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Elemental dignities I: the rules
In the Golden Dawn system, a card's neighbors make it stronger or weaker by their elements. Learn the three relations, and where the Majors and court cards fit.
In this lesson you will
- Give the element of any numbered card, court card or Major in the Golden Dawn system.
- Judge whether two neighboring cards strengthen, support or weaken each other.
- Put a card's strength into one plain sentence without changing what the card means.
You draw two cards for the evening painting class you want to start: the Ace of Wands, a hand from a cloud gripping a stout wand, and beside it the Ace of Cups, pouring streams of water. Both are beginnings. Do they add up, or do they pull against each other?
Almost every card has an element
In the Golden Dawn system, named for an English esoteric order of the late nineteenth century, almost every card carries one of the four elements (seven Majors carry a planet instead), and the elements of neighboring cards change how strongly a card speaks. This is called elemental dignity. A well-dignified card speaks at full strength; an ill-dignified one speaks quietly, or with effort.
You already know the elements of the suits from The four suits and their elements: Wands are Fire, Cups Water, Swords Air and Pentacles Earth. Court cards take the element of their suit. So the Ace of Wands is Fire and the Ace of Cups is Water, and that pairing, as you will see, is one of the two that pull apart.
Warm up
A quick look back before the new material. Recalling helps you remember.
Warm-up
In the Waite–Smith tradition, which element and area of life does the Ace of Pentacles belong to?
Warm-up
In the Golden Dawn system, each court is also an element within its suit's element. Which statement about this view, applied to the Queen of Wands, is accurate?
Warm-up
You drew the Two of Cups about a new bond and draw a second card beside it. Which second card would make the pair agree, strengthening what the first card shows: the Three of Cups or the Five of Wands?
Look first
Before reading on, look at the three cards together: a hand gripping a stout wand, a cup pouring streams of water, a crowned ruler on a throne carved with rams' heads. Which two seem to belong together, and which one looks as if it pulls against the others?
Remember
- In the Golden Dawn system almost every card carries an element: numbered and court cards by suit, Majors by their sign or element; planetary Majors count as neutral here.
- Same elements strengthen each other, Fire with Water and Air with Earth weaken each other, and every other pair supports a little.
- Dignity changes how strongly a card speaks, never what it says.
Sources: original VeilSoul text · Golden Dawn tradition · VeilSoul card pages · the 1909 Waite–Smith imagery (public domain)