Astrology from the Ground Up – Part 1: Premises, Properties and Elements

PREFACE

Astrology from the Ground Up is my effort to render astrology down to the fewest and simplest principles from which the rest can be derived – a periodic table of phenomena. Terms used unconventionally are capitalised.

0. Premises

For the sake of brevity I ask you to entertain the following premises:

1. There is plane on which forces capable of affecting all fields of experience operate – that is, which produce effects in waking life, imagination, memory & dreams, etc.
2. Astrology only makes sense in terms of the Classical Elements and Properties. Their behaviour of the Elements in Astrology suggests they’re actually effective forces working on the plane outlined in point 1. They are not symbols, analogies or metaphors – Elemental Earth is not a name for matter, but “matter” is Earthy in ways which will soon become clear – Earth determines the nature of matter.

Similar sentiments from Heinrich Daath in his Medical Astrology (1908):

1.1. Classical Properties

1. The Elements are composed of two Properties from two dichotomies: Dry-Wet and Hot-Cold. All that’s apparent can be considered in these terms.
2. Dry and Wet work across spatial lines, separating and combining respectively. That which is Dry is distinct, stable; what’s Wet is indistinct – mutable. Dry things are brittle, while what’s Wet is malleable.
3. Hot and Cold work along temporal lines, invigorating and inhibiting. That which is Hot is active and activating; that which is Cold is inanimate, passive. Cold things do not act, while Hot things cannot refrain from acting – as much as an arrow could stop itself midair.
4. Dry-Wet concerns form, the quality of an effect; Hot-Cold concerns action and the degree of effect. The nature of a force is Dry, distinct; its strength is in its Heat, its energy: capacity to do work.
5. Cold and Wet are amenable to influence, Dry and Hot are not. The former are Feminine, the latter Masculine, and we find women and men predominate in each respectively.
6. The Properties can only have effects in combination – Heat without Dry is absurd as directionless force, quantity without quality. Dry without Heat is a forceless direction. A thing can only ever have direction if it’s moving, and it can only ever move in a direction.
7. The Properties as they appear in specific phenomena are always relative, although we can consider what their utmost extent would look like: Utmost Heat is unstoppable; utmost Cold is immovable; utmost Dry is singular, irreconcilable; utmost Wet is insubstantial, characterless. The actions of Heating and Cooling, Wetting and Drying, however, are absolute.
8. Encountering forces opposed to itself (Hot), the Dry resists or is destroyed, while the Wet yields and loses a part of itself. That which is Hot destroys or is destroyed by that which contradicts it (Dry); Cold things don’t and aren’t. (Consider: Two opposing forces of the same magnitude will negate one another, while forces applied to things without their own are imparted.)

