Elemental Dignities

Elemental dignities are an advanced technique handed down from the Golden Dawn tradition: instead of reading each card in isolation, you look at how the elements of neighboring cards strengthen or weaken each other. The Thoth system (Crowley) uses the technique more systematically than the Waite system ^inferred.

How the four elements support and oppose each other

Friendly (strengthening): Fire with Air, Water with Earth. Air helps Fire burn brighter, and Earth can hold Water. When two cards of friendly elements sit next to each other, their meanings are strengthened and move in a positive direction.
Contrary (weakening / conflict): Fire with Water, Air with Earth. Water puts out Fire, and Air scatters Earth. When two cards of contrary elements sit next to each other, their meanings are weakened or turn toward conflict and obstruction.
Same element: two cards of the same element side by side is pure strengthening; the same quality is magnified. Two Wands together magnify drive and passion almost to the point of losing control. Two Pentacles together magnify stability almost to the point of standstill.
Neutral (neither friendly nor contrary): Fire with Earth, Air with Water. These two remaining pairs are not clearly defined in the classic system ^uncertain. A reasonable way to understand them is that there is no natural strengthening or weakening between these elements. Two forces of different natures exist side by side, each keeping its own character, and how they interact depends on the situation shown in the cards. You cannot simply apply the friendly or contrary formula ^inferred. This is especially common among the court cards. The King of Pentacles (the King's Fire + the Pentacles' Earth), the Page of Wands (the Page's Earth + the Wands' Fire), the Knight of Cups (the Knight's Air + the Cups' Water) and the Queen of Swords (the Queen's Water + the Swords' Air) all have double-element combinations that fall into these two "neutral" pairs. For how to read them, see the correspondences section on each card's page.

Another simplified framework: active and passive polarity

The American Tarot Association (ATA) system offers a simpler way to judge. Its reasoning differs somewhat from the support-and-oppose model above, but the conclusions overlap a great deal, and it also gives a clear answer for the two unresolved neutral pairs, Fire with Earth and Air with Water:

Air and Fire are classed as "masculine / active" elements, and Water and Earth as "feminine / passive" elements.
When two cards share the same polarity (active with active, or passive with passive), they count as dignified and strengthen each other, whichever two elements they are. Air with Fire is dignified (one has plenty of ideas and the other can put them into action, so they click right away). Water with Earth is also dignified (one is caring and the other is steady, and both are fairly passive and reserved). Two cards of the same element side by side (for example two Water cards) belong here too: like adds to like and each magnifies the other.
When two cards have different polarities (one active, one passive), they count as ill-dignified and weaken each other, whichever two elements they are. Under this logic, Air with Water and Fire with Earth are also ill-dignified. Put someone direct and active, who says what is on their mind, together with someone passive and indirect, whose feelings need the other person to notice them first, and communication easily goes off track: one is reasoning things out while the other wants their feelings followed, and each finds the other difficult and draining [inferred, generalized from course examples].

The value of this polarity framework is that it gives a judgment for the "neutral" pairs left open in the support-and-oppose model. By its logic, Air with Water and Fire with Earth are also ill-dignified, so there is no longer a gap. The two models are not fully compatible, though. Which one to use is the reader's own choice, and there is no need to force them into one system. Mixing them tends to make your judgment more tangled.

Judging dignity in practice

When you draw several cards at once and their elements all share the same polarity (whatever the specific content, good or bad), the overall reading should be "heavier" than the card faces alone suggest. The good gets better and the bad gets worse, because the cards are magnifying each other. When the cards mix active and passive, the reading should be gentler than the card faces alone suggest, because the cards are holding each other back, and the actual course of events is often milder than the literal meanings. You can use this judgment on several cards drawn in sequence in a spread, and also in relationship spreads to compare the elemental state each person stands for. If both people's states share the same polarity, their values or ways of relating usually fit well. If their polarities differ, they are more likely to struggle with mismatches such as active versus passive or reason versus feeling.

Two extensions not recommended

The same dignified / ill-dignified logic can be extended in two more directions: odd and even numbers (even with even or odd with odd = strengthening, odd with even = weakening), and the active and passive polarity of the planets (the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus as active; the Moon, Venus and Neptune as passive; Mercury and Pluto as neutral). Both extensions have obvious logical flaws. Under the odd-and-even rule, a King (even) paired with a Queen (odd) would be judged ill-dignified, which plainly goes against intuition. The planetary layer also requires you to decide first which astrological correspondence system each number card should use (the Golden Dawn sephiroth correspondences or the decan system), so the effort far outweighs the benefit. Everyday readings do not need these two layers. Elemental polarity, or the support-and-oppose model, is enough.

How to use it

Take a three-card reading as an example. If the middle card is flanked by cards of contrary elements (say a Wands card and a Cups card on either side of a Swords card), you can read the situation that card stands for as being pulled between the opposing forces of Fire and Water, and the card's positive meaning may be weakened by real-world conflict ^inferred. If, on the other hand, the surrounding cards are all of friendly elements, the card's positive meaning is further strengthened by circumstances, and its negative meaning may be softened.

The technique is mainly for positions in a spread where the cards are closely related (such as the neighboring "present situation" and "near-term influence" cards in the Celtic Cross). There is no need to force it onto a single-card draw, or onto spread positions whose meanings are far apart (such as "past" and "future").

How it differs from reversals

Elemental dignities look at the sideways relationship between cards, while reversals (see Reading Reversals) look at the direction of energy within a single card. They are two independent advanced techniques and can be used together without conflict. A reversed Wands card surrounded by cards of friendly elements can still be read as "the drive to act is blocked, but the outside environment supports this matter."

Advice on using it

This technique is for readers who have reached a certain level. At the beginner stage, it is enough to learn each card's core meaning and the suit and number systems well. Elemental dignities are a tool to bring out for a specific difficulty, when the cards seem to contradict each other; you do not need to run every reading through them.