Temperance Art and Meaning
Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment
About the Deck
(aka Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Tarot Deck) One of the earliest Tarot Decks, the Pierpont Morgan Deck is entirely gilded, with fine paintings upon it.
It is estimated to have been produced around 1451 or 1452, possibly for a triumphal event in 1453.
Provenance
Italy, c. 1452.
According to Many Schools of Thought
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Temperance. The winged figure of a female--who, in opposition to all doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this order of ministering spirits--is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connexion with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.
S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings
Upright
Combination, Conformation, Uniting
Reversed
Ill-advised combinations, Disunion, Clashing interests, &c.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Temperance. Economy.