This post is the second in a four-part series exploring the four elements - earth, air, fire, and water - from an intuitive standpoint, correlating their sensory, emotional, and metaphorical associations with common expressions like "down to earth," "up in the air," "on fire," or "swimming in the deep end of the pool." Plenty of examples and sample charts are given, including Virginia Woolf (earth), Jimi Hendrix (fire), Nelson Mandela (water), and Julie Andrews (air). It was originally published as an article in the June/July issue 2011 of The Mountain Astrologer.
The sensory nature of the elements was recognized as early as the 6th century BCE, beginning with the work of Empedocles, who ascribed the well-known dimensions of hot and cold, and wet and dry to the elements. According to this early scheme, fire is considered to be hot and dry; air is hot and moist (wet); water is cold and wet; and earth is cold and dry. On the basis of these simple designations, it becomes possible to develop a rudimentary astropoetic understanding of the elements built on intuitive associations.
Wherever fire is emphasized in a birthchart, either natally or by transit or progression, it will in some way generate heat and dryness. In common parlance, when someone is at the top of their game, successful, confident, creative, dynamic, sexy and/or charismatic, we say they are “hot.” An angry person is considered to be “hot under the collar.” Fiery people can be overly serious, appearing to those less focused to be “dry,” and when they are locked into their obsessions, life can often appear to be “cut and dried.” Over time, intensity, conflict, and opposition can lead to “burn-out” and creativity can “run dry.”
These sensory metaphors and others like them may be observed in the life of anyone with a chart in which fire is emphasized – through a preponderance of planets in fire signs, or an angular Sun or Mars, or at times with aspects between these two fire planets and Jupiter, Uranus, and/or Pluto. The same metaphors may also describe a chapter in the life of someone undergoing a temporary increase in fire – with the progressed Sun or Moon moving through a fire sign; transiting Sun or Mars crossing an angle of the natal chart, and so on.
In a similar way, charts that have a preponderance of planets in air signs, or an angular Mercury or Uranus, or a Uranus transit to the Sun or Moon may experience air’s warmth and moisture. A “warm” person is someone who is friendly, sociable, open to relationship – attributes often typical of an air personality. If you think of warm air rising, then someone with high air may seek to “rise above” their circumstances, or seek a “bird’s eye view,” or possibly “take on airs” of superiority. At its best, air can use both warmth and moisture to “soften up” the opposition, and effectively “air” its ideas or grievances. When less effective, air people may be seen to be “full of hot air” or “airy fairy” in their opinions.
Charts that have a preponderance of planets in water, a prominent Moon, Neptune conjunct Sun or Moon, or the progressed Moon or transiting Neptune on an angle of the natal chart – among other possibilities – may experience water’s cold wetness. A high water person might be quite “stormy” in the moody flux of his emotions, or “in over his head,” or “drowning” in the cold sorrow of a divorce or the death of a loved one. Faced with the challenge of succeeding in a heartless world, the water person might feel challenged to “sink or swim.” A former student with high water, who was nobly inspired to adopt two emotionally handicapped daughters, soon found herself in the “deep end of the pool” when their complex behavior problems became overwhelmingly stressful.
Charts with strong earth or a Sun-Saturn square, or anyone in the midst of a Saturn transit to the Sun – among other possibilities emphasizing earth – might find themselves in the midst of experiences that felt cold and/or dry. Often earth people can be pragmatic, rational and focused on the “cold, hard” facts. When taken to an extreme, such people can be experienced as “cold and calculating,” or victims of “dull and dry” routines. With a high earth chart, Ted Williams, the talented hitter for the Boston Red Sox, was notorious for turning a “cold shoulder” to his fans while “stonewalling” the media with “dry” acerbic wit.
Going Beyond Empedocles
These are all common expressions that recognize the intuitive relationship between the elements and the most common sensory attributes with which we associate them. But within the astropoetic mindset, we need not stop at hot and cold, wet and dry. Each of the elements has other sensory attributes that can also have metaphorical correlates in the experience of those who in some way have those elements emphasized in their charts.
Fire, for example, is not just hot and dry, but can also evoke other sensory experiences. Within the realm of sight, fire can illuminate, sparkle, glow, or flare; within the realm of sound, fire sizzles, crackles, and roars; in a tactile sense, it can warm, burn or char; as taste, fire is pungent, spicy, and sometimes the cause of “heartburn”; when smelled, its aroma is often burnt, smoky, or caustic. Each of these sensory experiences of fire – and others you might want to add to your own list – then becomes a source of metaphor in an astrological situation in which fire is emphasized.
