All 78 Tarot cards can be classified as either being Fire, Water, Air or Earth. In itself, this does not tell you much, but you can combine the four elements to create new energy forms. The rules for doing this are very simple and easily to remember:
The interpretation of an individual card is whatever the meaning you desire it to have - usually in conformance with accepted meanings found in the many books on Tarot available. A single card does not influence another card, nor is it influenced by other cards.
The technique the Golden Dawn used was to "Pair" the two outer cards of a sequence of cards, gradually working to the centre, "telling a story" that is developed at each stage. If there is an odd number of cards in the sequence you will be left with a solitary card at the centre, and it may have greater significance in the reading. When Pairing, the cards have equal strength, but with EDs you can add another level of nuance.
The next question is what is this quality active or passive to? Obviously it has to be another card, but this card will also be interacting elementally with the original two cards.
If you analyse the combinations, you will will find there are ten fixed permutations.
Note that you are not combining the "meanings" of the two cards, only the energies. Throughout this essay we will maintain this outlook - feel free to insert your own cards in the elemental combinations described and see how you would interpret them using Elemental Dignities.
As you can see, despite the rules of Elemental Dignities being defined mainly in terms of the enemy combinations, they are clearly in the minority. This is a very important point.
Reading Paired cards works best in a sequence, exemplified by the Golden Dawn method of Pairing.
Both active and friendly to each other
Both Passive and friendly to each other
Both friendly and neutral to each other
Both friendly and neutral to each other
Friendly excess activity
Friendly excess mental activity
Friendly excess passivity
Friendly excess passivity
Enemies, weak and neutral
Enemies, weak and neutral
Each of the three cards has equal status, but the elemental interaction between them reveals a subtler picture and a distinct change of emphasis that differs when you permute these cards. To make it easier for yourself, you take the centre card to be the Principal, and the outer cards are Modifiers, but remember all three are interacting between themselves.
The Golden Rule in Elemental Dignities is to "analyse rigidly, but interpret flexibly". The analysis of the energy flows will free your imagination from the fairly fixed interpretation of the individual cards. With experience you will begin to see visions that may or may not relate to the orthodox meanings of the individual cards, but will nevertheless be true.
If you find yourself stuck in an interpretation, it is often worth considering what the missing element(s) would do if they were included.
Analysis of the three card combinations gives you the opportunity to see whether the energy is blocked, flows easily, is enhanced or diminished, or even transformed. You can see if the Subject (Principal) is supported by the Modifiers, or whether the Modifiers are working together or against themselves.
So far you have been reading Three cards in splendid isolation, but of course you know that life is not like that. You need a context or background, perhaps like the scenery we see when the curtain rises at the start of a play that establishes for the audience the time and place the actors are performing in. To do this, you place the three cards in an Elemental Position of Fire, Water, Air or Earth. As well as the circuit between the cards, they interact with the base element, which changes the emphasis. For example, a Fire card could be very strong in a three card spread, but it suddenly becomes very weak in a Water Position. By contrast, a weak Air card could be strengthened if it is in the Fire Position. Of course, the Elemental Position can provide the "missing" element influence. A card that can be reasonable and balanced suddenly becomes unbalanced and excessive by being placed upon its own Elemental Position. Actions that seemed a good idea can seem inappropriate, while any doubts can be erased if the Elemental Position is supportive. The possibilities are endless, but it is still difficult to develop the situation we are trying to describe over a period of time.
Since three cards can be interpreted three different ways, and there are four elemental positions, you have twelve potential interpretations as far as Elemental Dignities are concerned. This is before you include the actual Tarot card meanings! However, the power and flexibility of the Elemental Dignities have barely been scratched so far.
More on determining the energies of paired cards
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