[Thoth tarot] Four elements
Fire: Wands, the purest and most active, corresponds to the Father/King(Knight); Sulphur, activity, energy, desire. Hebrew alphabet, Shin.
Water: Cups, still pure but passive, is the Mother/Queen; Mercury, fluidity, intelligence, the power of transmission. Hebrew alphabet, Mem.
Air=Fire+Water: Swords, pure element, Son/Prince(King); Salt, the vehicle of these two forms of energy, but itself possesses qualities which react on them. Hebrew alphabet, Aleph.
Earth: Disks (Coins/ Pentacles), Daughter/ Princess, the Throne of Spirit. Hebrew alphabet, Tau.
The Tree of Life can be divided into four planes: (corresponds to the analysis of Man) – the number 1; fire. His spiritual essence without quality or quantity. Jechidah. -numbers 2, 3; water. His creative and transmissive powers, his virility and his intelligence. Chiah and Neschamah. -numbers 4-9, air. His mental and moral qualities as concentrated in his human personality. (Especially: number 6 is the concrete elaboration of the number 1) Ruach. -number 10, earth. The physical vehicle of the previous nine numbers. Nephesch.
This four planes also correspond to the so-called “Four Worlds”: -No.1, Atziluth, the Archetypal World. -No.2, as being the dynamic aspect of the No.1, the Practical attribution. -No.3, Briah, the Creative World in which the Will of the Father takes shape through the Conception of the Mother. -No.4-9,Yetzirah, the Formative World, in which an intellecual image, an appreciable form of the idea, is produced; and this mental image becomes real and sensible in the No.10, Assiah, the Material World.