The Untrained

From the Greenwood Tarot, Balance (Temperance); from the Rune Cards, Oak (Ac):

Discipline is not the enemy of spontaneity but rather its foundation. Without discipline, our actions are dictated by fleeting impulses, external influences, and the whims of an untrained mind.

—Raffaello Palandri

Potter's Temperance shows a blending of dualities that creates someone who is grounded and at one with themselves. This card is not meant to rain on our parade or take away our fun. But it does ask us to consider what is pulling on our leash, what is driving our extremes in thought or behavior. The problem with extremes is that they always pour kerosene on the bonfire - we find neither peace nor contentment. Oak's rune poem reads: 

The oak fattens the flesh of pigs for the children of men.

Often it traverses the gannet's bath,

and the ocean proves whether the oak keeps faith

in honorable fashion. 

 

The poem praises the oak for what it offers, yet note the last line about the ocean. It refers to the oak's strength being tested by the ocean when it is used in the building of ships. We need inner strength to resist the pull on our leashes, to develop the freedom to choose rather than simply follow our impulses.