TMaster astrologer and psychologist Steven Arroyo has written about the nature of the elements and their impact on the psyche. Credits and thanks to this wonderful teacher. The material below is from my book Psychological Astrology for the Psyche.
Identity as material for social intellects
(“I am a social intellect” or I.M.S.I.)
The houses can also be considered as training modules (much like a 3D reality experience) for the individual’s soul. Three unique and different observations can be made in the study of the houses as living environments of experience and their effect on the psyche.
One pattern involves learning experiences that define I.M.S.I. lessons, or Identity, Material, and Social-Intellectual Learning Environments.
Identity means the soul has four different types of Identity Resolution issues to face: Self, Core Self, Other-Self, and Global Self. (By core self, I mean where the individual finds and applies the growth experience of being born and raised in the human environment. The Global Self means that facet of the soul that wishes to contribute toward the preservation and continuation of society, thereby creating a structure to add to the collective whole group’s efforts.)
This takes place in the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses.
Material means the soul is using lessons to create something of substance; not necessarily a tangible, but gaining substance of character in a way that translates into results. This takes place in the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th houses.
Social-intellectual means that the soul is gaining wisdom through interactions with society by being involved as a group member. Information is being received and transmitted; ideas are being born, stretched/extrapolated, and exchanged. This takes place in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th houses.
The houses are also identified in a triad by their respective focus as primary, secondary, and tertiary centers of impact upon soul coursework for learning life lessons. The 1st/4th/7th/10th houses, also referred earlier as Direction Markers of Life (and corresponding to the Four compass points of N/S/E/W), indicate key areas where the soul builds the cornerstones of learning and growth.
This is the ASLS method, or the “Actions of Elements.”
(ASLS=actions of elements)
It also stands for Action to Secure Learning for the Soul.
Fire – Action Lessons – 1st, 5th, 9th
Earth – Security Lessons – 2nd, 6th, 10th
Air – Social/Intellectual Lessons – 3rd, 7th, 11th
Water – Emotional-Soul Lessons – 4th, 8th, 12th
Action lessons from the 1st/5th/9th houses with a fire-based Aries/Leo/Sagittarius energy give the soul challenges regarding momentum and inertia. Procrastination and impulsiveness are two extremes.
Security lessons from the 2nd/6th/10th houses with an earthy Taurus/Virgo/Cap quality will require the soul to learn “sticking with plans,” persistence, determination, and endurance to see a goal through and finished. Responsibility is strengthened and developed here.
Social-Intellectual Learning in the in the 3rd/7th/11th cerebral heights of air and Gemini/Libra/Aquarius) means the soul is engaged in examining cause-and-effect, principles of ethics, social conduct, and the capacity to exchange and share both tangible and intangible concepts, including communicating.
Emotional-Soul lessons from the 4th/8th/12th come to us from Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces’s realms to provide awareness of empathy, compassion, affection and love, and self-control. Emotional-soul lessons are water-based, signifying their theme as a means to bring sensitivity to the subject’s life. Interactions that create deep feelings are experienced here; the awareness of life-and-death cycles, physical ecstasy through sex, and strong attunement to one’s inner intuitive voice are found here.
However, I believe Emotional-Soul lessons also carry a secondary level of depth in that they carry with the lesson the personal elemental balance of the individual. To me, each dominant element within an individual will color the way he or she experiences an Emotional-Soul lesson from the respective water-based house. A fire-based intuitive-action type will respond to lessons one way; an earthy grounded-to-Nature type will feel/handle lessons through their senses and appetites to satisfy or sooth pain or happiness; an elevated-mind of an air type would spend much time in the communicating or sharing how he or she felt about significant life lessons.
Furthermore, the nature of a water-based house and its emphasis on emotions and sensitivity, along with the larger principle of a powerful Emotional-Soul lesson, is slightly different because of human physiology. A water-based empathic type could be even more vulnerable to sadness, depression, or euphoria. The mood swings and physical changes that take place when the endocrine system is flooded with emotional charges of energy are at work here; hence the fluid levels of the body are affected—and this includes neurotransmitters as well as hormones. The need for security/safety in home’s home for self and family, the explosive and primal forces of sex and survival, and the fears and dark hidden places in the psyche are all heightened in their respective water houses when activity in them is indicated by planet placement.
(C) MDLOP8 2010
(C) MDLOP8 2010
