The Four Elements 
in Relationships

Fire with the other signs

Fire has quite a difficult time with the earth signs, although their realism, deliberateness, and objectivity form a good counterbalance to it. But from the perspective of fire, earth is simply much too slow, too boring, always coming up with misgivings, constantly urging caution and, on top of everything else, even demanding facts that the fire individual should substantiate. All of this is much too arduous, too unimaginative and dry, especially since it threatens to stifle his enthusiasm.

However, fire also has its difficulties time and again with the emotionality of the water signs because water’s lack of drive, connected with a frequently pessimistic keynote, could put out the fire. The sensitivity that sometimes lets the water individual be cautious and shy is often interpreted as cowardice by the fire person. Yet, it is precisely this opposite pole that could teach him to perceive what goes on around him instead of simply placing himself at the center of attention in a self-confident or high-handed manner.

On the other hand, air is the element that fans the flames of fire. Fire individuals love air types because the latter’s breezy ideas constantly give their fiery will fresh nourishment. He loves them at least as long as they spare him of their smart-alecky questions and don’t ask him to give reasons for his convictions. When ideas (air) and will (fire) connect in a positive way, this can naturally be the birth of some good projects; however, some things also just keep on being hot air or end up as a lot of noise (air) and smoke (fire).

The Earth Element:
The Realistic Person

The world of the earth individual is the world of facts, experiences, order, and structure. She values and relies on everything that she can grasp and examine with her senses. The earth individual does not warm up to fiery speculations, elevated theories are too unfounded for her, and watery fantasies don’t really appeal to her sense of reality. She will always prefer a bird in the hand to two in the bush! What counts for her is the bottom line, what she has in her pocket, and what she can take home with her. Earth-oriented people may be slow and deliberate in their actions, but they are persistent and have staying power as a result. Once they get involved in a plan, they will follow it directly and consistently until they reach their goal. Their strong trust in pragmatic values makes them the keepers of tradition and simultaneously suspicious of bold utopias. They value tried-and-true methods far more than modern solutions, in the same way that the past and present are more important than a fictitious future that is still unstructured and will ultimately always be unpredictable.

The rooted earth individual usually lacks the willingness — and sometimes just simply the necessary imagination — to warm up to the world of ideals, longings, or ideas. She lavishes care and attention on the familiar since this is what she knows and can depend on. This is why she loves routine and repetition, and has a difficult time with changes and innovations. Others are sure to have had a hard time with her stubbornness, lack of flexibility, and resistance to anything unaccustomed. However, when her need for security lets her hold on too tight to things proven and achieved, when she desperately clings to money, property, possessions, and reality, there is the danger of losing sight of life’s meaning and that all of life’s joys will be smothered because of her lack of inspiration and visionary strength.

Earth with the other signs

The lively, restless air signs sometimes make too much fuss for the earth individual. Without further ado, they too easily stir up her clear structures, constantly come up with some sort of lofty and much too modern ideas that don’t interest her at all. She cannot comprehend why she should get mixed up in such high-flown “mental acrobatics”, especially since theory and practice seem to constantly contradict each other here. She only values perceptions when she can truly do something with them. Having a perception for perception’s sake appears to be quite superfluous to her. At the same time, more receptiveness for the air world could actually be good for her, since the inventive spirit of air could actually bring easy solutions and make some things go more smoothly.

Earth has a very special problem with fire because fire has a carefree way of “burning up” all the reserves that earth has so carefully developed and leaves nothing behind it but scorched earth. The earth individual not only finds the impetuous forward-surging fire to be uneconomical, but also much too thoughtless in the face of uncalculated risks. However, the warming fire is good for the earth, since it can bring healthy excitement and intensity into her life through the momentum, joy, and constantly flaming optimism of the fire individual.

Continued on the next page:
* The Airy Intellectual and who they blend with; 
* The Watery Emotional Type and their match.