Soul Connection Relationship Analysis About Astrology Welcome		Order your Chart The Zodiac Star Guide Back to Index

	ACTIVE (energy)		PASSIVE (matter)
Qualities	Hot	Cold	Wet	Dry
Food	Cooked	Raw	Soft	Hard
	High	Low	Liquid	Solid
Relates	Similarity in associates, can't understand difference		Difference in associates, observes
Extreme	Do anything		Do nothing
Thinking	Creates bonds, blurs distinctions Ambiguity - separate concepts are interconnected Holistic, right-brained		Breaks bonds, enhances distinctions Clarity - reality can be objectively known Scientific, left-brained
Extreme	Formless		Rigid
Type	Choleric	Phlegmatic	Sanguine	Melancholic

The System of Plato and Aristotle This system is used to make distinctions between the nature of things of the same class, e.g. Food, and as a means of making distinctions between things (see chart above). It is also valuable for making distictions between personality types (Active energy) , or thinking styles (a Passive activity). It is worth noting that the Greeks already had developed a proto-psychology based on terms you've probably all heard of, namely Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmetic, and Melancholic. This system was developed over a 100 year period and reached its fullest expression with Plato. Aristotle, who was a student of Plato, accepted this established system and further developed it in a subtle way. Aristotle (384-323 BC) "maintained that sense experience is our only source of knowledge, and that by reasoning we can discover the essences of things, that is, their distinguishing qualities. Aristotle suggested that human happiness consists in living in conformity with nature, according to reason and moderation.." (Webster's Popular Encyclopedia. 1991:41). He argued that the Elements were not immutable and that "one changes into another through a shift in one of its qualities, but [he also argued that this change occurs] through a cyclic process.." (Lehman,1996:32). Aristotle called this the process of being and becoming. The process of 'being and becoming', is cyclic, because Aristotle always pairs one active quality with a passive quality: Fire Hot & Dry becomes Wet from Energy Air Wet & Hot becomes Cold Water Cold & Wet becomes Dry Earth Dry & Cold becomes Hot to Matter In other words, Earth cannot become Air without the intermediate exchange of Hot & Dry Fire or Cold & Wet Water. The same applies to the other three. [draw diagram] Now this idea of 'being and becoming' as a cyclic process is readily adaptable to a number of natural processes, the most obvious (and what stimulated the idea in the first place) is the cycle of the seasons in temperate climates: Spring Wet becoming Hot Summer Hot becoming Dry Autumn Dry becoming Cold Winter Cold becoming Wet What's the point of all this? Firstly, the above amounts to a rudimentary outline of Greek cosmology, or at least that part of it that interests astrologers. Secondly, these ideas were part of established thinking before astrology took hold in the Greek world. In other words astrology slotted right in to what is essentially a phenomenologically based cosmological system which saw change occurring, not in a linear fashion, but through a cyclic process. Implications for Astrology Firstly, there is a crucial relationship established between the elemental qualities of the signs and the seasons. For example, all the Fire signs are by their very nature Hot & Dry, indeed Leo being the midsummer sign is pure Hot & Dry, but Aries being a Spring sign is wetter, and Sagittarius being an Autumnal sign is colder. Next, if these seasonal attributions hold true for the signs, then planets in the signs will also take them on. The implication of this is that we can tally up the qualities of the planets by sign/triplicity and by season to see which overall characterisation better fits the person. Finally, in terms of the calendar and hence birth-dates, the seasonal cycle is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. This results in some very interesting differences in the nature of the signs themselves, and has implications for character delineation as well. Element Elemental Qualities Seasonal: North Seasonal: South Fire Hot & Dry Hot & Wet Cold & Dry Earth Cold & Dry Hot & Wet Cold & Dry Air Hot & Wet Hot & Wet Cold & Dry Water Cold & Wet Hot & Dry Cold & Wet Fire Hot & Dry Hot & Dry Cold & Wet Earth Cold & Dry Hot & Dry Cold & Wet Air Hot & Wet Cold & Dry Hot & Wet Water Cold & Wet Cold & Dry Hot & Wet Fire Hot & Dry Cold & Dry Hot & Wet Earth Cold & Dry Cold & Wet Hot & Dry Air Hot & Wet Cold & Wet Hot & Dry Water Cold & Wet Cold & Wet Hot & Dry Element Qualities North South Fire Hot & Dry Leo - Sagittarius-Aries Air Hot & Wet Gemini Libra (Hotter) Aquarius Earth Cold & Dry - Taurus Capricorn-Virgo Water Cold & Wet Pisces Cancer (Wetter) Scorpio No southern equivalent of pure, H&D, Fire of Leo (mid-summer) No northern equivalent of pure, C&D, Earth of Taurus (mid-autumn) Northern pure Air, Gemini, has southern equivalent in Libra, H&W *2 Northern pure Water, Pisces, has southern equivalent in Cancer, C&W *2 All the formerly pure signs of the north, Leo, Gemini, Pisces, become mixed signs in the south Northern Sagittarius, H&D C&D, is the same as southern Aries Northern Capricorn, C&D C&W, is the same as southern Virgo Northern Scorpios are basically Cold (C&W C&D), whereas southern Scorpios are Wetter, C&W H&W Northern Aquarians are basically Wet (H&W C&W), whereas southern Aquarians are Hotter, H&W H&D Fire: In the south, Sag has the highest energy of the three, because it has a hot component, while the other two don't. Aries, on the other hand, is drier than the other two signs. This makes Aries more dogmatic than either Leo or Sag. Leo goes from pure fire, high energy & breaks bonds, to a mixed fire sign. Air: In the north, Lehman says "The social butterfly quality of Gemini fits exactly with the nature of hot and wet: an enthusiastic (hot) person floating from person to person (wet)" (1996:44). But in the south Libra has this nature whereas Gemini takes on the mixed type, the balancing act, having all four qualities to express and the lowest energy. Aquarians, on the other hand, become something different, they have the same energy as Librans but, being drier, they fluctuate between creating connections or breaking them. Earth: In the north, Taurus is warmer and wetter than one would expect of an earth sign, but in the south Taurus becomes pure earth, C&D, a low energy, dogmatic type. Capricorn becomes warmer (and dryer) and has the highest energy of the three. Virgo becomes wetter (and colder) and sets about organising other people. Water: In the south, Pisces is the third mixed sign having all the qualities. Here Cancer is the pure type, the ultimate water sign, low energy, flexible. Scorpios, however, become something different, they are as wet as Cancers but, being warmer, they fluctuate between being active and being passive, that is, they run hot and cold. In Conclusion The basic argument is this: The Astrological Elements as we know them are of Classical Greek origin and have the same meaning as they had in Greek cosmology However the Greeks also utilised two sets of opposites, Hot & Cold and Wet & Dry, known as 'qualities', in order to make finer distinctions between the Elemental components of whatever aspect of reality they were categorising Aristotle proposed that the Elements combined with the qualities in such a way that one Element can change into another through a cyclic process, and the model for this cyclic process of change was the cycle of the seasons Astrology entered the Greek world after these ideas were fully developed, thus we can say that Classical Greek astrology was always Tropical astrology and that the seasonal nature of the signs is an essential feature of it. The implications of this are, first, that another level of distinction is added to the nature of the archetypal zodiacal signs (that is, the signs as they occur in the northern hemisphere), and, second, that the nature of the signs in the southern hemisphere is likely to be somewhat different.

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