birth (actually, not that metaphorical)
• “Water works” (whatever that means in context: crying, but also, like, treatment
plants—as well as distilleries and suchlike)
• Abundant resources (but with swords, maybe drying up resources)
• Parenting or caretaking (tending to something growing)
• Rain forests or similar places (especially if there’s some re in the mix)
• Water sports (sports being “work,” in the sense of spent energy)
• Winter sports (we tend not to think of water as frozen in tarot, but it does freeze—
especially when there’s no re in the spread)

Air/Fire (See above)

Air/Water (See above)

Air/Earth:
• Tilled (aerated) soil
• Talking about work
• Working with language
• Books about work or things like gardening

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• Family planning (air as thinking, work as planning, family of course being part of
earth)
• Degrees in earth sciences or ecology
• Debates about climate change, “family values,” nance reform, the minimum wage,
etc.
• “Folksy” politicians (almost always performative, but people fall for it. This is the “I
could have a beer with him” vibe)
• Teachers (work/earth + education/air)

Earth/Fire (See above)

Earth/Water (See above)

Earth/Air (See above)

As I said, these are ideas, potentials; they’re not dogmas. Any or all of these might show up
as valuable in a reading, or none may. And, what’s more likely, is that entirely new concepts
will arise when you’re open to them—which is really the whole point of us.

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It Isn’t Digni ed!

In traditional elemental dignities, the complimentary or adversarial nature of the elements

helps us understand how things are working. It’s helpful. I used them for years. I didn’t stop
doing it because it stopped being helpful; I stopped doing it because I had changed. I didn’t
even notice I’d stopped until it came up one day. Someone asked me if I ever used dignities
and I said, “Oh, of course I—” And then I realized that, in fact, I didn’t use them anymore.
I’d started doing what I described above.

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way. I don’t think this is “better” than using older,
more traditional dignities. That said, I also don’t think there’s anything “better” about using
that method, either. I came to think this way without really attempting to, which
demonstrates what’s more important than any correspondences we have for the cards: I
evolved. That’s what we’re supposed to do. In theory, the whole point of getting readings is
to help us evolve. As I came to understand myself better, the world better, and tarot better, I
came to nd that I had a di erent view of the elements than I used to. I came to understand
that what o ered me more helpful context was thinking, not of whether the elements where
“feminine” or “masculine” or whether they were digni ed or ill-digni ed. It was more about
the function or behavior of the element as I understood them, and what that said about the
situation in a reading.

But this is how I read all contexts: image, keyword, number, title, element, tradition. I try
not to impose meaning on them, but rather ask them “what could you be saying today?” I
think, “What do I know about you, little contextual concept? And what how does that
connect (or not) to the question and the other cards?” I start there, and then let them take
me on the journey they want to go on. Sure, there are times I look at a card and recognize
immediately that it means “this.” But as many times, I see the cards and they just look like an
random assortment of nonsensical ideas that are suddenly demanding I unify them. Every
reading is di erent. But I seem to have far more luck, more con dence, and I seem to get
better answers when I approach readings this way.

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In Sum

Elemental dignities rely on a semi-binary. “These things like each other, these things don’t,
and these other things . . . they’re indi erent.” It’s ne, but nuance is really helpful when
reading, particularly about complicated topics . . . like being a human on this planet. I’ve
found that thinking this way about the elements gets me better readings. I can’t say how I’ll
evolve, assuming I last long enough to evolve, but I imagine I will. I don’t know! (An irony
for a fortune teller, if there ever was one.) But I’m open to it. That’s ultimately the thing.
Being open. If we can do that, we can really do anything—at least when it comes to reading
cards. Which, frankly, is the most important thing in life, anyway, right?

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