Western Tarot symbolism
Temperance
An androgynous winged figure pours between chalices with one foot on land and the other on water. A path rises toward a distant light and crown. The commentary connects the action with harmonizing psychic and material natures. The oracle list gives moderation, economy, and management rather than limiting the symbol to abstinence.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryAn androgynous winged figure pours between chalices with one foot on land and the other on water. A path rises toward a distant light and crown.
Further detail
LiteraryThe commentary connects the action with harmonizing psychic and material natures. The oracle list gives moderation, economy, and management rather than limiting the symbol to abstinence.
Context & interpretation
The active library scan carries L. W. de Laurence’s name and reproduces material associated with A. E. Waite’s Tarot exposition. Its symbolic descriptions and divinatory lists are distinct registers, and neither provides a guaranteed prediction.
Original passages
Source 1
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Western Tarot symbolism; active reader leaf 69
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0069
- Original scan leaf
- 74
- Recorded leaf number
- 74
- Current Reader position
- 69
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
petrifaction, somnambulism ; hope destroyed. 14. Temperance.—Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation. Reversed: Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even theOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Western Tarot symbolism; active reader leaf 149
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0149
- Original scan leaf
- 155
- Recorded leaf number
- 155
- Current Reader position
- 149
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Continue exploring
Death
A rider whose passage joins mortality with transformation.
Shared source pageJudgment
A trumpet’s summons calls the figures from their tombs.
Shared source pageThe Devil
Material bondage depicted through a horned figure and chained pair.
Shared source pageThe Fool
The Tarot traveler poised between innocence, freedom, and uncertainty.