Fire Air Earth Water Hot Dry Expansive Cold Moist Contractive

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1 Elemental Dignities: An Alternative to Reversed Cards Presented by Joy Vernon Denver Tarot Meetup at Living Earth Denver Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 7-9 p.m. The dignities are a way to examine each card in a spread in relationship to the cards on either side of it. Based on symbolism derived from the four elements, dignities indicate if a card is strengthened, weakened, or unaffected by the surrounding cards. Using elemental dignities allows the reader to find greater depth of meaning in the spread and also provides a jumping off point for examining the interaction between cards. We ll start by reviewing some of the basics of elemental symbolism. Then, to best demonstrate this technique, I will teach a traditional spread called The Opening of the Key. This is a complex spread that allows for great detail and provides plenty of opportunities to examine the interplay of the elemental dignities. I ll lay out the spread for a volunteer, then as a group we ll interpret it, examining carefully how the elements in the cards affect each other. 1. The Polarities a. Active Principle i. upward directed ii. associated with spirit, conscious, expansive, outer, masculine iii. vertical force b. Passive Principle i. downward directed ii. associated with matter, subconscious, contractive, inner, feminine iii. horizontal force 2. The Elements a. What are the four elements? i. fire ii. water iii. air iv. earth b. What symbols are used to indicate them? i. Fire upward triangle ii. Water downward triangle iii. Air upward triangle with line iv. Earth downward triangle with line c. Qualities i. Fire hot, dry, expansive ii. Water cold, moist, contractive iii. Air hot, moist, expansive iv. Earth cold, dry, contractive 3. Elemental Dignities a. What tarot suits correspond to the elements? i. Fire wands 2012 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 1 More info at JoyVernon.com.

2 ii. Water cups iii. Air swords iv. Earth pentacles b. Dignities i. Suits that are friendly (well-dignified) share 2 qualities ii. Suits that are neutral share one quality iii. Suits that are unfriendly (ill-dignified or contrary) share no qualities iv. Cards within the same suit are considered well-dignified to each other Fire Air Earth Water Hot Fire and Air are friendly Dry Fire and Earth are neutral Expansive Fire and Water are unfriendly Water and Earth are friendly Water and Air are neutral Contractive Earth and Air are unfriendly Opening the Key First Operation The opening of the matter as it stands 1. Pick a Significator. This is a court card that represents the person. You can select based on their appearance as it corresponds to the elements, on their personality as it corresponds to the elements, on their appearance and its similarity to the person drawn on the card, on their astrological sign, or any combination of these factors or other relevant factors. a. Wands generally very fair-haired and red-haired persons with fair complexions b. Cups generally moderately fair persons c. Swords generally dark persons d. Pentacles generally very dark persons 2. Cutting the deck. a. Determine which category wands, cups, swords or pentacles your question falls under. i. Y Wands energy and strife; also business and enterprise ii. H Cups pleasure; also love and relationships iii. V Swords sickness and trouble; also trouble, loss, scandal, quarreling (decisions) iv. H Pentacles business and money; also posessions, material goods b. Place the significator in the deck and shuffle the cards while concentrating attentively on your question. c. Place the pack of cards face down on the table before you. The pack represents the Tetragrammaton, YHVH. i. The Tetragrammaton is the ineffable four-letter name of God. In English transliteration, it is generally spelled YHVH and pronounced yud, heh, vav, heh. In Hebrew, it is spelled from right to left, hwhy. d. As evenly as possible, cut the deck, placing the top half of the deck to the right. The right-hand pack represents YH and the left hand pack represents VH by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 2 More info at JoyVernon.com.

