14 - Temperance Tarot Card

The Temperance card is tarot card number 14, although it is the 15^th card of the Major Arcana because the 1^st of the 22 Major Arcana cards is number 0 (The Fool).

The Temperance tarot card is associated with the need for balance and moderation.

This tarot card encourages the release of the requirements of our egos for pride, arrogance, and all dysfunctional attachments in order to facilitate our inner strengths and growth.

The Temperance tarot card recognizes the importance of both the material and the spiritual components of our lives. This is the true meaning of the sense of 'balance' conveyed by this card. Its advice to accept all things in moderation - including moderation itself - in order to leave enough space in our appreciation for spiritual and physical / material blessings.

In the cases of traditional tarot packs such as the Rider Waite, Robin Wood and Golden Dawn decks, the Temperance tarot card depicts a large angelic winged figure standing with one foot in a pool of water. The background to this scene is a natural setting, the details of which vary with the specific tarot deck and the style of the deck.

Some words and phrases associated with the Temperance tarot card include:

Moderation
Control
Discipline
Patience
Balance
Calm,
Equilibrium
Peace

Note: The image of this tarot card shown on the right (above-right) is from an early French tarot deck that has been made available for general use via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This shows a distinctly different style of illustration from that of modern tarot decks but is of historical and artistic interest.

The Gilded Tarot (Book and Tarot Deck Set)

More about the Major Arcana

The cards of the Major Arcana are widely considered to be the most powerful cards in the Tarot Deck. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana tell a complete story when arranged in upright and numerical order (beginning with 0 - The Fool then progressing through the sequence of Major Arcana cards until 21 - The World).
This is a story of personal development and enlightenment that is sometimes referred to as "The Fool's Journey".

Some texts also include meanings for "reversed cards". These are for the situation in which the cards are shuffled in both order and orientation. The theoretical advantage to this is that it effectively doubles the number of possible "cards" in the deck from 78 to 156. However, in terms of the calculation of obtaining results according to chance alone, it is not a simple mathematical doubling because once a card has been drawn it cannot be drawn again in the opposite orientation in the same reading.

Click here for more Major Arcana cards

Tarot

Tarot Reference

Individual Tarot Cards

Minor Arcana

Major Arcana