From Touchstone TarotTM by Kat Black
Temperance
Meanings
A balanced life. With spiritual, emotional and material needs met, this is a time of equilibrium. Moderation, satisfaction with life’s gifts. Skilled diplomacy and negotiation. The middle path.
Reversed (?)
Self-destructiveness. Lack of ability to moderate one’s actions and emotions. Conflict. Imbalance.
Description
A young woman in a demure brown costume with a white hat and veil pours water from a jug into a cup. Beside her is a statuette of an angel. A dove perches on the bench, and behind her is a jug full of Iris and Lilies. She modestly averts her eyes.
The face is that of a young Katharine of Aragon, recently widowed after the death of Arthur, Prince of Wales and before she married his younger brother Henry VIII, a pragmatic solution to a diplomatic dilemma.
Artwork
- Face: SITTOW, Michael, Katharine of Aragon, c.1502, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
- Habit, timber: RING, Ludger tom, the Younger, The Delphic Sibyl, 1500s, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Iris: MEMLING, Hans, Flower Still Life, c. 1490, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
- Table: ROMBOUTS, Theodor, The Card Players, 1600s, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp.
- Angel statue: RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel, The Resurrection of Christ, 1611-12 O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp.
- Dove: BOTTICELLI, Sandro, Giuliano de' Medici, 1476-77, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
- Pouring jug: BLOMMENDAEL, Reyer van, Xantippe Dousing Socrates, c.1655, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg.
- Cup: METSU, Gabriel, The Sick Child, c.1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
- Water from jar: RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel, The Union of Earth and Water, c.1618, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
