“People think that talking is a sign of thinking. It isn’t, for the most part’ on the contrary, it’s a mechanical dodge of the body to relieve oneself of the strain of thinking, just as exercising the muscles helps the body to become temporarily unconscious of its weight, its pain, its weariness, and the foreknowledge of its doom.”
― Aleister Crowley
When strangeness beckons
I continue on my way
My purpose is strong.
Click on images to see full-sized:
Intent by G A Rosenberg
I was asked by a friend tonight about the difference between the Chariot trump and the Temperance trump in the tarot.
The Chariot in the Tarot refers to control of the externals among other things where Temperance is more of a matter of Balance
so if you want it in nice simple terms Control vs Balance
THo if you place the cards in the manner of contemplation suggested by both Pollack and DuQuette of 3 rows of Seven underneath the Fool then what you end up with is that Temperance is a higher octave of The Chariot
if you think of the first row as conscious
the second as subconscious
the third as superconscious (just one of many different ways to contemplate the cards) then the Chariot reflects external conscious balance and control while Temperance would mean that balance on an internal level (the qualities of oneself vs the qualities of one’s life) if you would
To put it in simple terms… what is the chariot driver doing on the card? What is the Temperance Angel doing? There is a vital difference there
The next octave up would be the World or the Universe
so Control, Balance, Integration
Taking the three cards right before those three, The Lovers Death and Judgement yield further insight.
Consider for short hand meanings in this context,Love, Death and Resurrection
or if you will, Recognition, Transformation, Resurrection
ok
if you want more of an explanation… then Lovers is the first recognition of one’s shadow or other… Death is the ego death when we realize that we can’t exist without our shadow and Judgement is the call to integration that is realized in the World
if you want to storyline it a bit because its rather cool… then in the Lovers we recognize the other, our first instinct is to control it The Chariot
after we’ve gone through the stages of the second row… we realize that we need to transform which leads to us starting to experience different parts of our shadow… (Temperance)
after we’ve gone through Chapel Perlious then we are called (Judgement) tp integrate fully The World.
