Temperament

The twelve zodiacal signs' physiognomies

Elements, temperaments and humours

Modern astrology takes many of its insights on personality from the field of psychology. Traditional astrologers of the past, in contrast, considered the four elements of Antiquity and their qualities as these manifested in human health and behaviour. The four temperaments are:

• Choleric (hot and dry) equates to the fire element and the signs Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius.
• Sanguine (hot and moist) refers to the air element and the signs Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius.
• Phlegmatic (cold and moist) connotes the water element as well as Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.
• Melancholic (cold and dry) indicates the earth element, and Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn.

The four temperaments in traditional medical astrology also refer to the four humours of Antiquity, or bodily fluids believed to govern health and disposition. The most commonly described fluids were:

The Temperaments by Lavater (1775)

Empedocles's model

The following table shows the four humors with their corresponding elements, seasons, sites of formation, and resulting temperaments:

Humor	Season	Age	Element	Organ	Temperaments
Blood	Spring	Infancy	Air	Liver	Warm and moist	Sanguine
Yellow bile	Summer	Youth	Fire	Gallbladder	Warm and dry	Choleric
Black bile	Autumn	Adulthood	Earth	Spleen	Cold and dry	Melancholic
Phlegm	Winter	Old age	Water	Brain/Lungs	Cold and moist	Phlegmatic

• Fire: "yellow bile" could promote anger or peevishness.
• Air: blood symbolized courage and optimism.
• Water: phlegm made the disposition calm and placid.
• Earth: '"black bile made people sad ("melancholic") or irritable.

The four humors and their qualities

Western medicine

The humoralist system of medicine was highly individualistic, for all patients were said to have their own unique humoral composition. From Hippocrates onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and Islamic Medicine, and dominated the view of the human body among European physicians until at least 1543 when it was first seriously challenged by Andreas Vesalius, who mostly criticized Galen's theories of human anatomy and not the chemical hypothesis of behavioural regulation (temperament).

Typical 18th-century practices such as bloodletting a sick person or applying hot cups to a person were based on the humoral theory of imbalances of fluids (blood and bile in those cases). Methods of treatment like bloodletting, emetics and purges were aimed at expelling a surplus of a humor. Apocroustics were medications intended to stop the flux of malignant humors to a diseased body part.

The Colericus in the Tuebinger Hausbuch (1550)

The Phlegnaticus in the Tuebinger Hausbuch

16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus further developed the idea that beneficial medical substances could be found in herbs, minerals and various alchemical combinations thereof. These beliefs were the foundation of mainstream Western medicine well into the 17th century. Specific minerals or herbs were used to treat ailments simple to complex, from an uncomplicated upper respiratory infection to the plague. For example, chamomile was used to decrease heat, and lower excessive bile humor. Arsenic was used in a poultice bag to 'draw out' the excess humor(s) that led to symptoms of the plague. Apophlegmatisms, in pre-modern medicine, were medications chewed in order to draw away phlegm and humors.

Although advances in cellular pathology and chemistry criticized humoralism by the 17th century, the theory had dominated Western medical thinking for more than 2,000 years. Only in some instances did the theory of humoralism wane into obscurity. One such instance occurred in the sixth and seventh centuries in the Byzantine Empire when traditional secular Greek culture gave way to Christian influences. Though the use of humoralist medicine continued during this time, its influence was diminished in favor of religion. The revival of Greek humoralism, owing in part to changing social and economic factors, did not begin until the early ninth century.

If the patient's four humours got out of balance, doctors believed that illness or personality disorders could result. Temperament had further associations, such as with the seasons and Planets. The Sun, for example, is hot and dry while the Moon is cold and moist. Belief in astrological influences over the humours, health, and personality was one reason why the predominant Christian authorities permitted medieval and renaissance medical students to study astrology.

The four personality types still retain some currency in the English language. For example, sang as the French root for "blood" appears in the English word "sanguine", meaning optimistic. The medical system of India retains a similar system of astrological correspondences. Traditional astrologers today look at temperament as an alternative to psychology in analysing people's dispositions.

Melencolia I

See also

• Element
• Physiological Equivalents

The four Temperaments as modern Smileys

Weblinks

• Wikipedia: Four temperaments
• Wikipedia: Humorism
• Hippocrates, Humours & Temperament-Theory in the Traditional Teachings of Astrology and Medicine (Deborah Houlding, 2013)

Bibliography

• Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, 2005, Temperament: Astrology's Forgotten Key, The Wessex Astrologer, Ltd. ISBN 978-1902405179 Excerpts Review
• Robert Burton. 1621. The Anatomy of Melancholy], Book I, New York 2001, p.147