Understanding temperance

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 29 Jun 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Belladonna	29 Jun 2003
Writing in my tarot journal, yesterday, I discovered I had very few notes on Temperance, so I sat down to contemplate this card a little bit. Here are a few things I came up with: Temperance is the blending of two opposites two create something new. (alchemy, cooking, medecine, weather) While the Lovers is about choice, committement and consequence, Temperance is the process the Lovers engage in, perhaps producing something like the Empress. Lovers + Temperance= Empress Temperance represents healing in all aspects because she manifests her desires not through the art of relationship, as the magician does, but by blending the possible with the "impossible"

Alex	29 Jun 2003
Meanings for the spiritually undevelloped like myself: Mixing substances in the hope that it will become gold. When things are too hot, trying to cool down. Making a lot of fuss but nothing really getting done. From one cup to another, from the other into the one again... Alex.

Baby Owl	29 Jun 2003
Before I really studied this card, the name always made me think of Carrie Nation and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. (For more about Carrie, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande4.html ) Although Carrie was in favor of moderation, she behaved immoderately. You could see her as the Tarot's Temperance "reversed." To list just a few of the keywords for the reversal: fanaticism, overreaction, going overboard. Whereas Temperance blends two opposites into a harmonious whole, Carrie Nation ran full speed into her opponents and took no prisoners.

Alobar	29 Jun 2003
i could never relate to this card at all until i saw the Haindl version... Alchemy. then it made sense to me.

Inana	01 Jul 2003
Temperance. Tells sooooooo many things to me. Is a very nice card. Love it. :) Make you this question: What represents to move the water from one amphor to the other? Is mixing, blending, putting harmony in the things you do. No drop of water spills out from the cups, its not an easy process, so sure it takes some time to master on it. Is needed to do it with calm, time, pondering and with a steady hand. Is about giving and receiving. First one cup is empty, then the water fills it, after the water moves to the other cup. When doing it, the properties of both recipients are mixing. Is exchanging, sharing. So, this is love. Its an angel who is doing this process, think about that little angel in the Lovers card. Now you have taken your path, its time to walk through it, let the angel lead the way. Keep your emotions moving, while flowing them are alive. The two recipients (body & soul, man & woman, positive & negative or wathever opposites/complementaries you like) are needed to make the game work, otherwise the water is spilled and the harmony of the universe is broken. Temperance is about maintaining the right, preciouss and hard to achieve middle balance point. Is like the cycle of life or the energy in the universe, always changing, moving, balancing, but no one knows what it will bring after, cause we dont know when the angel will stop the equilibrium game. Temperance reminds me too those old hourglasses. The sand moving down, then inverting the process. Time. Time runing, time in motion. But is slow time. So, this means also patience and things that can go for long. On the bad side, to be always moving the water or turning the hourglass can lead to nothing (like when one stirs up the same thoughts all the time but doesnt do nothing to get it in action, or simply doesnt achieve a conclusion). Temperance is more about the process than the results. And im talking too much.

Belladonna	03 Jul 2003
That was lovely, Inana, and gave me a lot to think about. I like how you emphasize that it is the back and forth, harmony, balance that keeps things flowing. I think of the delicate homeostasis of the body- the acid and alkaline content that must always be just right lest illness or even death ensue. But, more accurately, the beauty of the Temperance card is that the balance she acheives is not utterly stagnant, with equal amounts of water in each jug. It is the flow that is important. The need to experience both sides, empty and full, action and rest, giving and taking, waking and sleeping. And perhaps we do need a shake up sometimes that ensures we are not stuck in a rut and continue to grow... is that where the Devil comes in?

Thirteen	03 Jul 2003
Wang has a lot of fascinating thing to say about Temperance in the QUABALISTIC TAROT. One thing to note, especially, is that it's not just water flowing back and forth into those cups. This is an exchange and mixing of FIRE and WATER. The "water of life" with the "fire of the spirit" to be exact. Feminine with masculine, yin with yang. Temperance is described by Crowley as a "womb;" an interesting and apt description. That place where sperm and egg mix to create a lifeform. Thus, the Lovers don't merely flow together emotionally and as partners, they literally come together, consumating their marriage and producing a child. And as Inana points out, there is also a perpetual ebb and flow here (as evidenced by the infinity sign over the Angel's head). One cup to the other is how you mix and merge, how you temper. Qabalaistically speaking, Temperance is one of the most important cards. On the other hand, the Angel always reminds me of a bartender mixing a drink, so maybe it shouldn't be taken that seriously ;)

