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Temperance Tarot: The Dynamism of Balance

Writer's picture: Caroline AllenCaroline Allen



woman holding two jugs
Visconti Sforza Temperance Tarot Card

I was in my 30s and was witlessly, mindlessly bored. I’d had such a big life in London, and here I was in Seattle where I didn’t feel like anything was important or interesting. I was bored, and I was profoundly upset about it, emotional all day, every day.


I went for regular readings with urban mystic Judith Laxer. On this occasion, Judith kept getting the Temperance tarot card. Temperance is about finding balance, and that was the last thing I wanted to hear. Balance. YAWN! I was already flippin’ bored out of my wee mind.

She suggested I put down a row of painter’s tape on the floor at home and walk it every day to imbue my psyche with the notion of balance.


Because I wanted to feel better, I did this every day for a few months, but I can’t say I enjoyed it.


It was only after studying balance more dynamically over the next few years, that I truly understood the Temperance Card.


  1. It’s all about dynamic balance. Think about standing up in a small boat and how you have to bend your knees and move with the motion of the water to keep standing upright. Especially in today’s world, the concept of balance must be translated into “balance on the move”, a shifting, morphing notion of balance that’s about readjusting to find your center.

  2. Are we getting back all that we’re giving out? Temperance is all about finding the balance between giving and receiving, and women especially have an issue with giving too much. The Temperance will show up if it’s time to pull your energy back.

  3. What are you putting into your body? What news or social media or entertainment? What junk food? What negative thoughts? Are you hydrated? The Temperance can be warning you to balance what is going into you, and asking you to pour in fresh clean energy.

  4. What you give out comes back. So, because I didn’t like where I was in my 30s, where I was didn’t like me back. Temperance asks us to take an honest look at what we’re putting out because it’s returning to us in spades.

What I can now see with this emotional uproar of my 30s, was the need to calm my emotions, to come from a place of acceptance of my fate (easier said than done, of course). And that meant, I had to stop partying so hard, had to stop giving so much as a tarot reader (as if I could extract some kind of happiness by giving to another), and I needed to find a path that would give me a dynamic and not stagnant balance. I would ultimately find this through novel writing and art – but it was a journey for sure.


I used to find the Temperance tarot card one of the most boring cards in the deck, and now I can see how it actually can provide a foundation for a much more powerful life.  


Want to learn tarot? Join the online course Mystic Circle!

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