Greater Arcana Study Group—Temperance

Abrac

I think I have to eat my words from Post #6 above in light of new information that has come to my attention. It has to do with how Waite thought of the word "Temperance," and as usual with Waite the Devil’s in the details. If nothing else I hope to show that Waite wasn't satisfied with Temperance as a title for this card. :)

First is this reference from the PKT:

"The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an ideological sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street."​

The ordinary man in the street would see this card in its "first sense," it's exoteric sense. But a more enlightened person would see its esoteric side and the ordinary label "Temperance" and the meaning it carries would be insufficient.

In his description of the card itself he says:

"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."​

All the conventional ideas attached to Temperance have been renounced; his image carries a deeper significance, the "Secret of Eternal Life."

From Waite’s paper "The Tarot and the Rosy Cross":

". . . but in the higher Degrees we must give the higher meaning, and the complexion of the path upward, as we proceed further in our course, has more of the aspect of ecstasy than that of Temperance."​

On one level it might be possible to view the card according to conventional ideas of Temperance but as one progresses new ideas start to take shape.

In Shadows of Life and Thought he refers to it as ". . . the so-called card of Temperance." This casual remark reveals that for Waite there was a lot more to it than ordinary "Temperance."

From Waite's description of Temperance in the PKT:

"It is called Temperance, fantastically, because, when the rule [regulating principle] of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonizes the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going."​

I think some confusion comes into it, at least for me, when he says it "tempers." How can it temper yet be called Temperance "fantastically?" The answer I believe is in how Waite meant "Temperance." I believe he probably meant it as moderation or abstinence commonly understood. To expand on the first quote from above, this shows where Waite's coming from. From the PKT:

"The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an idelogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: . . . .(b) Divine Ecstasy, as a counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern."​

Temperance signified "Lights out in the tavern," as he puts it, or abstinence. The regulating principle and the changes in consciousness are what Waite was concerned with. Referring to the card as "Temperance" demonstrates a person's shallowness of understanding.

All this considered, I think he probably did mean "fantastically" in the sense of "inaccurate," or that "Temperance" alone doesn't do full justice to what he was trying to symbolize. I couldn't see this before and didn't understand why Waite would say such a thing, but it makes a bit more sense now.

In his description of Temperance in the first part of the PKT, Waite says:

"The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connection 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."​

The only way this makes sense is if by Temperance he means abstinence or restraint. I agree it's not obviously an allegory on the virtues of self-control.
 

Abrac

There is another possibility I hadn't thought of but now I'm wondering how I missed it. When he says "It is called Temperance, fantastically" he could mean Temperance raised to a higher level, one beyond the commonly understood meaning (abstinence or restraint), and beyond the meanings which have been assigned to it in the past. It's called Temperance, but he's establishing that he's making a break with past ideas about the card. Thought of this way it seems to make more sense.

"It is called Temperance, fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonizes the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going."​
 

Abrac

I found something in Waite's Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911) that does a lot better job of explaining this than I can.

"Each of the occult sciences was, however, liable to that species of abuse which is technically but fantastically known as Black Magic."​

"Technically but fantastically" seems to go a long way in explaining what Waite probably had in mind. If you add it to his other statement it all seems to fit. Adding parentheses also makes the meaning a little clearer:

"It is called Temperance (technically but fantastically) because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonizes the psychic and material natures."​

It requires some mind-reading, but since Waite used that expression another time, it seems a reasonable inference.
 

Abrac

In Part II, Ch. 5 of Waite’s Azoth, or, The Star in the East, he discusses "Five Illuminations of Ideal Being." They’re a series of five "regenerations" a practitioner of Mysticism undergoes on his or her inward journey.

Waite’s comment on the fifth and final one is interesting in relationship to Temperance. First, he difines it:

". . . he, having passed also through the previous degrees, is fitted for the fifth and last illumination, which is the true Mystic Apocalypse, or the Revelation of God to Man in a direct and immediate manner."​

Then he says:

"These then are the five Illuminations of Ideal Being, successively delineated, of which the Crown is in the Mystic Apocalypse . . ."​

and

"So shall all things beautiful on earth overwatch him in his learning, and do service on the day of his Coronation."​

Lends a little insight into what he may have meant by the crown in this card.
 

