← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 194/235
Earth
The signs
Earth is the element of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, the three signs a trine apart that make up the earth triplicity. Each has its own mode: Capricorn is cardinal, earth that organises and takes charge; Taurus is fixed, earth that holds and endures; Virgo is mutable, earth that sifts, adjusts and refines.
Temperament
In the old physics earth is cold and dry. Cold contracts and slows; dryness defines and separates. It was linked to the melancholic temperament — not sadness in the modern sense so much as seriousness, depth, caution and a long memory. Lilly calls the earth signs cold, dry, melancholy and assigns them to the south. Their traditional triplicity rulers are Venus by day, the Moon by night, with Mars participating.
What earth inclines toward
Arroyo calls earth receptive, form-building, and present-centered. Its gifts are reliability, patience, practicality, sensory awareness and productive endurance. Earth experiences life through the senses and through results it can see and touch; it builds slowly but solidly and often provides stability for others.
A chart heavy in earth may incline toward a practical, grounded steadiness, a good relationship with the body and with money, and a talent for turning ideas into something real. In Arroyo's account its shadow is materialism, rigidity, excessive caution, and resistance to change — the risk of becoming stuck in routines or of trusting only what can be measured.
A chart lacking earth may incline toward difficulty giving ideas a practical form, an uneasy relationship with the body, money or time, or a feeling of being ungrounded. Arroyo notes that the missing element often brings compensation: an overemphasis on grounding behaviour, such as clinging to routine or anxious over-organisation. Consciously cultivated, the missing earth can bring a fresh appreciation of the physical world and a stability that is earned rather than assumed.
Earth with the other elements
Arroyo pairs earth with water as the receptive, inward-turning elements: water nourishes earth and earth gives water a shape. Earth with fire can marry ambition to staying power, or feel like a brake against a spark; earth with air can bring ideas down to earth, or leave each wondering what the other is for.
Patterns
A Grand Trine in earth is often read as a deep reserve of practical competence and material good sense, with the classic caution that ease can become complacency. A stellium in an earth sign concentrates that sign's practical concerns in one area of life.
In the tarot
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow.
Suit: Pentacles — Ace of Pentacles, the root of the element
Court cards: Page of Pentacles, Knight of Pentacles, Queen of Pentacles and King of Pentacles
Major Arcana of its signs: The Hierophant (Taurus), The Hermit (Virgo), The Devil (Capricorn)