evelone said:
Great thread, Mel, and thanks for this. Been following along and copying down your summaries of the cards. One thing I'm not getting - the Tempers.
Choleric? Phlegmatic?
Where would I find definitions of these? Or are they just another way of expressing the powers?
When I think of the four temperaments (the humors) I think of Chaucer who wrote in the middle ages. His book, The Canterbury Tales, was written around 1387 and is full of references to the humors, both in describing his characters and in his stories where the need to balance the four humors was considered important for health. Chaucer's Nun Priest's Tale has a long discourse on this subject.
If you go to
www.fisheaters.com/fourtemperaments.html you will find a very good essay on the four temperaments. Here is a quote from that essay which I think is very pertinent to Mel's work.
"The humor of Blood, associated with the liver and with Air, which is the hot and moist element. A person in whom blood predominates is said to be 'sanguine' ...
The humor of Yellow Bile, associated with the spleen and with Fire, which is the hot and dry element. A person in whom yellow bile predominates is said to be 'choleric' ...
The humor of Black Bile, associated with the gall bladder and with Earth, which is the cold and dry element. A person in whom black bile predominates is said to be 'melancholic' ...
The humor of Phlegm, associated with the lungs and brain and with Water, which is the cold and moist element. A person in whom phlegm predominates is said to be 'phlegmatic' ..."
This is just a wee sampling of that essay. It has some very good illustrative excerpts.