Imagery: An angel pours water between two cups, one foot on land and one in water.
General Themes: Balance, moderation, harmony, integration, flow.
Temperance Upright
While perhaps not the most fun card of the deck, Temperance is an important reminder to cultivate moderation in all things. If you’ve been overdoing it—through hedonism or overwork—this card appears to restore balance.
Interestingly, this card is also about finding contentment in the here and now, with what you have. We can live in a culture that asks us to do more, buy more, and be more. Temperance doesn’t want us to mute our exuberance, but it does want us to know when we’ve done enough, spent enough, or given enough. I think of Temperance as the Goldilocks card. When it appears, you need to find the balance that is just right. Not too much, not too little.
It’s a fine art to cultivate enough-ness and it takes a certain amount of presence to do so. That’s why patience is key here. You might be healing or discovering a new way to be in the world. Keep flowing and integrating your lessons. The Goldilocks effect will kick in soon.
Temperance Reversed
Reversed, Temperance is begging you to reevaluate your life and sweep away stagnation that comes in the form of overindulgence, excess, or too-muchness of any kind. Sometimes the overindulgence is restriction or repression—if you’re too rigid, you prevent anything meaningful from growing in your life.
Restore balance between mind, body, and spirit. It’s worth looking at why you fell so far out of alignment in the first place. What emotions or situations were you avoiding (or coping with)? Temperance reversed asks you to stop self-medicating so you can deal with the heart of the matter.
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