14:   Temperance

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BOTA (Builders of the Adytum)

Universal Waite

1.   Avoiding extremes; self-control; moderation; being careful. 2.   Economy/thrift. 3.   Combination/synthesis/adaptation. A harmonizing or blending of opposites.

COMMENTS:

We are told that the angel in the illustration is Michael.

One writer says that "temperance" refers to the act of tempering, or the making of a properly balanced mixture.   One no longer goes to extremes, but has mastery of the pairs of opposites; he now chooses a path somewhere between two extremes.   Tempering refers to the blending of opposites to achieve synthesis.   Blending must occur in the correct proportions.

Figure out how to integrate the various forces in your life.   Remember that there is a difference between mixing things together and blending them.

Another writer has said that one cup is pouring water into the other; and that cup is pouring fire back into the first one (in the Rider-Waite version).

In the Crowley deck, this card is "Alchemy."

In the B.O.T.A. (Builders of the Adytum) deck (see illustration supra), the letters יהוה can be seen above the medallion on the angel's chest.   יהוה is the "Tetragrammaton"   —   the Hebrew name of God found in the Old Testament (6,807 times).   An English Bible will render it "The Lord" (in small caps) instead of actually translating (or transliterating) it.   יהוה does not mean "the Lord."

Here's what Arthur Edward Waite says about this card (in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot): A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible to man in his incarnation. All the conventional emblems are renounced herein. So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas. It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonises the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going.