Card in Focus: Temperance, Tempered Balance

Card in Focus: We’ll take a closer look at a single card from the tarot and learn things like its traditional meanings, how it could help with anything, and others things that I can see from it.

As much as I wanted to update my blog, a lot of things have been draining me more than usual lately (it’s as if tarot reading here in Manila is not draining enough).  It’s nothing I can’t manage, but I’ve started to feel this half-a-year’s worth of exhaustion, both physical and emotional/spiritual.  I’ve been doing my best to be more active in this life as much as possible, especially with interpersonal relationships.  I may have overdone it so much that the next thing I know, exhaustion has tremendously bogged me down.

XIV – Temperance

I could use some advise from this post’s Card in Focus: Temperance.  The art of moderation and self-restraint.

XIX – Temperance (The Shadowscapes Tarot) | (c) Llewellyn

Recently, whenever my friends ask me how I have been doing, I give them almost the same answer: “These past few months have been crazy because I’ve been meeting people almost nonstop for their tarot requests.”  Literally.  Aside from the weekly Wednesday night free tarot sessions I organize, my calendar has been piling up not only with tarot sessions but also with other social activities and non-tarot hangouts, dinner dates and that.  Maybe what I said earlier is a mistake, and I’m definitely doing more than what I could manage.

Temperance as a Major Arcana indicates self-control, moderation, and self-restraint.  This is about finding that sweet little spot that holds everything we have in perfect balance.  This same spot enables us to place everything into perspective, see the things and the feelings that we have been massively in excess of, and control them until balance is achieved.  What this means is that, I should start taking tarot requests in moderation.  Or at least, try to work on a calendar that won’t give me a tremendous amount of exhaustion as a result.

As an aside, Temperance as a traditional virtue is about having a healthy response to any form of aversion or negativity: forgiveness instead of retaliation, modesty instead of arrogance, self-control instead of anger.

Chill.