The Fire Element

Some people walk into a room and the energy rises. They want to do something, start something, go somewhere, and their enthusiasm is contagious. They may not have a plan. They have a spark. That is the fire element: the part of life that is about spirit, about feeling alive, about acting on what you believe.

Fire is the first element of the zodiac, because Aries, the first sign, is a fire sign. It is the impulse before the plan, the warmth before the structure. Every chart has some relationship with fire, even a chart with no planets in fire signs at all.

Three faces of fire

Fire appears three times around the zodiac, once in each modality, and each sign shows a different face of the same flame.

• Aries (cardinal fire) strikes the match. Fire as courage and initiative, the urge to begin.
• Leo (fixed fire) keeps the flame burning. Fire as warmth, creativity and the heart, steady and generous.
• Sagittarius (mutable fire) carries the torch. Fire as faith, adventure and the search for meaning.

The three fire signs sit 120 degrees apart, linked by trines, the aspect of easy flow. Planets in fire signs tend to understand each other without effort: they share the same fuel.

Hot and dry: the oldest layer

The four elements are older than astrology itself. Greek philosophers described the world as made of fire, earth, air and water, and each element as a pair of qualities. Fire is hot and dry: hot because it moves outward and rises, dry because it separates and defines. Early medicine linked each element with a temperament, and fire's was the choleric temperament: quick, decisive, passionate, quick to anger and quick to forgive.

Traditional astrology also gives each element its own rulers, called the triplicity rulers. For fire, the Sun rules by day and Jupiter by night, with Saturn as a participating ruler. That is a less-known way to read fire: the light of the Sun, the faith of Jupiter, and Saturn's reminder that every fire needs a hearth.

What is your element balance?

Count the fire, earth, air and water in your own chart.

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