Air and Water, Revisited

 

So I've been digging into why the significations for air and water vary between sources, especially on the topic of "intellect." Chris Brennan makes the point in Hellenistic Astrology that this is simply due to disagreements between Aristotle and his immediate successor, Theophrastus.

Aristotle saw fire as hot and water as cold, and thus in opposition to each other. Theophrastus, by contrast, saw air as cold and thus in opposition to fire. (He instead assigned water the quality of wet and placed it in opposition to dry earth.) Theophrastus' opinion influenced the Stoics, who in turn influenced the development of Hellenistic astrology: notice, for example, how the fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) oppose the air signs (Libra, Aquarius, Gemini).

When astrology was revived in the medieval period, the associations stuck, but the interpretation of them was displaced by Aristotle's, who was held (alongside Ptolemy, who diverged from other Hellenistic astrologers) in high regard as being more "scientific" than other traditional thinkers. Consequently astrology (and to some degree geomancy, which flourished in the period and drew upon astrological symbolism) ended up chimæric, retaining the Stoic astrological associations but using the Aristotelian elemental symbolism.

I believe this fully accounts for my confusion with how air and water are interpreted.

The next question is which is correct? I don't think there's a simple answer to this, as the personal factor is too great to ignore. Whichever you choose, master it—but be aware that others may have chosen differently.