I became interested in the effect created by a lack of (or very low number of) placements in a particular element when I kept reading that not having something posited in every element meant you weren’t strong in the associated attributes of the missing element(s). Missing an element was treated as a deficiency, a blind spot about which one could do nothing, and the pronouncements I kept seeing had a fatalistic sound that I found both unhelpful and slightly demoralizing; nobody wants to hear that a lack of water means they’re detached and unemotional, or that a lack of earth reads as impractical and flighty. I didn’t like the idea that there was no possible compensation for lack of an element; it didn’t ring true to me, as in my view the purpose behind understanding the natal chart is to understand one’s strengths and weaknesses, and to learn how to take advantage of the former, and make up for the latter. With that philosophy in mind, I began to make note of those charts I saw that showed a distinctly lopsided distribution of elemental placements, and compared the supposed-deficit with the real-life personality sitting before me.
What I found was that, contrary to traditional interpretation, lack of an element in the horoscope seemed to create a crisis situation, where someone worked ceaselessly to accomplish in the very arena where they were supposed to have no ability at all. My husband is a perfect example, with no air placements in his chart. He has near flawless recall, began college full-time at the age of 15 (when Solar Arc Uranus, ruler of his 3rd, conjuncted the MC), and speaks 4 languages; none of this would typically be expected from someone without a single Air placement. Here was a real case of over-compensation! Time after time, I found the same pattern of intense effort and energy concentration in developing the attributes of the missing element; it was as if these people were intuitively aware that they lacked strength in a certain basic area, and this seemed to create a voracious drive to focus energy and fill in the deficit.
Often, these same people excel in compensating, to the point where the area of the missing element is crucial to creating their ‘fame and fortune.’ Donald Trump (June 14, 1946 9:51 AM Queens, New York) is an excellent example of this principle, with no planetary placements in Earth signs (though he does have the asteroid Pallas in Capricorn, and his Midheaven is in Taurus). Wouldn’t the expectation for someone whose life revolves around making money be that he’d enjoy prominent grounding in the Earth element? And yet his efforts are relentless, perhaps shown by Venus’s conjunction to Saturn, pushing him to materialize Venus (and if you’ve ever seen his marble and gold laden residences, you’ll know what a very literal manifestation of this can look like). His Venus also trines Vesta, introducing the idea that for him, assets are sacred. It remains, though, an emotional payoff, with Venus in Cancer, Moon in Sag conjunct the South Node and Earth, ruler Jupiter in Libra conjunct Chiron and Juno; it’s all about personal power, past lessons and wounds, the social sphere, and the role of the material in feeling/ relationships. His focus on material accomplishment is undeniable, but for him it clearly has greater meaning, and even though he lost his fortune at one point, he earned another one, proof that mastery of Earth energies was not a one-time fluke.
