Elements and Meanings

The Western esoteric tradition, following the Golden Dawn, assigns each suit an element: wands to fire, cups to water, swords to air, and pentacles to earth, though older and alternative schemes differ, and some assign wands to air and swords to fire. With the element comes a field of meaning: wands with will, energy and enterprise; cups with emotion and relationship; swords with thought and conflict; pentacles with body, work and money.

The entries give each suit's element, themes, court and correspondences, noting where authorities disagree on the elemental attribution. The parallel with the four playing-card suits is treated under the playing-card category.