Inana	05 Jul 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Belladonna But, more accurately, the beauty of the Temperance card is that the balance she acheives is not utterly stagnant, with equal amounts of water in each jug. It is the flow that is important. The need to experience both sides, empty and full, action and rest, giving and taking, waking and sleeping. And perhaps we do need a shake up sometimes that ensures we are not stuck in a rut and continue to grow... is that where the Devil comes in? Yes, the flow, the movement is the important thing about Temperance, knowing and experiencing both sides and mixing them. Where the devil comes in... well, sometimes we need to move and try other things. But is hard to me to relate the devil here... You mean when feeling trapped in a path that before was right but after makes you feel unhappy and chained? Quote: Originally posted by Thirteen On the other hand, the Angel always reminds me of a bartender mixing a drink, so maybe it shouldn't be taken that seriously Ok, who wants a cocktail? This round is on me :D :CL

Yatima	14 Jul 2003
Oswald Wirth in the late 1900s remined readers that the Temperance, after Death, is a symbol for the fluidity of our life-substance that is not dead with Death but on the journey to selflessness; a journey that, in my eyes, ends with rebirth in the Sun: as children...

Trogon	15 Jul 2003
I've been following this thread since it started. Great comments by everyone, you've all helped me a lot with my understanding of this card. And it is very fortunate that you did as it came up in a reading for a friend of mine just last night (actually, the very early morning of the 14th, interestingly enough). I had generally felt this card to be a pretty positive one, so I was thrown off a little bit with this reading. The reading was a 3-card "Issue-Blockage-Advice" card and was thrown to help her with working through several personal issues she's been struggling with over a long period of time. Temperence came up in the "Issue" position... as something which she needed to work on... a problem for her. Fortunately, as I said above, this thread had already helped me with this card. I felt that Temperence here was saying that she was mixing things which really needed to be kept separated. Sometimes we mix things, or blend things, either accidentally or intentionally, which should be kept separate. Chlorine Bleach and Ammonia for instance, or alcohol and driving, or Tarot readings at a Jehova's Witness temple. Some things shouldn't be mixed, or should only be mixed at certain times, or in very specific formulations. Specifically, for my friend, it came to mind that she was mixing her own real feelings and emotions with negative feelings about herself which had been imposed on her from external sources. She had lived with an abusive husband for several years, as well has having to put up with an abusive stepmother since she was in her late teens. These two people had been dumping a lot of negativity on her over the years, and she had begun to believe it. She was taking these external feelings and accepting them as, not only true, but was believing that they were her own. It was an issue which had come up in other readings for her, but not in these specific terms. I thought it was a very interesting take on Temperence.

Shoshin	17 Jul 2003
Yesterday, it hit me out of the blue (turquoise), Temperance is literally and figuratively the middle path! It's the middle path of Buddhism. "The Buddha preached a Dhamma the like of which was not heard before. According to the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta of the Samyutta Nikaya , the Buddha disclosed the Middle Path between extremes . He said 'Avoiding both these extremes, the Ta-thagata ,the Perfect One, has discovered the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowl-edge, and leads to calm , to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana'" http://www.metta.lk/english/middle.html On the tree of life it's on the middle pillar on the path between Yesod and Tipharet. It balances the extremes of thinking and feeling on either side. It's the great equalizer, the first law of thermodynamics. For example, "Heat energy moves from a hotter body to a colder body upon contact of the two bodies. If two bodies at different temperatures are allowed to remain in contact, the system of two bodies will eventually reach a thermal equilibrium (they will have the same temperature). http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/~chem130a/sauer/outline/firstlaw.html#plays Temperature and temperance are both from the Latin root temperare to moderate, mix. Temperature's archaic meaning was complextion or temperment. In medieval times complextion was the combination of the hot, cold, moist and dry qualites of a body. Where else have we heard this? The same above qualities combine to make the elemental attributes of the suits of the tarot. Temperance is the perfect balance of all the elements on the middle level. Higher up, this same idea is related in the High Priestess. Lower down, by The World.

