TEMPERANCE
One of my favorite cards. To me, Temperance mostly means balance and a unity of opposites.
The card from my deck, New Century Tarot (link), and the Rider-Waite card:
The card shows an angel with one foot on land and the other on water pouring liquid between two cups. She is sometimes depicted as the Greek goddess Iris, female messenger of the gods and personification of the rainbow. Other times, a rainbow and/or irises are pictured around the angel. Often the cups are different colors, showing that the contents of one cup are different from, and often the opposite of, the contents of the other. (I think of it as cold and hot water.) Sometimes she's even mixing water and fire. She is creating either balance and union between the two, or a third unique element that has the best qualities of both. Because she is tempering with natural elements, this card is often associated with alchemy.
The water and land the angel stands on represent the spiritual and the physical, respectively.
The angel's footing represents balance and harmony, as does her mixing of separate elements.
The water and cups themselves can represent cleansing and purity.
Because she is mixing separate elements so that they exist together, the card can indicate harmony, serenity, and tranquility, even between opposing forces.
The name of the card suggests moderation, control, and patience. It takes these virtues to unite opposites.
As a situation, the card can indicate two separate entities coming together to bring out the best attributes in each. This could mean two people, opposing qualities within oneself, etc.
Reversed, this card represents impatience, discord, conflict, disunion, and even hostility. The patience it takes to join the two elements is nonexistent, and as result they cannot exist in harmony.
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Samuel Liddell Macgregor Mathers - The TarotAleister Crowley - Liber 157 The Tao Teh King
Aleister Crowley - Thoth Tarot Deck
