Earth
Soil, stone, the body and the harvest: the element of what is solid, fertile and lasting.
- Qualities
- Cold and dry (Aristotle)
- Zodiac
- Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
- Humor
- Black bile, melancholic
- Tarot suit
- Pentacles
- Direction
- North, in modern pagan practice
Earth is cold and dry in Aristotle's scheme, the heaviest element, which naturally sinks to the center of the world. Plato gave it the stable cube. Earth was worshipped as a mother in many traditions, from the Greek Gaia to the Andean Pachamama and the Māori Papatūānuku.
In astrology earth rules Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, the signs of patience and practicality. In humoral medicine it matched black bile and the thoughtful 'melancholic' temperament. In modern tarot it is the suit of Pentacles, and pagan ritual usually places it in the north.
Linking a goddess to an element is a modern practice, drawn from Renaissance magic, the Golden Dawn and contemporary paganism; the ancient sources don't assign goddesses to elements.