Let's talk Temperance

Zmagus64

Love this forum.

I just took Barleywine's advise on a couple of books, and am glad I did. John Maxwell's "The Tarot" gives a great historical perspective on Tarot, which I love. It also goes into the details of numerology and the pips. The interpretation of Temperance was very interesting, I see not only the transformation of "will and desire" into creative energy, but I feel that she represents the Universal Soul, or Universal Energy from which we all come, ie god. In the Tarot De Marseille, Temperance is of Heaven (with angel wings) and of Earth (both feet on the ground). Because the lower cup is the blue side of desire and the higher cup is the red side of creation, I believe the pouring is moving from the lower cup to the higher, indicating a power that is not earthly -I've tried and my wife is getting pretty angry with the mess. I'm also interested that the image of Temperance is larger than most of the other representations in the deck, she actually touches three borders of the card and the right border is very close.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the placement of Temperance also. Placed after Death and before The Devil seems at first glance a strange place for such an even keeled character.
I guess it could be viewed as the time we spend right before birth (after Death), deciding how we'll fit in, where our true value will be, and getting a sense of the rest of the world we're about to enter. Maybe the placement in front of the Devil is a reminder that once we are earth bound it is very likely that we will have to come to grips with our own ego and forces inside that temp us to cross over the lines of morality, to give into the temptation so inherent in being human?
By the way, I swear I don't talk like this in person, Tarot brings out the philosopher in all of us I guess.
 

Barleywine

Temperance is a subject near-and-dear to my heart since I spent so many years trying to turn its alchemical esoterica into something I could use in practical terms (that is, for reading). I wound up having to write my own detailed interpretations reflecting how that eventually worked out. One thought on its position in the series is that "tempering" as it is applied to metal-working is the process of toughening metal by transmuting (via heating and quenching) its brittleness into a more durable, fracture-resistant state. Death could show the primordial state of the base metal, stripped of its impurities and ready for the working. Perhaps, coming before the Devil, Temperance is simply becoming more "durable" as a way of "ramping up" to the obdurate toughness of Capricorn. Oh, and Sagittarius does come before Capricorn in the zodiac. Sagittarius is abstract and philosophical, while Capricorn is intensely practical, so there has to be a conceptual transformation before progress can continue. Otherwise, the Devil might eat that Angel alive! I don't see it so much as moderation as preparing for battle in both a strategic and tactical sense :) I think "girding one's loins" is the old biblical term for what I'm getting at. The alchemists will probably howl . . .
 

Thirteen

Temperate Tempering

There are, I think, two, essential definitions of "Temperance." First is "tempering" metal as Barleywine has discussed so very well. It "elevates" a metal by heating it and cooling it (fire/water) and hammering in-between. So, the card is certainly all about alchemical transformation. And, included in that, patiently experimenting and working on something to achieve that transformation. I think that's an essential quality of Temperance: patience, but with a laser tight focus--and a willingness to experiment and try, try again. If we're in agreement that Temperance is Sagittarius (Golden Dawn system), then this is the bow-and-arrow--bring two things together in order to hit a mark. Try, try again until you do.

Then we have the "Temperate" definition. This was misused by the "Women's Temperance" league to mean no alcohol. But the real meaning to Temperance in regard to that is to "temper" the wine with water. So you enjoy the wine but don't get drunk. The Temperance card is often misunderstood by students as very like the Justice card because of this. As if Temperance was balancing things out. But really, Temperance is not about balance. It's about "having your cake and eating it, too..." Meaning, you want wine, but you don't want to get drunk, what is the solution?

This gives us the centaur aspect; two things melded to achieve the best of both. Which isn't too different from the tempering of metal, but, once again, makes it clear that the aim is not to balance things out, but to achieve a desired end. And this is what leads us from Death to the Devil: ambition. Having lost something absolutely, Death leaves us at our lowest, feeling like bare bones. This loss, this exposure, can help us see something we couldn't before (like looking at ourselves naked in a mirror): who we really are; what we really want or need or should do.

So there is "Temperance." What we want to make/create for ourselves (or of ourselves). Temperance is the inventor who says, "It's not impossible..." the physicist who says, "there is a unified field theory," the chemist who says, "I can cure this and no one will ever die from it again..." Problem is, if you're too focused on anything, it can become everything. And that is the Devil. That angelic part of Temperance is your guiding spirit, your compass, the "Why" you should create it. Drop those wings, and your ambition becomes trapped on Earth; it wants as much of this thing as it can get just to have it. And yes, it can also be "temptation" that leads from Temperance to the Devil. Temperance isn't easy; you have to hold back to shoot that arrow. Not everyone can sustain that tension, have that sort of patience. Many eventually say, "Why am I bothering to add water to the wine? I'll just have the wine..."

And there you go, right to the Devil. Of course, there are some very good aspects in the Devil card--indulging isn't always bad. But that's a whole other discussion.
 