Jimi Hendrix, considered by some to be the greatest guitarist of all time, rose to “meteoric” fame with The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966, but was dead 3 albums and 4 years later at the ripe old age of 27. Aside from his “flashy” musical virtuosity, Hendrix was known for the use of “crackling” feedback and distortion; “burning” his guitar on stage; dressing “flamboyantly”; and frequently opening a concert with his signature song, “Fire.” Each of these fiery attributes of Hendrix’s music, stage presence, and career – experienced directly as sensory expressions of fire – can be understood as astropoetic descriptions of his fiery chart with Sagittarius rising, and Mercury/Sun/Venus in Sagittarius trine Pluto in Leo.
Birthchart for Jimi Hendrix
Similar to the way in which we expanded our sensory awareness of fire, we can do the same for the other elements. Air is not just warm and moist, but also invisible and transparent; still, howling, or breathless; breezy, windy, gusty, or caressing; refreshing, stale, or fragrant. Beyond Empedocles’ designation, air can be not just warm, but also cold – brisk, biting, chilling – as in high air Truman Capote’s disturbing novel about murder in Kansas – In Cold Blood. Air can also be not just moist, but dry – as in acerbic wit, unimaginative literalism, or matter-of-fact indifference.
During a dance performance amidst a lightning storm, a friend and former student with Moon in Gemini and 3 other planets in air signs experienced an astropoetic moment as “the wind . . . ‘blasted’ through the open windows ‘billowing’ curtains and filling me with energy. . . . I felt ‘huge’ across the shoulders and tall. . . . Inspired by the storm, I gave a performance beyond my ability." This extraordinary performance took place as transiting Uranus was forming a retrograde station in Aquarius in his 10th house, quincunx his natal Sun in the 5th house.
Beyond wet and cold, water can be flowing, cascading or gushing; gurgling, surging, or crashing (like ocean waves); soothing, pounding (as in a torrential rain), or cleansing; refreshing, diluting, or suffocating. The high water actor, Bruce Lee, considered by many to be the most influential martial artist of the 20th century, advised his students to be “formless... shapeless, like water.” High water musician Miles Davis pioneered a watery style of music, a kind of “lyrical meandering” within a “pool” of notes called modal jazz. In a tragic astropoetic moment, my sister’s former fiancé – with high water in his natal chart – drowned in a diving accident, when his oxygen tank proved to be filled with carbon dioxide. At the time, there was a new Moon plus three other planets in Cancer in his watery 8th house (with Cancer on the cusp and a Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Cancer inside).
On the sensory level, earth can look solid, inert, and formidable (as in a mountain to be climbed); contribute to a muffled, dull, or thunderous sound; feel gritty, heavy, or silty; taste metallic or astringent or bitter; and smell fertile, fetid (as in night soil), or even romantic – as noted by at least two comments on a Facebook page devoted to “The Smell of Wet Soil”. Obviously, the sensory experiences we associate with the elements are somewhat subjective, and can – from an astropoetic perspective – be all the more poignant because of it.
The solid, immobile intransigence of earth can be seen in George Wallace (Sun, Saturn and Venus in Virgo) – governor of Alabama during the civil rights era, who is famous for his “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door,” during which he personally attempted to block the admittance of two black students into the University of Alabama. Wallace seemed to associate earth with its unyielding nature on the sensory level, and with defiance on the emotional, as verbalized in his famous statement during this incident: “In the name of the greatest people that have ever ‘trod this earth,’ I draw ‘the line in the dust’ and toss the gauntlet before the ‘feet’ of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”1. This astropoetic moment occurred on June 11, 1963, as transiting Mars and Uranus were both conjunct Wallace’s tight natal Sun/Saturn conjunction in early Virgo. Later, while campaigning for his third failed bid at the presidency in 1972, Wallace was shot and became “paralyzed” from the waist down in another astropoetic moment making tangible the sensory dimension of his intransigent earth.
1 Wallace, George. Inaugural Speech (1963), “Wallace Quotes,” PBS. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
Chart data
Ted Williams – 12:20 PM PWT, August 30, 1918, San Diego, CA, Rodden Rating AA (quoted BC/BR)
Truman Capote – 3:00 PM CST, September 30, 1924, New Orleans, LA, Rodden Rating B (Bio/autobiography)
George Wallace – 3:30 AM CWT, August 25, 1919, Clio, AL, Rodden Rating A (From memory)
Links to posts in this series
Part 1: An Astropoetic Approach to the Elements
Part 2: Approaching the Elements Through the Senses
Part 3: The Emotional Correlates of the Elements
Part 4: Going Deeper Into the Astropoetic Imagery
