TRUMP 14 - TEMPERANCE
We come to one of the unsung heroes of the spiritual pathway. As we look at card #14, we will be discussing one of the most overlooked topics in the human race, and yet one of the most important. With Temperance, we are completing our fifth trinity of cards. This one encompasses the Hanged Man on one side, death on another, balanced by Temperance.
Temperance is balance and the sharing, within one person, of multiple and often contradictory energies. We are all subject to many, many thoughts, feelings, tendencies and energies. The various vehicles which we operate all have their needs, wants and desires. The mechanical vehicle, the physical vehicle, the emotional desire vehicle, the mental vehicle, the spiritual vehicle all lay claims to the energies of the divine controlling will, and all ask for their own attention.
The mechanical body needs to have its tires changed. The physical body experiences heart palpitations, gets hungry, wants to sleep. The desire body gets tossed about with overwhelming feelings of love and ecstasy, anger, tension, seeking one moment for peace of mind, seeking the next moment for thrill and excitement. The emotional body gets tossed in its reactions to all that happens, one moment full of peace and contentment, the next moment raging. The mental body has a plethora of experiences to tease, pull and tantalize it, all of which exist as playgrounds for the divine will. Where are we to focus ourselves? Not only do each of the different vehicles have conflicting desires, conflicting energies, but they all compete against one another. You cannot fix your car while you are meditating. You cannot serve humanity while you are feeding your face.
So Temperance is here as a divine guiding principle to bring balance, harmony and focus to all of our energies. This is most significant, coming as it does, on the heals of the previous two cards. The Hanged Man is the call to transcend ego. Death is the potential pitfall. For some people, the pathway of the Hanged Man is one of annihilation of the self--to beat the body until feeling is no longer possible, to dull the senses until experience is no longer possible, to numb the emotions until feeling is impossible, and to so confuse the mind, that thought is not possible. That form of ego transcendence leads not to the positive death merely of the ego, but the total annihilation of the being.
This pathway has been followed by many people. The term "nirvana" can be translated, to snuff out. No breath. Once the self is eliminated, then the self is free. Therefore, we have these pathways of absolute radical aestheticism. Do not feed the body, torture and kill the body. Do not feed the emotions, do not experience desire. Do not stir up the waters with all of your frivolous thought. Brother, seek to expire. Seek to be blown out. Some see the human consciousness as a knot, as a gnarl of tangles, and the purpose is to comb out the cosmic hair, removing all of the knots, wherein you'll be seeing that the individual does not exist.
The cult transcendence of ego is a very subtle pathway, and for those who arrive there at all, there is great temptation to mortify the flesh and all aspects of being in order to enter this Nihilistic state.
Temperance is here then to teach us several things. Number 1 is how to balance between each of our different individual vehicles. Number 2 is how to balance between ego transcendence and total annihilation of the self.
When we were discussing the Hanged Man, we discussed the droplet of water which re-enters the ocean. Each and every individual atom and electron and molecule inside of the raindrop still exists. It has not been passed through some vaporizer that will not only turn the water into steam, but will also disseminate every single atom in some form of cosmic explosion wherein the atoms no longer exist. That is what is known as the left hand pathway, the negative pathway. the Nihilistic pathway.
We are not talking about the ego becoming the destruction of the person, but rather to break down the barriers between the individual and the group, between the particular and the whole. God is the whole, we are the individual and all fellow human beings are the group.
When the secret tradition calls us to the egotist's state, it is not calling for the abrogation of existence. It is not calling for the negative. It is not calling for the wholesome positive parts of the individual to be destroyed. In this respect, the call to death is not a death of the entire being, but only a death of those individual attributes which separate the individual from the totality in the group.
That's why the greatest law is the law of love. The law of love states that we love God with our whole being, and we love our fellow man as ourselves. That means that the individual merges with the totality of God and the individual merges with the group of all fellow persons. In this respect, Temperance balances the transcendence of ego and seeks to preserve it from an annihilation of the self so that the positive, or right hand pathway of ego transcendence, leading us through death, is a death not of all of ourselves, but only those parts which need to die. This is the key to Temperance. Temperance is a balance--finding the right amount and proportion in all aspects.
The opposite of Temperance is excess. If we are to kill the entire being, then we are proverbially tossing out the baby with the bath water. We are not separating the wheat from the chaff, but we are rather killing them all and letting God sort them out. This is excess. This lacks discernment, which is another important aspect of the angel of Temperance.
What is the balancing controlling force that is going to enable us to be temperate? How are we to determine which is wheat and which is chaff? How are we to determine those aspects which properly shall be annihilated, and those which are good, should remain and be strengthened?
Obviously we must have discernment. This is a higher function from that of justice which we saw applying essentially to the realm of human interactions and God's interactions with people in terms of what is right and wrong. That cycle is through and comes out as the angel of Temperance.
In the higher facilities of being able to discern up from down, good from minus, plus from evil, this is how the universe operates. So, what do we have? We have a call to the transcendence of ego, and we have two pathways for this to occur upon. The pathway of total Nihilism and the pathway of transcendence of only those evil sides.
