Tarot Tuesday

Temperance and The Art: Alchemy of the Soul

Most people see Alchemy as crazy men in Renaissance Europe heating dangerous chemicals in the attempt to turn lead into gold. You would not be far wrong with that image but it does not cover all of it.

Thoth Tarot

Alchemy was a spiritual practice. Hidden symbols and goals to find the elusive Philosopher’s Stone, the Universal Medicine, the substance of dreams and immortality, are scattered throughout the art of the old alchemists. Spiritually alchemy was also about turning the soul into its purest self for only a pure soul could create the Philosopher’s Stone.  My husband has said it was a concern of turning the “lead of the soul into gold”.

I primarily work with the Thoth tarot, and rather than naming the card Temperance, Crowley named it The Art. In a way this card represents the ultimate completion of the Lovers from Atu VI.

Here the Black King and White Queen have performed the sacred marriage and become an androgynous figure of both sexes and yet neither. The figure holds fire and water and is able to mix them to create the substance it seeks. Here is Universal balance, perfection, to create what has been sought after for ages.

If you study most a Rider-Waite based deck then you are familiar with this card as Temperance.

Generally there is an angelic figure, one foot on land and another in water. There does not seem much here that gives a message.

I’ll admit, I never thought much of the Temperance card until I started to study high magic(k), and took another look at it from the perspective of the Thoth tarot.

Now, I’m not going to involve myself in the ‘War of the Decks’; nor am I going to get into how much Crowley hated the Rider-Waite deck…because my gods did he hate it. My opinion is this; I believe that the Thoth tarot is a more complete deck than the Rider-Waite system. The imagery conveys deeper meanings and has better symbolism. This is why it is my preferred deck over any other.

Disclaimer done, there is actually a lot to learn from Temperance.

This card conveys balance. Balance of the mundane and the spiritual, balance of the

Steampunk Tarot

elements. It can teach us a lesson of balance. One thing to look at is that nothing is static. The water ripples from the toes of the angelic figure, the balls convey a twining motion to maintain the balance.

Perfection is not set in stone. Even the Philosopher’s Stone isn’t really a stone; it was also called the Red Elixir. This infers that it was a liquid as well as a solid.

Perfection in motion and changing state.

The Art and Temperance are both associated with Sagittarius, the Archer. The Archer was usually shown to be Chiron, the wise centaur who taught many of the heroes of classical mythology. Sagittarius is associated with the 9^th House, the astrological house of Higher Learning and Philosophy.

Whichever of the two systems you prefer there is much to learn from the 14^th card in the Major Arcana.

Practical Study

Find an image of the 14^th card you prefer and either pull it from your deck or print it from the internet.

With the Sun in Sagittarius now, use that power to go into deep meditation and trance over the imagery found. Do some studying on Alchemy as both a physical science and spiritual practice.

These cards can help you find the balance you crave in your life. They also teach that perfection is never static but a changing and evolving state that flows from one crest of the wave to the trough and back again.

Deck Credits

Card One:: Thoth Tarot by Crowley and Harris

Card Two:: Steampunk Tarot by Moore and Fel

Thursday's Thoughts

Can I serve the Gods of my Ancestors?

Being a polytheist can be hard enough under the larger umbrella of the term Pagan without added dramatic bullshit. Most pagans now self identify as pantheist, New Age, or even atheist (seriously?) that for those who actually worship and are called into service of the Divine it gets pretty ridiculous.

Sacred Ibis in flight

Polytheists tend to get the cold shoulder and shunted towards the outside. Which is fine, I don’t much like playing on the swings with people I don’t like anyway.

Now don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like all polytheists are one big happy family either.  There is a great deal of infighting and who is doing what wrong.  There are in fact few polytheists that I admire, let alone like, outside of my local community.  In this I am very fortunate; most of the people where I am are polytheistic as well.  This makes it nice; to have real touchstones and flesh and blood people to talk to.