Richard

.....Because the lower cup is the blue side of desire and the higher cup is the red side of creation, I believe the pouring is moving from the lower cup to the higher, indicating a power that is not earthly -I've tried and my wife is getting pretty angry with the mess. I'm also interested that the image of Temperance is larger than most of the other representations in the deck, she actually touches three borders of the card and the right border is very close......

The fluid does not need to flow from the lower cup to the higher in order to be miraculous. It cannot naturally flow sideways in any case. (Of course, people argue vehemently that the flow is depicted as sideways for graphic design reasons only. However, I am of the alchemical riffraff }), so it doesn't matter what I think.)

I'm not sure that the Temperance angel is really any larger than the figures in other cards. The attachment is a scan of some Pierre Madenié cards, a typical Type II Tarot de Marseille. Which deck are you using?
 

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Zmagus64

Looking at the placement from a zodiacal perspective does help Barleywine. It's actually pretty obvious now that it's pointed out. Eighth house - Scorp and the tenth house - Cap. The conceptual transformation, I believe, lines up with the idea that Temperance is where we evaluate our role in the Universe. We are all part of that mixture between the urns and we're in the ninth house which tells us to philosophize on the big picture. I think reading this card for me will take on new meaning. To me Temperance used to evoke thoughts ( to Thirteen's point) closer to that of the Magi mixed with Justice, it meant a time to put "things"in order. Moving forward I might think about Introspection so you can accomplish what's truly important to you, realism so you can prepare for the challenges you're sure to face and that the power of the divine is within your grasp if you can find it.
I think I am saying what you are, just much less eloquently.

Richard, good point about fluid flowing sideways. I guess either direction is impressive.
Pierre Madenie deck. You're right about the size if the image, I must have been consumed with the grandiose of the card and saw it as bigger than life. I will say that I will always see it that way moving forward, maybe it was designed with that subtlety in mind.
 

Ruby Jewel

Hello AT folks.....Temperance is just the card I am focusing on myself these days, so it was nice to find this thread. As a chef, I tend to see it in cooking terms, but regarding tarot I think of Temperance XIV as the card between Death XIII and The Devil XV. In the Papus septenary formation, Death is the tip of the triangle and Temperance faces off with the Devil at the bottom two corners. As Rachel Pollock points out in "Tarot, Readings and Meditations" Temperance is the alternative to the Devil card...and I have read in other sources that Temperance is the only card in the deck that is stronger than the Devil...meaning she is the only way out of the Devil's trap....which includes alcoholism. So, for me, the use of the word by the Women's Temperance movement was uncannily accurate. I particularly enjoy the image of the flow going against gravity....wow...never heard that one before and it adds a new facet to this "diamond" of a card. In attempting to distil the card's meaning to a simple explicit, I tend to want to use the word "change"... not in the simple way of changing from one attitude to a more temperate one.... but a radical change...an alchemical change and a transformative change that says "once you defeat the Devil you are never going to be the same again. You will be a new person, transformed." Death hovers over this battle between Temperance and the Devil...waiting....for the decision. As in alcoholism, or any other addiction, do you choose life or oblivion? With Temperance, the battle is on and Temperance says you have the strength and it is called "tempering". In the end, it is an alchemical change in the Self.
 

Thirteen

Temperance does not mean Abstinence

...and I have read in other sources that Temperance is the only card in the deck that is stronger than the Devil...meaning she is the only way out of the Devil's trap....which includes alcoholism. So, for me, the use of the word by the Women's Temperance movement was uncannily accurate.
I will agree that Temperance is a way to escape the Devil...but I'm going to have to nitpick on this one point. The Women's Temperance Movement was about outlawing alcholhol, sales of alchohol, etc. This, they reasoned, would end alchoholism. So...you tell me, do such laws, does such eradication end addiction? In fact, far from eradicating alcholism, this forced abstinence movement led the U.S. right to the Devil. Not only did it effectively create the mafia and their reign of crime lasting some seventy years after the end of prohibition, as well as some of the worst government corruption in U.S. history, but it resulted deaths from adulterated alcholhol and children getting drunk on bathtub gin. It was only after prohibition was repealed, alcohol made legal, that the U.S could inact laws that made sure drinks were safe (no death from tainted liquor), laws about bars keeping customers from driving, and no sales to children. SO...TEMPERANCE is what worked in moderating the damage of alcohol on a large scale. Making abstinence mandatory didn't work at all.

And yes addicts must abstain. But they do so in a world where people will be drinking cocktails and wine and beer around them. Personal abstinence is a form of moderation, and not the same as forcing abstinence or even advocating it for everyone. This is Temperance. You should also keep in mind (and I would agrue) that abstinence can be a kind of addiction, and as much a part of the Devil card as indulgence. There is an eating disorder called Othorexia. Its where people cut things out of their diet to make themselves healthier. It starts "right" with cutting down fats, sugar, gluten, chemicals. But very soon, these people, feeling healthier, start cutting out more. Eating only organic, eating only what "detoxes" their boides...

