(Tarot Prompts for Writers)
What I See in the Card:
Temperance is a dull card, let’s face it. If you were taxed to remember twenty of the major arcana and you could leave two out, my guess is that Temperance would be overlooked. “Oh yeah, Temperance, yeah, that one. Her too, of course.” Dullsville.
Moderation is by nature moderate. It can be wonderful — I live in a temperate climate and that’s lovely. I live in a temperate home, and that’s also lovely. It’s no fun living with volatile. For sure, Temperance is a Good Thing. But it just doesn’t grab you the way some other cards do — say, Death or the Devil, which flank Temperance in the tarot deck. Temperance is just so… mature.
The placement is interesting, to have this card of wisdom and control between two cards that bring chaos. You’re going to need Temperance on your journey. Those who have it go far. They can handle anything.
Temperance is a virtue, one of the cardinal virtues featured in the major arcana, as are Fortitude (aka Strength) and Justice. (Prudence doesn’t get a card.)
Temperance may be the namesake of the Temperance movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, but the card (and the virtue and the word in general) is about much more than not drinking to excess. It’s about reigning in our wild desires — all of them, not just for food and drink and sensual pleasure, but all the restless cravings that drive us from one distraction to the next. All the desires that terrify us and make us run away. All the desires that overwhelm us into bad decisions and regrets. Maybe those regrets are just a hangover and several weeks of worry, but maybe they’re a lifetime of aggression or timidity, blown chances and shattered dreams. If you find yourself repeating, “Why do I keep messing up?”, you could probably use a little Temperance.
Temperance is not about denying desires or repressing or trivializing your desires; it’s about recognizing them and tempering them with reason. Self-control, moderation, the deliberate cultivation of a balanced whole. Temperance can enjoy a party; but she’s going to enjoy the day after, too.
Temperance is typically portrayed as a female figure pouring waters from two vessels, one into the other. In my deck, Temperance is bright and winged and wise and not quite human. Her waters are bi-coloured — this is no ordinary water. Some say it’s the life force. Temperance pours spirit into matter, the past into the future, the unconscious into the conscious. She controls opposing forces with care and deliberation, creating a flowing unified whole, and she never spills a drop.
Different decks show Temperance in various landscapes — lush and bright or cloudy and dark, homey or fantastic. In my deck, there’s a suggestion of both bright and dark, warm and cool, lush and barren. There’s no apparent path in my card, though there is in some other decks. In mine, Temperance is outside alone at night in the middle of nowhere, lighting her own way with her brilliance.
Temperance is serene control. She’s balanced, unified, patient, mindful, and able to control all her energies. Maybe she’s not so boring after all.
Read will take you to my notes on how to tell a fortune with Temperance — traditional interpretations; what the card might mean in different positions; keywords to help memorize meanings; and questions to ponder or ask the querent.
Write will take you to a few prompts for launching from Temperance into a story. A first line, an object, a few maxims — three possible ways to turn Temperance into fiction.
Tarot will take you to a central Tarot-Prompts page.
Go ahead, pour us a story.
Images on this page are by the following artists:
Banner (and top box), left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland; Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington.
Mid-page boxes: Tarot Balbi; Cat Full of Spiders tarot by Christina Ricci.
Catherine Austen 