I've got mail - Temperance Stalker Letter

A letter from my recent stalker, Temperance. Two cards from yesterday's draw returned: Queen of Wands and Strength!

LoScarabeo TdM mini

Dear Carla, 

When I show up in your readings, I'm giving you a message about regulation. You need to regulate yourself, but not in the way you seem to believe. You need to get your thoughts and actions in order. You're being controlled by them. 

I'm showing you that you are wearing thin under the strain. What I want you to do is to dream. And by that I don't mean listing goals you'd like to achieve, or creating a life 'mission statement', I mean literally dream. The kind you do when you're asleep. How long has it been since you paid attention to your dreams? Since you recorded them in your dream journal? How long has it been since you truly valued the landscape of your dreams? You worry about sleep, but do you value what happens there? 

When I appear, I am asking you to release 'taking control' of yourself. You don't need more discipline. You need the opposite. I want you to embrace pure flow from source. You're an Aquarius, the Water Bearer, and Aquarius is ruled by the Star. Why does the Star never turn up in your readings? I want you to embrace the Star. She's my sister, people say we look alike. She's a bit more laid back than me... Maybe I'm as close as you can get to her for now, but she's the real you. Camelia Elias says of her:  'No measuring is necessary here. Just sheer flow. She needs no rules or constraints dictating her actions. She prefers to navigate through life trusting nature and the universe. Such faith she must have!' I want you to release your attempts to seize control in overt ways. I want you to embrace the dreamscape and trust the flow. 

When you see me, it's time to drink from the cup of your rich, inner world, of which you are Queen Carla, the First of Her Name.

Now go get a literal drink of water and take an actual nap. I mean it! When you wake up, how about a little meditation? See below. 

Sincerely

Temperance 

Thoughts on Temperance

Noblet Tarot, Flornoy 2009

'Her water resembles the rope that holds the Hanged Man's foot. Is she the one who releases him? Who washes his body? Temperance can anoint. She can make things smooth. She knows how far to stretch her elastic. She is the true gambler. The real thing.' -- Camelia Elias, Marseille Tarot: Towards the Art of Reading

'...the angle at which the angel or woman pours the water. Quite simply, you can't do that. Water won't pour at any angle but straight down. Thus, the card shows us a figure who calmly and gracefully does the impossible.' -- Rachel Pollack, Tarot Wisdom

'In Justice, the cerebral order of the top part [of the card] wields a sword, and forcefully subdues the natural life flow of the bottom part. In the Force card, the higher element is still master over the lower one, but this is done in a soft way. In Temperance too we can see a high part and a low part, each with its own vessel. But in this card the two parts are united by the liquid flow.' -- Yoav Ben-Dov, The Open Reading

'An important aspect of this card's meaning of alchemical transformation can be summed up beautifully in the Nichiren Buddhist term hendoku-iyaku -- "changing poison into medicine". This is the process by which we transform our problems -- anything from our base desires to our troubles and afflictions --into strength, joy and enlightenment.' -- James Ricklef, The Soul's Journey: Finding Spiritual Messages in the Tarot

'Many of us think serenity means we have to close ourselves down, not let life get to us. We assume we must avoid passion in order to stay serene, untouched. But imagine a state in which you could allow the strongest emotions to move through you, take firm action whenever necessary, love, cry, dance and never lose your ground, your knowledge of who you are and what really matters. Imagine that you know, not as an idea but as knowledge in every part of your body, and every action and every emotion, that the divine moves through you like a river. Or like a bright stream of water that passes from one cup to another.' -- Rachel Pollack, The Forest of Souls: A Walk through the Tarot

Mantra for Majors, Rowan Tarot 
(Temperance by Emily Carding)

Mettre de l'eau dans son vin -- Temperance in Tarot de Marseille

CBD Tarot 

As the French say, 'Mettre de l'eau dans son vin,' which means something like 'put some water in the wine'. This is the essence of Temperance.

We see the figure in the card literally mixing two liquids; they could well be water and wine. To 'temper' is to act as a neutralising or counterbalancing force. Obviously if we put water into wine, this will dilute it, neutralising or counterbalancing its strength.

When the French say 'put some water in your wine,' they mean something like 'chill out' or 'take it down a notch'.  This could be in a positive way, like being more tolerant or being willing to compromise, or in a not so good way, like lowering one's standards or 'selling out'. Usually, though, it's considered the best thing to have done in the situation. Going to extremes is almost never the best course of action.

