Letter: N = Scorpio
Path: Between Gevurah and Yesod
Quality: House of Death
Directly following the Trump traditionally entitled Death, we encounter the Trump that corresponds with Scorpio, the Zodiacal sign that has been known as “the House of Death” since ancient times. Attention now shifts from the process of dissolution (the astral Waters of Mem; the flux of time that separates the soul from eternity) to the process of transformation as it is lived in consciousness by one who is undergoing it.
This period of intensification is symbolized by the subtle agitation communicated to the mutating substance by the Temperance angel. This angel’s mission is to awaken the immortal soul from its dormancy within matter, using whatever methods are required. On the Kabbalah Tree, the path of Temperance is mirrored by that of 13, the Hanged Man, both of them leading down from the base of the Heart Triangle into Yesod, the pelvic center.
In this Arcanum the angel of Alchemy distills out the Spirit that has been inhabiting matter, separating the dross from the pure essence and tincturing the attendant poisons into healing medicines. This purification process greatly reduces the bulk of the matter but exponentially increases the concentration and quality of what remains. Trump 14 represents the alchemist at work, transforming both the baptist (soul healer) and the Tincture (meaning the fusion of Father, Son, and Sophia according to Boehme’s followers).
The dove, symbol of Sophia and Holy Spirit, is the unique bearer of the germ of soul. The dove moves in all directions between the heavenly and earthly planes, mimicking the shaman’s role of effecting communication between the worlds. Also signifying election, the dove marks the initiated soul for immortality. In Trump 14 we are finally brought to the end of our second Septenary to win the prize that awaits those who have integrated the previous six Trumps.
The Temperance concept has correspondence to the angel Raphael, the healer in the celestial pantheon. Raphael was sent over this Earth to monitor the ecology, to balance the forces, to bring about the experiences (historically, socially, politically, culturally) that are designed to temper our species, forcing us to grow into our higher potential as a collective. Temperance literally refers to the tempering of metal in the very manner by which iron becomes steel. Alchemi-Kabbalistically, the Wrath-Fire of the father-force is attenuated in the fountain of compassion that is the mother-force, during which the angel mediates a medicinal blending of the opposites.
We saw in the Chariot card the two opposites of yin and yang yoked together to pull the same vehicle. Now we see those polarized forces actually being poured together to make the elixir of life. The elixir is to be distributed through Nature and into the terrestrial world as a balm or a healing essence. Such medicine can ease the pain of our struggles as we attempt to interface inner life and outer life, the personal ego and the collective life, mortal forces and the immortal quest.
Temperance means finding a living balance, a liquid balance, a flexible balance of mediated opposites that supports life beyond the ministry of the Reaper. In the Paracelsian style, Temperance seeks to modify, blend, and dilute life’s poisons into medicines and agents of awakening. Temperance indicates a level of consciousness that no longer lives in a dualistic universe. The ego is beginning to realize that all value-systems are relative to the level of consciousness their believer has attained.
The Creation begins to show itself as an infinite ladder of steps ascending towards higher and higher orders of wisdom and integration. At this stage all dependence on either/or thinking evaporates to be replaced by the infinite question, “What is this (situation, thing, experience) good for? How does it serve the larger creation? What can I learn from it?”
When the opposites are brought together, there can be quite a storm, but when they find their balance they provide a creative matrix out of which the new format of selfhood can be born.
The above text is an excerpt from our book Tarot of the Holy Light: A Continental Esoteric Tarot - Volume One.
