Sencha

What this is

Sencha is the Mercurial tea of this set, the everyday green tea of Japan, steamed rather than pan-fired, brewing to a clear grassy-green cup. Bright, fresh, and clarifying, it sharpens the wit and clears the head. It is the quickest and most alert of the seven, the cup for the working mind.

What it governs

It is set under Mercury and so over Wednesday, sharing the Mercurial virtues of clarity, quickness, and grassy freshness. Its domain is the sharpening of the wit and the clearing of the head, the bright green clarity that wakes the mind. It governs the day's call to think clearly and move quickly.

Its properties

Its colour is clear grassy green, its taste fresh and vegetal with a clean astringency, its character clarity and quickness. The upright virtue of Sencha is Mercurial clarity, the grassy freshness that sharpens the wit and clears the mind; its shadow is only the over-astringency of too strong a steep. A cup of it is the messenger-spirit's quickness made drinkable, the same Mercury-force that Ophiel wields in arts and letters brought down to the sharpening of your own thought. The bright green leaf is the planet's quickness in the cup.

Where else it appears

Sencha is Mercury's note steeped in a cup, the same quicksilver that is Ophiel's metal and Raphael's swiftness and the intellect of Hod, here made grassy and bright. Its clearing of the head echoes the Mercurial rule over mind and message that every system gives the planet. The Mercury that teaches all arts swiftly in the grand telling sharpens your single thought in the cup. Set them together and it is one quick clarity at two scales.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

On The Day, Sencha is the tea-face of Wednesday, beside Mercury, the archangel Raphael, the fox, and the spirit Ophiel. When it appears the day rewards a clear quick mind: brew the bright grassy cup, clear your head, write and speak and decide with sharpened thought. Read it as the day's clarity, the messenger-force put to your own quickness.

Why it matters

Sencha carries the truth that the great Mercurial intelligence is available in the simplest cup, that clarity can be steeped as well as studied. It matters because the Wednesday self works by clear thought. It asks you to clear and sharpen your mind before you spend it.

Correspondences

planet

Mercury

element

Air

zodiac

Gemini

sephirah

Hod

day

Wednesday

colour

Grassy green

metal

Quicksilver

tarot

The Magician