tarot card meanings · major arcana · XIV
temperance — tarot card meaning
- moderation
- blending
- patience
- proportion
The pouring of essence between vessels; measure as a living act, not a restriction (Waite, 1911).
reversed
Reversed: excess, impatience, imbalance — the same force turned inward, blocked, or overdone.
- excess
- impatience
- imbalance
two philosophical anchors, cited
Virtue as the mean · Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics II.6 (1106b) (tr. Ross)
“Virtue is a kind of mean, since, as we have seen, it aims at what is intermediate.”
The mean is not mediocrity; it is precision - the exact pour between too much and too little.
Stopping in time · Daodejing, ch. 9 (tr. Legge)
“It is better to leave a vessel unfilled than to attempt to carry it when it is full.”
Laozi's cup and the angel's cups agree: the art is in knowing when the pour is done.
the question we would ask
In which part of your life would 'enough' actually be the more ambitious goal?
how a reading is composed — and why it ends with a question, not a prediction.
go deeper: read the full essay on temperance.