Temperance

She had laid bare her pain, her heart, her grief, her vulnerability, and we were sitting in the reality that life had fully unraveled and there was little in the way of safety or comfort in her current experience. Except for the redwoods that held her, and her trusty SUV, the world had become a wild and tumultuous place. As her spiritual care provider, I waited in my own still center for a movement, a glimmer, a word, phrase, or question. Something that would bubble up from a deep place, a gift from the well we drink from together in our sessions.

"The Tarot," it came as an image and a shift in energy that I often feel when opening myself to divination. I reached for my trusty deck, always within reach, and began pulling cards for her. What came was an affirming and challenging reading, offering some direction and guidance. When the session was over, I felt the deck implore me to pull one more card. Temperance. The archetype that sits between the Death and Devil, and heralds the falling of the Tower. It is a glimmer, right in the middle of the most challenging cards of the deck. When all seems to be lost, it is Temperance that gives us a sense of stability while a new foundation is dug and poured.

From the Latin temperantia, meaning moderation or self control, temperance shares a root with temper, termperature, temperate, all stemming from the verb temperare, which means to mix or balance. Temperance is one of the seven virtues elucidated by Plato, in the company of virtues like justice, prudence, hope, fortitude, charity, and faith. Together, they are like a survival first aid kit for life's challenges. When all seems lost, reach in the satchel and pull out a virtue. Contemplate it. Strive for it. Embody it. And suddenly, our feet are back on the path and we are not, in fact, lost.

In Pamela Coleman-Smith's illustration of Temperance, the fourteenth numbered card in the Major Arcana, we see a winged being pouring liquid between golden chalices. The sun rising or setting over the mountains is balanced by blooming water irises, and our angelic being has one foot on land and one in the water. There is a sense of poise, moderation, harmony and mastery. The pouring of the liquids does not follow the laws of gravity, but seems to respond to the will of the cup bearer.

In the sequence of the Major Arcana, we have just experienced confrontation with Death. Something important has ended or been lost. This is a time of re-grouping. Finding our center. Getting ahold of ourselves. Next, we will face temptation and the ways that we are complicit in our own oppression as well as the oppression of others through the Devil card. And then....all that has been found to be false will fall into rubble through the Tower. Temperance gives us the strength and balance and stability to be confronted. To be honest. To know the truth of our own integrity and character. It is associated with Sagittarius in astrology-the adventurous truth-seeker. Temperance does not make us rigid, austere, repressed or captive. Temperance gives us wings! Allows us to defy gravity! Shows us how to balance the powers within us and in the world so we can confront the most impossible challenges.

Steel is tempered in the process of refinement. Chocolate is tempered to give it shine and smoothness. Glass is tempered to make it strong and resistant to breaking. We are tempered by loss, failure, illness, challenges of all kinds. When we flare up against these challenges in imbalanced ways, it is said that we have a temper. This is an expression of our "temperment," or the way that we have been shaped by our experiences in life.

When Temperance shows up in a reading, it is a call to examine how we are being tempered, and what outcome we are striving for as we move through the challenges that are guaranteed by an Earth life. Where are we invited to more self restraint? Where are we challenged to find more freedom? Where are we out of balance? What is flowing between the goblets we hold? Over what have we gained mastery? These gifts and contemplations can help prepare us for the unfolding journey as we move forward.

We also notice that our angelic figure bears the astrological glyph of the sun at their third eye, and the alchemical symbol for fire on their chest. These energies point us toward self energy (the sun) and the fire of transformation that is what creates the alchemy of tempering. At our core is the fire of change, growth, clarity. The fire that burns away the dross. In the mind's eye, we keep a clear image of the Self that we are striving to become, and our soul's purpose (reflected in our Sun Sign in astrology). At our feet, the Iris, symbol of the Goddess of the Rainbow and messenger between heaven and Earth. Bringing our soul's purpose into manifestation on Earth is what is being tempered through our many challenges. As we stand rooted in the deep intuitive feminine of the water, and the reminder of the manifestation of Heaven here on Earth, the Fire of passion and purpose is tempered and we are made wise.

Of course, not all initiations are successful. We are not always tempered into wisdom and clarity about our purpose (which comes to full clarity in the Star card, after the Tower falls). Sometimes, we are ill-tempered. Have temper-tantrums. Have a poor tempermant. Sometimes, the challenges we face don't lead us toward wisdom, but rather toward disintegration, decompensation, and failure. A good outcome is not guaranteed. Temperance is an invitation, and a warning. The sands are shifting now, remember the Sun, let the Fire burn away the lies that we tell ourselves and others, gain mastery over the emotions, and remember that we are a soul on Earth, having an embodied experience.

My client, who is courageously following the path of the pilgrim, has no more guarantees of a good outcome than any of us. And yet she presses on, guided by her own heart and her relationship with her sense of truth. Trusting that Deaths she has experienced will lead onward to new life. I carry her with me through my days, and I know that her story is our story. We are all being tempered. We are all being asked to move through uncertainty and instability and loss. We are all being initiated. May we find our wings.