14. Temperance
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Number: 14
Card Title: Temperance
Esoteric Title: Daughter of the Reconcilers, The Bringer Forth of Life
Astrological Atttribution: Sagittarius
Elemental Attribution: Fire (hot, dry)
Dates & Timing: November 22 to December 21
Hebrew Letter: Samekh Prop 60
Color: Blue
Intelligence: Probationary Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Anger
Qabalistic Path: Path 25: 6 Tipareth to 7 Yesod
Translation of Path: The Sovereignty and Beauty of Foundation
Keywords: Tempering, Moderation, Modifying, Management, Compatibility, Timing, Accommodation, Realization, Trial, Testing, Equilibrium, Combining, Blending
Ill-Dignified:Discord, competition, conflict of interest, lack of cooperation, over reaction, out of sync, timing off, bad management, scattered impulsive.
Interpretation: Twin Peaks of Wisdom and Understanding. Map from mundane to celestial. Change of behavior for healthy lifestyle. Intelligence of Probation or Trial. Guidance from a trusted source. Making continual adjustments.
Reversed Interpretation: Oil & Water. Lack of Balance is causing stress. Quarrels and Disagreements, Energies wasted and scattered. Emotional stress causing frustration. Evaluate how things are going in your life. Slow down. Different approach is needed. Ill advised action. Not fully present. Jumping ahead. Going overboard. Over indulgence. Excessive spending and eating.
Rider-Waite Imagery
The Card of Temperance represents moderation and balance. The earliest meanings of the card are adjustment, tempering and modification. The archangel Michael is shown on this card. He is wearing the white cloak of purity and wisdom. One foot is on land and the other in the water. This is a balance of emotional and physical states. He is pouring water from one cup to another. The top cup represents conscious and the bottom cup sub-consciousness. This represents the union of masculine & feminine, active and passive.
The quality of intelligence associated with the temperance card is Probation or Trail. This is a mode of consciousness where theories are tested out. Knowledge is gained through first hand experience.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)
Part I: The Veil and its Symbols
14. Temperance. The winged figure of a female–who, in opposition to all doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this order of ministering spirits–is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connexion with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible to man in his incarnation. All the conventional emblems are renounced herein.
So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas. It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonises the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going.
The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]
Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot
14. 14th Hebrew letter (Nun).
ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE FOURTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT.
The hieroglyphic sense of the Nun is the offspring of the female; a son, a fruit of any kind, all things produced. This letter has therefore become the image of the being produced or reflected, the sign of individual and corporeal existence.
As a final it is the sign of augmentation ? (Nun as a final), and gives to the word which receives it all the individual extension of which the thing expressed is susceptible. Astronomically the Nun corresponds with the zodiacal sign of the Scorpion. In short the Nun expresses the production of any combination, the result of the action of the ascending or creative forces, and of the descending or destructive forces figured by the star of Solomon.
FOURTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT. Temperance.
The following ideas are expressed by this symbol–
Combination of different fluids.
Individualization of existence.
The genius of the Sun pours the fluid of Life from a golden vase into a silver one. (First idea.)
This essence passes from one vase to the other without one drop being spilt. (Second idea.)
The fourteenth card represents the young girl whom we have already seen in the 11th arcanum, and whom we shall see again in the 17th. The vital current placed upon her head in the 11th arcanum here passes from one vase into another, but will spread further in the 17th arcanum. The fourteenth card of the Tarot shows us the fluid, hitherto carefully preserved, now freely circulated in nature.
Combination of active and passive fluids. Entry of Spirit into Matter, and reaction of Matter upon the Spirit– INVOLUTION.
Reflex of Justice in the material world– TEMPERANCE.
Fixation of reflex Life. Incarnation of Life INDIVIDUAL AND CORPOREAL LIFE.
14.Temperance.
