Wendywu
The first time I saw this card I couldn’t for the life of me see how you get “temperance” from this! However, it slowly dawned on me that balance – and the equalization of two aspects of something can take many forms. In this card the thing being equalized and transferred is heat. The bowl (or whatever) is being quenched. This is the blacksmith’s term for the plunging of the item into cold water and is the stage of production where the blacksmith feels she cannot improve on her work any further. The immense heat held within the bowl is released into the water. Naturally the water warms up and the bowl cools down. The temperatures balance as the bowl is quenched. The act of quenching produces some fascinating effects! The red hot iron bowl causes the water to fizz and bubble and it releases a whoosh of heat. Steam rises in a cloud. Flames play around the edge of the bowl which changes once it has been quenched in cold water – prior to this the iron could still be worked but the cold water causes it to become brittle which surprised me but cast iron cookware does shatter when you drop it. Also it is this quenching that makes the bowl able to emit that beautiful ringing tone that you get with iron. What fascinates me about this are the analogies contained within iron’s story. I see the fire that heats it and the beating that shapes it as so very human and reminiscent of the trials revealed in Strength by which the transformation there was effected.
Once when I drew the card Apprentice of Coils I considered it from the point of view of the bowl and I think that fits in well here too, as one more area of the card to explore - surely that which is being made is of some interest. As the bowl being quenched I might wonder why I had not been created to be a beautiful statue – why just a plain old cooking pot? I remember that back then I thought that there are a great many circumstances in which a bowl is of so much more value than a statue! If I am hungry and want to cook, what use is a statue (however lovely). A plain old cooking pot in that situation is a welcome sight. Maybe the beautiful statue wishes she had a useful place in the world beyond being looked at …
This version of Temperance reveals a lot more about the card than I’d previously considered. It is full of life – the water bubbling and fizzing, the flames licking round the edge of the quenched bowl and all that steam rising upwards. I see there are stalactites coming down from the roof – I guess they come from the steam rising with each object that is quenched as it condenses on the stalactites it runs down and leaves a tiny deposit, increasing the length of the stalactites by tiny amounts. Sometimes it must be like a raging inferno in there and it could be hard to keep sight of the fact that what is happening is both natural and necessary. I see the lightning as streaking upwards out of the maelstrom created by the quenching and reaching upwards towards the heavens. And I also see it as the spark of creation leaping downwards because whatever you create, and however mundane it seems at the time, it is borne of that spark which is within all of us.
So having looked at the image in the card and noting what I see in it I wondered how these things apply to the world around me. The first thing I thought of was something I’ve noticed in my life lately. We just moved office premises. At the old premises I mixed a lot with the other tenants of the building, who were member of one large firm split into several departments. There’s been a lot of discontent there over the past couple of years. I found that I was being affected by the unhappiness of these people who don’t even work with me – we just shared premises and met in the corridors! Since moving out and getting away from that atmosphere I am so much happier. And this has spread throughout all areas of my life. All those unhappy people – spreading that unhappiness – and I did the same. Did my unhappiness reach out yet further? Of course it did.
Moods, temperaments – they spread and overflow, as if we cannot contain it all in one area of our lives. If I am crazy in love people pick up on my joy and feel better without knowing why. And the ripples spread outwards, whether they be ripples of misery or joy. Knowing that this happens, is it my responsibility to be aware of my moods and to deliberately calm myself if I am angry or cheer myself up if I am sad? Should I try and understand my sadness and work it through or is it OK just wallow in it? At what point does my responsibility to others cease, and my entitlement just to feel and experience the emotion of the moment kick in? Surely this awareness of the way in which emotions affect others (however subtly) means that I must consider whether my anger is righteous or is petty, unworthy of me and needs to be rejected.
Another aspect of Quench that I think about is how with this quenching the blacksmith declares her work is done – the bowl is as good as she can get it. How does this work in my life? Is it saying that I should give things my absolute best shot and then let go. Declare my task complete. No angst, no nitpicking, no fussing at it for hours. Also – if my efforts turn out to have been pretty shabby – I should feel no guilt at not doing better than my best. The blacksmith did her best, declared it so, and actually made it so that no further work could be done and this seems admirable to me.
