How to order the elements, and if its nessesary?

Lucas Prince of Cats

So, every suit has its numbers, so does that mean that there is an order if the elements? If so, what order are the elements? Should I base it off of the seasons? Also, what element do you think corresponds to which season (I have seen and thought of differing reasonings)? Or shpould I go form least dense to most dense, which can also match the four hierarchy of the four aspects of us; physical, emotional, meantal, and spiritual. Also, I put the major archana at the end. LAso, does it really matter if I organise them or would i be better not to?
 

rwcarter

Welcome to Aeclectic, Lucas!

Are you asking about ordering the elements in general or when putting a deck back in order? If the latter, the only time I put a deck back in order is a) if I'm going to sell it to make sure all the cards are there or b) if I'm going to study the deck. For the latter it would only matter to me if I were going to use the elements for timing (I don't). There's nothing wrong with doing either thing, but I do neither.

Yes, there are many different sets of elemental associations. As with many things tarot, "choose what resonates and discard the rest."

Rodney
 

Zephyros

The most popular ordering is Fire Wands, Water Cups, Air Swords and Earth Pentacles or Discs. There are kabbalistic reasons for this that make a lot of sense, but the reasons tend to be self-referential and useful mainly if you're working within a greater kabbalistic framework. In a nutshell, the ordering tells the whole story of humanity, with the male fire starting out and impregnating the feminine water, and they produce the male air and female earth. It is quite a bit more complicated than that, but it does depend on what you want to do. Most likely you don't need all this stuff.
 

Lucas Prince of Cats

Thanks

Thanks guys! This was a great help, and I'll go with least dense to mostt dense, because I back it up byother reasons as well.
 

Rosewater

Any order that makes sense to you will do.
 

nisaba

Zephyros said:
The most popular ordering is Fire Wands, Water Cups, Air Swords and Earth Pentacles or Discs. There are kabbalistic reasons for this that make a lot of sense, but the reasons tend to be self-referential
Click to expand...

Mine is based on speed. And weight, now I think of it. First, fastest, is Wands, pure energy, the poer that gets everything else moving, and has next-to-no weight (I don't want to get into an argument of physics here).

Then comes Swords as Air. It is second-fastest (winds move faster than waves, but slower than lightning or sunlight), and it has perceptible but very slight weight.

Then Cups as Water. Heavier and slower-to-move than Air, but faster and lighter than ...

Pentacles as Earth, weighty, weighed-down, and low to get moving at all.

When I order a whole deck, I put the Major Arcana (which I see as "weighty" at one end of the deck - I don't much mind which, and Pentacles at the other, and the other suits ranging from fastest alongside the Majors up to slowest, Pentacles, at the other end of the deck.

But again, personal perceptions of the elements.
 

PAMUYA

nisaba said:
Mine is based on speed. And weight, now I think of it. First, fastest, is Wands, pure energy, the poer that gets everything else moving, and has next-to-no weight (I don't want to get into an argument of physics here).

Then comes Swords as Air. It is second-fastest (winds move faster than waves, but slower than lightning or sunlight), and it has perceptible but very slight weight.

Then Cups as Water. Heavier and slower-to-move than Air, but faster and lighter than ...

Pentacles as Earth, weighty, weighed-down, and low to get moving at all.

When I order a whole deck, I put the Major Arcana (which I see as "weighty" at one end of the deck - I don't much mind which, and Pentacles at the other, and the other suits ranging from fastest alongside the Majors up to slowest, Pentacles, at the other end of the deck.

But again, personal perceptions of the elements.
Click to expand...

Nice, I like this.
 

Nemia

Another possibility is to follow the order of the zodiac: fire, earth, air, water. I learned astrology a long time before I knew about tarot and this is for me still the "intuitive" order ;-)

I think all these different possibilites show that the elements are equal and resonate with each other in different ways.
 

Lucas Prince of Cats

Nice!

nisaba said:
Mine is based on speed. And weight, now I think of it. First, fastest, is Wands, pure energy, the poer that gets everything else moving, and has next-to-no weight (I don't want to get into an argument of physics here).

Then comes Swords as Air. It is second-fastest (winds move faster than waves, but slower than lightning or sunlight), and it has perceptible but very slight weight.

Then Cups as Water. Heavier and slower-to-move than Air, but faster and lighter than ...

Pentacles as Earth, weighty, weighed-down, and low to get moving at all.

When I order a whole deck, I put the Major Arcana (which I see as "weighty" at one end of the deck - I don't much mind which, and Pentacles at the other, and the other suits ranging from fastest alongside the Majors up to slowest, Pentacles, at the other end of the deck.

But again, personal perceptions of the elements.
Click to expand...

Wow, cool, I used to do it based upon the seasons, but that's way to complicated for me, so I've decided upon a kind of system like yours. Mine can use speed and weight, but it's based upon density, and the meanings of the elements. Going from earth (physical) to water (emotional), to air (mental), to fire (spiritual)-each one comes frrom or is lower to next one-to the major arcana.
 

Emily

nisaba said:
Mine is based on speed. And weight, now I think of it. First, fastest, is Wands, pure energy, the poer that gets everything else moving, and has next-to-no weight (I don't want to get into an argument of physics here).

Then comes Swords as Air. It is second-fastest (winds move faster than waves, but slower than lightning or sunlight), and it has perceptible but very slight weight.

Then Cups as Water. Heavier and slower-to-move than Air, but faster and lighter than ...

Pentacles as Earth, weighty, weighed-down, and low to get moving at all.

When I order a whole deck, I put the Major Arcana (which I see as "weighty" at one end of the deck - I don't much mind which, and Pentacles at the other, and the other suits ranging from fastest alongside the Majors up to slowest, Pentacles, at the other end of the deck.

But again, personal perceptions of the elements.
Click to expand...

I like this too - Thanks :)
 
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