The choleric tempermanet is traditionally associated with the fire element and therefore correlates to quick action, courage, ambition. On the less beneficial end of the spectrum, when imbalanced, there can be anger and insensitivity.
The choleric temperament relates to the summer season and is comprised of hot and dry qualities.
Here is a nice list of phrases about the choleric temperament from Dorian Greenbaum’s book Temperament: Astrology’s Forgotten Key:
- Demands much and gives much
- Easy to see the world as black and white, as absolutes
- Activity, more activity – hard to sit still
- Believes in hierarchy, with them at the top
- Quick on the uptake
- High expectations
- Life is a series of challenges to be overcome – triumphantly!
Linda Berens call the choleric temperament Idealist in her temperament system and associates it with the INFJ, INFP, ENFJ, and ENFP MBTI types. Please note that she makes it clear that her system and the Kiersey system don’t directly correlate to the MBTI types. And the more I study the temperaments from an astrological perspective, the more I would NOT correlate choleric with any of the above four MBTI temperaments (but more on that in future posts). I like her modern terms for the temperaments, and feel that the word Idealist is easier for people to understand than Choleric. Idealist does seem to describe well the choleric temperament.
Berens says that Idealists want to be authentic and are generally enthusiastic. They “think in terms of integration and similarities and look for universals.”
In this post I’m going to compare and contrast tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.I recently watched the ESPN documentary Unmatched: 30 For 30 about the two of them and of course pulled up their natal charts to calculate their temperaments and also considered their possible MBTI types.
Chris Evert is a strong phlegmatic type. She came across as an easygoing, All-American type, and was self-contained and in control of her emotions, but she says deep down she was very intense and competitive. Her rising sign is Scorpio. By contrast, Martina is a strong choleric type. According to Chris, Martina came across as arrogant on the court at times. Martina would have emotional breakdowns on the court at times, which Chris marveled at. Martina said that deep down she was a softie and not as intense as she appeared on the court.
With Martina as a choleric type, she has high hot and dry qualities, which I associate with thinking and intuition (she has Aries rising). She has almost no phlegmatic in her tempermanet, which means almost no water and very little cold qualities. Jung said that thinking types more likely show their emotions and lose their temper, because feeling (water) is inferior in them. By contrast, Chris is very high in phlegmatic and water and cold. Feeling types generally have good control over their emotions. From an MBTI perspective I see Martina as perhaps ENTJ and Chris as perhaps ISFP.
Chris and Martina are very close friends. Their tempermanets are opposite of each other so they balance each other out. Both women are excellent examples of the choleric and phlegmatic temperament because they don’t really have a secondary tempermanet balancing it out, so it is easy to see the choleric and phlegmatic. Most people have a blend of two temperaments.
Knowing your temperament will help you better understand both your personality type and your natal chart. Most importantly, it will help you improve your interactions and relationships with other people.
