30 Day Tarot Meme, Day 13: Is there a card that continuously stumps you when it is drawn?

[tarot_scholar]

(Why do you believe this to be so?)

I don't think there's a card in the deck that hasn't stumped me when it's shown up in "odd" place or an "out of character" reading. But continuously, I'd have to say:


1. Temperance

I understand the gist of this card, but I have a hard time distinguishing it from, say, The Chariot or even Strength: these are all cards about duality and finding a balance in duality, via some form of restraint or self-control. I freely admit that the distinction between them is sometimes too fine for my mind to grasp.


2. The World

How can you give specifics to a card that encompasses literally everything?

Comments

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

Temperance is all about transmutation to me, whereas the Chariot is more about that synthesis/balance that you're describing here. Chariot also has to do, for me, with one's G-dly nature taking its rightful "seat" in one's life.

The World is a hard one for me too, but it also hardly ever comes up. I guess it's like consummation, completion. (ha, having written that, funny it hasn't been cropping up lately...)

What distinctions do you draw between the Emperor and the Hierophant? Those sometimes bleed together for me, despite numerological/astrological distinctions-- the pictures are so Patriarchal! Hierarchical! to me usually.

[tarot-scholar.livejournal.com]

What distinctions do you draw between the Emperor and the Hierophant? Those sometimes bleed together for me, despite numerological/astrological distinctions-- the pictures are so Patriarchal! Hierarchical! to me usually.

Yeah, plus artists have such a wide range of reactions to the Hierophant card, as well.

I think the biggest distinction for me is secular versus spiritual/religious, but that is a surface level distinction.

I also think that the Emperor is largely about control, whereas the Hierophant is about knowledge. A gatekeeper of some kind. In that sense, I see the Hierophant being more aligned with The Priestess than with the Emperor.


Temperance is all about transmutation to me, whereas the Chariot is more about that synthesis/balance that you're describing here. Chariot also has to do, for me, with one's G-dly nature taking its rightful "seat" in one's life.

That does make some sense to me. The imagery of Temperance is so often based on someone mixing two cups that it very readily lends itself to being interpreted as synthesis rather than anything else (eg wholesale transformation).

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

Right-- Hierophant is priestly. Now I'm curious about meditating on the Empress in tandem with the Emperor, High Priestess in tandem with Hierophant. Haven't ever really thought/felt my way through them like that before.