The temperance tarot card is about creating harmony in your life by balancing emotions. It’s trying to mix two different elements together of water and fire to create something great too. Take your time when you see this card to weigh all options.
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Definition of The Temperance Tarot Card
Simple Upright Meaning
Harmony, balance through the heart, alchemy
A Full Explanation
The temperance tarot card often has Archangel Michael in the image with one foot in the water, and one foot on land. He is also pouring water from one cup to another.
This card relates to emotions, as it can be seen with the cups from the minor arcana series. It’s about finding a balance in your life. This is the balance card through emotions, where justice was the balance card of mental and ignoring emotions.
When you see this card in a reading, think about your emotions. How can you work to balance them? How can you create harmony?
Temperance is the card where water and fire meet, as a mixing of the elements and trying to get them to work together. These two ideas don’t usually combine well, but think about how to control them to work for your advantage.
Another important aspect of this temperance tarot card is that typically the person in temperance (like in the triple goddess tarot deck) has a foot on land and a foot in water. This can have two different ideas associated with it.
This can represent having strong connections to both the physical and ethereal.
It can also be the idea that when you see this card, to take your time. You have the opportunity to try things out before making a decision. Try dipping your toe in the water and see if you like this venture. Weigh all of your options. Patience is on your side at this moment. It’s also better to try something out first before going all in.
My Design
Temperance typically (see in Rider Waite) depicts a person holding 2 cups with water flowing from one to the other. So I chose to keep the idea of water flowing between cups.
Where it’s meant to be ambiguous as to which cup the water is flowing from and into with it being a full line across, I kept that idea with this tarot card. Only the liquid flows in a circle, and there are multiple circles of this, seeming to go on into the distance forever.
This idea is to keep emotions balanced, and it’s almost creating a portal, of connecting physical to ethereal, which is another significant point of this card.
Other Thoughts
This is a friend of mine’s card they relate to the most, and helped me with the ideas on this page, as they have a much stronger connection to the temperance tarot card than I do.
Are you new to tarot and looking at practicing? Try your hand by picking one card a day, or try one of these tarot spreads! If you’re still having a really difficult time connecting with this card, leave it by your bedside or under your pillow to further connect.