Card of the Week: Temperance

A  complex recipe combining wildly different ingredients can unite to create a masterpiece, but only if all of its elements are kept in proportions to balance and support the final result.

The Temperance card asks you to view moderation in the broader context of the diversity of its surroundings.  Whether you are healing old wounds, creating something new, or seeking guidance in an existing situation, focus on the process of adjusting the balance of the many disparate contributing factors.  Think of yourself as a chef, tasting and adjusting a recipe as you create it.

Inverted, the card warns of conflict that can arise if moderation and balance are not maintained.  Look for which ingredients might be spoiling your recipe, in either underuse or overuse.

In “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” the Enterprise is assigned to transport the incorporeal Medusan ambassador Kollos in his protective case, accompanied by mind-link specialist Dr. Miranda Jones and engineer Larry Marvick.  Spock honors their visit by wearing an IDIC, one of the most revered of all Vulcan symbols,  celebrating “the glory of creation in its infinite diversity, and the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.”  When Marvick is exposed unprotected to Kollos and loses his mind, he drives the Enterprise at high warp into an unknown region of space before dying.  Spock mind-links with Kollos to jointly navigate their return, then accidentally glimpses him unprotected and goes nearly as mad.  Jones mind-links with Spock to help guide him back to his sanity.  As with the IDIC, diversity in combinations is key.