Over the years I’ve seen countless charts without a planet in one of the elements.

Some natal charts lack a planet in Water, or Fire, or Earth, or Air. Interpreting this can be confusing unless approached holistically. Today we take a new look at how a lack isn’t really a lack.

I last gave you some of this 4 years ago, and I figured it might bear a new look. We’ll begin with stating that in Astrology there are 4 elements and 3 modes of expression, giving us the 12 signs.

The elements are of course Fire (Inspiration), Earth (Materiality), Air (Relatedness), and Water (Feeling). The modes – how force operates - are Cardinal (Initiating), Fixed (Stabilizing), and Mutable (Distributive). So just what does it mean if we have no planets in one of the elements or one of the modes?

In the original discussion, the questioner stated they lacked Fire in their natal chart, and saw he had more planets in Fixed signs than the others. He wanted to know if there was some way to generate Fire, and had been told by an astrologer to focus on the houses where he had the Fire signs and wanted to know if I agreed.

I reminded him that we can generate Fire any time we want as a result of the countless transits we’ve experienced in the Fire houses of our charts. We have experienced our inner Fire (or Air, or Water, or Earth) through countless progressions as well, if only through our progressed Moon’s relatively swift movement through all the modes in a 7 year period, and all the elements in a 9 year period.

All the progressions and transits give opportunities to work with our inner elements. This is so regardless of whether the aspects made are harmonious or frictional, since each aspect made to our natal planets creates multiple harmonic resonance points across our entire chart. That pretty much makes any time a good time to generate inspiration, brightness, and centeredness in Life as spontaneous expression, all qualities of the Fire signs.

In an example, your Sun is your Heart Fire. The Sun represents the core of our Light/Life, our radiance as we “shine our light to our world.” That's Solar Fire. Regardless of our natal and progressed Sun positions, each day the Sun shines is a good day to learn about various ways to express Solar Force. That in turn directly affects planets you have in Cancer and Leo, as well as the houses with those signs on the cusp, as well as the planet which rules your Sun and the house it’s in.

Here it’s important to remember that Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does our personality. If we lack something, we’re more inclined to move toward those things and experiences which will help us fill in our blind spots. A lack of an element can pull us toward those elemental experiences, and a lack of a mode inevitably brings us situations where we must demonstrate those modal qualities. Think of those times when you didn’t want to take the initiative, but were forced by circumstances to take the initiative. Or when you didn’t want to move on but were forced to move on.

I have known several people with no Earth in their charts. Yet throughout their lives, they had to learn to cultivate a grounded simple practicality which worked for them. Simple rituals and routines kept their lives and careers on track. In one case of someone with the Sun and Mercury in Fire, they both progressed into the following Earth sign. And their Ascendant and Mars, in mid and late Water both went through Fire and then entered Earth.

Because we all have all the signs in our chart somewhere, we have every element in every mode. That is a key to our worldview, and as life is in constant motion, so is our worldview through progressions and transits. We may have a deficiency of planets in an element or mode but that doesn’t mean we can’t experience and demonstrate the best qualities of each sign. As each element has three modes of expression, and each mode operates in all four elements, we can never be blocked from accessing our Inspiration (Fire), Practicality (Earth), Ideas and Relatedness (Air), or Feelings (Water). All four elements expressed through the three modes are found somewhere in our chart.

We Experience All The Elements and Modes Over Time - Transits

The Sun, Mercury, and Venus transit all the signs each year. That means we experience all the elements and modes via our Illumination, our Mind, and our Relationships each year. As Mars takes two years to make a full circuit, during that time we experience all the elements and modes through Mars experiences. Jupiter teaches us about each element and each mode over its 11+ year cycle. As you can see, taking only the inner planets into consideration, we’re getting exposed to each element, Fire, then Earth, then Air, then Water, hundreds of days each in a span of only 2 years!

Because transits deal with “real world” situations, as the various transits move through each element in its mode, we experience that energy in outer world situations and perceptions. They could come in any form, such as idea, a feeling, an interaction, or even a memory of that elemental expression as we remember it as a sensation.

Our Spirit/Soul lives its life across 12 areas of human experience. We have to deal with the material-physical levels, the emotional-experiential levels, the intellectual-perceptual levels, and the spiritual levels of life, realizing what we must and learning to apply those realizations as best we can across the personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal dimensions of existence. One year might bring us lessons in our emotional and mental interpersonal levels of life, while another year might bring us a greater applied skill in the material transpersonal arena, or the spiritual personal area of our lives. Every year brings different tests so we can be well rounded in our understanding and skill in all 12 “frequency zones” of Life.

We All Experience All The Elements and Modes Over Time - Progressions

When we are born, from that point on all our planets begin to progress in their signs, whether forward or backward depending on if they are direct or retrograde in motion. As the Sun is never retrograde, regardless of what sign it’s in, it will progress into the next sign and often into the sign after that. This happens with all our planets in direct motion. They move forward into subsequent signs unless the go retrograde.

