Today's card, Temperance, can be something of a rabbit hole of mind fuckery if you think on it long enough (as I have today). It seems like a pretty straightforward concept, right? I mean Temperance is the card of moderation and balance. I chose the cards above today with some purpose as I feel they both present Temperance from different perspectives.
The first card is from the (currently sold out) Black Violet Tarot and shows the idea of Temperance as balance, walking a straight line while remaining centered. The second card from The Modern Way Tarot is representative of the original Rider-Waite-Smith illustration showing the angel pouring water from cup to cup, toes in water, reflective of the need for emotional balance. The final card from The Sapphic Enchantress Tarot takes that concept a step further and features balancing aspects of gender (masculine and feminine), emotion and logic, and clarity and obscurity.
When I think about Temperance, I'm reminded that it is included as one of Plato's four Cardinal virtues of human morality: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The ability to maintain moderation is key to being a moral person. Temperance, I feel, is the mirror to Justice; justice being the balance of the external and temperance being the balance of the internal.
The Temperance playlist is available on Spotify.
Message of the Day: Looking back on my childhood and having grown up in the Mormon church, I feel there were some important lessons I was taught that really helped shape and define the person I grew into. Oddly, these lessons weren't as much theological as they were practical. See, while I was raised in the Mormon church from birth, my father divorced my mother when I was two and remarried when I was five. The woman he married was a devout Baptist, and, for those who don't know, Mormons and Baptists are like oil and water; such was the nature of their marriage. This meant that I attended a Baptist Pre-K and Kindergarten. My summers were filled with Vacation Bible School and Trivial Pursuit: Bible Edition. They were also filled with quiet whisperings that spoke ill of the Mormon church. Shocker, right?
I learned at a young age that anyone who claims they have all the answers is full of shit. I learned you have to balance the information you learn with the experiences you have with the observations you make. I learned it is always important (even when frowned upon) to ask uncomfortable questions if something seems wrong or skewed. I learned, most importantly, to maintain moderation in all things. Of course, learning and doing are entirely separate things.
This is a concept my neurodivergent son challenges constantly (at least verbally, I don't know if he does this fun or if he's really pushing boundaries to see if he can find an exception to the rule). He asks, "so does that mean I can sleep too much? Drink too much water? Have too much oxygen?" Yes, yes, and yes. Perhaps the only exception to moderation in everything is moderation itself.
Looking at the world around us, we see extremism everywhere we turn. Our politics, our religions, our biases and prejudices, eating behaviors and diets, and even flat concepts as simple (or so I thought) as education and history. We have lost the balance between right and wrong, fact and fiction, personal gain and integrity. We have grown to value, if not expect, the importance of the "I" over the "We." Some people incorrectly refer to this as being "woke." What they refer to is when "wokeness" is also pushed to the extreme.
Looking at Temperance internally, I have to question myself - how much do I contribute to a society that is out of balance? What kind of force can I exert to try to correct course? Societal, governmental, and environmental balance is now critical to our own survival as a race. (Literally never thought I'd ever write a sentence like that.) And that's some heavy, if not super depressing, shit. This is also where Temperance gets mixed in with Justice, where internal desperation affects the external balance.
I also look at Temperance from a perspective of personal responsibility. Being temperate in my emotional responses to my son when he annoys the shit out of me or pisses me off. Moderating my personal habits (like the constant craving to drink Dr. Pepper and eat Butterfingers). This can even tie in nicely with yesterday's III of Cups, moderating my time with my friends (not too much, not too little). Moderating my work/life balance so I can focus on what is important.
I think perhaps also moderating my stress is something to take away from Temperance. As I mentioned, the world is a cesspool of bullshit and fuckery. Manipulation and the ravenous desire for control and power is everywhere and it can be devastatingly stressful. But if I'm moderate about it, I can remember that there are some things I can control and some I can't. I can choose to stay informed, but not obsess; I can choose to act according to the information I learn, but not dwell. The difficult part of Temperance and that it has an ugly step-sister, Complacence.
What are your thoughts on Temperance? How does it affect you in your life and current situation? What are some areas where you could be a little more centrist and level-headed? How do you teach moderation to your kids or promote moderation in your family and those around you? Are you an enabler? Are you complacent? Maybe if we all be more mindful of maintaining a temperate mindset, we could help each other move forward without everyone being offended and scared.
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