I took a stint away from the online pagan blog-o-sphere for a few years and got behind the latest ‘You can’t do it that way!’ trend.  Then for some ungodly reason I started reading The Wild Hunt again.  I made the same mistake I always do, I started reading the comments section.

Internet rule…DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS SECTION!!

It seems that the latest trend amongst them all, a few that enrage me, is that as an American I should not be worshiping any gods but the gods of this land.  Now, I’m white. I am a straight, white woman (you won’t hear me call myself Caucasian because my family didn’t come from the Caucasus Mountains). As far as we can prove there is not one drop of First Nation blood running through my veins.  There is rumor and conjecture but nothing more to make that a solid fact.  When you see me you would think I stepped off a boat from Germany or some other Northern European country. I am told I can’t worship the gods of this land because my family isn’t First Nation.

Honestly, I respect their traditions too much to even try.  I am not called by their Ancestors, spirits, and Gods. Read and educate myself, fuck yeah! I love to learn, but I won’t step into where I am not called.

Mother of Ravens by Leo Tomasic

I am called by the blood that is still tied to lands across the ocean.

In reality though, who the hell has the right to tell me what gods to follow when the gods themselves called me into their service.

See, I didn’t just flip open a book at random, throw a dart and decide that was the two Gods I was going to dedicate the rest of my life to. In point of fact I had very little say in the whole matter.  At least one of them has dragged me kicking and screaming the entire way.

Don’t believe me, if you could ask my friends and those in my coven you would know, I did not take this as a happy camper and still some days tug at the reigns that hold me.

Honestly, when it comes to it, no one has the right to tell me who and what I can do or can follow or what Gods I serve.  They are not the personal mouth piece of the gods; whom I have discovered can tell me what they want very clearly.

I read, I research, and I journey and divine. I have done what I can to prove that I am not totally crazy.  I honor, respect, and serve the Gods to the best of my abilities and then push harder.

My service is to Them and no one can take that away. Scoff, scorn, and disagree all that they desire, but in the end I have to do what is right and what I am called to do.

Tarot Tuesday:: The Moon

Follow the White Rabbit

Ever changing in the night sky, the Moon has inspired poets, magicians, priests, and man far back into the mists of recorded history.  It is there, a luminous body once counted as a planet.

Enlightenment Tarot

The Moon is Goddess and God, Brother, Sister, and Grandfather. The Moon houses a fantastic array of mythologies from rabbits to a man to ancient civilizations. It tugs at our hearts and inspires romance.

It also inspires nightmare and deception. The very fickle nature of the Moon is said to draw peoples’ emotions and driving them into lunacy, accidents, murder, and all kinds of general mayhem.

In Tarot the Moon is generally seen as a warning that not all is as it seems.

A veil has been drawn over the eyes of the questioner and when pulled aside they can be in for some harsh truths. This card, along with the Devil card, is calling for you to explore the Dark Teatime of the Soul. Walk the shadow roads and cross the threshold.

Moonlight softens the edges of everything that we see. As the light changes, wanes and waxes, so to do the shapes of what we observe.  Here we see the deception, but we enjoy the beauty of it that we do not desire to step across the boundaries. We do not struggle and so stay trapped in the web of lies and deceit.

The Moon card is associated with Qoph, which aligned with the back of the head. Here we have the connection to the subconscious.  Just as your waking mind is building, creating, and expanding, so too is your dreaming mind.  This is something we need to wrestle because all too often we let that part have free reign and then have no idea where the thought forms and egregores we have no intention of making come from.  We have unconsciously dreamed up our worst nightmares into being.

Thoth Tarot

The Moon can be an initiator into deeper mysteries.  First though, look to see what that soft and beguiling light is hiding.

Practical Study

Take stock of your mind and your mental state. Journal your emotions, your thoughts, and your fears to that they are laid bare on paper.  Examine them. Are these practical fears or simply limiting ‘what-ifs’? If they don’t serve a purpose banish them!  You do not need that kind of baggage hanging around your neck.