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
Mabon Tarot Blog Hop: The Power of Transformation
Welcome to the Mabon Tarot Blog Hop.
Perhaps you have come from Koneta's New Path Tarot.
When you finish here, hop over to Kerry Ardilla's blog, Neopagan Priestess.
If you find a break in the chain, visit the Master List so you can continue the hop.
The Tarot Blog Hop happens eight times a year, at each spoke of the Wheel of the Year. The Wheel of the Year is marked by the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days in between. It is the Pagan calendar and these are Pagan holidays, but Pagans and non-Pagans alike are subject to the movement of the Earth around the sun. On some basic level, the Wheel of the Year is universal, as the sun shines on us all.
At each turn of the Wheel, the Blog Hop is "wrangled" by a new volunteer. The wrangler is responsible for coming up with the theme on which we will all write. This is my third Blog Hop. Each time, including this one, the wrangler has asked us to think about the holiday in a way that is different from my own practices and traditions. I love the opportunity to stretch out of my spiritual comfort zone and contemplate a turn of the Wheel from a different perspective - and always through the precious lens of tarot.
This is Mabon, the festival of the autumnal equinox. Our wrangler, Aisling the Bard, associates Mabon with the making of mead. I have to say, I associate mead with every Pagan holiday and festival. The "need for mead" is an expression oft-heard at Pagan gatherings.
Aisling's challenge for us is this. Mead is made by taking fresh, sweet ingredients and allowing them to ferment; to rot. For the delicious mead to be made, something must be destroyed. It is the power and process of this transformation that is a spiritual focus of this holiday. This process of making mead, done by nature and not by our hands, can be an allegory for our own souls' progress. As we are refined, we must relinquish that which no longer serves us. For this turn of the Wheel, our challenge is to find a tarot spread, card or deck that describes this process on a personal level.
For me, the answer is clear. The card I choose to describe and define this process of transformation is Temperance. The irony of choosing a card called "Temperance" as an allegory for the making of an alcoholic beverage isn't lost on me. It just makes the choice sweeter.
Temperance is the card of alchemy. On a spiritual level, alchemy describes a process of deep transformation. On a chemical level, alchemy is the turning of one thing into another, greater thing.
Other words that are associated with Temperance are "Art" and "Time." Well, doesn't that make sense? Mead-making is certainly an art. And time is the only ingredient that will cause the fermentation to happen. When we think of personal transformation this is true as well. Without creativity, and without patience and time, no transformation can occur.
That I often refer to Temperance as "The Cosmic Bartender" seals the deal for me.
To think more deeply about that process of personal transformation, there's this. I see Temperance as the card that describes the greatest level of emotional health any of us will ever achieve. Temperance understands patience. Temperance understands balance. Temperance understands moderation in all things. Temperance understands that nothing will ever be perfect, and that it is our job to find the perfect blend.
At this time of equinox, we have a moment of balance between dark and light. Temperance reflects that balance.
When I look at Temperance in this process of fermentation, I see that which must rot away within me is the desire for everything to be perfect; the requirement that everything be exactly the way I want it to be. I must relinquish the desire that everything must happen when I want it to happen. I must understand that things of quality have no fear of time.
A few years ago I wrote a poem about Temperance as part of my 78 Poems Project, a project still in progress. As I go back and read it, I see it fits this Mabon theme exactly. As so often happens with tarot, there is perfect synchronicity.
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.
Happy Mabon, everyone!
Now, please hop over to Kerry Ardilla's blog, Neopagan Priestess! Or, if you are working backward, go visit Koneta at New Paths Tarot.
If you happen to come across a broken link, visit the Master List here.
Tolerance and Temperance
There are so many conversations about tolerance these days. I had thought by 2012 our species would have grown past basic issues of prejudice. What has happened instead is that our shrinking world has put us face-to-face with people who are different than we are. For many people, knowing there were different types people in the world was much less unsettling than having to actually acknowledge those people as equals, neighbors, or peers.
Constantly I need to remind myself that here in the US mixed-race marriages only became legal within my lifetime, and women have had the right to vote for less than a century.
Recently, ordained ministers of the United Methodist Church conducted a protest at their General Conference. They occupied the assembly floor and served communion, wearing rainbow colors, to decry the Conference’s decision to continue a policy of non-inclusion for members of the LBGT community. It was a protest of which Saul Alinsky himself would have been proud.
On a national level, it concerns me that during a time of unprecedented fiscal concerns the primary focus of the American presidential campaign season seems to be sexual issues; reproductive rights and marriage equality.
I am honestly confused. I was raised to believe it was my duty to stand up against racism, sexism and homophobia, and to speak out when people made comments that seemed inappropriate. Now it seems many people feel that ideals of tolerance include tolerance of those who express intolerant views.
Another question is this. Should I be tolerant of all cultures and religions, even those who promote the abuse of women, or those who organize crime rings to victimize others?
What happens when my neighbor’s religion causes him to believe that our current problems as a nation are caused by our tolerance of homosexuality? Must we be tolerant of that view? How can we honor my neighbor’s beliefs and equally honor the rights of the gay couple down the street?
On a larger scale, how can we as a country, or as a planet, find common ground?
I am reminded of a song by Holly Near, entitled Unity. In the lyrics, she says that unity “Doesn’t always mean agreement, and it doesn’t ever mean the same.”
So how can we have the unity we so desperately need, without the need for agreement?
It is easy to point fingers – to say that the Westboro Baptist Church needs to calm down, or that lesbians need to stop kissing in public. But what can each of us do to promote unity around us?
The answer is found in the tarot card of Temperance. In this card we see an angel balancing one foot on water, and another on land. In each hand the angel holds a cup, pouring a substance between the two – mixing without spilling. The protest at the United Methodist General Conference looked a lot like Temperance in action to me.
Temperance tells us that nothing is perfect. But with patience, caution and creativity we can create the perfect blend and find the perfect balance.
If each of us can, with patience and creativity, find common ground with just a few people who are different than we are, we plant the seeds of unity. If each of us can gently teach, we create tolerance through knowledge. The key is patience.
Homophobia, sexism and racism just make me mad. Having anger can motivate us into positive action, but expressing anger may not be as effective as teaching and guiding with compassion.
Does that mean we shouldn’t speak out against injustice? I can’t imagine standing by silently while others are oppressed, even if only by hateful words. Perhaps the answer is this. We must speak our truth, but we are most effective when we speak our truth with logic, with patience, and with compassion.
By performing the sacred ritual of communion as a heartfelt form of protest, the brave ministers taught us the way toward speaking truth. Even though they did not get what they wanted this time around, they were surely effective in their protest.