Ordinary Magic Tarot: Temperance

A lute string too tight will snap. A string too loose will not play. Only balance creates harmony.— Ogha-tarana Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 6.55)

The quarrel began over something small, a broken fence between two gardens. Words had been exchanged, sharp and quick, and by the time Solange heard of it, the neighbours were no longer speaking. She waited a day before visiting. Not to take sides, but to listen. That was her way. She arrived with a basket of herbs and a calm that seemed to quiet the air around her.

In the first garden, she found Clément pacing, muttering about boundaries and respect. In the second, Bathilde stood with her arms crossed, eyes bright with anger. Solange spoke to each in turn, never contradicting, never agreeing too quickly. She listened until their words softened under their own weight.

That evening, she invited them both for tea. They hesitated, but only one came. On the table, she placed two cups and a small jug of honey. She poured the tea carefully, half into one cup, half into the other, then lifted the jug and let the honey fall in a slow, golden thread.

“Too sharp alone,” she said, stirring gently. “Too sweet, and you lose the taste of the leaves. But together…” She pushed one cup forward. The guest took a sip, shoulders easing. The rain began again, tapping softly against the window. Solange watched quietly, her expression serene.

“The other didn’t come,” the guest said after a while. “They will,” Solange replied. “When the time is right. Some things need to steep a little longer.”

A faint smile crossed the guest’s face, the first sign of peace in days. When they left, the quarrel had not vanished, but it had changed, softened, diluted, ready to heal.

Solange refilled her cup and sat alone at the table. The candlelight flickered across the surface of the tea, where dark and light met and mingled. Balance, she thought, was never found by choosing one side over the other. It was made, patiently, gently, in the space between.

Within the Tarot de Marseille tradition, the Temperance card carries an older and more precise meaning: the art of right measure, the mastery of flow between two states, the practised calibration that allows nothing to be lost in the transfer. Temperance is not restraint, nor compromise. It is not the flattening of extremes into something safe and mild, but the alchemical act of blending, the skill of holding two opposing forces in such a way that neither is diminished, but both are transformed. With Solange, the table is set. The leaves steep at the right temperature in the right vessel. The tea is poured, the measure exact. Not a drop is wasted.

Excerpt from Ordinary Magic Tarot: Extraordinary Stories. All rights reserved.

Originally published at **Native Authority Tarot **on Substack.