Wendywu
At first I stared at this card and didn’t have a clue as to what is going on in it; nor a single idea coming into my head. So, I propped the card up in a highly visible place and just looked at it. For quite a long time. Still nothing. In the end I decided to meditate and ask Temperance just what on earth he’s doing and what I’m supposed to make of it.
He was almost affronted
And I was told in no uncertain terms that if I was a better housewife I’d have understood immediately. Temperance holds the sheet up to show us the illustration in the centre of it. However – look at the sheet. The top is held up to display the cross but because the fabric is all of a heap at the bottom, the image is distorted. There is a lot more fabric on one side than the other, and furthermore there is a twist so that the image is further distorted. And I was told that unless the sheet can be straightened out at the bottom, the image at the top will always be distorted. There is a lack of balance and because of this the truth of the image cannot be seen.
If I hung out more sheets I’d have seen it immediately …. Then again, I’m the go-out-to-work type wife and my lovely husband is the make-a-warm-cosy-home half of our team. Maybe I should have shown him the card
Also, I notice that at the bottom of the card is a row of books, laid out neatly to display their front covers. Look more closely and it is evident that there are three books on Temperance’s left hand side, and four on his right. Now if I thought of these books as collectively the story of his life – is he out of balance? Placing more emphasis on left hand side of brain activities and thought patterns than the right hand side? This ties in well with the imbalance in the fabric of the sheet. And also with the unequal number of floor tiles on each side of Temperance.
The difference in ground underfoot is very obvious. The books rest on the cracked red earth; Temperance stands on carefully laid tiles. I see this as saying that I need to lay the foundations of my life/beliefs carefully. The tiles would not lay flat and provide a good stable surface for Temperance unless a great deal of hard work in digging, levelling and firming had been done first. This is, of course, a direct analogy for our lives.
However things aren’t quite as a result of the purple sheet hanging in a twisted, convoluted fashion. However, to show us the image he will need to straighten the sheet. However, the message is not the image. The message is one of the necessity of building a sure foundation, and ensuring we work/live/play in a balanced fashion so that our lives are not distorted. We want to see things clearly. This is true whether what we look at it, to us, pretty or shocking – clarity is the important thing and without balance there can be no clarity.
Temperance himself has a halo. Arrows of inspiration fire out in all directions from that halo – he’ll do his best to see we get what he’s trying to tell us. And his message is for all – hence the arrows going in all directions. This card does not want to restricts its information to a select few – Temperance wants everyone to know who has eyes to see (even if it takes a long time for the ones like me to “get it”)
I like the folds made in the purple sheet. The long, sweeping diagonal fold reminds me irresistibly of those escape chutes that come out of aircraft when they make an emergency landing. I like the idea that this chute is my swift slide into the heart of the card. And the vertical pipes at each side look like organ pipes as the sheet plays out its own song. Sometimes letting your imagination run free produces some really odd results!
The repeated triangles that are made around the distorted image remind me of the Supernal Triangle of Kether, Chokmah and Binah. But the image in the centre is distorted by the imbalance in the fold below the Triangle.
Three, a triangle, also asks us to think about the growth from two coming together to generate the third point. All three points are essential to the triangle or it could not exist. No one point is of more importance than another – they are equal but different in their ways. Also the triangle is a stable geometric figure and can stand on any of its sides – each can support the whole.
Three is a hugely significant number – I think of Maiden, Mother & Crone or Father, Son & Holy Ghost. So many things come in threes – there’s animal, vegetable and mineral. I think of stories, including our own stories, which all have a beginning, a middle and an end. These triangles, nesting one inside the other offer much scope for thought and meditation.
I love the colours in the card – the purple at the sheet tells me that at one level the card talks about the necessity for balance in our spiritual lives. The image, were it not skewed by the imbalance in the sheet, would be an equal-armed cross. Again this provides a clear indication that we need balance in our lives, and must work it out between our own needs, the needs of others, work, home and the desperately important spiritual life without which none of the other aspects of life will ever be truly satisfactory. God/Goddess/Deity is at the centre of existence, and if we fail to recognise the importance of our inner lives we do ourselves a vast disservice.
The sky in the card is softly pink and beautiful. The arrows of inspiration flying from Temperance’s halo come to us through this beauty. Can anyone doubt they bring the beauty with them? Balance and harmony – without them we don’t have full and happy lives – we lose part of the beauty and joy of life.
So, putting it at its bluntest, the message from Temperance is that balance brings beauty. No balance – no harmony, no real clarity of vision.
Or at least, that’s my interpretation of it. As ever this is imho and ymmv.
