Temperance depicts the energies of the psyche in balance. It is what is referred to as the “right work of centers” in the 4th Way terminology. I

n Temperance the working of the self-undoing of false personality is at a minimum or is absent, and if present it is purely residual, it does not have the power to overwhelm the psyche, as it once did; it is no longer “first force”.

Here true personality has matured, is in tune with essence’s wisdom, and is fully active.

Temperance comes as the result of the process described on the previous card in the sequence: Death (card 13). Death depicts the process of elimination of the useless, false, and harmful from the psyche or, as some refer to as “the purification of the mind/heart”. Such purification leads to Temperance; to the normal and natural working of the body-mind apparatus.