The sequence of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water, repeated three times through the cycle, gives us every element expressed through every mode (cardinal or activating, fixed or stabilizing, and mutable or distributive.) That means if we have an inner planet in a Fire sign in direct motion, it will progress through the following Earth sign and then move into the following Air sign. In the case of Mercury and Venus, they may even make it to the next Water sign! Of course the progressed Moon makes a complete circuit every 27+ years, so we automatically get that internal experience above and beyond the other planets.

This holds for all the signs. As long as they don’t go stationary retrograde, the inner planets we have in Earth signs progress into the following Air sign and then into Water. Inner planets we have in Air signs progress into the following Water and then into Fire. Inner planets we have in Water signs progress into the following Fire and then into Earth.

In our example of the person with no natal planets in Earth signs, as I mentioned earlier, her Sun, then her Mercury, then her Mars, all progressed from their birth elements into Earth signs. In her case, her Fire Sun entered an Earth sign and stayed there for 30 years and is now in an Air sign. Her progressed Mercury occupied an Earth sign between her late 30s and mid-50s, when her progressed Mars entered an Earth sign and remains in Earth to this day.

Her natal Venus was in the middle of an Air sign and her Ascendant is in the middle of a Water sign. Venus progressed though Water and Fire, joining up with her progressed Ascendant in late Fire and they both entered Earth in her early 60s. So despite the lack of natal Earth positions, she’s had major Earth influences since her 30s throughout her life via multiple chart factors. Though born without Earth planets, she’s been progressing through that element experience for decades, and will for many years to come!

As I briefly mentioned earlier, perhaps the most important progression where we absorb all the elements in all their expressions is through our progressed Moon as it traverses all the signs in our first 27 years of life. It then continues and again transits all the signs again in the next 27 years. That means the progressed Moon spends about 2.3 years in each sign during an entire progressed cycle. So we all get a sense of all the signs and modes throughout a given 27 year period. We get about 7 years of our progressed Moon in Fire signs, 7 years in Earth signs, 7 years in Air signs, and 7 years in Water signs during an entire progressed Lunar cycle.

Other Factors

Each year we have a Solar Return when the Sun returns to its natal position. This is said to be a snapshot illuminating the year to come. The Solar Return brings many different combinations of possibilities of experience over the years.

Regardless of our natal positions, at the Solar Return the Ascendant might be any element or mode, since we get a wide variety of SR Ascendants if we live long enough. As Mercury could be any of three possible signs, and Venus five possible signs adjacent to the Sun’s position, those also give us a wide experience. Mars changes from year to year, and of course Jupiter moves forward one sign per year, giving us a Jupiterian experience of every element and every mode in an 11+ year span.

The three “natural” Fire planets are the Sun, Mars, and Jupiter, being the worldly rulers of the three Fire signs. (It will also be valuable to contemplate how each of these planets also has a Water component, due to ruling two signs. A planet that rules a Fire sign also rules a Water sign.) As I hinted at earlier, we can always find a form of “Fire” energy when we tap into our Sun, Mars, or Jupiter./p>

This also holds true for the rulers of the Earth signs, those being Venus, Mercury, and Saturn. These also rule Air signs, mingling those two elements as well. So if you want to tap into Air/Earth energies, go to your inner Mercury, Venus, and Saturn.

Regardless of whether we are weighted toward or against certain elements and modes, our expression of these is entirely up to how well we’ve mastered our planetary responses. While it’s possible to find a type of Fire by exercising the planetary expressions of the Sun, Mars, and Jupiter (regardless of their sign positions), if we haven’t resolved the planetary duality in a healthy way, we can come off as a form of “negative fire.”

That’s how we can get clues about what needs to be changed in us. For example, if we come off as impatient or aggressive, it may be a “fire” energy, but it’s not the highest expression of that. Still, if we don’t know how to handle that element, we learn through trial and error, usually overcompensating in some way. Sometimes it involves “trying too hard,” and at other times it’s pulling that element in from “outside” to “get something done.”

We can always access any elemental quality wherever and however we can. We can always tap into Jupiter’s Fire, but it may come off as a bit hectic, scattered, and too risky if we haven’t gotten a grip on Jupiter’s duality. And of course, a dictatorial Sun must be transmuted into a radiant love of some sort if we would tap the Heart Fire, the Solar force of the Sun’s natural essence.

We all are on a learning adventure about how our planets and signs express over time. Because our consciousness keeps evolving, we can learn to be aware of and then master all the energies we need to, first in material things, then emotionally, then mentally, then spiritually. Once we claim it, it's ours. And with each lesson we master, we open doors to even higher functions of all our planetary Lights regardless of what sign they’re in at birth or by progression.

So though we may be “deficient” in planets in a certain element or mode, that vacuum will lead us to learn about those elemental and modal areas of existence via all kinds of different experiences. While there may be an initial tendency to overcompensate for what we feel is lacking, it is certainly not an impediment to finding a perfect way to express all the elements in all three modes any time we need to. That’s why the fault is never in our stars, but only in our lack of understanding what it will take to perfect how we’re dealing with the 12 frequency zones of human experience.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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