THE ART (card) OF THE FOUND TAROT

This one today may be a bit of stretch. Or maybe not. So here it is, a TEMPERANCE (XIV) card I just found today as I edited old photos. I've named the photo itself "The Alchemist," which is a clue as to how I connect it to TEMPERANCE in The Tarot:

Here's what I consider this photo's predecessor as the Temperance card: ART (XIV) in The Thoth Tarot:

And here's a more usual design for TEMPERANCE (XIV) in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck:

I usually have some sense of a "message" from any new Found Tarot card(s) once I've made the post here. But not this time. My version at the top speaks to me in a very non-verbal, right brain way. I just want to keep looking at it. Into that mesmerizing cauldron of light. Hm, there's something surfacing ...

There's encouragement and support for my increasing focus on creative efforts for their, if not life-saving, certainly sanity preserving pursuits. I also recall that XIV's path on The Qabalistic Tree of Life has been said to be the most difficult one. (Wish I could remember where I read that, so I could back it up.) I'd have to say that the path of those who are compelled by their basic natures to "make art" may not be an easy or comfortable one. It certainly has not been for me. And not that just "doing" the art is hard; it is and it isn't, and it has great joy, also. It's that having that sort of eccentric and endlessly questioning perspective does not go away when one is not writing or painting. It's part and parcel of how one perceives and experiences in every area of one's life. One is always in the crucible, so to speak, in the fire or flood, often at sixes and nines with others and/or with one's self. So having this card come up today is a big prompt to embrace this path and let go of wishing it would cool off or calm down. It's who I am at a deep level.

By the way, in the family of Tarot cards that are "mine" by numerology and astrology, XIV is what my basic card of The Hierophant (V) has been becoming. And I find myself oddly much more comfortable with XIV as my "descriptor," than V. Ultimately, I may never turn lead into gold, or find the philospher's stone, but I do find myself stumbling across a seemingly endless array of engaging things to try to combine and recombine in new or interesting ways.

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‘til next time, keep enjoying The Tarot,

[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for Tarot poetry; Roswila’s Taiga Tarot for taiga (illustrated tanka); Opening to the Light (for digital pix only).****