I've been exploring Tarot lately. It's helping me to understand myself, my uniqueness, my qualities, my situation and circumstances, and the challenges I face.
To represent my business, Subtle Balance, I drew the Temperance card and was struck by its similarity to what I'm aiming to achieve in my work and personal life - Balance, Harmony .- which reaffirms my choice of business name.
Temperance speaks of everything in moderation, knowing when to act, when to be still; and it feels to me that it's about a balance of the 4 elements - water, fire, earth, air. We need the air of our ideas, but also need the fire to manifest or earth those ideas, and we need to connect with water to tune into how bringing an idea into conscious reality is going to feel. We can have an idea about something we want to create, but if we don't feel strongly enough about it, it probably won't happen. We also have to contain our enthusiasm, sometimes, because if we keep going and going and never stop, we'll get burnt out with too much fire. So it's all about flowing between all the elements......
The Gilded Tarot version (right) of Temperance looks like she is doing a dance with all the elements, which of course she is, and I love the starryness of this card. Alice Grist's Cosmic Mother tarot (left) echoes Temperance's balancing act - the lovely green of the earth, the flowing of the water, the wild hair whipped up by the air and the yellow fireyness of her sparkly hair.
In the Rider Waite Tarot version of Temperance (bottom middle) and the Biddy Tarot version (top middle) the angelic figure is maintaining a tricky balancing act of water flowing between the goblets (feelings), one foot is on the land and one foot is in water - keeping a foot in both worlds - balance of the feeling and the physical. The angel's wings connect with the air realm, balancing thoughts/ideas with intuition/feeling and how we exist in the material world (earth). Then the warmth of the sun (fire element) where we balancing our ideas/goals/inner fire into reality. But the key message for me is that everything needs to be in balance. Too much of anything can be detrimental as can not enough.
How do you find balance in your life? What puts you out of balance? Which areas of your life need more balance? How can you bring more balance into your life? What does balance/harmony/temperance mean to you? If you have your own business, which tarot card represents your business?
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