Trumps
Art
Make a third thing
Combining opposites is practical work. Try a proportion, observe the result, and adjust: a useful synthesis changes the ingredients as well as putting them together.
What small experiment could bring your competing needs into relation?
Correspondences
- Attribution
- Sagittarius
- Hebrew letter · Thoth
- Samekh
Sources
Book T lists Temperance with Samekh and Sagittarius. The Thoth letter is shown above; changes are explained below.
Symbols
The vessel of combination
The chapter joins fire and water in a cauldron beneath a composite figure.
The Book of Thoth · Part II, Art ↗Try this
Treat a difficult combination as something you can work on at a manageable scale. Choose a small experiment, name the ingredients and observe the result. A failed proportion gives information; it need not settle the value of the whole undertaking.
The relation to the Lovers
Crowley explicitly presents Art as the counterpart and fulfilment of the Lovers.
The Book of Thoth · Part II, Art ↗Try this
In the Lovers, study the terms on which two things meet. In Art, study what the meeting makes. This pair is useful for asking whether an agreement has become a shared practice or remains an attractive statement of intent.
The arrow and the rainbow
An upward arrow and rainbow forms appear in the description.
The Book of Thoth · Part II, Art ↗Try this
A synthesis still needs a direction. After making room for competing needs, identify the action that carries the result forward. Integration becomes easier to assess when it changes something you can actually do.
Two accounts
Book T: Temperance · Samekh.
Thoth: Art · Samekh.
Book T names this card Temperance. Thoth calls it Art and develops the alchemical relation to the Lovers. The shared Sagittarius attribution does not make the two designs identical.