Melody
Articulacy, sincerity.
Although the sound waves that comprise pitch occur over time as well as in space, our experience of pitch is aligned with the eternal present. There is a profound beingness in a single note: it floats unattached, its beginning and end are irrelevant; it is only sound, only now. When pitches begin to succeed one another, however—when melody arises—duration comes into play, as do the horizontal, time-based qualities of rhythm. Melody is the verticality of being come alive in the horizontality of process; it is pitch made language in the body of time.
Melodies pass down through generations; their language is universal and transcends both culture and era. They are the stories that our hearts tell and that our hearts hear; they are the lingua franca of feeling. They cannot lie: truer words cannot be spoken.
Melody is an Elemental card. It represents language and the issues that arise around language: intelligibility, articulacy, comprehension. Because of its inherent candor, Melody is also aligned with truth and sincerity.