Sometimes when you ask a question of Tarot, the same card comes up again and again. Usually, in fact most of the time, the information is something you need to hear over and over, something that hasn't quite sunk in. Thick skull comes to mind, especially with me. There are things I know but I refuse to KNOW, until the universe and life pummels me into recognition and ultimately acceptance. For me, acceptance can take a long, long time. We're talking years. Yes, my skull is that thick, my denial that strong.
I've gotten the Seven of Teacups before. I know I'm in love with love. I know I am dazzled by possibilities. I know I turn toward fantasy instead of reality. Do I KNOW this? Maybe not yet, not the way I have to KNOW it to stop spinning pretty dreams and live in the world and of it. I suppose I'll see if this particular lesson is at last sinking in.
Sometimes though, what you need to know doesn't tell you how to get to a place beyond it. I can KNOW I tend toward the Seven of Cups, but how do I move beyond it? That's when you ask the clarifying question. It's funny how I try so hard to get that one question right, and when it comes to this second one, it's simply "how?"
Temperance was my clarifying card. In the Rider-Waite deck, Temperance is an angel with a foot in water and earth, conscious and unconscious. It is a card of balance, finding it, maintaining it, healing, flourishing. In the Jane Austen Tarot, Temperance is depicted by Emma Woodhouse and Jane Fairfax. These two women know each other, but come from two different worlds. Both are beautiful, both accomplished. Each though dwell in extremes of a sort, Emma a foolish embracing of status, of "assumptions," dwelling on the surface as opposed to truly knowing, Jane, accomplished but without status, living secrets, trusting someone who might not be trustworthy with her most precious gift, her heart. Each woman would be better, balanced, by some incorporating of the other. An all or nothing mentality benefits no one. Ahhhhhhh. Balance. The Libran quest, that ephemeral equinox moment we try to extend, maintain, recover.
"When the Temperance card appears in a reading it is time to note where we need to be more expressive and open like Emma -- or in areas in which, like Jane, it would behoove us to be more languid and discreet. The angel that appears on this (and most) Temperance cards reminds us that we humans can invoke the heavenly realms by virtuous actions. Tempering our selves with concerted effort and a devotion to inner and outer balance brings us one step closer to that angelic being." p. 41.
What Would Jane Do?
"Candor and discretion must go hand in hand ... an even keel will get us through even the most querulous waters."
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