Magic mix

I drew all the cards for the week on Saturday, and I started working on today's card entry last night. Opening it this morning, I started adding to it. Suddenly, blogger refreshed, dumped the entire entry and resaved it as a blank untitled post. I took this as a sign I need to draw again for today. So I did:

Today's card was originally Queen of Wands, but the universe, my computer or just Blogger decided otherwise. I've gone from water of fire to magical water. That's fine with me. I feel more watery than fiery today anyway.

As I've pointed out before 'temperance' in tarot does not necessarily mean 'moderation'. It can. but temperance comes from the Latin 'tempare', which means 'to mix or combine,' and in Golden Dawn, kabbalistic tradition, this card is not so much about moderation as it is alchemy. We see symbols of alchemical balance throughout the card. From the top, we see balanced scales in the two upper corners, with stacks of alternating gold and silver coins. The left side of the card shows day, the right side, night. Sun on left, moon on right. on the sides of the card, strings of pearls hang from the black and white yin-yang symbols. In the middle of the card, the angel figure is wearing a garment that is red on one side and blue on the other - fire and water? The two colours mix together to become the purple of her skirt.. She pours water from a silver jug into a gold jug. The silver jug is decorated with a moon or yoni symbol, the gold with a spiral sun (female and male). The maiden of nature sleeps in the background in the form of green hills. The angel kneels at a pool of water from which a small deer drinks. The sky is reflected in the water. Around the pool grow tulips (female) and orchids (male). In the bottom corners of the card, the gold male jug contains the female tulips, and the silver female jug contains the male orchids.

All of this reminds me to seek balance today, and certainly makes me think of the yoga practice. 'You are blessed to be in harmony with the Universe,' the companion book reminds us, 'Take heart! You experience a taste of the Divine leading you to greater discoveries about yourself.'