3 e. As evenly as possible, cut the YH pack to the right, creating a Y and H pack. Do the same with the VH pack. f. You now have four packs of approximately equal size, representing the letters of the Tetragrammaton. 1. hwhy hwhy Full deck 2. hw hy hw hy Cut in half to right 3. h w h y h w h y Cut each pack in half to the right to create four piles 3. Reading 1. a. Turn the four packs face upwards but don t alter their position or order. b. The four bottom cards will establish the environment of the question. 4. Reading 2, including Finding the answer to a Yes/No question. a. Find the Significator. Look though each pack, without getting the cards out of order, to find the significator. Keep the pack with the significator in it and make a note of which pack, Y H V or H it came from. i. Y=Wands: energy and strife ii. H=Cups: pleasure, relationships iii. V=Swords: sickness and trouble, decisions iv. H=Pentacles: business and money 1. For yes or no questions: If the significator is in the pile that relates to the subject of the question, the answer is yes. You may stop here if that is all you need to know, or you may proceed to gain more insight into the situation. If the significator is not in the pile, the answer is no. Do not proceed at this time. If necessary, you may ask again in twelve hours. 2. You don t have to ask a yes or no question, rather you can gain insight on your question by noting which pile it is in. If you asked a question about how to get a raise at work, a pentacle question, but the significator was in the first H pile for cups, perhaps the true question is related to your relationships with the people you 2012 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 3 More info at JoyVernon.com.

4 work with cultivate better relations and you may win a promotion with a raise. b. Spread the cards in to a horseshoe. Spread this pack that contained the significator into a horseshoe, making sure to keep all the cards in order. We will not be reading reversed cards, but leave any reversed cards as they are, because you will want to note which direction the figure in the card looks. c. The other three packs will not be used any longer and may be set aside. d. Do an initial assessment of the cards spread out in the horseshoe. Note if a single suit is dominant. Note if you have 3 or 4 of any number card or court card (such as three Fives or four Kings). Note how many Major Arcana are in the reading. e. Counting the cards. You will now begin counting out cards according to the following method. Start with the Significator, count it as card 1, and go in the direction that the Significator is looking (if the card is reversed, the Sig will be looking a different direction than upright). i. From every Ace, count five (spirit and four elements) ii. From Princesses (Pages), count seven (seven palaces of Malkuth). iii. From Kings, Queens, Princes (Knights), count four (letters of the Tetragrammaton). iv. From smaller cards, count their own number (a sephirah). v. From The Fool (Aleph), The Hanged Man (Mem) or Judgment (Shin), count three cards (number of Mother letters) (see chart). vi. For The Magician (Beth), The High Priestess (Gimel), The Empress (Daleth), The Hierophant (Vau), The Wheel (Caph), The Tower (Peh) or The Sun (Resh) (the double letters), count nine cards (number of planets and Caput and Cauda Draconis) (see chart). vii. For all other Major Arcana, count twelve (number of signs) (see chart). f. Selecting cards. When you land on a card, nudge it out of position slightly so that you know it has been counted. You will still count it as you go around the horseshoe, but this will be a card that had been selected for the reading. Continue in this manner until you land on a card that you have previously landed on. g. Read the cards that you landed on, starting with the significator, in order, according to the direction that you were counting. Continue to leave all the cards in order in the horseshoe. h. Dignities. The cards which appear on either side of a selected card modify its meaning. If the card is well-dignified, it has on either side of it cards of the same or friendly suits. If the cards to either side both have contrary suits, then the card is ill-dignified. If one friendly and one contrary card are on either side, it is not affected. (See chart, above.) i. Fire/Wands are friendly to Air/Swords and Earth/Pentacles. Fire/Wands is contrary to Water/Cups. ii. Water/Cups are friendly to Air/Swords. Water/Cups are contrary to Fire/Wands. iii. Air/Swords are friendly to Water/Cups and Fire/Wands. Air/Swords is 2012 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 4 More info at JoyVernon.com.

5 contrary to Earth/Pentacles. iv. Earth/Pentacles are friendly to Fire/Wands. Earth/Pentacles is contrary to Air/Swords. i. If the card being read is at one end of the horseshoe, it is modified by the card next to it and the card at the other end of the horseshoe. 5. Reading 3, pairing up the cards. a. Now take the cards from opposite ends of the horseshoe and pair them up. You may move them now to create a column of paired cards. (The cards at the outer edges of the horseshoe are the first pair, etc.) b. Read these pairs as you normally would, noting which direction they face and their dignities. 6. This concludes the first operation. Sources: Crowley, Aleister. Tarot Divination. York Beach, ME: Weiser, Konraad, Sandor. Classic Tarot Spreads. Para Research. No date. Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn. Vol. 4. St. Paul: Llewellyn, by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 5 More info at JoyVernon.com.

