The relationship between the Suits of this deck and the Elements are not the same as in traditional decks or what is common convention, nor are the names of the Suits conventional.
Traditional RCT Element Direction
Coins/Pentacles Spheres Air North
Cups Chalices Water East
Swords Weapons Fire South
Wands Rods Earth West
Spheres elemental equivalent is Air, this new ideas and freshness carried on the wind from over the pole. Spheres are eternal in promise and the wonderment of the unknown.
Chalices as the suit corresponding and representing the power of the direction East are symbolic of the warmth and nurturing of rising sun, the promise of a new day and the hope of new life and awakenings.
Weapons are the suit, of the powers the direction South, that which is towards the tropics and the equator, as such Weapons are hot, fiery and primal.
Rods are the lands to the West, warmed by the full day�s heat they allow us to thrive and build and adapt in the world.
The elements have both female and male aspects, and this gender representation depends of the application of the element being in an application of either a passive or an active mode.
Chalices and Weapons represent the active elements of oneself and or the world, where Spheres and Rods are the mental and or the spiritual elements of self or of the world.
Spheres Female Mental Spiritual
Chalices Female Physical Temporal
Weapons Male Physical Temporal
Rods Male Mental Spiritual
In the Southern Hemisphere the directions of, but not the traits of Spheres and Weapons would be reversed. This would also reverse the direction of the circular chart below, to counter-clockwise from clockwise. This co-incidentally reflects the Corrales effect of motion in both hemispheres.
Based on directions the �Female Mental� aspect is opposite �Male Physical� aspect and �Female Physical� aspect is opposite �Male Mental�. So they are dually opposite, not only opposite in gender but also in �within� and the �without� or the active and passive elements.
There is a circular continuity in the establishment of this design, from the �Female Mental�, to �Female Physical�, to �Male Physical�, to �Male Mental�, and again to �Female Mental�.
SPHERES CHALICES
Female Female
Mental Physical
RODS WEAPONS
Male Male
Mental Physical
Each of the Suits are the opposite of another Suit, in one aspect �gender� of the card and in other aspect reflecting that which is within and that which is without, this meaning either the mental and physical aspects of life respectively.
Within this framework, if we work with the four (4) basic elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth. The full scope of balance within the Tarot deck may be seen. Many cultures and other people have placed human physical and mental values on the elements. Others have placed a great deal of earth science related terms to these classical elements basing this on some arcane wisdom.
In most instances people have given these elements a single gender attribute, this limiting of each elements with only one gender is as equally as wrong as saying the Divine source of the Universe is only Male or Female, where most everything in the Cosmos in some way is based in a dual nature state.
Each element has both female and male characteristics, for the purpose of this example let us call the Masculine: ACTIVE and the Feminine: PASSIVE, this is not a statement of sexual strength or dominance.
