The earth signs would seem to be fortunate beings in many respects, as they possess an innate ability to master the things of this world. They live in the realm of the senses. Of course we all live in the realm of the senses, but some of us are not terribly comfortable with that fact. We wish we were more practical, had more common sense or more money. In other words we wish we had a better relationship with the sensation function or with what an astrologer would call the element of earth.
Those whose charts are heavy in earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) or who have planets emphasized (Saturn or Ceres) do have special relationship with the physical. These people know how to make money and keep t. They can fix their cars, excel at home repair, and honestly enjoy the comforts of everyday life. They can do all those things that their opposites, the introverted fire types, find so difficult. They are the elemental types who are "most-likely to succeed"�or at least to enjoy a high level of material status and prosperity.
There is, of course, a darker side to the earth element. In the mythic dream time before history, the Cosmic Man gazed upon the newly created world. He saw the reflection in the waters of the world, and became enamored of that refection, like Narcissus in the earlier Greek Myth. He swept down from Heaven to earth, leaning over the waters for a better look. Physis, the feminine personification of earth, fell in love with the Cosmic Man; she reached up, caught him in her embrace, and pulled him into the depths of the earth. He remains trapped there to this day.
When the myth says that the Cosmic Man is "trapped in the embrace of earth", it points to that divine spark of consciousness which is embedded in the material body. The myth symbolizes the trap or lure of the earth plane or material world, whereby the divinity that resides in us all is put aside or forgotten for the more pressing and immediate needs that the world demands from us and, oddly enough, rewards us with.
While fire represents the spark, earth represents the body. Hence, earth signs are the people most likely to feel cut off or alienated from that diving inner spark. Just as the introverted fire type dreads bank accounts and V-8 engines, the extraverted earth type fears the psychic world. These are the people who loudly proclaim that they don't believe in magic or astrology, that the only things which are real are the things they can touch. These are the people who get nervous around artists and mystics, who fidget uncomfortably during any conversation that involves the world of intuition, dreams or visions. In short, what they can't see or touch with their five senses is beyond their realm of comprehension, and to them does not exist. Thus the earth type�especially the extravert is most easily trapped in materiality, like the Cosmic Man in the embrace of Physis.
Not all the earth types are noisy, materialistic, back slappers, however. There are a few who are reflective and introverted. The introverted earth type is likely to be a sculptor, a carpenter, or a painter�entirely absorbed with her/his inner sensations. These people are so detached they seem not to care about anything or anybody around them. They appear to be even "spacier" than the introverted fire types. But these earthy introverts are rare; one seldom encounters them. Earth sign types are overwhelmingly extraverted by nature.
To earth, security represents safety. There are no surprises, everything in its place and you know what you have. Those who possess an excess of planets in earth signs may therefore be overly controlling, even (or especially) with small things.
One of the greatest cosmic jokes must surely have to do with the fact that the earth element always follows the fire sign on the astrological wheel. Every fire sign automatically progresses into an earth sign as his/her next phase of development.
Fire is yang; earth is yin. Fire is intuitive; earth concerns itself with world of sense orientation. In fact, studies show that 75% of the population of the USA fits Carl Jung's sensing mode; only 25% is intuitive. Everyone has the ability to be intuitive, so why is it not more like 50/50? Because the challenge lies within trusting the intuition and using it, and that's the less secure path. In earth, as we have remarked, security has a lot to do with how one functions.
The fire element is likely to be most noticeable between puberty and the age of thirty, while earth reigns supreme from about thirty to sixty years of age. It is clear then that the earth element gets our best, most productive years.
The biggest lesson for earth types is to relax and enjoy the process of earthly attainment while still in the process. Earth signs enjoy DOING rather than BEING. IN the doing stage they are always aware of the world around them and what needs to be taken care of. Often they wind up doing everyone else's job because no one else can do it as well, yet they remain resentful because they are doing all of the work. As a result of this and the seriousness in which they perform their tasks their limbs and joints often suffer.
Heavily stressed earth types often suffer from back, neck and shoulder pain (carrying the world on their shoulders), from loss of teeth or gums (gritting their teeth and carrying on, no matter what) or in short, from stress in all the visibly apparent features of the body�hair, skin, nails, teeth, and bones.
In times of crisis, earth types are often responsible for getting the situation handled, cooly and rhythmically, without skipping a beat. And they are loyal. If they promise something, they usually deliver. And let's not forget that it is the earth types who have something to show for their efforts at the end of their lives'.
