hard aspects bring challenge and purpose to life. a chart without hard aspects suggests complacency.

A-Wall

You know a little about midpoints - perhaps your trined and sextiled planets are making midpoint patterns not immediately obvious in your chart without the help of a dial or PC? Remember - midpoints make use of hard aspects only, which BTW is another part of what hard apsects are all about - they are to do with what is most manifest or tangible, which also goes along with the cardinal thing you mentioned.

Very close grand trines certainly make midpoints to each other.

But then again, maybe there is something about trines that is simply compulsive, whioch may or may not be the same thing as the subjective expereince of encountering friction or conflicts both within and without.

I think I see modes as the "how"
and elements as the "what" or the "medium" that action is taken through in its respective mode.

They both seem important in my opinion.
But we all put our focus in different places for our own reasons.

Some people might approach to the world in terms of modes and be less interested in just what action is taken and more interested in how it is taken.
Others may see the mode of action taken as secondary to the nature of what the action itself is.

The modes or "how an action is taken"
Adapting
Starting
and Standing firm

in my opinion can each apply to the elements or "mediums through which that action is taken - what is actually done as opposed to how it is done"
emotional
mental
physical
life/spiritual/energy (fire is a bit unclear in its nature to me still...I am working on refining it)

Some would say "trying to over-analyze just what is being done is too deep and confusing...I can nore easily see how it is being done and that is what matters to me in how I choose to respond". The modes can tell you a lot about how a person behaves and "makes their moves" and gives good info on how to counter them or cooperate with them without muddying the situation up with nauseating details about just what they are doing when that is really just up to them and not too much your concern anyway.

Others would say "how you do it is immaterial....just what exactly are you trying to do?" This would be more a stance of understanding the make-up and nature of others (including and beyond the nature of how they take action) I think than one of learning how to "make moves" against/with them. That understanding will later guide action, but at first it is kind of esoteric and not readily or obviously applicable and inessential to anyone except their personal selves. It seems that trying to discern the elements and things is pretty involved, too and it is easy to get some little part of it wrong with all the possibilities represented.

This is my view on modes vs. elements. I find modes readily interpretable but not as interesting since my mutable self intends to work around everyone anyway all the time no matter what. I find elements more complex but more fascinating in that they offer so much insight into the nature of things. I feel that if I have a clearer understanding of the nature of things I will find it easier to discover the right "work-around" quickly enough in the spur of the moment based on that understanding.
I plan to attempt to move way way faster than anyone else anyway no matter what so the way they move is just not that important to me. :P
I haven't really met anyone else yet as mutable as myself.
I just need to have clear understanding of what is readily available for me to make those sudden moves o.0 and adaptations in the moment.

I think I really like studying aspects for this reason, too. An aspect shows energy that could be used in more than one way depending on the situation. So my mutable nature gravitates towards mastering that source of change and using it to adapt to situations as they arise based on my understanding of the options that aspect gives me.
Others with less of an adaptation-focus may look at aspects in the sense of ... they are confusing-they can change...just tell me what the planet in this and that sign and house means and I'll stick with that and probably won't make any mistakes or have to change my view on things too much.

In general, I don't think that either modes or elements (or placements or aspects for that matter) are any more or less true or important. I just focus on what I can use and what looks "interesting". I am sure others do the same in their own way.

How do you know what your negative aspects signify? I mean, it's hard to work on something if you don't know what you need to work on. For example, I noticed I have my Moon square my AC. I've been ruminating on that for awhile. I'm a Cancer rising, which is all about emotions and the moon...

well, it's confusing. My question is, is there a website or a book you guys use? I dig how you interpret your squares, Q. Fiery competition is good for the mind, I always say. :-)