Reference · Elements
Earth
Earth is cold and dry and contrary to Air. Agrippa, quoting Hermes, calls it the passive one of the pair.
Its two qualities, and who says so
- Cold
- Oxford translation by H. H. Joachim, Book II, chapter 3, 330a30–331a6
- Dry
- Oxford translation by H. H. Joachim, Book II, chapter 3, 330a30–331a6
- Contrary to
- Air — the one element it shares no quality with, which is what makes them contrary rather than merely different.
There are two things (saith Hermes) viz. Fire and Earth, which are sufficient for the operation of all wonderfull things: the former is active, the latter passive.
In plain English Quoting Hermes, Agrippa reduces the four to a working pair: Fire acts and Earth is acted upon. This is the root of the active/passive division the later orders put on the wand and cup against the dagger and pentacle.
Its letter, where it has one
Earth has no Mother letter, and that is the source rather than a gap. Sefer Yetzirah names three Mothers and not four — Aleph for Air, Mem for Water, Shin for Fire — so there is no Hebrew letter left for Earth. The asymmetry is the text's own: a doctrine of four elements and an alphabet that divides into three. The three Mothers, the seven Doubles and the twelve Simples.
Its triplicity: three signs of the zodiac
The zodiac divides into four groups of three, one per element, and each of the three takes it in a different mode — cardinal, fixed or mutable. Ptolemy gives the scheme in the Tetrabiblos; this study seeds his reading and Lilly's locator beside it.
Its suit: fourteen cards
The Golden Dawn gave each suit of the minor arcana an element, and this study carries the attribution on all fourteen cards of each rather than on the suit as a label, so a single card's page can name its own source.
Earth is the Pentacles, and all 14 cards of the suit carry the attribution.
Its weapon
Earth Pentacle — The Golden Dawn consecration manuscript names this the Earth implement in its four-weapon set. This assignment belongs to that set; it does not make every earthlike object in every grimoire equivalent.
Four of the listed implements carry an elemental assignment in the Golden Dawn material. The other implements come from sources that do not assign them to this four-element set.