Now that you've met the four suits, let's look at how they actually work. Each element carries its own energy, its own direction and its own relationship to the others. Understanding this is what turns the pips from a list of definitions into something you can actually feel and read.

Air and Fire are active elements. They move quickly, initiate change and are projective in nature, meaning they have the ability to influence others. You can inspire someone's motivation and get them fired up. Communication too is a form of influence, allowing us to shift someone's perspective, offer new thoughts and spark understanding. Traditionally we understand these active elements as the state of Force.

Water and Earth on the other hand are receptive in nature. They are often called passive but I tend to avoid that term as it implies stillness, and the one thing you can count on the elemental energies for is motion. Receptive elements absorb, hold and stabilise. They are less easily influenced by others and their work is usually internal. They draw us inward for reflection and self awareness. Traditionally the receptive elements have a state of Form.

Spirit is often thought of as the force that connects all things, expansive, unseen and higher than any single element. It's sometimes represented as a star with five or six points, and can be associated with the Major Arcana or seen as the movement that flows between the elements, the breath between Force and Form.

Each suit brings its own rhythm, challenges and patterns of expression. Learning their language helps you read how energy is behaving and what it might be asking of you.

Before we explore how each suit plays out in the tarot, it's worth pausing to consider how the elements show up in the body and in everyday experience. Grounding your understanding in reality allows you to recognise both the light and shadow sides of each element. Most spiritual traditions aim to balance the elemental bodies (spiritual, emotional, mental and physical) in one way or another. When that balance is off, the elements often show up as either inhibited or in excess.

In the body and in life, the aim is not to silence or overpower an element but to bring it into balance. Fire, for example, is essential for energy and transformation. But when there is too much of it, it can burn out of control. In a reading this might show up as anger, impulsivity or exhaustion. To balance that heat you might look to Water or Earth. These elements cool, ground and stabilise. Adding Air, which fuels Fire, could intensify the imbalance.

This applies across all elemental interactions. The most obvious perhaps is Water's ability to quench Fire. If we look toward mountains and cliffs we might understand how Earth can channel, direct or block the flow of Air. These movements are not fixed but dynamic. Each suit in the tarot reflects part of this ongoing exchange.

When reading the cards it helps to notice not just which elements are present but how they relate. Are they working together, calming each other, creating tension? There is no single right answer. This is just one way to understand the conversation the elements are having. But it can offer useful insight into why certain energies show up together and what they might be asking of you.

Now let's put that into practice.

Below is a full breakdown of each element as it shows up in your body and in your life, from inhibited to balanced to in excess, along with a suggested solution for each. Use these as a reference, not a rule. The goal isn't to memorise every word, it's to start recognising these states in yourself so that when you pull a card, you already understand the energy behind it.