Despite the outward appearance of the card Quench is actually all about balance and harmony. The heat dissipates into the water so that the iron and water draw closer together in temperature. The bubbles fizz and subside leaving the water calm and still. The flames flare up, burn briefly and die down – their heat warms the air slightly and that heated air warms the surrounding rocks. The stalactites grow so slowly as the salts are deposited on them, but although those salts are lost to the water they are not lost altogether – just changed and moved.
Every aspect of the process illustrated by this card discusses a drawing together of one thing with another. The act of creation by the blacksmith is her will combined with her effort. The iron is changed; together it and the blacksmith create a new thing. And so on throughout the whole card. It is full of linkages. Thinking about that – if one thing produces another, which causes something else – we see how that very first thing is actually the root cause of and inextricably linked to the final thing. That is a thought that takes a lot of consideration.
Quench begins when the blacksmith first thinks about the need for a bowl. Her will and intent combine with that spark of creation to effect change. I see that process applying repeatedly in various aspects of my life, and the changes themselves alter other things. Tiny decisions and actions I take no heed of at the time are ripples spreading throughout the pond of my life. As soon as I wrote that sentence I recalled how ripples spread so gently and yet reach to the absolute edge of the pond they are in. Thus I see that changes don’t have to be big and dramatic. But, thinking about the dramatic – if big changes bring little ones in their wake does the reverse apply? Could the little changes bring about something huge in me? Would that be seen as a negative effect of Quench – when the attempts to balance and harmonise get out of hand and things go too far? Possibly to the point where we are perpetually either up or down – caught on an internal rollercoaster that either we cannot get off, or do not really understand the need to do so. The alternative of course is damping down until I reach the point of stagnation where there is no movement, no change at all.
Without movement and change we make no progress in our journeys, and here I am not thinking of change and progress in the mundane sense where one invention succeeds another. I think of the changes brought by the seasons, or the passage of long years. Consider one aspect of every female journey – the maiden, mother, crone seasons. (And I do think that even the woman who remains physically childless has her mother stage – no matter what she mothers). With each stage something is gained and something is lost. It is up to the woman to achieve balance. Sometimes you see the sad crones who cannot accept the passing of the years, nor understand the gifts crone-hood brings and it is sad but true that for all of us life brings gifts that we perceive to be lemons. There are so many different cycles of change that affect us; this goes off in all sorts of directions – relationships, moon-cycles, the natural round and round of the Wheel, ups and downs of finances and enthusiasms. There are so many things to think about here.
Our spiritual journey demands an intimate understanding of Quench – the card requires many hours of reflection and meditation. Temperance was always a card I took somewhat for granted until I came across Quench and as a first formal study of the card I feel I have barely scratched the surface. I look forward to revisiting it next time round and seeing how my understanding has deepened and changed. I feel vaguely dissatisfied with this study, as if I have somehow missed the point and hope very much that continued meditation will bring further insights.
Once when I drew the card Apprentice of Coils I considered it from the point of view of the bowl and I think that fits in well here too, as one more area of the card to explore - surely that which is being made is of some interest. As the bowl being quenched I might wonder why I had not been created to be a beautiful statue – why just a plain old cooking pot? I remember that back then I thought that there are a great many circumstances in which a bowl is of so much more value than a statue! If I am hungry and want to cook, what use is a statue (however lovely). A plain old cooking pot in that situation is a welcome sight. Maybe the beautiful statue wishes she had a useful place in the world beyond being looked at …
This version of Temperance reveals a lot more about the card than I’d previously considered. It is full of life – the water bubbling and fizzing, the flames licking round the edge of the quenched bowl and all that steam rising upwards. I see there are stalactites coming down from the roof – I guess they come from the steam rising with each object that is quenched as it condenses on the stalactites it runs down and leaves a tiny deposit, increasing the length of the stalactites by tiny amounts. Sometimes it must be like a raging inferno in there and it could be hard to keep sight of the fact that what is happening is both natural and necessary. I see the lightning as streaking upwards out of the maelstrom created by the quenching and reaching upwards towards the heavens. And I also see it as the spark of creation leaping downwards because whatever you create, and however mundane it seems at the time, it is borne of that spark which is within all of us.
