Temperance
Temperance is the art of blending opposites with patience, bringing moderation, healing, and a steady middle path between extremes.
Major Arcana XIV
Upright keywords
- balance
- moderation
- patience
- harmony
- integration
- healing
Meaning when upright
Temperance shows an angel pouring water between two cups, one foot on land and one in the water, patiently combining elements into something new. It counsels moderation, balance, and the slow alchemy by which opposites are blended into harmony. Waite's divinatory words, economy, moderation, frugality, management, and accommodation, describe the practical side of the same virtue. Healing, cooperation, and steady progress are favored over dramatic moves.
On the card
- winged angel pouring water between two cups
- The alchemical blending of opposites; Waite's essences of life poured from chalice to chalice.
- one foot in the water and one on the land
- Waite's illustration of the nature of the essences: balance between feeling and practicality, the unconscious and the material.
- solar disk on the angel's forehead
- Waite's sign of the sun upon his forehead: spiritual illumination.
- triangle within a square on the breast
- Waite's square and triangle of the septenary: spirit (three) within matter (four), making seven.
- Hebrew letters of the Divine Name (YHVH) at the neckline of the robe
- The Tetragrammaton: the angel's work of blending proceeds from the divine.
- path winding up to the mountains toward a radiant crown of light
- Waite's direct path to the heights, with a crown seen vaguely in the great light: moderation leads to attainment.
- yellow irises by the water
- Iris, messenger goddess of the rainbow, linking heaven and earth.
- red wings and white robe
- Spirit and vital energy joined with purity; Waite says the figure is neither male nor female.
- still pool at the angel's feet
- The waters of emotion and the unconscious, from which the upward path begins.
In Waite’s words
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible to man in his incarnation. All the conventional emblems are renounced herein.
So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas. It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonises the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going.
- Divinatory meaning
Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation.
- Reversed
Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry the Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.
Correspondences
- Element
- Fire
- Astrology
- Sagittarius
- Hebrew letter
- Samekh (ס)
- Path on the Tree of Life
- Path 25: Tiphareth – Yesod
- Number
- Fourteen (1 + 4 = 5) channels the upheaval of five into careful combination; after Death's ending, Temperance blends the elements anew.
To reflect on
- Where am I swinging between extremes?
- What two parts of my life need to be blended more gracefully?
- What would patience look like here?
In your readings
Hasn’t appeared in your readings yet.
Ask about this card
Marguerite, the traditionalist, answers from Waite’s text, what is drawn on the card and its correspondences. You can choose another reader in settings.