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General Interpretation
In general Temperance refers to combining and moderating at least two discrete energies. This is not like trying to moderate between two opposing teams or debate partners, but more in the mixing and matching of specific parts to get the best outcome possible.
Historically in the USA the word “temperance” has been used mainly in relation to the concept of not drinking alcohol to excess, but in tarot it means far more than that.
In the Tarot it refers to tempering and combining different elements to create something else that works well, or works better than what went before. Examples might include broadly tempering your emotional disposition with your spiritual beliefs, or as specific as tempering your creativity with regard to a certain project with your logical mind that it has to be finished by a certain time.
Temperance Upright Meanings Step-by-Step
Friends, Friendships, and Family
This is the energy of combinations and the first thing you have to accept is that you cannot always successfully combine people, even when there is love among them all. Temperance reminds you that ultimately you have to decide what is right for your own life, regardless of what your friends and family want or do with their lives. Make your own decisions and trust your own perceptions.
Having said that when this card appears in a reading about friends and family, it often means that you may be able to “combine” people and energies in a new, more positive, workable way. Sometimes this just means asking a person about a particular topic, or introducing two people who haven’t met yet.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that the people you care about and who care about you will all care about each other. They might, but they might not, and if they don’t, that’s not a disaster unless someone makes it a disaster.
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Love and Relationships
Here the energy of Temperance is usually at least a little smoother and more positive. Usually this card means that a partnership holds a great deal of positive potential even if on the surface it seems unlikely.
That does not mean, of course, that you should accept whatever a partner dishes out necessarily, but it does mean that two people from wildly different backgrounds, with wildly differing personalities and even religious preferences, can love each other and build a positive, lasting, enjoyable relationship provided they both want to do so and are prepared to do the work to make it happen.
Spiritual Growth
Combine things in a new way. Ask old questions anew of different people or ask the same people again. Revisit the understanding that you have of spirituality now versus how you saw it five years ago. Has anything changed? Does anything need to change?
Make the effort to ask those closest to you if they feel that they have grown spiritually over the last few years and if so, in what way? Consider their answers and then answer for yourself.
Consider looking into a perspective or philosophy that you have never been exposed to before. Does any of it resonate with you? The object is to combine differently. What might you combine?
Work and Career
Once again the message is positive. You may suddenly see how two apparently discrete parts of your background might work to your career’s advantage. For example perhaps your hobby of quilting may combine with your work background of accounting to enable you to produce creatively designed, very attractive spreadsheets for a company’s financial reporting.
In other words, think outside the traditional, and look for experiences that you might combine in a new way, making you the best contender for a position or for a raise. You will very likely be surprised at how well a combination will serve you. But you have to identify it first.
Message from Spirit
Examine what it is that disquiets your soul. How can you soothe yourself so that you can operate in a healthy way despite the disquiet? Calming this is not just selfish navel gazing; it prevents you from pulling that energy out into the world, making the problems bigger.
You are capable of manifesting at least some level of health, even if you have been “ill” for decades. Find a mentor for this health and healing, if necessary. You are far from alone in your disquiet, no matter what the cause of it is.
Temperance Tarot Card Meanings by Tarot Time
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Image Attribution: “RWS Tarot 14 Temperance” by Pamela Coleman Smith – a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images).Via Wikipedia.
