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Temperance

“Röhrig Cards” deck · card #14

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"The virtuous man chooses the middle and avoids the two extremes of too much and too little."
Aristotle

After the death of the ego (the primary Death), which for many people is accompanied by a disturbance of the senses and a terrifying awareness, the initiate learns the lesson of balance. Only one who is in balance can safely use the energies that were released in the card of Death. It is not only mentally ill people, who spend their lives as patients in psychiatric hospitals, who are the victims of an inadequate understanding or misapplication of the power of Temperance.

Often people are so unruly and inattentive in their seeking that they push forward, grasping at sensations for which they do not yet possess the necessary maturity. This creates a kind of "short circuit" in their bodies. We must not forget that we are dealing here with very subtle, very high energies. Moreover, these energies are, above all, ready to work for humanity — our bodies and minds must be sufficiently mature and properly prepared for them.

Temperance, or perhaps better, Balance, is depicted in the Tarot of the Aquarian Age as a beautiful naked woman. The feather covering her nakedness signifies that she has shed so much of life's ballast that she has now become "light as a feather" and capable of flying like one.

Before her are placed two flat cups, containing a red and a blue liquid. These are the two energies, positive and negative, which have united in the middle in order to achieve balance and equilibrium. Although the young woman holds her hands above the cups, she does not actually touch them. This means she knows how to hold the subtle energies of polarity in her hands and is able to harmonize opposites through willpower alone.

Transformation is another theme of this card. Here it is depicted as the transformation of negative force into positive force. People who have reached this stage of evolution continue the task of transforming their negative qualities into positive ones, all the while remaining firmly anchored to their own center.

Card number fourteen is dedicated to the astrological sign of Sagittarius. He appears in the image of a centaur — half man, half animal — who hunts for his ideals. In one hand he holds a bow with the string drawn taut. Only when he overcomes his animal nature will his arrow be able to strike the target he has dreamed of for so long — the highest truth.

Sagittarius belongs to the element of fire, but water is also present in card number fourteen. The rune LAGUZ means cosmic, primal water. LAGUZ is also the gateway to that which is hidden. In this rune the depth of the soul is revealed in all its beauty, but also in all its ugliness. LAGUZ symbolizes a person's determination, willingly subjecting themselves to trials.

The Hebrew letter SAMEKH means "water serpent." The serpent coils itself into a closed ring, and the circle is completed. Humanity is born in water, under the sign of the fish (serpent). This sign is ideal for our plane of reality, since this is how God wished to see it, He who desired that they should strive for the perfection contained within Himself.

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