Friday night at BTBS I had Dr. Evelyn Crook read my tarot. My question was “How will DigiWriMo go for me?” She decided to do one card with the possibility of more. [See my previous post for more context.]
I drew the Temperance card. We did not draw more.
Temperance in Emily’s deck was the Blue Heron, which got her excited. She said it was about self-determination and self-reliance and progress through evolution and compromise. [OK, that’s what my couple words of notes say when I reconstruct them.] I asked her about the water drops (tears?) and fire and she said it represents the calm in the midst of the two extremes. This is echoed in Pollack below [not quoted].
Looking in Mistress Quantum Sum’s books:
Pollack: Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom 105-
“Temperance, appearing below the Chariot, shows a person whose behaviour [sic] is once again connected to the real world but in a way more meaningful than ever before. … Temperance indicates the ability to combine spontaneity with knowledge.” 105
“The divinatory meanings, like the card’s ideas, begin with moderation, balance in all things and taking the middle path.” 108
Bartlett: The Tarot Bible 112
Keywords: Self-control, compromise, moderation, virtue
Key phrases: The blending of ideas, harmony and understanding, Alchemical process
My interpretation/commentary:
Moderation seems to be a key to staying away from the [what the fuck do I call one of my “attacks”?] pain and long-term elevated stress levels. Moderation is often a good guiding principal whether of natural, right action or as an ethics-backing one. In this case, it is focused on bringing opposites/dualities into balance/inseparability.
Compromise: between ambition and desire, between others and myself in the production of ‘writings,’ and between the many others that will arise.
Blending ideas, alchemically or otherwise, is definitely one of my goals and desires. Always a desire.
As I said at the end of my last post, “Temperance. Am going to have to spend some time with that concept.”
This is a slippery one; eel-like. More like chameleon eel-like. Slippery and changing its “appearance.”