Temperance - the Card

The Aeclectic Tarot is helpful in understanding how this card could represent the fourteenth century - possibly the worst century in human history. This was the century when the Black Death wiped out, conservatively, half of Europe's population. The people were already in bad shape before it came along; in fact, it might not have gained such a foothold had the population not been in bad health generally because of overpopulation and gross inequities between the few wealthy and the mass of poor.

So how could a card representing one of the virtues be representative of this century? Here, from the Aeclectic Tarot's page on Temperance part of the answer:

Temperance may be, at first glance, a warning to the Querent to "temper" their behavior, to cut their wine with water. But it may also be a reminder to the Querent that seemingly irreconcilable opposites may not be irreconcilable at all. Belief that fiery red and watery blue cannot be merged may be the only thing standing in the way of blending the two. Change the belief, measure out each with care, and you can create otherworldly violet....

This is one of the hardest cards to interpret. I think, perhaps, Crowley is most helpful in understanding it, as he calls the card: "alchemy." It sometimes works best for me to imagine the Angel wearing a lab coat and very carefully pouring measured amounts of colored liquids into beakers rather than cups....

This card really does seem to be less about moderation then about ... blending opposites, achieving synthesis...

Temperance - the Christian virtue

Dominican Father Donagh O'Shea offers an essay on Temperance at Jacob's Well, noting that "The word temperance doesn’t have a very inspiring ancestry; it comes from the Latin 'temperare', which means 'to mix', and it is related to the word 'tamper'."

So, he asks, how can it be a virtue at all? He begins his answer with Paul - a good place for a Christian to begin:

"The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, trustfulness, meekness and temperance" (Galatians 5:22). (We oldies call it 'self-control'.) Notice that it is the last in the list. There is great wisdom in that. You have to have ingredients before you can mix them!

...Temperance, then, means a mixture, a proper proportion of virtues. How important a sense of proportion is! Everything destroys itself by its own excess. Courage in the absence of love, for example, becomes just bluff and bluster and a huge ego-trip. It is the same with all the virtues: they need one another if we are not to destroy ourselves and everything around us....

"To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation," wrote St Augustine in the 5th century. As if they were having a chat about it by the fire, Meister Eckhart in the 14th century replied, "Sometimes it is harder to keep silence about a single word than to cease speaking altogether. And sometimes, too, it is harder for a person to endure a single word of reproach, which means nothing, than a fierce blow that he was prepared for; or it is much harder to be alone in a crowd than in the desert; or to abandon a small thing than a great, or to do a small task than one which is considered much greater."

Temperance, as I said, is one of the fruits of the Spirit. These are (sort of) fingerprints of the Spirit. Wherever you see love, joy, peace, and the rest, you know that the Spirit has been there, and still is - hiding, as the Spirit likes to do. The Spirit hides very well in the virtue of temperance.