People whose only contact with the word element was in a science class imme-
diately think of the materials diagramed by the periodic table—oxygen, iron, hydro-
gen, silicon, and the like—when they hear the term. It thus strikes them as strange to
consider earth, air, fire, and water by this designation. The astrological elements
derive from the elements of ancient Greek philosophy. Classical philosophy and mod-
ern science share an interest in discovering the basic—the “elementary”—building
blocks of the world. Prior to the advent of contemporary atomic theory, intelligent
people examining the world in which they lived observed that all tangible things
could be classified as solids (earth), liquids (water), or gases (air). Sources of heat and
light, such as fire and the Sun, seemed to constitute a fourth factor (fire), which can
be thought of as “energy.” When reworded as solid, liquid, gas, and energy, this
ancient scheme of classification is not really so strange.
When the ancients analyzed the human being in terms of these four factors, it
appeared to them that the physical body was earthy, feeling and emotions watery, and
thoughts airy. The fire element provided the spark of life that animated the human
frame with activity. From this way of looking at human nature, it was but a short step
to regarding sensitive, emotional people as having more of the water “element” in
their constitution than their fellows, mental people as having more air, practical peo-
ple as having more earth, and energetic, active people as having more fire. When
astrology was being systematized in ancient Greece, this “psychological” system was
applied to the 12 signs, resulting in a classification according to the four classical ele-
ments: the fire triplicity, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius (energy signs); the earth triplicity,
Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn (practical signs); the air triplicity, Gemini, Libra, and
THEASTROLOGYBOOK [219]
ElementsA fifteenth-century woodcut depicting the four elements: wood (Earth) burned by flames
(fire) while a bird (air) flies above the sea (water). Reproduced by permission of Fortean
Picture Library.