If you put some water in the wine (or Scotch or bourbon), you make it milder and easier to drink. If you put some water in your wine metaphorically, you make yourself milder and more palatable. :)

In fact, being able to 'put water in one's wine' is clearly a blessed ability, resulting in seeming miracles, because the figure in this card appears to be some sort of angel, having wings and a flower on her forehead (third eye? crown chakra?), and performing the impossible by pouring liquid horizontally. That's a pretty neat trick!

The neat trick of 'putting water in one's wine' is a completely internal process, as seen in the card. The lone figure stands completely enrobed, her garments are heavy and cover her completely. The liquid she pours goes from one vessel to the other, all her own; it is not poured out onto the ground or into a stream or bowl that others might access. As Yoav Ben-Dov points out in The Open Reading, she is 'rooted to the ground, and the raised elbows may be fending off other people from invading [her] personal space.' He goes on to say, 'This can indicate excessive preoccupation with oneself and with one's own inner processes, which leaves no place for practical advancement or close contact with others.' Which is kind of interesting -- can Temperance itself be intemperate?? I guess that's its shadow side! 'Going back and forth without making real progress,' as Ben-Dov puts it. I never thought of that as in interpretation of the pouring back and forth action of Temperance!

How could you be more temperate today? Do you need to put some water in your wine somewhere in your life? How might you be going back and forth without making real progress?

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.'

Living water

Isn't the tarot cute? Today's message builds on the one I got yesterday about finding balance. What do I draw today but Temperance, that card that so many people associate with balanced behaviour, thinking and feeling? Some people, including Rachel Pollack, have said that they find Temperance boring and that it's one of their least favourite cards in the deck. It's certainly not fiery or glamorous, but for me, Temperance is one of the highest aspirations of life. It's one of my very favourite cards. Temperance is balance. Temperance is moderation. Temperance is what the Buddha taught, what Patanjali taught, and even, I believe, what Jesus taught. Temperance is existing in a state balance, because we understand who and what we are.

So in this image we have a figure standing on the grass (earth) with one foot in the stream (water), having wings (air) and following a path that leads toward the sun (fire). Her balancing act is not really achievable just on the material plane. What she's doing with the water there, though not as exaggerated as in some Temperance cards, is not really possible. You can't pour water sideways. There's some magic happening there, the magic of the will and of the mind and of the realm beyond the mundane. Because the water flowing from that cup flows endlessly in an inexhaustible supply, and what type of water is inexhaustible? The Bible calls it 'living water'. Jesus said, 'Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. For the water that I shall give is like unto a well of water springing up into everlasting life' (John 4:14). What is this living water, this magical supply we see, both in the Temperance card and the Star card? Is it not enlightenment, realization? And what is the realization? The knowledge that we, our True Selves, are already balanced, are already Temperate, are already perfected, and that it is only our thought-forms that lead us to misunderstand, that throw us out of balance in our mundane lives, and that lead us to unbalanced behaviours.

The Temperance card from Crystal Tarot (Permutt, 2010) is reminding me to seek my true Self in order to find the place from which I can move toward more balanced thoughts and behaviour in my daily life. 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,' said Jesus, 'and all these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33). To me, the Kingdom of God refers to realization of unity with totality. It's the enlightenment taught by Buddha, and Patanjali, Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, and all sorts of teachers I've never heard of. It's a teaching that's everywhere, that's everything. Just like you and me.

Contemplate the Temperance card today.

'Mystic Bastard' Day One

I'm combining two decks this week, Mystic Faerie and Deck of the Bastard (so-called because it is made up of cards from several different decks, all mixed up together and made to look aged). I drew one card for each day of the week using the Mystic Faerie, then drew cards for each day of the week using Deck of the Bastard, to see how they work together. Today's cards are:

Mystic Faerie 2007, Deck of the Bastard 2013

The cards suggest that though today may be a day of trouble, I should keep things in perspective.

Too Temperate?

Golden Dawn Magical Tarot

The Golden Dawn Magical Tarot has two Temperance cards, and not because the artist couldn't make up his mind, nor so that readers could take their pick. It's because of the Portal Ritual of the Golden Dawn. The companion book instructs to take one out for divination, and doesn't explain why two are needed for the ritual, nor does it give any detail about the ritual itself.