Archetype and The Tarot: The Storyteller and Temperance
For the week of October 1, 2023
Welcome everyone! For an overview of what I’m doing here, please check out this post all about it. THANK YOU to all my subscribers! My heart and soul are filled with gratitude for your presence here. I LOVE this community that we are building!
The Storyteller
The Storyteller not only has to do with a person who makes a living telling riveting tales, but is also the universal pattern of making meaning of our every experience. The Storyteller is all about connection.
On the shadow side, The Storyteller tells false tales (whether in the form of lies, manipulations, or embellishments) or they might engage in telling stories that are not theirs to tell (aka gossiping). Most often, the motivation behind these shadow Storyteller behaviors is a misguided attempt at connection. Although it may feel connective in the moment, it really is a lot like trying to connect with a shadow. (Even Peter Pan found this to be a challenge.)
On the light side, The Storyteller shows us a way to true connection. This happens when we can see our personal stories through a bigger, more universal perspective. We can come to understand our stories in a sort of fractal manner.
This is how I think it works: We embody two storytellers. One lives through an experience and then tells a story about its meaning after the fact. The other is the narrator that lives in our heads and is telling the story of our present moment in real time. I call these storytellers Wisdom and Genius.
Here’s a super cool magical aspect of this: when we become consciously aware of Wisdom and Genius, we endow them both with the power of choice. When we realize, “Oh, I’m telling a story about what has happened (or what is happening)” we can then pause and ask ourselves if there is any way we’d rather tell the story. We can ask ourselves how this story connects us to the greater whole.
In what ways have others lived through this same thing?
How does our story reflect a universal pattern?
How might my story be of benefit to others?
Temperance
The Temperance card in traditional decks shows an angel with one foot on the ground and one foot in a body water (it’s hard to see in the image above, but the figure’s right foot is in the water). The angel is pouring water from one vessel into another in a magical, miraculous way that does not conform to the laws gravity.
Although all the tarot cards are part of a whole story, Temperance is one whose context I think is particularly important. In the major arcana, Temperance follows Death.
Here’s what this means to me: Death is a time of transformation when the opposing poles of duality die and fall away. What we’re left with, then, is the middle ground, aka Temperance.
Up and down have fallen away and what we’re left with is the space between (a place where water can flow sideways).
When we shift our focus from only seeing the ends of a spectrum to also seeing the relationship between, we begin to see connections and patterns everywhere. We have the capacity to hold paradox. We don’t have to be one way or another, but can understand that we are nuanced and complex enough to be all the things.
As part of this, and as the angel demonstrates by standing on both earth and water, we can learn to be very grounded here. This is a reminder to not slip off into reactivity, but to be still in the gooey mix of the middle.
How does this pair work together?
What I see is a storyteller who can only make meaning by telling a story about the middle ground and not about the opposing poles. This storyteller must express without using terms of duality.
What does this mean for us? I think we’re being called to give meaning—to story—our experiences this week without using comparison.
Can we notice how we feel about something without comparing it to something else? Or without comparing our feelings to the way someone else might feel about the same thing?
Can we like something without needing to like it more (or less) than something else? Can we experience/witness a friend’s story without comparing it to ourselves?
I’m not saying that comparing is always wrong (there’s a place for everything), but this week we’re being asked to try life without it.
Give it a whirl. Tell a story of an experience from the past, or the story of your present moment, without using words of comparison. Let’s keep it simple and eliminate big sweeping comparisons like better or worse and different or similar.
This one feels like quite a challenge to me! Let me know how you do with it in the comments below. I can’t wait to discuss it!
Out of concern for Rhiannon, whose absence from Substack and email seems odd, is anyone else noticing?
This is an excellent call to action for the week Jenna, thank you❤
I appreciate this lesson about Temperance because I knew none of this until reading your essay. I love that the angel is pouring water in a way that defies gravity and our conventions. As you know I am not very familiar with Tarot but I suspect you have an outstanding knack for teaching the uninitiated in a way that is both simple and layered at the same time and I love it.
Thank you!