The pathway of Nihilism leaves us with absolutely nothing. The pathway of positive transcendence leaves us with only the good. And the faculty which we use to determine the difference is the faculty of discernment, which is cosmic conscious awareness of the yea and nay of life, leading us to balance--leading us to Temperance.
I began this chapter stating that balance was the unsung hero of the human race. If I breath too much, I will hyper-oxygenate and pass out. If I breath too little, I will become asphyxiated and pass out. The result is the same. Too much air and too little air lead to the same exact outcome. If I eat too much, I will become sick and die, yet if I eat too little, I will become sick and die. If I sleep too much, I will become groggy and tired, yet if I sleep too little, I will become groggy and tired. I must have a balancing point in all aspects of my life. Temperance is here to help give us discernment and keep/or restore the lost balance.
If I focus exclusively on my lower vehicles, spending all of my time shining and polishing the automobile, then my higher vehicles will suffer. I may not eat properly, I may not spend any time in thought or meditation, or I may isolate myself from all human beings because I am obsessed with my car. If I spend too much time in thought and prayer and meditation and do not deal with simple aspects of nutrition, movement and exercise, then my physical vehicle will expire.
What we obviously need then, is a balance and a discernment in order to keep all vehicles operating in harmony. In this way, the pathway of the Tarot, the pathway of the secret tradition, the pathway of the Bible, is different from much of the rest of the world.
There is nothing wrong with the body; there is nothing wrong with eating. There is nothing wrong with the lower vehicles; there is nothing wrong with sexuality. And it is tragic that so much of the human race, and especially exoteric Christianity as taught in retail outlets which we call churches, has enabled the holy beatific gifts to become blasphemed.
All vehicles are an expression of the higher consciousness. As above, so below. Your body is a reflection of your mind, just as your mind will be affected by your body. Ultimately, there is no separation and no difference between the soul and the body. They are one. God did not consider it to be immoral to take upon himself a body.
God did not consider it to be a blasphemy to eat, therefore the appetites need not be abrogated and sexuality need not be ignored. The sum totality of all vehicles is an incredible celebration to be rejoiced in. The problem arises when the Angel of Temperance is ignored.
If we get overbalanced and spend too much of our energies worshipping the body, then the higher vehicles will suffer. The discernment enables us to perceive truth from falsehood. This is a key point. The essence of repentance is not to simply promise you won't do it again or to feel really sorry about what you did. The essence of repentance is to change your thinking. In all of the entomological roots, repentance is a transformation of the mind a different awareness.
The Angel of Temperance bringing discernment and enlightenment enables us to perceive life differently. Remember the great commandments, to love God with your totality and love your fellow man as yourself. Recall that we indicated that this is not so much a command, as it is a law, just as gravity is a law. And we commented that you do, in fact, love God with your totality, and you do, in fact, love your fellow human beings in exactly the same way you love yourself. What happens, then, is as the Angel of Temperance and discernment comes to you, as you repent of the wrong, as you change your mind and experience the transformation of metanoia, you go beyond your previous thinking into new thinking.
You gain discernment and you can see more of what it means via the law. You can then see that in fact you do love God with your whole being, because you are united with Him. You can see that you do love your fellow man as yourself, because you are one with them. Therefore as you gain more access to knowledge, you have more and more discernment. Then the law becomes less of what is apparently a command and more of a awareness of the truth.
The law to love God and love your fellow man begins as a commandment. When we follow it without any desire or comprehension, we have no recognition of the truth. But as time goes on and we begin to recognize temperance and the balance and the totality, then we recognize that these are not commandments, but rather statements of actual fact.
We then see the essence of what is known as the secret tradition. The essence of all of the mystical schools and secret temple initiates is all the same thing. They all attempt to bring about a change in the initiate, through a series of revelations, heightening the awareness of the aspirant and therefore bringing about a change in the individual. However, these secret initiate ceremonies are not necessary. Truth is there for one and all.
If you choose to participate in some secret organization, that is, of course, your choice. For some people, that participation or membership gives them a heightened sense of importance, as though they are doing something more sacred than what others do. The primary difficulty there is the entrapment of ego. As you experience your religious pathway as a part of a secret special initiation, then tearing down the walls of ego is so much more difficult.
What we see is that commandments are transformed into divine law by discernment, and that ego and hatred are transformed into harmony and union through discernment. As we recognize that we are one being, as we recognize that God's blood flows through our veins, as we begin to recognize that we are the Fool, and as we begin to recognize that we are all God's children and separate cells in the entire body of Christ, then our ego, through that cleansing light of consciousness, begins to dissolve.
What are we going to do to answer the call of the Hanged Man? That is the question addressed by the balancing Angel of Temperance. And, it is a question which we did not address in the Hanged Man, because we were not prepared to do so. Let us assume that we are at the phase of the Hanged Man, that we are prepared to answer the call of God in our hearts and transcend our ego. We are ready to become baptized into Jesus’ death and His resurrection. We are, we feel, prepared to enter the egoless state. What do we actually do? What steps, or plans or practices or meditations, exercises, tools do we engage upon in order to do this?