Teheuti

Of the Waite-Trinick image he says, “. . .intermingling and reconciling the influences of Chesed and Geburah,”; but in the Waite-Smith, Temperance seems more likely to be reconciling Hod and Netzach. What I do find relevant is his reference to water (Hod) and fire (Netzach); and in the FRC Tree—despite Waite’s reference to Chesed and Geburah—Temperance is the direct path between Hod and Netzach.

The Waite-Trinick image shows two vessels, one fire and one water.

Waite-Trinick Temperance
The GD image also shows a fire and a water vessel.

Speaking only of the RWS image:

The two feet more likely represent Hod and Netzach, while the vessels represent the higher sephiroth Geburah and Chesed, and the pillars that flank the sun represent Binah and Chochmah. It also mediates the above and below. This is the higher priestly function.

Temperance represents a trial-and-error "testing" of one's mettle (with an alchemical play on the words mettle and metal). "It is the test of merit which God applies to those whom He calls to His service" (see below). It represents the point at which all one's qualities are combined and drawn on - tried before the final challenges represented by the Devil and the Moon.

The Temperance angel is also the Shekinah or Sophia, here manifesting as the alchemical actor/mediator through which Binah acts on Malkuth (and vice-versa).

From Waite’s Portal Ritual for his Fellowship (1910):
“And now as to the via media, the Path of Samech which you have traversed, and wherein the Key of Temperance, the 14th Tarot Key, is discovered for your encouragement and support. It is the way of combination and equilibrium, of providence in desirable change, as for example, in the transit from the material that is without to the spiritual that is within. It is also the principle of sacramental life, the ascent of human nature that the Divine may come down therein. As here depicted, the Key of Temperance is really a synthesis of Tiphereth and of the Path which leads thereto. That Path in the Sepher Yetzirah is called the Intelligence of Temptation or of Trial, because it is the test of merit which God applies to those whom He calls to His service. The sacred name of Tiphereth is bound upon the breast of the figure before you; the star of the Hexagram is beneath it. The splendour of her five-pointed crown is drawn from the five under Sephiroth, and she directs with her hands the influences of Chesed and Geburah upon the Sephiroth that are below. She is the symbol of the purified life in spiritual consciousness, and he that has attained thereto shall draw, my brother, all the parts of his personality into the redemption of the higher nature. This is illustrated by Zoharic tradition, which says that the letter Samech receives increase from Binah, so that it may raise up the fallen Sephiroth, including Malkuth.”
 

Gofannon

Temperance represents a trial-and-error "testing" of one's mettle (with an alchemical play on the words mettle and metal). "It is the test of merit which God applies to those whom He calls to His service" (see below). It represents the point at which all one's qualities are combined and drawn on - tried before the final challenges represented by the Devil and the Moon.
:

When one "tempers" steel, it requires a very precise procedure of heating and quenching. I think that's a more appropriate definition than one of abstinence.

The opposite card on the zodiac would be the Lovers, which depicts an angel separating the sexes (chokmah and binah), Temperance depicts an angel joining but in a specific balance. Christ consciousness?
 

Abrac

Here's some more pretty clear influence from Levi. The image on the left is from a larger image in Transcendental Magic, "The Apocalyptic Key. The Seven Seals of St. John." It's also in La Clef des Grands Mystères in a modified form.

Temperance
 

Abrac

I was reading Waite's paper "The Tarot and the Rosy Cross" c. 1910, and realized it has several important comments that reveal his thinking about Temperance at that time. I'll post the whole paragraph then break it down. I added a few things in brackets that will hopefully make it easier to digest.

