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Temperance is the15th Card in the Major Arcana
of the Tarot.
(It is card No.14 because the 1st Card, "The
Fool" is
called Card No.0.)
The Temperance Tarot
Card is concerned with the need for balance and moderation.
It encourages us to release the requirements of our egos
for pride, arrogance, and all dysfunctional attachmentsin
order to facilitate our inner strengths and growth.
This
card recognizes the importance of both the material and the
spiritual components of our lives. This is the true meaning
of the sense of "balance" conveyed by this card. Its advice
to accept all things in moderation
- including moderation - is for this reason: To leave enough
space in our appreciation for spiritual and physical / material
blessings.
In the cases of traditional tarot packs such as the Rider-Waite,Robin
Wood, and Golden
Dawn Decks "Temperance" Tarot
Card depicts a large angelic winged figure standing with
one foot in a pool of water. The background to this scene
is a natural setting, the details of which vary with the
specific tarot deck and the style of the deck.
Some specific terms associated with "Temperance" Tarot
card include:
Moderation, control, discipline, patience, balance, calm, equilibrium, peace.
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The cards of the Major Arcana are widely considered to be the
most powerful cards in the Tarot Deck. The 22 cards of the Major
Arcana tell a complete story when arranged in upright and numerical
order (beginning with The
Fool). This is a story of of development and enlightenment
and is sometimes referred to as "The Fool's Journey".
Some texts also include meanings for "reversed
cards". These
are for the situation in which the cards are shuffled in both
order and orientation. The theoretical advantage to this is that
it effectively doubles the number of possible "cards" in
the deck from 78 to 156. (However, in terms of the calculation
of obtaining results according to chance alone, it is not a simple
mathematical doubling because once a card
has been
drawn
it
cannot be drawn
again in the opposite orientation in the same reading.) |
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