Elemental Dignities

Driley

So, after considerable reading and some playing around, I've started incorporating Elemental Dignities into my readings -- taking the place of reversals. Now, all my cards are "right side up", but their meanings are shaded by their position and relationship to one another.

Is anyone else working with this system? What do you think of it?

What are Elemental Dignities?

Here is a good discussion of the matter:

http://www.supertarot.co.uk/lessons/03edrul.htm

(And there is a good deal more on this website on the topic -- just poke around a bit.)

What I like about this system is that it makes the cards more complex. There are shades of meaning and intensity rather than just up or down. And it forces me to see more relationship between the cards -- which leads to a richer readings.

I'm a big advocate of the "Well, if it works for you..." approach. But I would appreciate tips, tricks, and insights from the Wisdom of the Teaming Masses on Aeclectic.

DrMojo

Driley:

I think Elemental Dignities make for a fantastic system for reading and understanding the Tarot, and I'm always very happy to see the subject. You might take a look at "Tarot Outside the Box" as the book has a very good basic discussion.

As a shameless plug, my book will be out end of September and it deals with the Tarot from the point of view of the things that are part and parcel of Elemental Dignities. (www.BigRoadBooks.com). Having said that, I'm one rather small voice amongst many, many with tons to offer on the subject.

Dr. Mojo

rainwolf

I stumbled across that site some time ago and I think elemental dignities are a great tool to use in expanding your reading horizons. You can also check out Elizabeth Hazel's Tarot Decoded which explains all kinds of correspondences. The OOTKS is a great practice for utilizing this method.

I got this off a website, but forgot...

Elemental Dignity Basics
The 5 Elements and the Suits

ED's - or 'Elemental Dignities' are based on the 5 elements that are associated with the tarot.

Fire - Usually associated with the suit of Wands/Rods/Staves
Air - Usually associated with the suit of Swords
Water - Usually associated with the suit of Cups
Earth - Usually associated with the suit of Pentacles/Disks/Coins
Spirit - Major Arcana

The 5th element of 'Spirit' which is associated with the Major Arcana can be a little tough to integrate when using them with ED's. Normally the element most associated with a given Major Arcana card is what's used when dealing with the Spirit and ED's (see Majors Chart below).

So with the elements and suits you end up with the following associations;

Fire - Wands
Air - Swords
Water - Cups
Earth - Pentacles
Spirit - Major Arcana (individual element associations - see Majors Chart below).
The Active - Passive Elements

Each of the elements/suits can also be broken down into other categories that help you define them.

Active - Masculine - Energizing - Extroverted
Fire - Wands
Air - Swords

Passive - Feminine - Inert/Nurturing - Introverted
Water - Cups
Earth - Pentacles

The Majors Arcana cards vary according to element association, (see Majors Chart below).
The Suit and Element Meanings

The suits and thus the elements are broken down into certain meanings which play an important part in using ED's.
WANDS
Motivational States
Career and/or Job FIRE: Action, motivation, energy, growth, will, passion, libido, desire, inspiration, initiation, enthusiasm, creativity.
SWORDS
Intellectual States
Thoughts and Ideas AIR: Mental activity, thoughts, ideas, intellect, logic, reason, analysis, decision, communication, action, conflict, volatility.
CUPS
Emotional States
Relationships and Emotions WATER: Relationships, emotions, feelings, receptivity, reflection, subconscious, vision, imagination.
PENTACLES
Material States
Financial Affairs EARTH: Stable, practical, groundedness, solid, material concerns, possessions, earthiness, strength, resources, money, wealth, commerce, labor, prosperity, security, value, generosity, charity, body.
MAJOR ARCANA
Spiritual Path SOUL: Spirituality, soul, morality, ethics, religion, philosophy, karma, archetypes, milestones.

Placement

Cards usually only elementally effect one another when placed next to each other. Most spreads that use elemental dignities are set out in a linear fashion (one after the other).

1 ... 2 ... 3

1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4 .. 5

And so on.