"We have so far dealt with the Shekinah in two aspects—as she stands at the door of Yetzirah [The World] and at the concealed Portal [Daath] of Atziluth [High Priestess]. On the threshold of Briah, at the Gate of the Second Order, in the Portal of the Rosy Cross [Path from Yesod to Tiphareth], she appears as Temperance, the Keeper of the Middle Way. As it was said by a great master in the theurgic path of crucifixion, we must even be content with what we have, but the symbol as it is presented commonly and under the name which I have mentioned here [Temperance] seems far from our high purpose. I should rather write about another figure [another "Temperance"] such great words of paradox as "Ego dixi in excessu meo: Omnis Homo Deus" [I said in my excess: Every Man is God], because in the proper understanding of our symbolism the strait path does not lie exactly between the evil and the good. This is the thesis which has come down to us, but in the higher Degrees we must give the higher meaning, and the complexion of the path upward as we proceed further in our course, has more of the aspect of ecstacy than that of Temperance. All that is possible, however, within the measures of the Portal of the Rosy Cross, has been done to uplift the symbol, and it is of all truth that it represents the principle of sacramental life, the ascent of human nature. It is said further, and very truly, in respect of the Shekinah as she is seen under this aspect, that it is she who brings forth to life. This is in our old records, but the reason in its fulness lies beyond this Grade. The same memorials call her the Daughter of the Reconcilers, and it is assuredly she who leads therein. She is the Guardian of the Gate of Briah, calling into perfect reconciliation. The essences, elements or elixirs which she mingles in her chalices, and which are called in the Ritual of the Portal the influences of Chesed and Geburah, signify the union of the inward and outward states, indrawn and manifest, the mystic life and the life of man in the world, by which alone it is possible to attain the perfect manhood of adeptship. As she stands at the threshold of Tiphereth she signifies by her symbolic action the true counsel which may be derived from those who are prepared from the higher Grades of the Second Order."​

Waite appears to be speaking to those who have completed the Portal initiation in the Independent and Rectified Rite, or possibly giving instruction to those about to go through it. In any case he contrasts what has been taught in the lower grades with that of the higher ones.

It's readily apparent that Waite's speaking very much as a mystic ("Every Man is God"). It shows his propensity for mysticism even around the time the Waite-Smith tarot was created.

He talks about the need for going beyond that which has been taught and learned in the lower grades. In the higher degrees, the path is more than a balancing act between to opposites, it's a union of them both. This seems to be what he's getting at in the PKT when he says, "It is called Temperance, fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonizes the psychic and material natures." The "Temperance" Waite's talking about is a combining of essences as opposed to a tightrope walk between them.

In the GD Portal Ritual, the initiate is shown the Temperance image and is told, "The whole figure is a representation of that straight and narrow way of which it is said, 'few there be that find it' which alone leads to the higher and glorified life. For to pursue that steady and tranquil mean between two opposing forces, is indeed difficult, and many are the temptations to turn aside either to the right or to the left . . ." But to be fair, right before that the GD ritual also talk about combining and harmonizing, "It represents an Angel with the Solar emblem of Tiphareth on her brow, and wings of the aerial and volatilising nature, pouring together the fluidic fire and the fiery water thus combining, harmonising and tempering those opposing elements."

One thing I find interesting is his take on the "essences." He explains them as the "inward and outward states," the union of which is the path to perfection. In the PKT he describes them as the "psychic" and "material" natures.

I feel like I may just be scratching the surface. If anyone has additional insights please share. :)
 

Abrac

Waite makes another interesting statement which serves to clarify something he says in the PKT: ". . . and it is of all truth that it represents the principle of sacramental life, the ascent of human nature." In the PKT he says, "Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going." He's describing a state wherein consciousness has "ascended" to the point where it's aware of the eternal.

It's also interesting to read Waite's meanings in his Manual of Cartomancy (1889) for Temperance in the three worlds.

1. World of Human Prudence (Conventional divination).

14. Temperance.—New blood, combination, admixture, with the object of amelioration; providence in desirable change.

2. World of Conformity (Religious devotion).

14. Temperance.—The principle of sacramental life; the mixture of things Divine with things human, for the transmutation of the latter; the increase which Grace gives; in fine, this card is a symbol of the Eucharist, the entrance of the Divine into the nature of man.

3. World of Attainment (World of the soul in attainment).

14. Temperance.—Immergence of the consciousness; realization of the Divine Immanence; superadded Grace.

His meanings don't seem that different in 1910 from what they were in 1889. In the World of Devotion he says it's the "principle of sacramental life," exactly the same language as he uses in the "Tarot and the Rosy Cross" lecture. The progression through the three worlds is seen as a progression of the infusion of the Divine with the human.
 

Abrac

The way the path leads from the water has always been a puzzler for me. But with Waite's views made clearer it might now be possible to postulate a theory. The mystic journey is an inward one. The illustration I've attached shows how the path might start with the outward person, and proceed inward to the heights. The mountains can be seen as Boaz and Jachin, or Binah and Chokmah.

http://s19.postimg.org/6c8itqb7n/Temperance_Inner_Outer.jpg