Major Arcana · 14
Temperance
La Tempérance · La Temperanza · Art (Thoth)
The Temperance tarot card meaning runs through both orientations: upright, balance, moderation, alchemy; reversed, imbalance, excess, extremes. Below, its imagery across the Rider–Waite–Smith, Thoth, and Marseille decks, and what the tradition’s writers said about it.
- Element
- Fire
- Planet
- Jupiter
- Zodiac
- Sagittarius
- Hebrew
- Samekh
- Numerology
- 14
- Timing
- Sagittarius season (November–December); the long view — months to a year; Thursday (Jupiter day).
Upright
- balance
- moderation
- alchemy
- patience
- blending
- integration
Reversed
- imbalance
- excess
- extremes
- lack of long-term vision
- self-medication
Temperance Tarot Card Meaning
Upright
[object Object]
Reversed
[object Object]
The image, three ways
Rider–Waite–Smith
A winged angel — neither clearly male nor female — pours water between two cups, the stream flowing impossibly between them. One foot rests on land, the other in water. The sun rises over distant mountains; irises bloom; a path leads to a crowned light.
Thoth
Renamed Art. A two-headed (or four-headed) alchemical figure pours water and fire into a single cauldron, blending opposites. Crowley emphasizes the laboratory of the soul.
Marseille
La Tempérance — a winged figure pours liquid between two pitchers. Less elaborate than later versions but containing the central image.
Four ways a reversal speaks
After Mary K. Greer, Tarot Reversals (2002)
01 · excessive
Over-mixing into mush; the alchemist who keeps stirring past the gold; immoderation in any direction.
02 · blocked
Impatience; the cure rushed; the slow integration interrupted.
03 · opposite
Extremes — overindulgence or rigid abstinence — both failures of the middle way.
04 · internalized
Self-medication; the blending done privately and badly to avoid the public work.
What the tradition says
A.E. Waite · 1910
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation. The angel of life, of solar fire, of the secret of the Royal Marriage.
Aleister Crowley · 1944
The Book of Thoth
Art — the laboratory of soul-making. The marriage of the white queen and red king blending in the cauldron. Sagittarius — the arrow toward illumination.
Rachel Pollack · 1980
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom
Temperance is the moment of integration after the death of Death — the soul reassembling itself from the ashes, but consciously this time.
Mary K. Greer · 1984
Tarot for Your Self
Greer locates Temperance's work in the small daily blendings — the cup of coffee that holds rest and stimulation, the conversation that holds truth and care. The card's mastery is unglamorous, accumulating through practice rather than insight.
Lon Milo DuQuette · 2003
Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot
DuQuette unpacks Crowley's title 'Art' as the Great Work itself — solve et coagula, the alchemical instruction to dissolve and recoagulate. The card is the laboratory of soul-making, where opposites are not balanced but actively cooked into a third thing that did not previously exist.
Shadow
The lukewarm — temperance confused with neutrality; the conflict-avoider who calls compromise balance; the slow-walker who never decides.
Archetypal role
The Alchemist / The Healer / The Integrator / The Patient Master
Historical notes
Temperance was originally one of the four cardinal virtues (with Justice, Strength, and Prudence — the latter often missing from tarot). The angel pouring water between cups is a medieval image of moderating wine — the practical, daily virtue elevated to spiritual practice. Crowley renamed it Art to reclaim the alchemical dimension lost in 'temperance' — which had become moralistic in English usage.
Neighbouring arcana
Temperance combinations
Bring this card into a question
Begin a reading