← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 196/235
Water
The signs
Water is the element of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, the water triplicity. Each has its own mode: Cancer is cardinal, water that moves to protect and nurture; Scorpio is fixed, deep still water that holds its feelings hard; Pisces is mutable, water that dissolves boundaries and flows everywhere.
Temperament
In the old physics water is cold and moist. Cold slows and draws inward; moisture joins and softens. It was linked to the phlegmatic temperament: calm, receptive, patient, slow to anger and slow to move. Lilly calls the water signs cold, moist, phlegmatic and assigns them to the north. Their traditional triplicity rulers are Venus by day and Mars by night, with the Moon participating; Lilly himself gave Mars the water triplicity by day and night alike.
What water inclines toward
Arroyo calls water feeling-based, empathic, and past-oriented. Its gifts are emotional depth, intuitive sensitivity, compassion, healing ability and psychic receptivity. Water experiences life through feeling and intuition; it absorbs the moods of others and needs times of withdrawal to process its inner world.
A chart heavy in water may incline toward deep loyalty, a gift for understanding what is unspoken, and a natural feeling for care and healing. In Arroyo's account its shadow is emotional overwhelm, moodiness, possessiveness, and difficulty with boundaries — the risk of being carried away by emotional currents, one's own or other people's.
A chart lacking water may incline toward difficulty reaching one's own feelings, a fear of vulnerability, or trouble meeting other people's emotional needs. Arroyo observes the compensation that often follows: an unconscious fascination with emotional intensity, drawing dramatic relationships or cathartic experiences. Consciously cultivated, the missing water can become a source of deep, earned emotional wisdom and genuine compassion.
Water with the other elements
Arroyo pairs water with earth as the receptive, inward-turning elements: water nourishes, earth contains. Water with fire can make for passion and warmth, or for steam and exhaustion; water with air brings feeling and thought together, which can be wise, or can leave the feeling side feeling unheard.
Patterns
A Grand Trine in water is read as an easy flow of feeling, imagination and empathy — a rich inner life that may need structure to protect it. The Mystic Rectangle and the Kite are often built on water or earth trines and sextiles, linking the two receptive elements.
In the tarot
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow.
Suit: Cups — Ace of Cups, the root of the element
Court cards: Page of Cups, Knight of Cups, Queen of Cups and King of Cups
Major Arcana of its signs: The Chariot (Cancer), Death (Scorpio), The Moon (Pisces)
Its elemental Major Arcana: The Hanged Man