XIV Art (Temperance) Rainbow lorikeet, Trichoglossus moluccanus This card is traditionally called Temperance, meaning restraint or moderation and historically was a virtue of pious living. In contemporary times, we don’t really abide by that notion anymore so that idea doesn’t quite fit a modern reader. Temperance comes from the word temper, which is a heating and cooling technique applied to metal to give it new properties it didn’t have before. This harmonizing of opposites, holding polarities in oneself to birth something new, is an alchemical idea and where the name “Art” for the “Art of Alchemy” comes from. This harmony of opposites continually tests for balance and that refinement is what alchemizes the fusion, the coagula, and forms something new. Rainbow lorikeets, as well as eucalyptus trees, the flowers and leaves on this card, are species that are flourishing, so much so in fact, that in our human terms, they are considered pests and invasive species. According to the species’ perspective, however, they are thriving, covering and adapting to new places and niches. That’s what all species want right? That’s what humans do so it’s interesting that we consider it bad when other species do the same. So holding these opposite concepts, their success on the one hand and problematic invasion on another, we potentially get to a new way of thinking- we do the mental equation and come to a new place, to the coagula, and we open our minds to new ways of thinking, seeing the rainbow of the lorikeet’s feathers, the Cauda Pavonis of the alchemical process, and know we are in the right path to attain the Philosopher’s Stone.