← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 195/235
Air
The signs
Air is the element of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, the air triplicity. Each has its own mode: Libra is cardinal, air that initiates relationship and seeks balance; Aquarius is fixed, air that holds to principles and ideals; Gemini is mutable, air that moves, questions and connects.
Temperament
In the old physics air is hot and moist. Heat expands and animates; moisture joins and blends. It was linked to the sanguine temperament: sociable, hopeful, easy-going, quick to make friends and to move on. Lilly calls the air signs hot, moist, sanguine and assigns them to the west. Their traditional triplicity rulers are Saturn by day, Mercury by night, with Jupiter participating.
What air inclines toward
Arroyo calls air communicative, conceptual, and socially oriented. Its gifts are objectivity, intellectual clarity, social awareness and the ability to detach and see patterns. Air lives through ideas and relationships, needs mental stimulation and exchange, and is often at its best stepping back to see a situation whole.
A chart heavy in air may incline toward a lively, curious mind, ease with words and people, and a fairness that comes from seeing more than one side. Arroyo's warning is that air can lose touch with its own emotions and its body: its shadow is over-intellectualization, emotional detachment, superficiality, and nervous anxiety.
A chart lacking air may incline toward difficulty putting feelings into words, a degree of social awkwardness, or trouble seeing a situation from outside one's own experience. Arroyo notes the compensation that often follows: a hunger for ideas and company that may show as nervous talkativeness or intellectual overcompensation. Consciously cultivated, the missing air can grow into a hard-won capacity for perspective, communication and mental clarity.
Air with the other elements
Arroyo pairs air with fire as the active, outgoing elements: air fans fire, fire warms air. Air with earth can give ideas a practical form, or each may find the other dull or flighty; air with water joins thinking with feeling, which can bring understanding or, at worst, a feeling that one is always being analysed and the other always overwhelmed.
Patterns
A Grand Trine in air is read as a circuit of ideas and sociability that flows easily — good for talk, teaching and networks — and that may need grounding to turn ideas into action. A Kite built on an air Grand Trine gives that circuit a point of focus.
In the tarot
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow.
Suit: Swords — Ace of Swords, the root of the element
Court cards: Page of Swords, Knight of Swords, Queen of Swords and King of Swords
Major Arcana of its signs: The Lovers (Gemini), Justice (Libra), The Star (Aquarius)
Its elemental Major Arcana: The Fool