Barleywine
Hi Barleywine. I find it interesting that Sagittarius is alloted the Temperance card because not only is Sagittarius fiery and "hot headed", but in astrology is the sign of "hoof and mouth disease." In other words, always putting their foot in their mouth....about as remote from actual temperance as one can get. Just curious what your thoughts on that might be.
My thought is that astrology and tarot are sometimes strange bedfellows! I've done a complete rethinking of all the Major Arcana astrological correspondences since I'm not entirely satisfied with a few of the Golden Dawn attributions, which don't seem like sound astrological matches. Paul Foster Case went to some Herculean lengths in his attempts to justify them, but I remain unconvinced on a few. Of Temperance, he says "The idea is that vibration is the basis of manifestation, and that all vibration is essentially like sound, the mode of vibration which is particularly associated with the Hierophant." (He previously mentioned that "14" reduces to "5.") "Vibration is fluctuating motion, undulation, pulsation, alteration. It takes wave-forms." He also said "All such work" (experiential proof-testing of hypotheses) "consists in the examination and modification of various modes of vibration." I find this revealing because Temperance is one I don't particularly connect with astrologically, and was thinking of moving Sagittarius - the most philosophical and traditionally religious of signs, also connected with "higher learning" - to the Hierophant, and replacing it with Gemini, the premier sign of duality and its harmonization (I can't really see having two cards to cover the "alchymical marriage" the way Crowley has it, although his reasoning seems legitimate otherwise). I'm not the first to associate Gemini with Temperance, but I had to get there on my own.
Tying this into the legendary tactlessness of Sagittarians - at least the unevolved types - it might be that their excessive bluntness is an exaggeration or deformation of the "wave-form" Case talks about. Call it a "disturbance in the Force." At the heart of it, though, I think it has more to do with the observation that they can't really fathom why anyone wouldn't think they're right.
ETA: By the way, "moderation" and "abstemiousness" are not the original concepts associated with the action of "tempering," which involved altering the properties of something - traditionally metal - to improve its quality for a particular purpose. Temperance as a form of self-denial is something else altogether. I prefer the term "mediation" for Temperance rather than "moderation."