And like any addiction, it becomes their obsession, their whole world. They cut ouf more and more "poisons" from their diet until they're undernorished, deficient and starving themselves. And dying. This is not Temperance. And the cure, of course, is to eat more. So. I will very much agree with you that Temperance is the way to free oneself from the Devil. But I will still maintain that the Women's Temperance League was a misnomer. They didn't advocate Temperance, they advocated abstinence and while a person may need to abstain from this or that substance to avoid addiction, that doesn't mean that abstinence and temperace mean the same thing. Only that moderating one's behavior may need to include doing without certain things entirely.
 

Barleywine

Just an oh-by-the-way, but I much prefer the term "modulate" in association with Temperance, rather than "moderate." Moderation is one of the more popular interpretations I've seen for this card.

Moduate: To change or adjust (something) so that it exists in a balanced or proper amount.

vs.

Moderate: To cause to be less extreme, intense, or violent.

The former implies that the action of the angel in Temperance is aimed at adjusting and optimizing its potency, while the latter suggests a reduction in potency to fall within accepted limits. One has a positive, proactive connotation while the other is more negative and reactive. I see nothing about the figure of the angel that suggests a diminishment of the forces at work. Its posture and expression seem to show concentration and resolve, a focused extension of willpower.
 

Ruby Jewel

I will agree that Temperance is a way to escape the Devil...but I'm going to have to nitpick on this one point. The Women's Temperance Movement was about outlawing alcholhol, sales of alchohol, etc. This, they reasoned, would end alchoholism. So...you tell me, do such laws, does such eradication end addiction? In fact, far from eradicating alcholism, this forced abstinence movement led the U.S. right to the Devil. Not only did it effectively create the mafia and their reign of crime lasting some seventy years after the end of prohibition, as well as some of the worst government corruption in U.S. history, but it resulted deaths from adulterated alcholhol and children getting drunk on bathtub gin. It was only after prohibition was repealed, alcohol made legal, that the U.S could inact laws that made sure drinks were safe (no death from tainted liquor), laws about bars keeping customers from driving, and no sales to children. SO...TEMPERANCE is what worked in moderating the damage of alcohol on a large scale. Making abstinence mandatory didn't work at all.

And yes addicts must abstain. But they do so in a world where people will be drinking cocktails and wine and beer around them. Personal abstinence is a form of moderation, and not the same as forcing abstinence or even advocating it for everyone. This is Temperance. You should also keep in mind (and I would agrue) that abstinence can be a kind of addiction, and as much a part of the Devil card as indulgence. There is an eating disorder called Othorexia. Its where people cut things out of their diet to make themselves healthier. It starts "right" with cutting down fats, sugar, gluten, chemicals. But very soon, these people, feeling healthier, start cutting out more. Eating only organic, eating only what "detoxes" their boides...

And like any addiction, it becomes their obsession, their whole world. They cut ouf more and more "poisons" from their diet until they're undernorished, deficient and starving themselves. And dying. This is not Temperance. And the cure, of course, is to eat more. So. I will very much agree with you that Temperance is the way to free oneself from the Devil. But I will still maintain that the Women's Temperance League was a misnomer. They didn't advocate Temperance, they advocated abstinence and while a person may need to abstain from this or that substance to avoid addiction, that doesn't mean that abstinence and temperace mean the same thing. Only that moderating one's behavior may need to include doing without certain things entirely.

Hi Thirteen. I, like you, feel strongly about the alcoholism thing inasmuch as I lost both my father and my soul mate from it in their early 40s....and my mother deserted my alcoholic father when I was 3 years old leaving me virtually to grow up with a parent who rarely drew a sober breath. However, I only used it as an example here, and in referencing the Temperance movement was not referring to the movement itself (in regards to which I happen to agree with you), but the "uncanny" way in which the word happens to capture the situation between the Devil and Temperance cards. In no way do I believe that is the intent of the use of the word by the Temperance movement. I would say that when the person has become an alcoholic, there is no such thing as Temperance.....the Devil has won, and Death awaits, just as it waited for my father and my soul mate. However, I have found that abstaining from alcohol is the only way to escape the clutches of the Devil....which is Temperance on a PERSONAL level. Many alcoholics are genetically programmed to addiction...as are the American Indian....which my dad was 1/2 and I am 1/4. Temperance is, of course, out of the question for those with that heritage. The forces for Social reform now realize, hopefully, that for most, alcoholism is not a choice...it is an illness. You can't legislate an illness and of course, it was catastrophic. Nor, can you legislate morality....as we are finding out today.....they want to treat the gun issue the same way, but the matter is a moral one....when a society fails to honor morality, you certainly will not succeed in fixing the problem with legislation....just as legislation will not cure alcoholism....but will simply hand us over to the Devil card.
 

Richard

The Temperance title is misleading. It is not illegal to associate it with the idiotic temperance movement, but this totally misses the point. Aleister Crowley had the right idea when he renamed it Art (referring to the magnum opus of alchemy) and replaced the angel with a rebis. An enormous volume could be written about the spiritual development signified by the card. It is a colossal waste to trivialize its profundity as a Sunday school lesson on moderation. The notion of balance comes closer, but more akin to the dynamic balance of a tightrope walker than the static balance of a scale.