Guest post by "sidhe3141" Maybe it's just the deck I'm using, but I have a Queen of Wands with a slightly different pose (left hand down, holding a flower; rather than raised and cupping a... spark? flame? star?) Each also has a king corresponding to the appropriate state of matter (pentacles=solid, cups=liquid, swords=gas, wands=plasma), but all of the queens look like they're alive in the conventional sense. The tendency of the queens to mean more compassionate things, maybe? I also count 56 (14*4) people in the first panel.
As far as what was associated with which element, I'm getting "spirit as the driving force, emotion as the restraining one; and matter and psyche representing the difference between mind and body", but I agree, that sounds kind of forced.