Temperance

Major Arcana · number 14 · La Temperanza

Temperance, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

Temperance pours water from one cup to the other without losing a drop: it is the card of measure, of economy, of knowing how to manage. If these days you feel pulled in two directions, between work and family, between desire and prudence, this card tells you the road runs through the middle. In love it asks for patience and adjustment; with money, a budget drawn up calmly; in health, rhythm and moderation. This is not the time for excess in any direction. The practical advice: before deciding, sleep on it for a night. The solutions that last are the ones blended slowly.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation.»

Reversed

Reversed, Temperance loses its balance: competing interests, ill-matched combinations, a group or a family splitting apart. The card also brings in rites, churches and ceremonies: perhaps a wedding is involved, or a formal commitment that one person wants and another does not. If you notice that every attempt to bring two things, two people, two jobs together ends in a quarrel, it is no accident. Beware of alliances of convenience. The practical advice: do not force the mixture. Keep apart what does not blend, and wait for tempers to cool.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry the Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 3, The Greater Arcana and their Divinatory Meanings https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot