TEMPERANCE
"Everything in moderation, including moderation." - Oscar Wilde
After the massive change in perspective (Hanged Man) and all the endings and changes that creates (Death), it's time to balance out and find the stability in your life, so enter the Temperance card. This card denotes finding that comfortable, healing center so that you can restore harmony in your life. It points to the need to balance two opposing forces, combining the best of them so that you can center your mind and heart. Thus, it's a very healing card, one that reminds us to have patience in order to reach that equilibrium (if you've ever seen a scale balance, you know it takes a little while for things to level out as the scales wibble-wobble for a bit). This card points to peace and tranquility being found once you find that happy middle ground and figure out who you are after that adjustment.
::Who's Who On This Card::
1. Astrid Magnussen from White Oleander - White Oleander is a movie about a young woman who is shuffled from foster home to foster home after her mother is put in jail. She loses her compass during all this turmoil, taking on a different personality in each home in order to fit in. By the end though, she's gone through a major healing process and stands in a room where there is an art display of a bunch of different suitcases, each one with mementos of a different home and a different life she lived there, but she stands in the center, fully having integrated all of these different personalities into herself in order to find her center in them all. The holds onto the most important parts of herself and transforms into this beautiful mixture, a perfectly balanced moderation.
2. Zotoh Zhaan from Farscape - After Zotoh Zhaan was put in prison for murder, she turned to meditation in order to facilitate her healing and keep the wild side of herself in check. Even though her dark impulses never fully went away, she was able to hold balance our her emotions and became one of the most compassionate and wisest of the Farscape crew. It's this kind of peaceful equilibrium that the Temperance card points to in a reading, and finding that calm center so that you can stabilize.
3. Grey Jedi from Star Wars Extended Universe - In the original movies, you were either a good Jedi or a vile Sith, but in the extended universe of the Star Wars books and comics, there was a sect called the Grey Jedi, who sought to find the balance between the two and live in that gray middle area, bringing together those opposites like the Temperance card likes us to do. As their code states, "There must be both dark and light. I will do what I must to keep the balance, as the balance is what holds all life. There is no good without evil, but evil must not be allowed to flourish. There is passion, yet peace; serenity, yet emotion; chaos, yet order. I am a wielder of the flame; a champion of balance. I am a guardian of life. I am a Gray Jedi."
4. Wei Wei from Stick It - Technically, this could be any gymnast out there on the balance beam, but Stick It is one of my favorite gymnastics movies. A gymnast has to have both grace and strength to stay stable up there and keep their balance, which I think is a good lesson the Temperance card leaves us with-- it takes a lot of dexterity to find the eye of the storm sometimes, to not let those little frustrations in life knock us off balance. But when you become an adept gymnast in life, temperance and moderation becomes easier.
5. The Beast from Beauty And The Beast - When the Beast first meets Belle, his actions and emotions are way too strong, he feels that force is the way to get what he wants and doesn't care if his anger is off the chart loud and in people's faces. But when he starts to fall for her, Belle changes him and he learns to not come off so harshly. That anger inside him starts to heal, resulting in a sense of inner calm that allows him to have more patience and moderate his behavior. In turn, Belle makes compromises herself, like forgoing silverware so everyone can eat together gracefully.
6. Franklin Dudikoff from Recess - This was only one episode of a Saturday morning cartoon show, but it always kind of stuck with me. In it, there was a new student teacher trying to find his footing in his field. When he first came into the classroom, he billed himself as Mr. Dudikoff, a very stuffy and nervous new teacher, who was trying to fit the mold of what a "teacher" should look and act like. But that wasn't working. So he switched to calling himself The Dude, let the kids play all day and didn't give them any rules or discipline. Again, that failed miserably. So after talking to the Recess kids, he realized he was going to the extremes when he could instead combine them into the perfect mixture-- hence the creation of Mr. Dude, a fun guy who was able to add his fun side to his more serious teacher side, really gaining the kid's approval, respect and finding a great way to teach them in a creative and fun way. Temperance is all about finding that happy balance in between extremes.