Affinities
- Primitive Hieroglyphic: A Fruit
- Astronomy: The Scorpion
- Month: October
- Hebrew Letter: Nun (simple)
Significations
- INVOLUTION (The Sprit descends towards Matter)
- TEMPERANCE
- INDIVIDUAL AND CORPOREAL LIFE
Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View
14. Temperance signifies TEMPERANCE. ECONOMY.
The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]
Symbolism of Each Key
14. Temperance An angel with the sign of the Sun on her brow Pouring liquid from one vessel into another. She represents Combination.
Meanings of the Cards
14. Temperance.–Combination, Conformation, Uniting; R. Ill-advised combinations, Disunion, Clashing interests, &c.
The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]
What is the Tarot? Card XIV.–”Temperance”. (Time).
The first attainment. The “Arcanum Magnum” of the occultists. The Fourth Dimension. Higher space. “Eternal Now”.
CARD XIV. TIME (TEMPERANCE).
An angel in a white robe, touching earth and heaven, appeared. His wings were flame and a radiance of gold was about his head. On his breast he wore the sacred sign of the book of the Tarot–a triangle within a square, a point within the triangle; on his forehead the symbol of life and eternity, the circle.
In one hand was a cup of silver, in the other a cup of gold and there flowed between these cups a constant, glistening stream of every colour of the rainbow. But I could not tell from which cup nor into which cup the stream flowed.
In great awe I understood that I was near the ultimate mysteries from which there is no return. I looked upon the angel, upon his symbols, his cups, the rainbow stream between the cups,–and my human heart trembled with fear and my human mind shrank with anguish and lack of understanding.
“Yes”, said the voice, “this is a mystery that is revealed at Initiation. ‘Initiation’ is simply the revealing of this mystery in the soul. The Hermit receives the lantern, the cloak and the staff so that he can bear the light of this mystery.
“But you probably came here unprepared. Look then and listen and try to understand, for now understanding is your only salvation. He who approaches the mystery without complete comprehension will be lost.
“The name of the angel is Time. The circle on his forehead is the symbol of eternity and life. Each life is a circle which returns to the same point where it began. Death is the return to birth. And from one point to another on the circumference of a circle the distance is always the same, and the further it is from one point, the nearer it will be to the other.
“Eternity is a serpent, pursuing its tail, never catching it.
“One of the cups the angel holds is the past, the other is the future. The rainbow stream between the cups is the present. You see that it flows both ways.
“This is Time in its most incomprehensible aspect.
“Men think that all flows constantly in one direction. They do not see that everything perpetually meets and that Time is a multitude of turning circles. Understand this mystery and learn to discern the contrary currents in the rainbow stream of the present.
“The symbol of the sacred book of the Tarot on the angel’s breast is the symbol of the correlation of God, Man and the Universe.
“The triangle is God, the world of spirit, the world of ideas. The point within the triangle is the soul of man. The square is the visible world.
“The consciousness of man is the spark of divinity, a point within the triangle of spirit. Therefore the whole square of the visible universe is equal to the point within the triangle.
“The world of spirit is the triangle of the twenty-one signs of the Tarot. The square represents fire, air, water and earth, and thus symbolises the world.
“All this, in the form of the four symbols, is in the bag of the Fool, who himself is a point in a triangle. Therefore a point without dimension contains an infinite square”.
The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.
XIV. TEMPERANCE
This is the equilibrium not of the balance of Libra, but of the impetus of the Arrow, Sagittarius, which cleaves its way through the air by the force imparted to it by the taut string of the Bow. It requires the counterchanged forces of Fire and Water, Shin and Qoph, held by the restraining power of Saturn, and concentrated by the energies of Mars to initiate this impetus. All these are summed up in the symbolism of the figure standing between Earth and Water, holding two amphorae with their streams of living water, and with the volcano in the background. The colors are bright blue, blue-gray, slate-blue, and lilac-gray.
Book “T” The Tarot
Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys
15. Combination of forces, realization, action (material effect, good or evil).