So having looked at the image in the card and noting what I see in it I wondered how these things apply to the world around me. The first thing I thought of was something I’ve noticed in my life lately. We just moved office premises. At the old premises I mixed a lot with the other tenants of the building, who were member of one large firm split into several departments. There’s been a lot of discontent there over the past couple of years. I found that I was being affected by the unhappiness of these people who don’t even work with me – we just shared premises and met in the corridors! Since moving out and getting away from that atmosphere I am so much happier. And this has spread throughout all areas of my life. All those unhappy people – spreading that unhappiness – and I did the same. Did my unhappiness reach out yet further? Of course it did.
Moods, temperaments – they spread and overflow, as if we cannot contain it all in one area of our lives. If I am crazy in love people pick up on my joy and feel better without knowing why. And the ripples spread outwards, whether they be ripples of misery or joy. Knowing that this happens, is it my responsibility to be aware of my moods and to deliberately calm myself if I am angry or cheer myself up if I am sad? Should I try and understand my sadness and work it through or is it OK just wallow in it? At what point does my responsibility to others cease, and my entitlement just to feel and experience the emotion of the moment kick in? Surely this awareness of the way in which emotions affect others (however subtly) means that I must consider whether my anger is righteous or is petty, unworthy of me and needs to be rejected.
Another aspect of Quench that I think about is how with this quenching the blacksmith declares her work is done – the bowl is as good as she can get it. How does this work in my life? Is it saying that I should give things my absolute best shot and then let go. Declare my task complete. No angst, no nitpicking, no fussing at it for hours. Also – if my efforts turn out to have been pretty shabby – I should feel no guilt at not doing better than my best. The blacksmith did her best, declared it so, and actually made it so that no further work could be done and this seems admirable to me.
Despite the outward appearance of the card Quench is actually all about balance and harmony. The heat dissipates into the water so that the iron and water draw closer together in temperature. The bubbles fizz and subside leaving the water calm and still. The flames flare up, burn briefly and die down – their heat warms the air slightly and that heated air warms the surrounding rocks. The stalactites grow so slowly as the salts are deposited on them, but although those salts are lost to the water they are not lost altogether – just changed and moved.
Every aspect of the process illustrated by this card discusses a drawing together of one thing with another. The act of creation by the blacksmith is her will combined with her effort. The iron is changed; together it and the blacksmith create a new thing. And so on throughout the whole card. It is full of linkages. Thinking about that – if one thing produces another, which causes something else – we see how that very first thing is actually the root cause of and inextricably linked to the final thing. That is a thought that takes a lot of consideration.
Quench begins when the blacksmith first thinks about the need for a bowl. Her will and intent combine with that spark of creation to effect change. I see that process applying repeatedly in various aspects of my life, and the changes themselves alter other things. Tiny decisions and actions I take no heed of at the time are ripples spreading throughout the pond of my life. As soon as I wrote that sentence I recalled how ripples spread so gently and yet reach to the absolute edge of the pond they are in. Thus I see that changes don’t have to be big and dramatic. But, thinking about the dramatic – if big changes bring little ones in their wake does the reverse apply? Could the little changes bring about something huge in me? Would that be seen as a negative effect of Quench – when the attempts to balance and harmonise get out of hand and things go too far? Possibly to the point where we are perpetually either up or down – caught on an internal rollercoaster that either we cannot get off, or do not really understand the need to do so. The alternative of course is damping down until I reach the point of stagnation where there is no movement, no change at all.
Without movement and change we make no progress in our journeys, and here I am not thinking of change and progress in the mundane sense where one invention succeeds another. I think of the changes brought by the seasons, or the passage of long years. Consider one aspect of every female journey – the maiden, mother, crone seasons. (And I do think that even the woman who remains physically childless has her mother stage – no matter what she mothers). With each stage something is gained and something is lost. It is up to the woman to achieve balance. Sometimes you see the sad crones who cannot accept the passing of the years, nor understand the gifts crone-hood brings and it is sad but true that for all of us life brings gifts that we perceive to be lemons. There are so many different cycles of change that affect us; this goes off in all sorts of directions – relationships, moon-cycles, the natural round and round of the Wheel, ups and downs of finances and enthusiasms. There are so many things to think about here.
Our spiritual journey demands an intimate understanding of Quench – the card requires many hours of reflection and meditation. Temperance was always a card I took somewhat for granted until I came across Quench and as a first formal study of the card I feel I have barely scratched the surface. I look forward to revisiting it next time round and seeing how my understanding has deepened and changed. I feel vaguely dissatisfied with this study, as if I have somehow missed the point and hope very much that continued meditation will bring further insights.