All in all, for a card I had difficulty with, Temperance has turned out to be very rewarding. My study and meditation asking the card for help, paid off immeasurably. The message in this card couldn’t be clearer now. Of course I do realise that it was my stumbling block – others will look at this card and it will sing to them straightaway.
He was almost affronted
And I was told in no uncertain terms that if I was a better housewife I’d have understood immediately. Temperance holds the sheet up to show us the illustration in the centre of it. However – look at the sheet. The top is held up to display the cross but because the fabric is all of a heap at the bottom, the image is distorted. There is a lot more fabric on one side than the other, and furthermore there is a twist so that the image is further distorted. And I was told that unless the sheet can be straightened out at the bottom, the image at the top will always be distorted. There is a lack of balance and because of this the truth of the image cannot be seen.If I hung out more sheets I’d have seen it immediately …. Then again, I’m the go-out-to-work type wife and my lovely husband is the make-a-warm-cosy-home half of our team. Maybe I should have shown him the card
Also, I notice that at the bottom of the card is a row of books, laid out neatly to display their front covers. Look more closely and it is evident that there are three books on Temperance’s left hand side, and four on his right. Now if I thought of these books as collectively the story of his life – is he out of balance? Placing more emphasis on left hand side of brain activities and thought patterns than the right hand side? This ties in well with the imbalance in the fabric of the sheet. And also with the unequal number of floor tiles on each side of Temperance.
The difference in ground underfoot is very obvious. The books rest on the cracked red earth; Temperance stands on carefully laid tiles. I see this as saying that I need to lay the foundations of my life/beliefs carefully. The tiles would not lay flat and provide a good stable surface for Temperance unless a great deal of hard work in digging, levelling and firming had been done first. This is, of course, a direct analogy for our lives.
However things aren’t quite as a result of the purple sheet hanging in a twisted, convoluted fashion. However, to show us the image he will need to straighten the sheet. However, the message is not the image. The message is one of the necessity of building a sure foundation, and ensuring we work/live/play in a balanced fashion so that our lives are not distorted. We want to see things clearly. This is true whether what we look at it, to us, pretty or shocking – clarity is the important thing and without balance there can be no clarity.
Temperance himself has a halo. Arrows of inspiration fire out in all directions from that halo – he’ll do his best to see we get what he’s trying to tell us. And his message is for all – hence the arrows going in all directions. This card does not want to restricts its information to a select few – Temperance wants everyone to know who has eyes to see (even if it takes a long time for the ones like me to “get it”)
I like the folds made in the purple sheet. The long, sweeping diagonal fold reminds me irresistibly of those escape chutes that come out of aircraft when they make an emergency landing. I like the idea that this chute is my swift slide into the heart of the card. And the vertical pipes at each side look like organ pipes as the sheet plays out its own song. Sometimes letting your imagination run free produces some really odd results!
The repeated triangles that are made around the distorted image remind me of the Supernal Triangle of Kether, Chokmah and Binah. But the image in the centre is distorted by the imbalance in the fold below the Triangle.
Three, a triangle, also asks us to think about the growth from two coming together to generate the third point. All three points are essential to the triangle or it could not exist. No one point is of more importance than another – they are equal but different in their ways. Also the triangle is a stable geometric figure and can stand on any of its sides – each can support the whole.
Three is a hugely significant number – I think of Maiden, Mother & Crone or Father, Son & Holy Ghost. So many things come in threes – there’s animal, vegetable and mineral. I think of stories, including our own stories, which all have a beginning, a middle and an end. These triangles, nesting one inside the other offer much scope for thought and meditation.
I love the colours in the card – the purple at the sheet tells me that at one level the card talks about the necessity for balance in our spiritual lives. The image, were it not skewed by the imbalance in the sheet, would be an equal-armed cross. Again this provides a clear indication that we need balance in our lives, and must work it out between our own needs, the needs of others, work, home and the desperately important spiritual life without which none of the other aspects of life will ever be truly satisfactory. God/Goddess/Deity is at the centre of existence, and if we fail to recognise the importance of our inner lives we do ourselves a vast disservice.
The sky in the card is softly pink and beautiful. The arrows of inspiration flying from Temperance’s halo come to us through this beauty. Can anyone doubt they bring the beauty with them? Balance and harmony – without them we don’t have full and happy lives – we lose part of the beauty and joy of life.
So, putting it at its bluntest, the message from Temperance is that balance brings beauty. No balance – no harmony, no real clarity of vision.
Or at least, that’s my interpretation of it. As ever this is imho and ymmv.
All in all, for a card I had difficulty with, Temperance has turned out to be very rewarding. My study and meditation asking the card for help, paid off immeasurably. The message in this card couldn’t be clearer now. Of course I do realise that it was my stumbling block – others will look at this card and it will sing to them straightaway.