Elementally card #1 effects card #2 and vise-versa - Card #2 effects card #1.
In turn card #2 effects card #3 and vise-versa - card #3 effects card #2.
But, because there is a card (#2) between card #1 and card #3 they DO NOT effect each other elementally.
And so on depending on the number of cards being used.

inanna_tarot

I'm trying to use ED's in my daily readings being 3 card spreads.
Just wonderig though,what elements do the majors come under? Or do they not affect the ED (being comprised only from the minors)?

Thanks,
Sezo
x

Driley

Majors

I have been using a system that assigns the Majors Elements based largely on their traditional Golden Dawn astrological/other associations.

If you grab a Haindl tarot, for example, the borders on the cards, including majors, indicates element according to this system (er, more or less... everyone quibbles with something, right?).

I would argue that the Majors are treated kind of like the Court cards, however. The Court cards are *mostly* the element of their suit, but also have an additional association related to their rank -- Page: Earth, Knight: Air, Queen: Water, King: Fire. So, the Queen of Pentacles (coins, discs, stones, whatever) is rightly Water of Earth. Think of it as being mostly Earth, but with a bit of water. (Firm mud?).

The Majors, for me, work much the same way. They are Spirit, but with each card having a secondary elemental association. So the Fool, for example, is Air of Spirit. The Hanged Man, to cite another, is Water of Spirit.

This is another example of my "I will have it everyway possible" approach to Tarot. Also known as the "Hey, that works for me" school of Kaballah.

Does that work for anyone else?

shaveling

inanna_tarot said:
I'm trying to use ED's in my daily readings being 3 card spreads.
Just wonderig though,what elements do the majors come under? Or do they not affect the ED (being comprised only from the minors)?

There have been a few threads on this question. This one was especially helpful for me. It pointed me to the Gareth Knight system I use. But I can see why some folks prefer a Kabbalistic or an astrological system, or a mix of the two. As you see, other people associate all the trumps with the fifth element of Spirit. But the ED sources I've seen have all been working with a four element system, so I don't know how that works out in practice, unless you're mixing it with another system, as Driley suggests.

-shaveling

Tintomara

Have heard about it...

Driley said:
So, after considerable reading and some playing around, I've started incorporating Elemental Dignities into my readings -- taking the place of reversals. Now, all my cards are "right side up", but their meanings are shaded by their position and relationship to one another.

Is anyone else working with this system? What do you think of it?

What are Elemental Dignities?

Here is a good discussion of the matter:

http://www.supertarot.co.uk/lessons/03edrul.htm

Thanks for the tip!

Personally I haven't studied elemental dignities in depth, as yet anyway, but I sure find it interesting.

Here's where I first heard about it:

http://berglund.ceze.com/english/tarot_en.htm

Driley

One of the things that I'm learning is that however you approach Tarot, no matter how well thought out and well-developed the system you use might be... there is always someone out there who has something more to offer.

Being open to new ideas makes your experience of the cards so much richer.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts here.

rainwolf

Usually I dont have majors under an element (because as mentioned, it is spirit), but you could determine it by its astrological attribution. For example, the emperor is aries, aries is fire, the emperor next to death (which is scorpio) is not friendly, but the emperor next to temperance (sagittarius), is a little more friendly.

Some majors dont have signs or elements however, instead they have planets ruling them, so you cant assign elements to them easily. The hanged man is neptune and The wheel of fortune is jupiter, so you would have to find how they are related by the cards around them. If you know aspects from astrology, negative cards around it would be a neg aspect, and positive vice versa. A negative card would either be negative in nature, or by astrology (ie detriment). A vague interpretation of these two would be 'dreamy optimism' but the effect or the value of it rests on surrounding cards.

The empress next to justice would be really good because that would be venus in libra, which is exalted. The opposite would be venus in scorpio, in detriment. I think these two (the previous) would be really good because it would mean a beneficial partnership.

BobTheViking

I've been learning to use a simple form of elemental dignities along with reversals in my readings. I find it helps me map out relationships between cards more easily. It makes it easier for me to get a sense of structure while I develop a better sense of the Tarot.

Elemental Dignities

Driley

DrMojo

rainwolf

inanna_tarot

Driley

shaveling

Tintomara

Driley

rainwolf

BobTheViking