Elements of the Tarot

Here is the basics of how I personally conceptualize the elements in the Tarot, through personal study and personal experience.

FIRE 🔥🜂
     ✦ WANDS ☨

              👁 WILL, passion, action/reactions, instinct - learned, light and life

              👁 Common imagery: Bread of life, sun, lions, salamanders, light, warmth

     ✦ COMMUNITY 👭
     ✦ Playing cards: Clubs ♣
     ✦ Cardinal direction: North↑
     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Gryffindor 

WATER 🌊🜄
     ✦ CUPS ⛾

              👁 EMOTION, subtler energies, romance, patience, fun, friendship

              👁 Common imagery: Water of life, ocean, moon, lakes, rivers, dolphins, other aquatic animals

     ✦ WOOD 🌳
     ✦ Play cards: Hearts ♥
     ✦ Cardinal direction: South↓
     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Hufflepuff 

AIR 🛫🜁
     ✦ SWORDS ⚔

              👁 MENTAL STATES, logic, seriousness, planning, belief systems, weathering the storm

              👁 Common imagery: Sword of truth, breath of life, butterflies, crows/ravens, clouds

     ✦ VIBRATION 🔊
     ✦ Playing cards: Spades ♠
     ✦ Cardinal direction:  East→

     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Ravenclaw 

EARTH 💎🜃
     ✦ PENTACLES  ✪

              👁 MORTALITY, family life, nature, the material world, work, comfort 

              👁 Common imagery: Salt of the earth, fruit, rams, snakes, cycles, mountains, land

     ✦ METAL ⛰
     ✦ Playing cards: Diamonds ⯁
     ✦ Cardinal direction: West←
     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Slytherin                  

SPIRIT ☥∞
     ✦ MAJOR ARCANA 💀
              👁 Interplay between our souls and dense matter, following our Hearts,  our purpose, virtue and values, 

              👁 Common imagery: the infinite symbol, crowns, bridges, books, roses and lilies, stars, radiance

     ✦ POWER 🍏

              👁 All that was, is, will be, and ever could be; worlds within worlds

     ✦ Playing cards: The wild card, the Joker. 🃏 
     ✦ Cardinal direction: Center •
     ✦ Hogwarts "House"*: The Sorting Hat

ALL ELEMENTS 🌎🔮
     ✦ Intuition, connection, love

              👁 Typically water is seen as the intuitive suit, but in my experience in working with the elements all the elements involve the spiritual  ability of intuition. The difference is in how it's being expressed. 

              👁 All the suits and both arcana deal with concepts of connection and love. All of the elements are interconnected. One cannot exist without the others. 

*Note: I do not at all agree with JK Rowling's TERF stance. I included the Hogwarts houses since the Harry Potter universe has become so popular that everyone knows what house they are in, just like how everyone knows their astrological sun sign. 

Page updated July 24, 2020