For a long time I struggled to understand the difference between the cards of Justice and Temperance. The former has a picture of scales whilst the latter is about finding balance. The themes seem same same. But there is a difference. For what it’s worth here’s my take on the subject.
Justice: In this card Continue reading
So. I entered the wonderful world of blogging about six months ago. Knowing nothing. I’m not one of the younger generation brought up with the world at their fingertips. But google was my friend.
I started out on Continue reading
I thought we might have a look today at Tarot cards associated with medical issues. NOTE: Just because these cards turn up in a reading does NOT mean you have a medical condition. As I keep on saying, there are 50 shades of Tarot, 50 possible meanings (or thereabouts), for each card. Please take the following with a large grain of salt. Some I’m sure of. Others are educated guesses.
I hadn’t written a word about Temperance until yesterday and now here I am doing another post about it the very next day. That’s because once you start focusing on a Tarot card all these thoughts begin to rise to the surface. There’s so much to discover. As I’ve said before: Fifty shades in every card.
The Temperance card comes at the end of what I call the ‘adulthood’ section of Life Lessons Tarot (aka Major Arcana.) Straight after the Death card. Death represents major change like giving birth to a child, moving house, changing careers, getting old and, um, dying of course. After any life change there is a period of readjustment. This is the realm of the Temperance card.
For example, as I get older I find my feelings towards things changing. Like Christmas. As a young adult I was callous towards this significant event on the yearly calendar. Despite (or maybe because?) being raised Catholic. There was one year when I spent the day huddled beneath a rock in the Scottish Highlands eating tuna out of a can feeling very smug about the fact that unlike 99.9% of the Western World I didn’t feel the need to make a big deal out of the occasion. (Although smugness was the only warmth I felt that day. It was pretty lonely out on that mountain track.)
Over the years I’ve held onto my bah humbug attitude like a badge of pride. Not feeling the need to care about what happens come December 25. Proud of not being caught up in the madness. And then I gave birth to a child who cared like mad about Christmas. Still does. Who loves Santa even at 16. Who’s prepared to argue to the death re the finer details as to where she will sleep on Christmas Eve and dine Christmas day. And I learnt to bite my tongue so I wouldn’t spoil the occasion for her.
And now something strange has happened. I find myself indulging her wildest Christmas fantasies. Letting her loose to wrap the whole lounge room up in tinsel. Getting a real tree even though I’ll have to chop it up in the New Year to fit it in the bin (which always makes me feel like I’m killing Christmas.) Buying CDs and DVDs so we can soak up the atmosphere via song and screen. Without her even asking me to.
This then is Temperance. Your feelings and attitude and behavior shifting as you age. Often in unexpected ways. Some people become more difficult. But others soften.
Has the way you feel about Christmas changed over the years?
Temperance. To temper. Modify. Finely adjust. A process that occurs naturally as we age. Behaviour and expectations change to suit diminishing physical capabilities and altered desires.
Ah, middle age.
When a hot summer’s day doesn’t mean a trip to the beach but that you can get all the washing done.
When you want your kids to go out on a Saturday night (rather than go out yourself) so you can have the couch and TV remote all to yourself.
When you give up team sports to protect your back and knees so you can muck around with your kids because that’s more important than showing off on the football field.
Young people (i.e. my own children) think us middle agers have a sad life but in my humble opinion going out and getting wasted, random sex with strangers, sleeping in all day and partying all night, doesn’t come within cooee of the satisfaction you get from creating a life for your family. Or maybe it’s just that in middle age what you enjoy is different to what you enjoy when you’re young.
I’m all for embracing the changes that happen as I age. What about you?
The Major Arcana cards read like a book that follows the journey of a human soul through life.
The first volume covers childhood:
The Fool – The soul waiting to be born
The Magician – The newborn who seems perfect in every way and has so much potential.
The High Priestess – The baby living off instinct during the first months and years.
The Empress – The child at play
The Emperor – The child being disciplined
The Hierophant – The school child forming ideas about the world
The Lovers – The teenager beginning to make choices about what they want and who they want to be with.
The Chariot – The young adult striving for success.
That’s one way of looking at it anyway. There are many more. That’s the beautiful confusing thing about Tarot. It’s like a diamond. Every time you turn it in your hand you see another side.
What about you? What’s your take on the first 8 cards of the Holy Book of Tarot?
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