14 Thoughts on Temperance
Card 14 in the Major Arcana.
In this series, I pull a tarot card and list what I know and intuit about that card, matching the number of thoughts to the number of the tarot card. Expect stretches and digressions. First up: Temperance, the 14th card in the Major Arcana.
If you split the Major Arcana into three rows of seven cards, starting with the Magician (1) and ending with The World (21) – with The Fool (0) being the ‘wild card’ presiding over the top – Temperance sits at the end of the second set.1 It comes right before The Devil (15) and The Tower (16). If you are looking at the Major Arcana as a sequence of events, a grand story, then Temperance is the card that comes before shit hits the fan (The Devil, The Tower). For this reason, Temperance feels difficult to trust. Like someone saying: Relax, okay? Take a chill pill. Nothing bad is going to happen. In one ear (cup), out the other (cup). This does nothing to assure the anxiety of a person who is worried about the future. In fact, the anxious person might get doubly annoyed and think: This angel with her two cups is delulu, head in the sand. And continue being anxious.
I did this at a coffee shop on Upper Street during my lunch break. …except Temperance is not exactly saying ‘don’t worry, be happy’. Temperance is saying: All you can really do right now, when you have no idea what’s going to happen in the future, is to try and stay calm. And here’s how you do that: Pour that emotion from one cup into the other, and do it again, and do it again, until the temperature has cooled to a palatable degree.
I am reminded of the ‘degree coffee’ we drink in Chennai, which always comes with milk and sugar, unless you specify you want less sugar. (It is kind of unpalatable with no sugar, and I say this as somebody who never puts sugar in my usual morning coffee.) Degree coffee is served in a stainless steel tumbler ensconced in a shorter, wider stainless steel bowl, the South Indian take on a cup and saucer. By the time the coffee gets to your table, some of it has dripped out of the cup and into the bowl, the result of being made and delivered to the table at lightning speed. The coffee is piping hot. If it is not piping hot, it will be sent back. You have to pour the coffee from the tumbler to the bowl, and then pour it back from the bowl to the tumbler, over and over, until the coffee is temperate enough to sip on. You have to slow down enough to take a coffee break in order to keep going. That’s what the Temperance card is trying to say.
…a real, South Indian-style coffee break, to be clear. Where you pour the hot coffee from one container to the other, treating the vessels as instruments, a sort of energy exchange. Rather than just a cup-and-lid to drink from as you walk back to the office while taking a call in your AirPods.
South Indian degree coffee. I wish I had a video! In the Reversed position, I interpret Temperance as that exaggerated, performative kind of calm. The way the woman whom Lily Allen confronts in West End Girl signs off her messages with ‘Love and Light, Madeleine’. Or that meme where the dog sits at a table while the room burns.
Connecting tarot to astrology: If you have an opposition in your birth chart, i.e. planets the opposite signs of Aries and Libra, within 5 degrees of each other, the Temperance card is one you should frame.2 I want you to visualise how you can pour one energy into the other and back again, until it is at a temperature you can live with. Bear in mind that the temperature will change all the time; you just need to make sure you have the right clothes and tools to deal with it. It helps to partake in a version of the classic British pastime of complaining about the weather, always with love – it’s your best frenemy.
For example, if you have a Venus (values) in Aries and a Moon (emotional state) in Libra, you might ricochet between hyper-independence and co-dependence. You might do a big song and dance on Instagram about how that viral Vogue article (Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?) – calling it either brilliant or a sign of the end times. Temperance says: Read the damn article before reacting. Because the article did not say ‘boyfriends are embarrassing’. It said people are starting to think twice about showing off they are partnered, because in a world where so many people are struggling to meet romantic partners, it might hurt their brand. The problem is not having or not having a boyfriend; it’s the compulsion to use a boyfriend (or lack thereof) as a status symbol.
Let’s think about Temperance in relation to The Star (17) – the card that comes after shit hits the fan (The Devil, The Tower). Both cards feature a figure with one foot in water and the other on land. Both cards feature two vessels filled with water. In The Star, however, both vessels are decanted into the Earth, instead of being decanted into each other. And the figure in The Star is naked. To me, this reinforces the importance of Temperance – the tedious work of balance done in Temperance is what gives the figure in The Star the strength to rise from catastrophe. It gives The Star the blueprint for a life lived with more integrity. The divine (angel in Temperance) has been digested by the mortal (naked figure in The Star).
All of which is to say, YES, Temperance is tedious work. It’s boring. It does not guarantee positive outcomes. But if you master Temperance – the ability to find calmness and equilibrium, no matter what life throws at you – then you can rise up from the ashes, no problemo. (Just kidding, there will be problemos, but you can handle them more skilfully.)
There is a new moon in Scorpio this week (Thursday, 20 November). Scorpio is the sign of going deep into the underworld and emerging from it, transformed. (Good transformation or bad, that’s up to you.) It’s a good time to dive deep into your innermost desires, find the words for them, and write them down on paper, no matter how embarrassing they are, or no matter how afraid you are that those desires will be unmet. When you write them down, do it as if you already have those desires met. NOT: ‘I will have a romantic partner.’ BUT: ‘My partner and I are sitting on recliners by the ocean. We are in Crete. The sun is setting. We are drinking red wine.’ Once it’s all written down, rip up that piece of paper, throw it away, and move on with your life. This is how you temper expectations – by figuring out what the desire actually is, using your imagination to make it less abstract, and leaving the rest up to the universe.
Christ, 4 more points? I’m getting tired.
A song that gives big Temperance energy is Adele’s I Drink Wine. Effectively, she is saying: I think I should stop drowning my discomfort in wine, and instead just pour that wine from one glass to another, reflecting on how it all got so messy, and how I can fix this. She doesn’t make any hard commitments to fix anything, nor does she say she is going to quit wine, but she has a starting point: I should learn to get over myself.
I was pleased to see Delicata Squash at a deli in London the other day. I have not come across this type of squash in my seven years of living here, and was ecstatic to be reunited with one of my favourite recipes of all time – Alexandra Cooks’ Roasted Delicata Squash with Chilies, Lime & Cilantro. What makes it slap is the shallot and chilies TEMPERED in the lime juice as the squash cooks in the oven, removing their bite without compromising flavour or texture.
What are your thoughts on Temperance? When has it shown up for you, in good or bad ways? Let me know in the comments!
This formation comes from Rachel Pollack’s inimitable 78 Degrees of Wisdom.
As a refresher, here are the opposite signs: Aries / Libra, Taurus / Scorpio, Gemini / Saggitarius, Cancer / Capricorn, Leo / Aquarius, Virgo / Pisces.