Harp

What this is

A standing harp, its strings ready, set at the head of the twenty-sixth folio. It is the emblem of harmony, of feeling given voice, and of the concord that music makes audible. Its verses speak of joy, of accord between people, and of the matter brought into tune.

What it governs

Presides over harmony, joy, concord, and feeling given voice. Folio 26. It rules the agreement of parts into one chord, in music and in life alike.

Its properties

Its colour is gold and the warm brown of polished wood; its number twenty-six; its art the tuning of many strings to one accord. The quality is harmony, the gift of bringing discordant things into tune, the joy that rises when they agree. In shadow it is the string out of true that spoils the chord, sweetness used to charm and deceive, concord faked over a real division.

Where else it appears

The same note is David's harp that soothed the troubled king; the lyre of Orpheus that moved stone and beast; the music of the spheres the old philosophers heard in the turning heavens, each planet a note; the harmony the Pythagoreans made the very order of the cosmos. One harp, many strings tuned to the same accord.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

It surfaces as the Folio of the Day and as a closing folio, and it is the natural folio for questions of happiness, of friendship, and of whether a matter will come into accord. When it heads your day, tune yourself to those around you and seek the chord rather than the contest; the day rewards concord. In a reading it answers questions of joy and friendship with yes and counsels you to mend the string that is out of true.

Why it matters

It stands twenty-sixth because the deepest happiness is harmony, parts agreeing, and the Harp is the oracle's emblem of that accord. It asks you to bring your life into tune rather than to win the argument.

Correspondences

planet

Venus

element

Air

zodiac

Libra

number

26

sephirah

Netzach

day

Friday

colour

Gold, warm brown

metal

Copper