How a Tarot Reading can help us manage our hopes and fears…

Temperance reminds us to calm the fears that drive impatience and frustration.

I don’t consider myself a fearful person, not unless you count fear of ‘not enough time’, of getting old, of its ‘too late’ to make up for past mistakes….so quite a lot of fear is driving me it turns out.

I have a great teacher, or rather there is a great Qi gong master, Robert Peng, who I study with on line. He teaches a series of Qi breathing meditations that focus on bringing healing qi (life force) to each organ.

In Chinese medicine each organ holds a different energy and kidneys hold the energy of fear. After a series of three rounds of breathing and holding the breathe while directing your attention on the kidneys, Robert Peng says  ‘Become aware of any Fear in your kidneys. Feel Fear melt and transform into Caution.  Let the energy of Caution heal your kidneys’. 

 Caution?  I always consider caution to be rather hesitant and restrained attributes I don’t particularly  aspire or relate to. I couldn’t work out the what Robert Peng meant by Caution. And then it occurred to me that the tarot card that comes closest to expressing a similar feeling is the major arcana tarot card Temperance.

After meditating and this realisation, I shuffled my tarot cards asking for a random card that would give me insight to write about for Instagram and the blog, and I pulled Temperance.   As you can imagine my heart stopped for a beat as the syncronicity of choosing her out of 78 cards was magical.   And typical of how Tarot works.

Because of course impatience is all fear based; that we’re going to miss the boat, make a mistake, don’t know what to do….fear is the driver.

I always say to clients who get Temperance in a tarot reading, there are issues of patience.  Invariably the client gives themselves away by breaking into a guilty smile and saying oh I am so impatient.  They say it with enormous enthusiasm because as a society we almost admire impatience as it suggests drive passion ambition achievement etc. 

Temperance, teaches us to temper our impatience by understanding that sometimes we have to wait for things to fall into place, and if you can wait with calm and patience and trust and belief…divine guidance will turn up.

The illustration on the tarot card shows Temperance as she cools the fires/fear/desires, by pouring one cup of water into another over her heart.  She keeps one toe in the water, i.e. in worldly affairs, the situation she’s unsure of, and the other on firm ground…and waits…..she doesn’t commit to any way forward, as she doesn’t know yet…..she actively waits with patience and trust for divine guidance, her instincts, to come show her the way.

To actively practice and cultivate living with patience and trust in these moments is her message. ‘Consider the lilies’, spot the irises on the bank;  the bright new sunrise on the horizon.  Trust that the divine guidance you need will show up. 

This waiting is active as well as trusting.

So it turns out patience is a not just a virtue, which sounds awfully goody goody, it’s also a  rather wonderful place to be.  It allows for feelings of gentle appreciation and trust and gratitude to waft over us; to be restored to ourselves and not so caught up in the world

Temperance allows us to be patient without fear. And has given me a new understanding of the word Caution.

Come and have a tarot reading with me, in Battersea, or on WhatsApp and let Caution heal your fear.