1.2. Classical Elements:

Source: http://westernidentity.info/occult-fundamentals-002-the-four-elements/

1. Elements are combinations of Properties from each dichotomy. Each of them has a conventional designate: Hot-Dry is Fire, Cold-Wet is Water, Hot-Wet is Air and Cold-Dry is Earth. Everything about the Elements’ behaviour is derived from its Properties. Thinking with reference to the designates of Elements – eg. analogising the action of Elemental Fire with that of fire – will confuse as often as enlighten. They are the best metaphors, but not perfect – each worldly phenomenon demonstrate features of each Element.
2. Fire asserts itself. It is the life of what lives and the motion of what moves – the speed of a bullet, the force of a fist. Neither Wet nor Cold, it cannot abide contradictory influence; it cannot compromise. It rages on until broken by opposition. [[In people, it distinguishes itself (Dry) actively (Hot) – it is that which wants to be set apart, to rise, exactly like Nietzsche’s Will to Power.]] The utmost Fire would destroy all phenomena whose qualities contradicted its own. [[Worth noting also that Fire seeks the path of least resistance, as determined by the qualities and Dryness of phenomena involved – that is, the degree to which its qualities are distinct from and hence possibly opposed to the Fiery force.]]
3. Water transforms, makes receptive to influence. It allows for change without destruction, even to the extent of complete renovation. By rendering things able to absorb influence, Water is that which allows for growth, nourishment, recovery and resilience. [[In people, Water calms and softens, makes us impressionable. This is why Water has long been associated with emotion, strong memories and psychic powers. Infants are Watery.]] The utmost Water would have no qualities whatsoever – in fact, it could never (utterly Wet) – and would negate all incoming force (utterly Cold – it extinguishes all Heat). Another image bordering on that of utmost Water is the primordial soup, cosmic womb, roiling Lunar chaos, and the endless mutating fecundity of Tiamat.
4. Air assimilates, imitates and influences. It goes out and merges with what’s alike, making things part of a more complex whole – Air is the condition of wholes and their parts. Being Hot, it repels influence from anything which refuses to integrate (ie. Whose qualities differ from its by Dryness), and integrates what it can by force. Things external have to sacrifice some of themselves if they want to contribute, but it will conform to something with more Heat. [[In people, Air is pro-social and intellectual – it associates facts into theories and bonds men together.]] The utmost Air would assimilate everything into a single whole in which every part would be capable of cooperating. [[The process of crystallisation is Air, while the crystal itself is of Earth.]]
5. Earth sustains. Its influence calms and congeals, makes consistent. Cabinets, family bonds and strongly-held opinions participate in Earth. Being Cold, it will not change of its own accord. Being Dry, it refuses influence which contradicts its nature. It diverts rivers by staying still. A hammer will happily transform the force of an arm into that necessary to strike a nail – its Heat is that of the hand wielding it; its effects are shaped by its Dryness. [[Earth makes things happen by digging its heels in and forcing others to conform to it, raising the cost of opposing it.]] The utmost Earth would be eternally distinct, unchanging – immovable object or axis mundi.
6. In the Western hermetic tradition, Fire and Water are the higher elements, and Air and Earth are the lower. The higher are unmixed poles of affecting and affected, while the lower mix the two: Earth retains its identity while Air asserts itself; Fire does both, Water does neither.
7. Aristotle says the elements are not simple combinations of Properties, but that one predominates in each: Earth is the Dryest, Water the Coldest, Fire the Hottest and Air the most Wet.

1.3. Applying the Model – A River, A Knife and a Molecule

Consider a river. Its movement is Fire, as well as the way in which it strikes us as a distinct object. The light sparkling on its surface is Fire. Its banks are Earth, but the fact of its persistence in any distinct form is Earth too. The distinctness and persistence of the memory it forms in us is Earth. Its hidden depths, as well as its capacity to carry other life is Water (in this vein, it’s worth noting Water is that which conceals – to make something secret is to add Water to it). Its capacity to dissolve other substances in itself is Water, but we notice this capacity is limited – add enough sand and it dams up and turns to mud. Being a mundane phenomenon, its Wateriness has limits. Note that we can ascribe these qualities to what might be regarded as an arbitrary, anthropocentric delineation

Consider a knife on a table. The knife is predominately Earth, being distinct (Dry) and inanimate (Cold). Each more distinct part of it – the edge, the handle – is Earthier because Dryer, though still Cold. The union of my hand with the knife participates in Air – my hand loses some of its capabilities (it loses qualities, it loses Dryness) and the knife loses some of its, but as a whole we can do things that we couldn’t before.

That which animates the knife is Fire, and while the knife moves, its edge is the point at which the most Fire is concentrated, being the Dryest (all parts of the knife are made Hotter while they’re moving). Note first of all that the Knife is Dryer than the motion of the arm which wields it, and that the Dryest part is the one which has the most effect – what a force (Heat) can do is determined by its qualities (Dryness). The arm has more Heat than the blade and the blade has more Dry than the arm – together they can do things which neither could do on their own. Think of handling a tool as Drying your hand into a particular form-function. The side of the blade which I can’t see is Water, because it’s both indistinct (Wet) and inactive (Cold). The way in which the knife strikes us as a distinct object (casting light, being visible) is Fire.

Once again, the molecule’s distinctness and persistence are of Earth. Its capacity to be broken apart is Dry, as that which is indistinct can’t in the first place be divided. The molecule’s attraction to that with which it can form bonds is Air. And so on.

For you: Which Element rules the hands, and why?

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NEXT TIME: The Modes and the Fire Signs

P.S. The Property “Wet” is typically called Moist, and I realised after writing this article that this is to distinguish it from Elemental Wateriness. One day I will have to go back and change it.