Ostara 2013 Tarot Blog Hop: Alchemy

Cat's Eye Tarot

You may have arrived here from the Master List of participating blogs, you may have jumped forward to me from Joy's blog, or perhaps you are going widdershins and visit me from Koneta's blog .

You may be one of my crafting readers and will perhaps be thoroughly non-plussed, and your eyes and brain will glaze over in boredom at my meanderings today: but I would value your comments just as much (if not more), as they bring me a fresh view of things that has not been circumscribed by the ruts of experience and knowledge.

The topic of the Ostara Tarot Blog Hop 2013 was conceived by the host, Morgan Drake Eckstein of Gleamings in the Dawn, and the title was 'Dancing Between Light and Darkness'; Morgan explains it so:

 For example, a person can both hope for and fear success at the same time. The same holds true for relationships and health. Often one wonders if anyone would consult a reader if they were not in a place of mixed feelings about an issue.

 So in light of this tendency, I thought it would be a good time to look at situations, spreads, and cards that are naturally ambivalent--either one thing or another--until we decide whether to read them as light or darkness.

Basically, those things that naturally dance between light and darkness. Is something good or bad--well, for many things, it is a matter of how one chooses to look at it.

I have trouble getting all philosophical about things - after all, it is not 3 a.m and I have not imbibed 2 or 3 bottles of wine, I am fuelled by mere tea from tea leaves, not mushrooms. But it seems to me that to view things as black and white, or just light and shadow, is too simplistic. Opposites exist and together they make a balanced whole:

But for me, it is where the two opposites meet that is of most interest - and there is at the same time no gray area, as you can see in the above symbol. 

Of course, tarot encompasses this in Trump XIV Temperance, which is all about blending, balance and moderation; and it could be argued that this is the most important concept contained with a tarot deck - that all things must combine in order to produce a balanced whole. 

Housewives' Tarot

For example, where someone might describe themselves as a Wands person, in fact they are a combination of all four suits (akin to the four temperaments) and the Wands traits predominate most of the time; it is only the self-actualized person who will have all four in perfect balance. It behoves me to point out that even in Star Trek, there is no self-actualized person, despite what Kirk thinks of himself, and what we think of Mr.Spock. But together they attain the blend and balance of which we speak - Kirk is Wands through and through, Spock is - logically, Captain - Swords; Bones in the caring profession is Cups, and do not overlook Scotty's practical Pentacles contribution to the team.

So XIV Temperance depicts that perfect alchemic state of personal harmony to which we as semi-enlightened beings aspire:

Ansata Tarot

 But unfortunately, too much navel-gazing thinking and personal contemplation is not only egotistically narcissistic, it is anti-social, and many of the drugs which open those windows are illegal

Hudes Tarot

 and that means that we forget to pay sufficient attention to our surroundings and people near and dear to us, which often leads to imbalance with awful consequences:

Whimsical Tarot

 I expect this bit near the bottom is where one might look to see some kind of hypothesis, summary or conclusion .... or maybe even the Meaning of Life as revealed by Me; I must apologize, as there isn't one - I have dragged you with me through this ramble for no purpose at all.

 

You may find that elsewhere, people are making sense: