Question about Temperance

This is puzzling me. It looks in the Marseilles deck (I am using the Heron Conver) as though the water that Temperance is spilling from jug to jug does not behave in the way water should. It looks as though it is hanging between the jugs almost horizontally, immune to gravity. Does anyone know if there is a meaning to this? Oswald Wirth didn't keep this effect in his deck, where the jugs are held one above the other and the water pours down, so maybe it does not have significance.

--Myrrha

There are some who refer to the waters as not waters at all, but as principles of transformation (ie, alchemical transmutation).

It is even claimed, at times, that of the dual strands of flow, one moves upward, and the other downward.

Personally, in more reflective moments, I see these as 'waters of Life', moving from vessel to vessel, assisted by the gentle guiding gesture of the Guardian Angel or Will of the Higher Spiritual Being which is the true 'I' of each of us individually. In other words, also symbolically reminding us that though the waters of the Soul may be contained by the physical vessel which assists in giving them shape, it is the 'I' which guides and weaves our astral waters...

of course, these comments go beyond what may be warranted by simple representations on the card.

jmd said:

There are some who refer to the waters as not waters at all, but as principles of transformation (ie, alchemical transmutation).

It is even claimed, at times, that of the dual strands of flow, one moves upward, and the other downward.

Personally, in more reflective moments, I see these as 'waters of Life', moving from vessel to vessel, assisted by the gentle guiding gesture of the Guardian Angel or Will of the Higher Spiritual Being which is the true 'I' of each of us individually. In other words, also symbolically reminding us that though the waters of the Soul may be contained by the physical vessel which assists in giving them shape, it is the 'I' which guides and weaves our astral waters...

of course, these comments go beyond what may be warranted by simple representations on the card.

Click to expand...

Thank you for these wonderful comments, JMD. I have been thinking about them, especially the part about the Higher spiritual being that is the true "I". I appreciate comments that go beyond the representations of the card. The representation is supposed to symbolize or refer to something else behind it, a larger idea, so it makes sense to talk about that as well.

thank you,
--Myrrha

I can see this card as the card of reincarnation. She is pouring the soul from one container/vessel/body to another.

In this sense, the horizontal flow of the "water" is explicable, since it refers not to physical water or fluid, but spirit.

Coming after XIII, death, XIV points to the next step, the processes of the last seven cards, from the sphere of the elements through to a re-birth, XX (where the "graves" are the womb out of which new bodies come), and a new world.

In a dualist philosophy, the process could be seen as the separation of the quintessence, the purified soul, from the elements. In a materialist philosophy, it is simply a recombination or remixing in a new form.

Ross

Nothing much to add to such wonderful insights in the above posts.

But indeed, this fluid is not water, nor is it liquid. (The water we find in L'Etoile XVII - The Star.)

Kléa, in his book "Au Fil de l'Arcane" (I'd still like to know who this Kléa is....) says, and I translate: "If it were a liquid, there is no doubt that it would fall vertically, but this magnetic fluid is that of Resurrection and Immortality, living Water, the motor of life, the vital universal current that brings life to Creation and whose energy alternates between the two poles."

Seems to behave like liquid, but I can see it as light flowing both directions between the vessels.

Ever played with a fibre optic?

Guided by the true 'I'. I like that a lot.