Aquarian: Temperance

This is one of the cards (the Sun and the Moon are others) where the RWS symbolism that most of us are used to is taken away, and all we are left with is the bare minimum.

I don't think that's a bad thing. Because not having traditional symbolism (or much symbolism at all) makes you develop your own meanings, and also makes you think about what a certain card actually means to you. That's what I did, anyway. (I was used to lots of symbolism in other decks, and it took me a while to wrap my head around the Aquarian.)

Take Temperance, for example. We have all seen the RWS Temperance with the angel Michael pouring water from one cup to another a zillion times. That would say Temperance to you, doesn't it?

Not with the Aquarian. The card simply shows an (heavily stylized) angel. That's it. That's all you get. So what does it mean?

At first I generaly asociated the card with the standard isssue Temperance meanings. And then I had an idea: Power.

The best way I can describe it is the line from "Spiderman": With great power comes great responsibility. An angel has lots of power that's way over anything a human being has, since they are a higher level of being then us (presumably.) But the angel uses its power to help others, instead of causing harm and chaos.

My feeling is that this Temperance card is about using your powers and abilities (what ever they may be and however much you have) responsibly and in moderation. But that's just my meaning.

What do you think? Do you have different meanings?

The LWB says: Mature adaptation to whatever life offers; individualized existence. Reverse: conflicting interests in business or personal life; unfortunate combinations.

I've never been able to connect with this card. I took it out & spent a bit of time after reading your interpretation, but I still can't connect.

The artwork is very busy. Palladini may be trying to combine the unlike elements of curves & straight lines for symbolic value. There are highly textured overlapping short horizontal curves on the front of the angel, & right next to them, the smooth long straight vertical shafts of the wings.

The angel's face is serene, which a temperate person's would be. It has always read female to me, but it's fairly androgynous, & could be read either way.

Well, as I mentioned before, I have issues with this card. The fact that the "angel" is doing nothing but being present in a big way stumped me when I first saw the card.
To me it looks more like a medicine woman with huge head dress than an angel, and very bird-like as well. I looked up the definition of the word temperance so that maybe I could get some clarity in trying to relate it to the picture. The definition according to dictionary.com:
1. moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.
2. habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, esp. in the use of alcoholic liquors.
3. total abstinence from alcoholic liquors.
I totally see that in the RWS, but not quite in this card. In my mind the only way for that the definition, the RWS, and this one connect is for me to see it as a medicine woman dressed in medicine woman garb who is present to help in a big way with self control issues and/or a person using their personal power to address self controll issues. The fact that it's card 14 which reduces to 5 numerologically speaking indicates big, forcefull change. Seeing as how the woman takes up the entire card magnifies the amount of control or power needed to affect change. And a medicine woman would call on the forces of nature and the heavens to do what they do as well.
Good enough for me...I guess

I'm so grateful there is a study group about this card. I can't figure it out.

"Spiritual Tarot" says the bird/feather imagery connects it to the divine feminine (I guess that's angelic). I can only think of the feathers lifting the person out of the contradiction of opposites to create a new path, but I wouldn't get that just by looking at the card.

I like the medicine woman idea. Each wing has slightly different brown feathers, almost as if it comes from two different birds. A medicine person would need to mediate between two different spiritual forces.