֍ TEMPERANCE – Card XIV

TITLE: The Pearl-Blood Alchemist / 血珠丹士 (Xuè Zhū Dān Shì)

MYTHIC ARCHETYPE: The Pirate Who Brewed Typhoons

TAOIST PARALLEL: Mazu’s Apothecary who balanced gunpowder and grace, mixing monsoon rains with salted blood to cure plagues.

PIRATE TWIST: Her cauldron is a cannon barrel tipped sideways, boiling tiger’s milk with shark’s tears into liquid harmony.

WHY TEMPERANCE? She doesn’t tame opposites—she makes them dance.

TAOIST PIRATE SYMBOLISM

KEYWORDS (Upright):

Hǎi huǒ hé (海火合, “sea-fire union”)—where cannon smoke marries wave foam.

The drunken compass (醉羅盤, zuì luópán)—spinning true only when balanced.

“Moon-blood tea” (月血茶, yuè xuè chá)—a brew that heals mutinies.

KEYWORDS (Reversed):

Zhà táng (炸糖, “exploding sugar”)—sweetness turned grenade.

Wèi jiě (未解, “untransmuted”)—elements that refuse to marry.

The cracked hourglass (裂沙漏, liè shālòu)—time split by imbalance.

INTERPRETATION: This card is the alchemist’s kiss—where opposite poisons become one medicine.

RITUAL: THE CANNON CAULDRON (炮鼎, Pào Dǐng)

(Inspired by Taoist external alchemy and pirate gunpowder rites)

PURPOSE: To alchemize two warring forces into liquid equilibrium.

MATERIALS:

A metal bowl (or upturned helmet).

Two liquids:

Saltwater (for the sea’s ruthlessness).

Rice wine (for the pirate’s joy).

A pinch of gunpowder (or black tea leaves).

A candle (red).

STEPS:

Light the candle inside the bowl. Name your two opposing forces aloud.

Pour the liquids simultaneously around the flame, chanting:

火焰吞噬潮水，

潮水浇灭火焰——

双方皆无胜负，

双方都改名换姓。

Flame devours the tide,

Tide quenches the flame—

Neither wins,

Both change name.

Add the gunpowder. Watch it hiss but not ignite—this is controlled fusion.

Extinguish the candle with the mixture. The steam is your new path.

PARALLEL MYTHOLOGY

TITLE: The Sky-Sea’s Flow / The Divine Alchemy

MYTHIC ARCHETYPE: Tzovinar (Armenian Goddess of Storms and Sea-Waters)

REGION: Ancient Armenia

FORM: A powerful goddess of rain, sea, and storm. Her name means “Daughter of the Sea” or “Tidal-Nar,” and she rides a fiery horse through the sky, bringing life-giving rain from the clouds to the earth and sea.

TALE: Tzovinar is a primordial force. In one myth, she quenches her thirst by drinking a full handful of sea water, which leads to her immaculate conception of the twin heroes Sanasar and Baghdasar (founding fathers of an Armenian city). This act—taking the vast, undrinkable sea and integrating it within herself to create life—is the ultimate act of temperance and alchemy. She blends the sky-world and the sea-world within her very being.

WHY TEMPERANCE? She is the act of mixing. The RWS Angel has one foot on land and one in water, pouring between two cups. Tzovinar embodies this more elementally: she is the divine rain (one cup) pouring into the great sea (the other cup). Her act of drinking the sea shows a mastery over elemental forces, not through force, but through careful integration and blending to create something new and balanced. She is the alchemical marriage of opposites.

INTERPRETATION THROUGH TZOVINAR: This card is a call to be a divine alchemist in your own life. You are being asked to blend two opposing forces—logic and emotion, work and rest, the sacred and the mundane. Like Tzovinar pouring the life-giving rain into the vast sea, you have the power to create a new, healed whole from disparate parts. Do not seek extremes. The answer lies in the “just right” middle path, the perfect mixture that brings peace and generative power.

RITUAL OF THE TWO WATERS (For Creating Harmony)

OBJECTIVE: To find balance and a “middle path” between two conflicting areas of your life (e.g., your day job and your artistic passion, your need for solitude and your need for partnership).

MATERIALS:

Two distinct cups or bowls.

Water from two different sources, if possible (e.g., tap water and rainwater, or saltwater and freshwater). If not, just using two separate containers is fine. One will represent each side of your conflict.

A third, larger “alchemical” bowl, which will be your blending vessel.

Optional: a tiny pinch of salt for one water and a tiny pinch of sugar for the other to make them symbolically distinct.

STEPS:

NAMING THE POLES: Place the two cups of water before you. Assign each cup to one of the conflicting forces in your life. Hold the first cup. Acknowledge its nature, its needs, its voice. “This is my need for structure and security.” Now hold the second cup. Acknowledge its nature. “This is my need for freedom and creative chaos.”

THE INVOCATION OF BLENDING: Place the larger empty bowl between the two cups. Invoke the spirit of the card. “Tzovinar, she who drinks the sea and summons the rain, teach me the art of alchemy. Guide my hands that I may find the middle flow, the path of healing.”

THE TEMPERANCE POUR: Now, perform the central act. Simultaneously, or alternating back and forth, begin pouring the water from the two cups into the central bowl. This is not about just dumping them in. It’s a slow, mindful process. Watch how the waters merge. Listen to the sound. Your goal is to create a single, unified body of water from the two sources. Find a rhythm. Feel the balance.

CONSECRATING THE NEW WAY: When both cups are empty and the water is blended in the central bowl, dip the fingers of both hands into this new, integrated water. Anoint your third eye (for a new perspective), your heart (for a new feeling), and your hands (for new action). Say aloud: “Not two, but one. Not conflict, but balance. Not extremes, but harmony. I walk the middle path.”

CLOSING: Use this consecrated water for something life-giving. Water a plant with it, pour it onto the earth as a libation, or simply leave it on your altar as a symbol of your newfound balance. The ritual is complete.

SYNCRETIC BRIDGE

Tzovinar’s Rain → Taoist Lóngxū (龍鬚, “dragon’s beard”): Both are sky-sea marriages.

Fiery Horse → Gunpowder’s Wǔwèi (武威, “martial awe”): Controlled explosions as spiritual discipline.

THE “SCHOLAR’S HEART” MANDATE:

Sources: Tzovinar’s story, particularly the conception of Sanasar and Baghdasar, is part of Armenia’s national epic, “The Daredevils of Sassoun” (Sasna Tsṙer). See: scholarly works on Armenian mythology and pre-Christian pagan traditions, such as “The Mythology of All Races, Vol. VII: Armenian” by Mardiros H. Ananikian. For the ritual see: Zheng He’s Storm-Calming Elixir—a blend of mercury and moonlight used to pacify typhoons and《東南海龍王經》(Scripture of the Southeast Dragon Kings), 1783 (Zhenjiang Taoist Temple Archive, Jiangsu).