Fire, Earth, Air, and Water in the Horoscope

The elements in a sidereal horoscope are the four tattvas of the rashis, and each tattva owns three signs. Fire is Mesha, Simha, and Dhanu. Earth is Vrishabha, Kanya, and Makara. Air is Mithuna, Tula, and Kumbha. Water is Karka, Vrischika, and Meena. That list would be false if Virgo were called water or if Scorpio were called earth. Fire signs are odd and active in the usual scheme, earth signs are even and steady, air signs are odd and mental, water signs are even and receptive. The rulers do not follow the element. Fire is ruled by Mars, the Sun, and Jupiter, three different grahas. Water is ruled by the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter. Using the element as a personality and forgetting the lord is how a Sagittarius and an Aries get the same paragraph. Jupiter and Mars do not behave alike.

Each element also contains one movable, one fixed, and one dual sign. Movable signs are Mesha, Karka, Tula, and Makara. Fixed signs are Vrishabha, Simha, Vrischika, and Kumbha. Dual signs are Mithuna, Kanya, Dhanu, and Meena. Aries and Leo are both fire, but Aries is chara and Leo is sthira. Aries starts things. Leo holds them. A reading that says 'fire signs should take risks this month' has erased that difference and has also erased the lagna. The element of the Sun sign is not the element of the ascendant unless they coincide. A fiery Sun in a watery lagna is a solar graha in one tattva and a life lived in another. The lagna's tattva colours the body and the manner. The Sun's tattva colours authority and the father. They can argue.

No tattva runs a dasha. Vimshottari belongs to the grahas. A year of 'earth energy' is not a Saturn transit, and a Saturn transit is not assigned by element. Saturn rules two earth and air signs, Makara and Kumbha, and is exalted in Tula, which is air. Mars is exalted in Makara, an earth sign, and rules a fire sign and a water sign. The exaltations refuse a simple elemental morale. Marriage is still the 7th house, whatever tattva falls there. If the 7th is a water sign, the manner of the bond may be receptive. The 7th lord can be a fire graha placed in an earth sign, and then three tattvas are in the sentence. That is normal. It is why an element horoscope of four paragraphs cannot answer a person. Count the sign, then its lord, then the house.