Temperance (Tarot card)


Temperance is the fourteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.

Description

Temperance appears in the oldest Italian decks where it is numbered VI or VII. In the Tarot de Marseille and in most contemporary decks the card is numbered XIV. In the Thoth Tarot and decks influenced by it, this card is called Art rather than Temperance.
of Temperance in European iconography. This statue is part of Peter of Verona's tomb.
Temperance is almost invariably depicted as a person pouring liquid from one receptacle into another. Historically, this was a standard symbol of the virtue temperance, one of the cardinal virtues, representing the of wine with water. In many decks, the person is a winged angel, usually female or androgynous, and stands with one foot on water and one foot on land.
At the end of the path in the lower left part of the card, there is a crown to show the attainment of a goal, or mastery thereof.
In the Rider-Waite image by Pamela Coleman-Smith the Hebrew Tetragrammaton is on the angel's chest above the square and triangle. In the derivative Tarot decks this is usually not included.
According to A.E. Waite's Pictorial Key To The Tarot, the Temperance card is associated with:
14.TEMPERANCE.--Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation.Reversed:Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.