6 Elemental Dignities Chart Fire Fire Air And Hot Fire and Air are friendly Air: Dry They share two qualities in common. Friendly Expansive Contractive Fire Fire Earth And Hot Earth: Dry Fire and Earth are neutral Neutral Expansive They share one quality in common. Contractive Fire Fire Water And Hot Water: Dry Unfriendly Expansive Fire and Water are unfriendly They share no qualities in common. Contractive Water Earth Water And Hot Earth: Dry Friendly Expansive Water and Earth are friendly They share two qualities in common. Contractive Water Air Water And Hot Air: Dry Neutral Expansive Water and Air are neutral Contractive They share one quality in common. Air Air Earth And Hot Earth: Dry Unfriendly Expansive Contractive Earth and Air are unfriendly They share no qualities in common by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 6 More info at JoyVernon.com.

7 Opening the Key Counting and Elements From this card: Count: Element: Astrological: Reason for the count: Minor Arcana Ace 5 Wands: Fire Four elements plus Spirit Pip cards its own number Cups: Water For the corresponding sephirah on the Tree of Life Kings 4 Swords: Air For the letters of the Tetragrammaton Queens 4 Pentacles: Earth For the letters of the Tetragrammaton Knights/Princes 4 For the letters of the Tetragrammaton Princesses/Pages 7 For the seven palaces of Assiah Major Arcana Fool 3 Air Air/Uranus Mother letter: Aleph ) Magician 9 Air* Mercury Double letter: Beth b High Priestess 9 Water* Moon Double letter: Gimel g Empress 9 Earth* Venus Double letter: Daleth d Emperor 12 Fire Aries Single letter: Heh h (Tzaddi c in Thoth deck) Hierophant 12 Earth Taurus Single letter: Vav w Lovers 12 Air Gemini Single letter: Zayin z Chariot 12 Water Cancer Single letter: Cheth x Strength/Lust 12 Fire Leo Single letter: Teth + Hermit 12 Earth Virgo Single letter: Yod y Wheel of Fortune 9 Fire* Jupiter Double letter: Kaph k Justice/Adjustment 12 Air Libra Single letter: Lamed l Hanged Man 3 Water Water/Neptune Mother letter: Mem m Death 12 Water Scorpio Single letter: Nun n Temperance/Art 12 Fire Sagittarius Single letter: Samekh s Devil 12 Earth Capricorn Single letter: Ayin ( Tower 9 Fire* Mars Double letter: Peh p Star 12 Air Aquarius Single letter: Tzaddi c (Heh h in Thoth deck) Moon 12 Water Pisces Single letter: Qoph q Sun 9 Fire* Sun Double letter: Resh r Judgment/Aeon 3 Fire Fire/Pluto Mother letter: Shin # World/Universe 9 Earth* Saturn Double letter: Tav t Count three for the cards associated with the three Mother Letters. Count nine for the cards associated with the seven Double Letters. This is for the seven planets plus Caput and Cauda Draconis (the nodes of the moon). Count twelve for the cards associated with the twelve Single Letters. *The planets do not have elemental associations. However, it is possible to find associations for them based on other correspondences. Some writers say that the Elemental Dignities system does not work with the planets and that the cards associated with the seven planets are considered neutral. However, in his writings, Mathers clearly utilizes elemental associations for the planets. Based on his examples, it can be inferred that he is using the association of the astrological sign that the planet rules. In the case of a planet ruling two signs, the sign that is earlier in the zodiacal sequence is used for the planet's correspondence. So, the Moon is water for Cancer, Mercury is air for Gemini, Venus is earth for Taurus, Sun is fire for Leo, Mars is fire for Aries, Jupiter is fire for Sagittarius, and Saturn is earth for Capricorn. Because there are other perfectly reasonable ways of associating the planets to the elements, and because this is not detailed clearly in the Golden Dawn writings, feel free to adjust these correspondences to what makes the most sense to you by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved. page 7 More info at JoyVernon.com.