Welcome to my personal blog.
Here you will find my musings, thoughts and observations, all inspired by my experiences as a full-time professional tarot reader.
The Cosmic Bartender of Art, Time and Alchemy
For the Summer Solstice Tarot Blog Hop 2015, we are writing about the Major Arcana. Here are my thoughts on Temperance.
From Visconti Sforza Tarot, the world's first Temperance.
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For this round of the Tarot Blog Hop, wrangled by Alison Cross, I’ve chosen to write about one of my favorite cards, Temperance. I am illustrating this post with some of my favorite Temperance images.
My nickname for Temperance is “The Cosmic Bartender.”
The Waite-Smith Temperance
I like to consider the twenty-one numbered cards of the Major Arcana in three groups of seven. Cards one through seven, Magician through Chariot, speak to me of the lessons of the material world. Cards eight through fourteen speak of the lessons of emotional balance, and cards fifteen through twenty-one speak of the lessons of spiritual enlightenment.
Within this construct, then, we see the journey of body, mind and spirit. Temperance is significant in that, as card fourteen, it is the final card in the journey to emotional balance, before we confront the Devil and begin the journey to actual spiritual enlightenment.
Emotional balance is tricky. It doesn’t mean “happiness”. Many people strive to be happy and fall short. Those who follow the lesson of Temperance strive simply for balance. They tend to have a much easier time finding their bliss.
From Gilded Tarot Royale, by Ciro Marchetti.
Temperance is the card of art, time and alchemy. When we think of these three ancient key words for this card, we get a deeper sense of its meaning. The angel is an alchemist, carefully and patiently mixing the ingredients together to create the perfect blend.
Life is like that. Nothing is perfect, but if you take a little of this, and a little of that, and blend it together, you can find the perfect blend, and the perfect balance. It doesn’t get much better than that.
From World Spirit Tarot, by Lauren O'Leary and Jessica Sczuka Godino
Here is a poem I wrote for Temperance, as part of my ongoing 78 Poems Project.
Temperance
Water poured from cup to cup, and metal turned to gold.
Sorrow turned to patience, and ego turned to mold.
One foot on the water, another balancing on land
Not a drop is spilt by the angel's gentle hand.
Caution guards the recipe, stirring grace with balance
Art and time make alchemy with these select ingredients.
Change forged of disappointment, mingling with hope
Built on tragic lessons learned that gave us skill to cope.
Expectation and assumption gone, accepting what will be
Still the angel blends the cups, creating perfectly.
Perfect are the cups' contents, and perfect is the measure
And perfect are the woes and joys, blended into treasure.
From Spiral Tarot, by Kay Steventon
A Joyful Summer Solstice
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Welcome to the Litha Tarot Blog Hop. Perhaps you are joining me from Tierney Sandler's blog. When you finish here, continue on to the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI). If you find a break in the chain, here's the Master List.
For this Tarot Blog Hop commemorating the Summer Solstice, our wrangler, Olivia Destrades, has asked us to write about “joy.”
Today is the longest day of the year. Tomorrow, the night will begin to eat away at the day, little by little.
Today, we celebrate the sun at the height of its power.
Tomorrow, that power begins to wane.
The summer solstice has always felt ironic to me. We celebrate it as the first day of summer, but it heralds the return of the darkness.
Maybe in this unalterable reality is the root of what it is to me to be joyful.
I find joy in the simple moment when I do not fear what comes next, or what I might lose. I find joy when I release attachment to what has come before and what will come next, and simply live in the light of the moment.
There is a state of spiritual grace that comes from that place of acceptance, non-attachment and gratitude. To me, that is the essence of joy.
But what tarot cards might convey that joyful lesson? What cards might teach us to release our unjoyful attachments?
For me, the cards that most clearly teach that lesson are exactly the cards we don’t usually associate with joy.
The Devil teaches us to acknowledge and release our attachments.
Death reminds us that change is inevitable. We can’t ever guarantee tomorrow.
As I embrace the lessons of these two dark cards, I find a light within that is not subject to season or time.
In that light, there is joy.
A few years ago, I wrote a chant for the sumer solstice. In reading the words over and getting ready to use it for my festivities this weekend, I realize it expresses this same idea of finding joy in the fleeting moment. Here it is.
Litha Fire Chant
The wheel turns
The fire burns
The dark night will soon return.
The shortest night
The longest day
Gather flowers while we may
While it’s ours we’ll seize the day.
Now it's time to continue on the Litha Tarot Blog Hop. If you are working backwards, visit Tierney Sandler's blog next, or continue forward to the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI). If you find a break in the chain, here's the Master List.