Seasons and Temperament

Frequently astrologers ask whether the principles of astrology, which were developed in the northern hemisphere, apply equally in the southern hemisphere. This question is prompted by the fact that the Summer north of the Equator corresponds to Winter south of the Equator, and the same goes for Spring and Autumn. Also underlying this question is a notion that the principles of human “temperament” were originally derived from observations of the four seasons of the year. Such is not the case.

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_%28classical_element%29

The development of the idea of “temperament” is a complex issue that has to do with the philosophical principles which the founders of astrology in the Hellenic world decided to incorporate into their invention of Western astrology. Centered in Alexandria, these early astrologers inherited the astrology of Mesopotamia, to which they added concepts drawn from Egyptian religion and culture and philosophical ideas from Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, etc.

Among these philosophical concepts, the idea of the four basic qualities (hot vs. cold, and wet vs. dry) was fundamental. Each of the fundamental four elements consisted of combinations or pairs of the basic qualities; that is, each element was either hot or cold, and wet or dry.

The planets, arranged in spheres or orbs geocentrically according to their relative speeds and distance from the Earth, were then categorized with reference to their primary qualities and elemental natures. For example, the Sun in the central concentric sphere of the scheme of nested spheres was obviously hot and dry, whereas Saturn (the outermost planet at the edge of the known universe and furthest from the Sun) was cold and dry.

Apiani Celestial Sphere 1539

All physical things were thought to consist of various combinations of the basic 4 elements.

In human terms, the elements could be seen in the behavior and physical characteristics of human beings. This led to the idea of temperaments and and the concept humors in medicine:

Fire – choleric (yellow bile, hot and dry).
Air – sanguine (blood, hot and wet).
Earth – melancholic (black bile, cold and dry).
Water – phlegmatic (phlegm, cold and wet).

This scheme was not derived from the seasons, but rather from the philosophy and religious beliefs of the epoch. The seasons were an example of the functioning of the four elements in nature. Ptolemy in the 2nd century attempted to apply these astrological concepts to weather and climate because he viewed astrology as a natural science, but the original ideas about temperament were based in the four primary qualities and the related four elements of ancient Greek philosophy.