@Jim Eshelman said
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@Qoheleth said
"The CM shows Aquarius being water, and Scorpio being air.
However, most would say according to astrology that Aquarius = Fixed Air, and Scorpio = Fixed Water."
Most would say this according to relatively recent astrology - the last 500-600 years or so.
See the discussion above. The Elements, as known in modern times, were a Medieval or possibly Renaissance invention solely for the Tropical zodic. The Triplicities were discussed in earlier times, but not in relation to elements; similarly, elements were discussed in ancient times, but not in a geometrically balanced pattern.
The Kerubic figures are Babalonian in origin. The elemental attributions of the era seem to have been inherited from the Egyptians. Here's where part of the mix-up occurs. To the Egyptians, Aquarius was decisively a water sign - in mark the flood of the Nile and meant "bringer of the waters." Scorpio was an air-sign because the annual 40-day blistering winds that drove scorpions, snakes, and other critters in from the desert were during the month of the Full Moon in Scorpio - and the patron goddess of Scorpio had a name meaning "she who relieves the windpipe." (Probably a prurient pun in there also.) The Man was the Scorpio-Man which was anciently Air - and the Eagle was Aquila, adjacent to Aquarius, which was anciently Water.
There are still important magical and alchemical contexts in which the Leo-Aquarius axis is importantly a Fire-Water axis, alchemical "lion & eagle," etc.
But as the elemental patterns stabilized, some ideas shifted. Aquarius was regarded as an Air sign, and the eagle belonged to Aquarius. The Man belonged to Scorpio, which came to be regarded as a Water sign."
Cool. Thank you for shedding a little more light on the confusion.