Meaning
Smith's Temperance is a winged angel in a white robe, the sign of the sun on the forehead and a triangle within a square on the breast, pouring water from one cup into another. One foot stands on the land and one in a pool where irises grow, and a path climbs from the water to a crown of light between two hills. Waite says the figure is neither male nor female, and that the card is well named, because under its rule a person tempers, combines and harmonises the inner and the outer natures.
The Golden Dawn gave the card Samekh, a simple letter glossed as prop or support, and the sign Sagittarius, and titled it the Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer-Forth of Life. On the order's tree it is path 25. Crowley's Thoth deck renamed it Art.
We read the card as mixing and measure: the patient combining of opposites into something that holds, and the middle way found by testing. Waite's fortune-telling list for it, economy and moderation, is quoted below as his.
In the birth cards
Temperance belongs to Greer's fifth constellation, which has only two cards: the Hierophant, 5, and Temperance, 14. It is the Personality card of everyone whose total is 14, with the Hierophant as Soul card, on 3.5 percent of the days from 1900 to 2030. A 14-5 reaches both cards of its constellation, so it is the first of the night-time chains that have no Hidden Factor. Temperance is the Hidden Factor of a single 5 instead, on 7.6 percent of days.
As a natal-chart card Temperance is the Sun-sign card of Sagittarius. As a year card it comes 10 times in the 201 years from 1900 to 2100 for a 15 June birthday.
History and names
In the Marseille decks the card is Tempérance, numbered XIIII, a winged woman pouring between two jugs: one of the cardinal virtues, which stood among the trumps with Justice and Strength.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Golden Dawn title (Book T)
- “The Daughter of the Reconcilers; the Bringer-Forth of Life” sourced
- Waite's fortune-telling list (1911), upright
- “Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation”, quoted as history; Waite called such meanings artificial and arbitrary sourced
- Greer's name for the constellation
- Teaching and Learning (1987, 2021) sourced
- Our line for the birth-card chain
- 14-5: Tradition tested by experience our construction
- Thoth deck name
- Art, XIV sourced
- Sun-sign card
- For the Sun in Sagittarius; also the Moon card and the Rising card for Sagittarius sourced
How the schools read it
- Game decks (15th to 18th century)
- Tempérance, numbered XIIII: a woman pouring between two jugs, one of the cardinal virtues among the trumps.
- Golden Dawn, Book T
- Samekh, the prop, a simple letter, and the sign Sagittarius; path 25. Book T titles it the Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer-Forth of Life.
- Waite and Smith (1909 to 1911)
- An angel neither male nor female, who tempers, combines and harmonises the inner and outer natures; the name fits, Waite says, because that is what a person does under its rule.
- Mary K. Greer (1984 to 2021)
- In the constellation of 5 with the Hierophant. The Personality card of a 14-5, a chain with no Hidden Factor, and the Hidden Factor of a single 5.
- Crowley, Thoth deck (1944)
- Renamed Art; letter and sign unchanged.
- EsoTerrier
- Read here as mixing and measure: the patient combining of opposites into something that holds, and the middle way found by testing.
Claims about it
-
Temperance's old one-line meaning on our chart was our own wording.
falseWhat the record shows: Our old line followed a modern keyword list too closely and was replaced in October 2026.
-
Samekh and Sagittarius are Temperance's ancient correspondences.
disputedWhat the record shows: They are the Golden Dawn's, from about 1888.
-
Temperance as a birth card makes a person balanced.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: No study links birth cards to traits. We offer the card as a theme to recognise.
