Brainstorming Temperance

Hi all! I was snarky (again) about deck creators seemingly not knowing what Temperance means (in both illustrations and guidebooks). My friend immediately challenged me: "So what DOES Temperance mean?" And I stumbled around trying to answer coherently.

In delayed response, here are my keywordy ideas on Temperance, expanding from conventional meanings of the cardinal virtue to more esoteric concepts. (I think it's appropriate that some of these ideas are tangled up in my mind with scientific concepts. I'm fascinated by the electromagnetic spectrum because I was middle-aged before I learned that light and heat, and radio waves and microwaves and x-rays, are all on the same continuum.)

Meanings of Temperance

Everything in moderation (including moderation)

Aristotelian happy medium = extremes are bad, in between extremes is good

Blending rather than just joining

            Chemical compounds = ingredients combine to create a third thing different than the original ingredients

Alchemy

            Experimentation, physical and otherwise

            Physical things are metaphors for spiritual things

Continuum

            Electromagnetic spectrum

Please join in with agreement, disagreement, more ideas, requests for expansion, etc. What does Temperance mean to you?

Edited 39 minutes ago39 min by Rachelcat