The 78 Cards
Temperance
Major Arcana, card 14. Astrology: Sagittarius.
The middle way. Mixing things in the right measure, slowly.
The picture
An angel with great red wings and a white robe stands at the edge of a pool, one foot in the water and one on the land. On the robe's chest is a square with a triangle inside it. The angel pours water from one golden cup into the other. Yellow irises grow beside the pool. A path runs from the water up towards distant mountains, where a golden light shines above the peaks.
Upright
Watch the water. It runs between the two cups in a steady stream, and the angel is in no rush. Pour too fast and it spills. Pour too slow and nothing happens.
When Temperance turns up, the card asks for balance and patience. Two things that seem to pull in different directions can be blended: work and rest, head and heart, what you want and what someone else needs. One foot on the land and one in the water says you can stand in both worlds at once.
Sagittarius rules this card, the archer, always aiming at something far off. The path in the picture leads to those mountains and the light above them. Temperance is how you get there: small steps, the right mix, and the patience to let it come together in its own time.
Reversed
Reversed, Temperance is almost always too much or too little. Too much is excess: the extra drink, the overwork, the spending, the swing from one extreme to the other. Too little is the life with no mixing at all, everything kept in separate cups, all work and no play or all rest and no purpose.
To tell which one, look at the last month. If you keep going over the top, the card asks you to pour more slowly. If your days have gone flat and one note, it asks you to add something new to the cup and see what the blend becomes.
When it turns up
Where in your life would a little more balance, poured slowly, make the biggest difference?
Temperance has also been a Tarot Card of the Week. Read that post to see the card at work on a real week.
If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.
Related pages
Temperance as a Birth Card · The Twenty Two Paths
The 78 Cards
Every card in the deck, upright and reversed.
See every page and post in the Contents.
The Members area has songs, Moon pages to print, the Sunday article a day early and a first look at new Library pages.