Temperance
From Tarotpedia
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[edit] History and Iconography
[edit] Early representations
The earliest known list of the Trumps (Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis) calls this card La Temperentia (Temperance). It's one of the three cards that represent the cardinal virtues in the Tarot, the others being Justice and Strength. The fourth cardinal virtue, Prudence or Wisdom, is strangely absent.
In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot, the card shows a woman with a rather bored expression and a blue dress that is adorned with golden stars. She pours liquid from a decorated porcelain vase in her right hand, into another one held at a lower level in her left hand. The act of mixing the contents of both may be symbolic of mixing water and wine, or may refer to a proper balance of the four humors, as Place suggests in The Tarot. Moreover, according to Van Rijnberk in Le Tarot, the act of pouring liquid from one urn into another was taken as the synonym of metempsychosis in ancient Greece.
The Rosenwald Sheet depicts a seated woman who grasps two vases that are connected by a thin spout of liquid. Like the other two cardinal virtues on the sheet, she has some kind of polygonal halo around her head. On the Cary Sheet, a richly dressed woman is portrayed in profile. She is crowned and with a slight smile pours the contents of a vase into a smaller goblet. Behind her is some sort of pillar, which is probably part of her throne. Unfortunately, the base of the card hasn’t been preserved.
In the Tarot de Marseille, La Temperance (Temperance) shows a winged woman with a flower in her hair. As on the Rosenwald Sheet, the two vases she holds in her hands are connected by a spout of (sometimes brightly colored) liquid, even though they are held diagonally at opposite ends. In the Dodal, her breasts are very much accentuated, and in some Marseille Tarots, the balance of the card is stressed by showing her in a dress that is partly blue and partly red.
[edit] 20th-century representations
Temperance in the Waite-Smith Tarot depicts an androgynous archangel with a long, white robe, mixing the contents of two golden chalices with a concentrated expression. In his hair he wears the symbol of the sun and on his chest is that of a triangle in a square (which stand for spirit and matter respectively) and the Hebrew name of God. The balance of the card is also reflected by the way he stands with one foot in a pool of water and with the other on solid ground. Irises are depicted as well, connecting this card with the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris. The background shows a long, winding path that leads to distant mountains, with a crown shining brightly in the sky.
[edit] Suggested Divinatory Meanings
Temperance speaks of (inner) calm, balance and a harmonious union of opposites. It suggests finding the middle way, and may come up to signify agreements, understanding and compromises. You may have to show patience and forgiveness, or may have to be careful to do things in moderation.
[edit] Attributions
These are not accepted outside of those who follow such attributions
[edit] General |
[edit] Golden Dawn oriented (and derivatives) |
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Numeral : XIIII; XIV; 14
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[edit] In other languages
- Dutch: Gematigheid
- French: La Tempérance
- German: Die Mäßigkeit
- Hungarian: Megfontoltság
- Italian: La Temperanza
- Portuguese: A Temperança
- Spanish: La Templanza
