TEMPERANCE FROM THE LUNA SOL TAROT

by Darren Shill

It’s been an exciting few weeks for Liminal 11, not least because we’ve finally started unveiling the beautiful images that make up Kay Medaglia’s positive, warm deck, The Luna Sol Tarot! After many months of planning and gushing over other creators’ decks, it felt like a long wait to finally show you these cards. It feels great to have them out in the world! In case you missed them, Strength and the Ace of Wands are pictured below.

But what about Temperance? Word association? Maybe someone bearing a placard, standing outside of pub, declaring that everyone inside should return to their homes. Yes, I was born in 1830. But take a look at this wonderful card, this is something very, very different. An angelic figure artfully transfers a liquid from one container to another whilst half standing in a body of water. Above and behind a rainbow divides day and night and a path leads to a glowing horizon and a mountain range. That’s a lot to unpack!

But looking at the card in the Luna Sol life is made a bit easier by one theme appearing many times, albeit in different guises. The sun represents the conscious mind and the moon the unconscious. It is there in the sky and again on the land. The angelic figure is Michael, an entity associated with the sun, has one foot within the realms of the Moon, water and one on land. The realm of the unconscious or intuitive and the realm of conscious rationality. He/she holds two cups, one is gold for the sun, one silver for the moon. That liquid that passes represents the mind, but which way does it move? Could it be as ascending?

So that is three places where the sun and moon (fire and water, the action and reaction of opposites) interact but could there be more. Take a breath, we are going deeper on this one! In Qabalah, the Tree of Life can be viewed as containing three pillars, one of Severity, one of Mercy and a central one of Balance. The path of Balance passes through Yesod, the sephiroth of the Moon, and Tephiroth, the sephiroth of the Sun. If you were to map this on the body this middle path runs up the spine. Which brings me to the yogic snake in the background of the card, representing the Kundalini serpent. The aim of awakening the Kundalini snake being an exercise to let the energy of the sun (Pingala) and the moon (Ida) to flow through two outer channels (Nadi) into the main middle channel that runs up the inner portion of the spinal column to the pineal gland (Sushumna). Again, the sun and the moon and the middle path. This central path also being an area of specific interest to the flow of energy in Daoist techniques. Temperance is said to be associated with the Middle Way, the way Buddha passed to enlightenment. Avoiding both hedonism and self-mortification.

What is it about Temperance that makes it such a natural meeting point of so many religions and philosophies?

A brief thought on the rainbow, a symbol connected with Sagittarius. Here is beauty that is achieved by the light of the sun refracting through droplets of water. It seems even science can find a home in Temperance.

Interpretation

Balance, finding the middle way is clearly of importance if this card is drawn. Withdraw from activities and thoughts that err towards the extreme. It may be beneficial to work in collaboration with others and seek common ground.

London Tarot Events

There aretwo Tarot gatherings happening later in the year that we wanted to draw your attention to. The first, on 2nd June 2018 near Finsbury Park, is the London Tarot Festival. This is hosted by Kim Arnold, of the UK Tarot Conference, and Geraldine and Bali Baskin of Atlantis Bookshop, London’s oldest occult bookshop. So many great talks here I’m looking to forward to catching but you will certainly find me in the front row for Mary Greer’s talk on Pamela Coleman Smith, the wonderful illustrator of the Waite-Smith tarot, Geraldine Baskin on Tarot around the Thames, David Wells on the Qabalah and Kim Arnold with a guide to speed reading the Major Arcana.

Later in the year we have the UK Tarot Conference on the 19th and 20th October 2018 in Kensington. This well-established conference (15 years!) boasts  a serious line-up including Rachel Pollack, Benebell Wenn, Geraldine Beskin, Jo Watkins, Cilla Conway, Tero Hynynen and Linda Maclean amongst others. This event sells out so it’s well worth booking early!

Kay and myself will be at the London Tarot Festival and hope to drop by the UK Tarot Conference (although this clashes with our appearance at the Mind, Body, Spirit festival at Alexandra Palace). We will be at both events purely as visitors. If you spot us, please stop to say hello. We’d love to have a chat!

If you have a tarot event then why not leave some details below in the comments section or drop us a line at hello[at]liminal11[dot]com, and we will do our best to give you a mention in the future.

More #TarotTuesday

Last week, we shared a wonderful guest post and interview with A Miyako M. Next week, we’ll have a special post from Sarah, Liminal 11’s Marketing & Publicity Manager, who is only just beginning her journey with the tarot. She will be sharing her experiences as an outsider breaking in, along with some of her favourite decks and tools for interpreting tarot readings.

Did you see our Mini Meditations reveals?

Along with our Luna Sol Tarot, we have two wonderful, uplifting books coming out in autumn 2018: Mini Meditations on Creativity (illustrated by Tillie Walden) and Mini Meditations on Joy (illustrated by Adam & Lisa Murphy). We’ve revealed the first image from each book. Aren’t they just lovely?

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What do you think of our Temperance card? Let us know the comments, or on our social media.

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