If life was a table and the four elements were its legs, would one be more essential than the others? No.

How about the four elements?

The number Four symbolises life getting anchored in the material world. Most animals have four legs. Our houses have four sides, our rooms four walls. East, West, North and South get us oriented. There are four seasons.

Four feels balanced and stable. Two axes form a cross, four right angles, a square.

However, if we were to bump into the four elements at a spiritual party, one of them would attract our attention more: Fire. Here we have warmth and light in eternal abundance!

Life is a flame, and so are you. Creation is a deflagration. If God was invited to the party, It would appear as Fire and Light. Could you imagine God as a handful of dirt?

Now, when you think of it, God could appear as the wind, even though, when clothed in wind, God is invisible; holy, subtle and spiritual no doubt, but not appearing at all. God could also, why not, be a sea mother, a fluid immensity out of which creatures emerge. God could even be a handful of dirt after all, a mother of seeds, Sacred Nature, when you think of it. Still, before thinking of it, Fire came First.

God is like the Sun, Fire suits It best.

You may wonder what the connection between the element Fire and God has to do with astrological interpretations. Just follow the thread:

God is the creator, people with a fire emphasis are creative. They see life as a stage, they aim at performing well. Saving money or finding emotional security is less of a concern for them than expressing their sacred fire.

They are powerful, maybe not all powerful, but at times, at risk of believing they are… until the possible burnout.

God is said to provide, fire people are often quick to pay for the drinks, even when they know you have as much money in your pockets as they have. Question of prestige!

More than others, they draw self-confidence from the intuition of what’s divine within themselves. Isn’t it written that God created us to his own likeness? They dare knowing they are beautiful, which can be done in a healthy way, or not…

Is Fire the supreme element then? Well, sometimes yes and sometimes no. Symbols are not rigidly defined concepts.

Empedocles, the Greek philosopher who had the idea of considering the four elements as the four roots of everything, didn’t consider Fire as the super root of the others, otherwise he would have simply stated, in opposition to Thales, who thought that everything came from Water, that it’s actually Fire that the whole world comes from. But he didn’t.

When we look at the world through the prism of the number four, there are four dimensions, and they are all equally essential.

South is not a more fundamental direction than East, West or North. We may like it more, and turn our back to North, but without North, we would have nowhere to turn our back to, and South would vanish. Similarly, Fire, as an element, is only one of them.

Symbols are evocations. Ordinary logic is not relevant to describe how pictures articulate their powers of evocation. Sometimes Fire conjures up the intuition of the One and Only Being, and sometimes Fire is one amongst four equally essential elements. And sometimes, both at the same time, which is logically absurd, but metaphorically why not.

By the way, do you think that the elements mean something specific in the context of astrology?

Or do Fire, Water, Air and Earth mean what they mean, whether they appear in poetry, myths, dreams, spiritual visions, alchemy, magic or astrology? Neptune’s answer is: astrology is not a waterproof box separated from the universal language. As without so within, as within so without. So…

Fire!

We may light a candle on an altar.

We may call home a “hearth”, cook on the fire and share as family members.

We know that guilt or shame, as well as anger or desire at times burn like hell.

God once appeared as a burning bush.

Sometimes, there is a little flickering light at the end of a tunnel.

For astrological interpretations, as always, follow the threads. For instance, we’re used to thinking of family life as symbolised by the Moon. The Moon symbolises women and mothers. But men have a role to play. Even in modern times, when switching roles happens, we still want Water and Fire together, they are the life giving elements.

Fire in a chart may burn in the hearth, for instance in the 4th house, and make it warm there.

How could Fire mean only one thing? Life gives us so many experiences of it.

The warmth of a stove

The pain of being burnt

The light of a candle in a dark place

The spectacle of moths throwing themselves into the flame (like us!)

A wildfire engulfing forests and witches

Body temperature, human warmth

Fireworks, celebrations…

Every spark, every twinkling star becomes a metaphor for soul and spirit to tell their stories.

Symbolic language unfolds along the lines of lived experience. We need to surrender and let the symbols speak.

Now, don’t worry. The standard interpretations of what it means when you have an element strongly emphasised in a chart will be very often true.

Fiery people often have this tendency to steal the show… until you meet one who apparently doesn’t. Then it is time to remember the difference between a little flame and a blaze, a servant of the Secret Fire and a fire spitting dragon, or between a blacksmith and a cook…

Look at what houses are involved for clues about what interpretations are more likely, along with what planets are involved, follow the threads, let inspiration fill in the blanks, and good luck!

Jean-Marc

Blog posts written over the years have become a book, and got great reviews. To know more about that, and about me as an astrologer, storyteller and teacher (a retreat in Turkey is planned in 2024) visit my homepage!