Barbara Walker Tarot - 14: Temperance

With one foot in water and one foot on earth (the two “female” elements), a winged female angel pours water from one vessel to another. She suggests the transforming power of perfect love, which Asian sages likened to “the pouring of water into water.” She was the “mixer” (Latin temperare) of elements, yielding each person’s “temperament.” The card also refers to tempor, a time period, or due season. Temperance may have been the winged spirit of tempus, Time, who, like Death, waits for no man. Her card means mingling of elements, joining, togetherness, group activity, creative effort.