Temperance

There is no denying that it feels like the universe is scolding me. The frequency with which Temperance appears in my pulls is almost laughable; if I wasn’t so tired of hearing about it.

Balance, neutrality, patience

This card urges balance and peace. It reminds us that what we know to be true isn’t always. It suggests we make room for grace and growth, and the restoration of harmony is the energetic force at play. There is an unusual fluency between the inmost depth of spirit and the outer facing mind expressed by this card, which encourages both exploration and exchange between these states.

I have been about this work for what feels like a very long time. I know that isn’t strictly true in the temporal sense, but the effort feels like it has been underway for long and long indeed.

I have spent most of my life in a hurry, and I know better than anyone that it is both difficult and necessary for me to slow down. The pause prior to action is not as seductive as the headlong reel. I am fighting an instinct I have not fully decoded, knowing it will benefit me nevertheless.

Things have a strange intensity at this moment, but it has been tempered by a patience I am unaccustomed to feeling. I am not casting ahead for answers; instead waiting for them to emerge from the veil. I cannot say what I believe I want but feel able to dwell there for the first time I can remember.

Co-Star seems to think I am right where I belong. That the unfamiliar quality of this moment is not a signal for it to change.

I heard somewhere that humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. So perhaps it is with humility that I am poised. It allows me to bring the full force of my compassion to the moment. To feel present in both the pleasure and the heartache of it without attempting to create a particular result.

So perhaps Temperance appears less as a scolding than a recognition of something I am only rarely able to achieve. A reminder that I can practice patience, as I am doing in this moment. That I can allow the ebb and flow of forces beyond my control and understanding to wash over me without struggling for breath. That if I can but wait, harmony will be restored.