jmd	18 Jul 2003
Some of my very early notes on this card point to the word's etymological connections to the tempering at the forge, in which, as also mentioned by Thirteen above, fire and water are used, in order for the desired proper outcome to be achieved. Certainly this can only be achieved with the correct mixing of elements - the golden proportion. The middle path, in this instance, reminds me of precisely this sense of the striving to achieve to correct alchemical balance of the components to be mixed, fluidly integrated through the process, in this case, of dissolution. I am also reminded of the principles of homeopathy, in which it is not so much the amount of chemically active ingredients, but the force-field which the progressively diluted (in liquid vortices) substance generates which gives it its power of transmutation - for health or otherwise. Kabalistically, some connect this card with one of the mother letters (Mem), others with Nun, yet others to Heh. Personally, I find the deepest association is with Nun, for myriad reasons which are probably peripheral to this discussion (& I suspect that Thirteen connects it to Mem, given her comments mentioned above). Other worthwhile comments have also been posted in the Historical and esoteric section of the forum...

Alex	20 Jul 2003
The core of homeopathic remedies is not exactly the dillution, but the dynamization/potentization methods associated to it. Substances are "agitated" or "shaked" every time they are dilluted. That sort of goes well with the image of Temperance, in which the "substance" is being passed from one cup into another/ It's indeed an interesting association you've made, jmd. Thanks for that. Alex. Quote: Originally posted by jmd I am also reminded of the principles of homeopathy, in which it is not so much the amount of chemically active ingredients, but the force-field which the progressively diluted (in liquid vortices) substance generates which gives it its power of transmutation - for health or otherwise.

allibee	20 Jul 2003
I am currently working on my own deck, so my interpretations tend to have a somewhat mythological base at the moment, LOL, so do forgive me ... In my deck Temperance has become IRIS, the rainbow winged messenger - usually of Hera - who was asked by Zeus to bring Demeter to Olympus, so that they may find a solution to the abduction of Persephone their daughter, by her uncle Haides. Here Iris is the Intermediary, entrusted with the future of God/Mortal/Famine relations. She was requested to sweet talk Demeter to the discussion table. In less difficult times Iris was seen by the farmers as the the rainbow itself ... a link from heaven to earth, and they made offerings to her that she would take the water from the land and deliver it to the clouds so that it may rain upon their crops. And her images abound with her ever present Golden chalice for that very task :O) the taking of water from one place and depositing it again in a different manner, for the good of mankind. But remember, without crops and sustenance for the people there would be no sacrifices or offerings to the Gods, and the Gods of Olympus held a very dim view of that scenario ... allibee

punchinella	25 Jul 2003
Having read the above (at times highly complex!) thread, I feel compelled to offer my own private take on temperance. Are there any other martial artists among us? Temperance is THE CARD for martial artists (&, I would imagine, athletes in general) . . . Well, at least (after strength) it's THE CARD for me . . . When I practice kata (forms) I can feel energy moving from outside my body--through the body, animating it--& out again in a constant stream . . . moreover, the energy that leaves eventually comes back to animate again . . . in other words, practicing kata produces something very much like a closed circuit of energy which surrounds & flows through me so that, if everything stays in balance, I can keep on going indefinitely without ever feeling fatigued. This state of perfect balance--this thing that I get a taste of every now & again, but would absolutely LOVE to be able to call up as a matter of routine--is temperance. Shoshin's view of temperance as the middle path of Buddhism is relevant, I think, here, because the particular art I'm studying (like most martial arts??) was originally, in Asia, a transmission of Buddhist monks. & I've always kind of seen time spent in the dojo as 'practice' or meditation in this sense. Soooo--the middle path, the middle path. --That headache you get when you attempt to do energy work without adaquate grounding? Or to suck too much up for no reason other than greed? That would be what, then: temperance reversed? --P.

allibee	25 Jul 2003
Punchinella, that is a wonderful view of Temperance! Each card and each deck should mean something different to each of us, and how we chose to relate to it will naturally be different..... don't be afraid to differ!

punchinella	25 Jul 2003
Well allibee, the Iris thing is rather gorgeous too isn't it. Something like--the larger picture? The whole-earth take?? --P.

The Understanding temperance thread was originally posted on 29 Jun 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.