Amelia Hruby: 00:00

Hello, and welcome to my tiny tarot practice. I'm Amelia Hruby, and today is my birthday. At least the day this episode's coming out is my birthday. I don't know when you might be listening to it, but thank you for tuning in to the show.

Amelia Hruby: 00:20

My tiny tarot practice was a project where I did a self study of the tarot and I shared tiny episodes, typically five minutes or less on each card in the tarot. Because today is my birthday, I wanted to share a annual birthday ritual that I do that involves tarot. And this is something that I have learned from so many different tarot practitioners. I've learned it from Sarah Goddessdeener of the Moon Studio. I've learned it from Cecily Saylor of typewriter Tarot, and I know they've learned it from others.

Amelia Hruby: 01:00

So I want to be clear that there's a lineage behind this practice. But the practice itself is rather simple. It's calculating your card of the year. We do that with a bit of numerology and simple math. So to calculate your card of the year, you add the number of your birth month.

Amelia Hruby: 01:20

So January's '1, February's '2, March is '3, April is '4. It's April. My birthday is in April, so we have the number '4. Then you add that to the number of your birth date. So I was born on April 19.

Amelia Hruby: 01:36

So I'm adding 04/2019, and you add that to the current year. So 04/2025. When I add those numbers together, I get 2048, '2 thousand '40 '8, '2 zero '4 '8. And when I add the digits of that number together, 2 plus zero plus four plus eight, I get the number 14. So 14 is my number of the year, and we can take that number and see what it corresponds to in the major arcana.

Amelia Hruby: 02:12

And '14 corresponds to Temperance. So my card of the year is Temperance. Now we can also reduce that down to a single digit. If I look at '14 and add one plus four is five, then my card of the year or my teacher card for Temperance is the Hierophant. So in the year ahead for me, starting with this birthday and moving to my next one, my cards of the year are Temperance and the Hierophant.

Amelia Hruby: 02:41

These are the archetypes and energies that I will be in conversation with all year long. And on my birthday, I like to calculate my upcoming card or cards of the year and revisit the episodes that I've recorded about them. So in this mini bonus episode of my tiny tarot practice, I wanted to share this simple process that I had learned for calculating your card of the year. And then I thought I would re air the episodes for those two cards. So in just a moment, we will hear the episode for temperance or the description of temperance from that episode.

Amelia Hruby: 03:24

And then we will check-in with the Hierophant. Thank you so much for tuning in to my tiny tarot practice. If you are celebrating a spring birthday of your own, I wish you a very happy birthday, and I hope that your card of the year can guide you forward in the upcoming months. And if you like this show, I'll just share a gentle reminder that all of the episodes are free to listen to. If you would like them in a written form, I have created my Tiny Tarot zine where we have edited transcripts of all the episodes compiled with the Rider Waite Smith images from the tarot into a lovely PDF that you can reference anytime.

Amelia Hruby: 04:11

Thank you so much for tuning in to my tiny tarot practice. I'm going to sign off and go enjoy my birthday, and I will leave you with my reflections on temperance and the hero font. Temperance. In the Rider Waite Smith edition of the tarot, temperance features an angel wearing white with a triangle emblem on their chest. And they're standing with one foot in a river and one foot on land and pouring water from one cup to another.

Amelia Hruby: 04:48

Both their hands hold these golden chalices and we can see the water flowing between them. There are some beautiful flowers growing behind them and a road that leads off into the distance toward the sun. While the word temperance is often associated with moderation, I think that the theme of this card is closer to balance or alignment. Similar to what we saw in Justice where the theme was integrity, I've often felt like temperance is integrity embodied. It's integrity that goes so deep into your experience that it's become second nature.

Amelia Hruby: 05:32

Because as Rachel Pollock points out in 78 degrees of wisdom, temperance indicates the ability to combine spontaneity with knowledge. It provides a true and proper response to all situations as they arise. And I think that this can feel a little challenging or at least when I read it, it felt a little challenging. Like, how can you have a true and proper response to all situations? But when you are truly embodying your integrity, I think that it comes naturally to you.

Amelia Hruby: 06:09

It's an intrinsic quality. Of course, you have the right and appropriate response. It's the response that follows from your values. And that rightness and appropriateness or properness isn't determined by other people, it's determined by what matters to you. Temperance is also a card of the both and.

Amelia Hruby: 06:32

We see this figure on land and in water, suggesting that they can flow fluidly between different states. And also fluidly between the conscious and the subconscious or even the subconscious and the collective consciousness. It's where our individual values become so embedded in our actions that we're actually, I think, touching something deeper and more true about humanity. And what a beautiful bridge to build between these levels of experience, to flow between them like water, and to embrace that fluidity. The Hierophant.

Amelia Hruby: 07:20

In the Rider Waite Smith version of the deck, the Hierophant depicts a person on a throne. They are obviously a religious figure and they definitely look like a pope with a red cloak and vestments on as well as a golden crown, one hand held with two fingers up toward the sky, the other holding a scepter. There are two pillars in the background of this figure on the throne, evocative of the pillars in the high priestess. And in front of this person situated below them, perhaps kneeling or just at a lower distance, we see two figures who are in kind of very fancy tunics looking up at the Hierophant, and between them there are two keys crossed. With the Hierophant, we encounter a depiction of doctrine oriented religion.

Amelia Hruby: 08:17

And we see the Hierophant as the figure who holds the keys to the secrets and the sacred texts of that religion. And I think that if we're working with this archetype, there's an invitation to consider where are we seeking answers and what are those answers yielding? Are we holding on to answers in places where perhaps we can only ever hold questions? There are many ways that we wrap our lives around ideology, and I think the Hiraphat invites us to question that. Or at least that's the invitation I take up when I pull this card in a reading.

Amelia Hruby: 08:57

Thank you so much for listening to my tiny tarot practice and this exploration of the Hierophant. As I sign off today, I'll simply remind you that I'm Amelia Frube, and you are listening to my tiny tarot practice.