TEMPERANCE – kärlek

In love, TEMPERANCE does not ask for renunciation, but for proportion.

Let's state it immediately, because its name is misleading: this card does not mean that you should feel less, ask for less, or want less. The original word means to blend in the right proportion — the same word used to temper steel.

Look closely at the card, where a large-winged angel stands on the water's edge, holding two chalices, pouring water from one to the other. Not taking away. Blending.

For between two people, the question is not who gives up more, but in what proportion you blend yourselves: how much is shared and how much is separate, how much talk and how much silence, how much fire and how much calm.

Now look at the stream of water between the two chalices, because it flows at an angle that shouldn't be possible — it arches over, against gravity. This is the quiet miracle of this card: there are things that work when they shouldn't according to the rules, and this almost always comes from patience.

And notice its feet: one in the water, the other on dry land. It does not stand in the middle, cautiously, between two identical things — it lives in two worlds at once, and renounces neither. This is the true balance in a relationship too: not that you are both half present, but that you can both handle it — the deep and the everyday.

Also notice that the angel does not stop. This card does not depict a state, but a movement that is currently ongoing — love is not a place you arrive at, but something you do every day.

If there is tension between you now, do not explode and do not make vows. Do not say anything grand: just adjust the proportion a little.

In its reversed position, extremism is at work: either fusion or cold war. Yet, relationships are not carried away by grand scenes, but by the fact that no one adjusts the temperature in time.

Don't say anything too grand tonight. Adjust the proportions a little.

Let's state it immediately, because its name is misleading: this card does not mean that you should feel less, ask for less, or want less. The original word means to blend in the right proportion — the same word used to temper steel.

Look closely at the card, where a large-winged angel stands on the water's edge, one foot in the water, the other on dry land, holding two chalices: pouring water from one into the other.

Not taking away. Mixing.

This is your message tonight, because even between two people, the question is not who gives up more. The question is in what proportion you mix yourselves: how much is shared and how much is separate, how much talk and how much silence, how much fire and how much calm.

Now look at the stream of water between the two chalices, because it flows at an angle it shouldn't: it doesn't fall straight down, as gravity would dictate — it arches.

This is the quiet miracle of this card: there are things that work when they shouldn't according to the rules. And this almost always comes from patience — for patience is not idleness, but the force that carries water upwards.

And observe its feet, for this is the most precise teaching of this card: it does not stand in the middle, cautiously, between two identical things. One foot is in the depths, the other on solid ground — it lives in two worlds at once, and gives up neither.

In a relationship, this is also the true balance: not that both of you are only half present, but that you can both handle it — both the deep and the everyday. He who stands only on land dries up; he who stands only in water drowns.

Also notice that it does not stand still: this card does not depict a state, but a movement that is currently ongoing. Love is not a place you arrive at, but something you do every day.

If there is tension between you now, do not explode and do not make vows. Adjust by one degree, not ten.

In the reversed position, extremism is at work: either fusion or cold war. Yet, relationships are not carried away by grand scenes, but by the fact that no one adjusts the temperature in time.