MAJOR ARCANA
Temperance Tarot Meanings
If there was a card that summed up mindfulness and meditation it would be Temperance.
Often the Temperance card gets looked over in favour of the more ‘exciting’ cards, but when you’re facing a challenge or you’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions recently, the Temperance card is one of the most welcomed cards you can get.
Temperance is all about the balance between the mind, body, and spirit. It is about recognising how your energy moves and is used, how you replenish it, and how you focus it. After the brute strength of the Death card, we are rewarded with Temperance, sometimes we can picture the Death card as the process of birthing a new version of ourselves and the Temperance card as our new selves. It’s a card that requests a pause and awareness of the present.
Temperance Upright Meanings
In the upright position, Temperance asks for patience and moderation. We need to be aware of how we expend our energy and be mindful of where we place our focus. We’ve been reborn for a reason, so we want to make sure we are starting this new level of being with stability and mindfulness. The main upright meanings of Temperance are:
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Moderation
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Balance
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Patience
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Common ground
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Harmony
Sometimes I think of Temperance as a salve that cools and heals a burn or a wound. It is like it comes along to soothe all the ailments we’ve sustained so far on our journey and offers us the chance to realign ourselves with the present.
Temperance Reversed Meanings
In the reversed position, Temperance gets flipped on its head and highlights our imbalances and places where we need to be more mindful. Often the Temperance card will show up reversed when we have allowed our vices to take control or we have been moving forward so unaware of our surroundings that we haven’t realised the corner we’ve backed ourselves into. Some of the main reversed meanings of Temperance are:
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Imbalance
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Impatience
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Excess
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Discord
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Indulgence
There’s a lot of reversed meanings that could also be closely linked with The Devil card, which is the next card along our major arcana journey. The difference is that Temperance is simply bringing awareness to these things, like a pre-warning before you get completely lost within that darker inner world.
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Reading Temperance in a Tarot Spread
Temperance has very subtle energy compare to a lot of the other major arcana cards, so it can be tricky to pick out the context when it comes up in a spread. The best way to read Temperance in my experience is to read it as a message from the universe. It’s like a quick memo to re-focus and see yourself as a single entity, mind, body and spirit as one.
A lot of the time, it is simply informing you that you may have created a disconnect with your inner world or authentic self and you need to stop and re-align in order to move forward in a positive way.
Temperance as An Invitation
Reading Temperance as an invitation is something I tend to do a lot. It’s the perfect gentle energy for inviting you to simply be more aware of your body and mind.
For Temperance, this invitation could be the following:
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An invitation to assess the balance you currently have in your life
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An invitation to look at where you place your energy and whether it’s going into the most beneficial places
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An invitation to practise patience
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An invitation to see how you could create more harmony between your mind, body and spirit
Temperance as Sage Advice
The advice that Temperance has to offer aims to help us become more well-rounded individuals. There’s a lot of wisdom and calm that comes with embracing the energy of Temperance and often it can help us identify a new level of growth that we have yet to explore.
Some advice Temperance may offer is:
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To find common ground with those that have opposing views or beliefs as it makes you a wiser and more compassionate person
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Be mindful of how you spend your energy, if you put too much energy into something that gives you very little return, the things that truly deserve your energy will go wanting
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Regularly check in with yourself to make sure that you are looking after your mental, physical and spiritual health
Temperance as a Lesson
The lessons that we can learn from Temperance are primarily internal ones. Although self-exploration can help us to see the world with new eyes, its main focus is to help us learn more about our authentic selves, heal our inner child and explore our own thoughts and beliefs. It is within the context of the inner world that Temperance really shines.
Some lessons that Temperance may offer you are:
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To always take care of your mind, body and spirit in equal measure
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That impatience and indulgence actually creates more misery than we would feel if we actively practised patience and moderation
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Our energetic balance is very sensitive, so we have to always be mindful of how much energy we expel and how much we receive
Temperance as a Redirection
In the context of a redirection, Temperance is like a gentle tap on the shoulder telling you that you are spiralling or that you aren’t being present enough. It gently shifts your focus in a compassionate way, not in a forceful or authoritative way. It encourages you to see your own misalignments before you are completely consumed by them.
As a redirection, Temperance could symbolise a need to:
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Review how indulgent you are being, in whatever way that resonates with you, and start to find a place of moderation and self-control
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Be more patient and allow things to happen in their own time
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Notice where you expending too much energy and re-channel it into the things that deserve your time and attention
Temperance - Number 14
There’s a few ways we can link the number 14 to Temperance, one being to look at its digits individually. The number one as we know is the number of creation, with the number four being the number of stability. Put these two together an we have the creation of stability, something that Temperance helps us with immensely.
Another way is to reduce 14 down to the number five, the number of humanity. We are fully understanding what it means to be human living in a world swirling with contradictions, highs and lows. That’s the biggest lesson Temperance brings with it.
Temperance - Sagittarius
Looking at all the different meanings of Temperance you’d be forgiven in thinking the card was linked with a water or air astrological sign, but surprisingly it is the card of Sagittarius, a fire sign.
Sagittarius love to travel and immerse themselves in new cultures. They like to learn about people, they are very much a people person and that is what we see also in Temperance. They are also very philosophical beings and optimistic, traits all shared with the harmonious energy of Temperance.
Temperance - Everyman
When it comes to archetypes, Temperance feels more like an everyman archetype to me. It is all about finding belonging, of fitting in with communities and learning about others.
When we think about where Temperance comes within the Major Arcana, it is right after the difficult life lessons of the Death card. It is the calm after the storm and the chance to really find your feet, find support from external sources and start to see the reasons why those drastic changes were needed in the first place.