O.K. God, I'm ready! Now what do I do? You cannot do anything. Whatever you might do, is going to be a action of your ego and lead you back to the paradox of the Bodhisattva. What you must do is nothing. There is only an awareness that one is, in fact, one with the universe. You can simply open your eyes, and through the process of repentance, metanoia, and the transformation of your mind, recognize that your ego never existed at all.
In exactly the same way, the law to love God begins as a commandment only because we start entrapped in our ego. So we fight against God and work against His law, perceiving it simply as a command or a duty to be performed.
As the Angel of Discernment comes to us, and we recognize that there is no fundamental separation between God and ourselves, then the eyes of our heart are opened and we see the infinite truth. As the Bible says, "We shall not be conformed to this world, but we shall be transformed by the renewing of our minds," by the metanoia, by the discernment granted to us. That enables us to recognize truth, recognize all vehicles and all domains as being part of the divine flow, and grants us the ability to become aware of the oneness which we all share.
As we turn specifically to the Tarot card #14, we see many gorgeous images. First, we see the return of the angel, who guards the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden on Tarot card #6. At this point, as we overcome the transcendence of ego, as we overcome ego, as we recognize the power of divine will and judgment and have the blossoming consciousness of God himself, and as we have the mind of Christ, we are overcoming the pairs of opposites. The curse of knowledge of good vs. evil, me and not me, is being dealt with, is being overcome. There is a oneness that we are returning to.
The angel is there to welcome us back to the fold and send us on the final phases of our journey. We must travel farther. We are not home. We are not yet complete. The breath of God has us returning to the Father/Mother, but we are not yet there. She is radiant, with her glowing head and glorious wings. We see clearly the balance of all aspects of the universe. We have the four-fold symbolism, the four primal elements, very clearly here. She stands with her left foot upon the earth and her right foot upon the water. She has wings to fly in the air, and we see around her head and behind her, behind the mountains, the all consuming fire of the Sun--earth, water, air, fire, the four elements.
The Angel of Temperance is here to balance these elements and enable them to stay in harmony with one another. The angel is standing partially on earth and partially on water, to show that these different forces need not work against each other. They are in harmony. Your body and your desire state need not be at war. You can control all aspects of your being through the power of strength and through the divine will. As the book of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything: a time to live, a time to die, a time to celebrate, a time to grieve. There is a time to eat and a time to refrain from eating. That is the power that the Angel of Temperance grants to us.
The angel is holding two cups which represent the chemist’s methodology. She is pouring the water from one cup into the other, then from that cup back into the first. This is something that chemists and biologists do as they are performing their experiments. They pour the different liquids into the different containers until they have the right mixture. This is the card of transformation. This is a card of action. For through the discernment and awareness and glorious enlightenment, through the metanoia of this angel, we are transformed. The call to the transcendence of ego, the challenge of properly embracing death becomes our victory and our reality through this card.
Upon her breasts, the angel has a square housing a triangle. The symbolism here is obvious and profound. The square represents the four, which as we have seen is law, matter. The triangle represents the trinity, represents nature. It also represents the total subject-object relationship: we have two cups, (subject, object) and the relationship is the liquid which flows between them. That liquid is the living water that the Bible talks about. When we have overcome, we are granted access to drink from the streams of living water. The water itself is alive. It is not merely a chemical, it is actually alive, growing and breathing. That water fills our bodies and transforms us, i.e., the subject-object relationship.
Finally, but most importantly, let’s look at the most essential aspect of this entire card. It is something which most people overlook. Just above the square and triangle on the angel’s chest are some little black squiggles. Some people think that those are just a part of the folds of the angel’s gown, but they are actually none other then the Yod Heh Vav Heh. That is God's holy name. The symbolism is astounding. The angel wears the name of God. The angel is God in the flesh. The angel is Yod Heh Vav Heh and that Yod Heh Vav Heh is manifested within the four plus the three. All of law, plus all of nature, create the seven--the harmonious balance. The Chariot, the revelation which will take us back to the inner throne room of God, and the angel wear the name of Yod Heh Vav Heh. We wear the name of Yod Heh Vav Heh.
This is truly astounding. So many people, as we said before, think of the Tarot cards as being dark satanic things used for evil, fortune telling purposes, yet here two-thirds of the way to the end of the pathway of the Major Arcana, we see in card #14, emblazoned on the chest of the Angel of Temperance, the holy name of Yod Heh Vav Heh. Remember, this is the name which God said He shall be known by, Exodus 13. This is the sacred name which we saw in the Wheel of Fortune, whether we are turning to the left or to the right. It is all Yod Heh Vav Heh. The power of that name is the discerning force that enables us to recognize all truth.
Behind the angel there is a pathway that leads to the mountains. In the previous card, Death, we saw the Sun just beginning to peak above the horizon. Here in the next card the Sun is just a little bit higher. This is not coincidence. We are in day break and entering the promised land. We will, over the course of the next cards, follow that pathway through the mountains to the Sun. But next, we must pass through the dark knight of the soul.
