I talk often in my readings about “Temperance” being in my opinion the most important lesson in the tarot and hence in life itself. You can cheat the universe. You can lie to yourself, and cheat your way through life, but the universe always catches up in the end. i.e. “ALL karmic debts are paid at some point!!” If you prefer the word luck, well…. luck runs out.. Luck if it were a real thing would be like debt. You can keep goin’ around town charging shit to your card but eventually you have to pay for it all.
Most people today lack Temperance. They fail to see its importance, they don’t care, they cheat and lie to themselves and others just to get ahead. It’s the instant gratification syndrome as it’s often called. They do it energetically with false perceptions of the people and situations around them, or worse yet a false perception of themselves. They do it in the 3D in real life with their fast forward button on TV, or on the internet, or in relation to the subtleties of life itself. In those cases they cheat themselves by missing massive amounts of the message on TV or on a video, or worse yet all of the magic of life, which lives in the little things.
But this isn’t an article about what’s wrong with society. There’s 100 pages I could write on the psychology of what’s happened to us, and I suspect knowing me I will at some point. But not now. This is an article about WHY the lesson of temperance is important. I hope I make the message understandable though my usual anecdotal style.
I want what I want and I want it NOW!!!!!!!!! I’m sorry to say but that’s not how energy works. Even though we have have evolved into a bunch of entitled assholes, the energy of the universe is what it has always been and will remain that way long after we no longer exist. We live in the energy of the universe, and we don’t control it. We can only control how we respond within the energy. In other words we control our output which determines how well or unwell we thrive within the environmental energies around us. A good example of this as it’s a simple one would be an astrological energy. Let’s say Mars is trining Venus. Well it’s trining Venus whether we want it to or not. You catch my drift. I hope so, because there’s no simpler way to put it.
So why can’t we just have what we want when we want it? What is the lesson of Temperance? Why is it important?? Who cares STEVE!! Okay… calm down… I’ll be the bad guy here… I’m used to it…
TIMING!!! That’s why…. Everything is about timing, and without Temperance your timing is way off, and that’s going to lead to some missed opportunities at the very least. Be it love or business etc. Timing is everything. For business the market for your product or service needs to be there and ready for you among other things. In love, you have to BOTH be the right people at the right time. You might be an asshole at 23, but a terrific person at 33, but if you meet someone perfect for your 33 year old self when you’re 23, it’s a no go, it’s an energy mismatch. Your timing was off by a decade. And that example can flip both ways.
Everything happens in its time, and when its in its time it’s smooth, some look at this as fate, but it’s more complex than that. Sure things can happen outside of their time, but it’s not always as smooth if they do. Even as little as 1 day can make a huge difference in timing something. I timed the launch of SLT with the environmental energy. SLT was ready to launch weeks prior to when I did. When you’re in the flow of the energy everything flows to you and from you much more smoothly. All of that is “Temperance”. A patient hunter is a successful hunter. It’s a metaphor but a damn good one for reasons I’ll explain later. But any hunter reading this knows that when you get impatient you make noise, you shuffle around, and what does that do…?? It scare the prey away is what it does.. Everything is energy, and energy is no different. A lack of Temperance is repellant type energy.
Temperance is a lesson in TIMING in and of itself. There’s a Great Blue Heron on the Temperance card of the Wild Unknown (animal) deck that I use. That’s a very “patient” hunter. He’ll sit on a rock and wait, sometimes for hours, for just the right moment to grab that fish in the water. It’s not just about waiting for the fish to come out from hiding. Yes the fish has to be visible. But it also has to be at just the right angle for his beak, and ideally without too many obstacles in the way. Just like a hunter can’t shoot the deer if a damn tree is in the way!!! In an equal and opposite reaction (law of physics) what’s bad timing for the fish, is good timing for the Heron. And a Heron with bad timing is dead Heron just like for the fish.
What you want to always be in life is the fucking Heron… What most people are to be honest… is the fish with bad timing!!!
Timing require patience, and when we go through life in a hurry, fast forwarding through everything and all the details just to get what we want when we want it, we miss all the magic of life, and also things tend to become MORE difficult, because we’re not “in the flow or with the flow” of the environmental energies around us.
See, life is about timing. But you can’t dwell on it. You can’t think about it. You can’t plan every second. Going with the flow of the energy isn’t about getting into 8 swords and all up in your head. It’s about “Temperance” which is a balanced, calm, patient energy. It’s an inner knowing. Question things, but don’t over-question. Think about the logic of things, but don’t over-think it. That’s proper flow…. That’s balance.
There are so many timing analogies I could give, but one of my favorite examples is “The wrecking crew”. The wrecking crew was a name given to a famous group of session musicians here in Los Angeles back in the 50’s and 60’s Back then bands like The Beach Boys for example didn’t play on their own records in the studio. Studio musicians did, in fact it was mostly 1 group of very what some would call lucky people. But it wasn’t luck at all.
It was a pretty cool life and a pretty cool gig for “The wrecking crew”. They made history, and for a long long time nobody ever knew their names or that they even ever existed. Other than the music industry people of course. Hollywood keeps a lot of secrets, and still does, especially in the music industry.
Many musicians these days are jealous of The wrecking crew. I know I am. I wish I was there, but I hadn’t been born yet, I missed it all by 2 decades.. And that’s timing for ya… But that’s also a bit of magic. What I mean is… they played uncredited most of the time on some of the most iconic songs and records ever made. They are the actual inventors and creators of Rock and Roll.
But why them, where’s the magic here??? Weren’t they just lucky?? Nope, it all flowed together fairly organically within the environmental energy, it was their destiny, their soul’s true purpose. They started out as Jazz session players and got moved over to do some work in this “new” genre of Rock and Roll. Many of them didn’t even like playing rock music, as many Jazz musicians don’t. They didn’t understand it, so most of what they created they just made up. Pulled it from the ether.
The main answer though to “why them” is simple.. And I think it’s pure magic. And it can apply in many instances, this is just one example of a million.
That answer is that they were the right people, with the right talent, in the right place, at the right time…. So…. they got to do it. They got to be those musicians. And I think that’s a damn fine example of perfect timing…
When their time was up, and the energy shifted. By the late 60’s bands like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Cream etc. came around and and those guys wanted to play on their own records, they had their own sound. In a way everything in life, your life, my life, even Flem the parrot’s life is what I often call “a snapshot in time”. Much the way a book is divided into chapters so too are our lives. People that don’t learn Temperance go too fast and either miss a lot of chapters, or in severe cases don’t even notice there are chapters at all. But those chapters, those divisions are important, they give you a stopping point. A chance to reflect, see where you’ve been, and where you can go. But you NEED temperance to spot those chapters.
So life is about timing… and timing requires some Temperance. Where was the Temperance aspect for “The wrecking crew”?.. Well… the wrecking crew didn’t get to be great enough musicians to do those songs and get those gigs by slacking off and taking short-cuts in their education and musical studies. They put themselves in the flow of that energy long before they were anywhere near it. In other words it was their path or road of destiny, that road started when they were kids and got their first instruments, and the road ended in recording studios in Los Angeles. That path was always there. It was Temperance in the form of dedication and patient learning and practicing that kept them on that road.
So how do you know if you’re with the flow or against it?? Well first off, it’s usually pretty obvious. Because when you’re in the flow things overall go quite well for you. Also you slow the fuck down. I see so many people fast forwarding through their own lives. Chill, don’t half-ass things. If you’re going to learn something learn everything about it. If you like astrology for example, learn the mainstream science too, so you understand it all even more. If it’s your calling you’ll learn things about it faster and smoother than other things. But also pay attention to the environmental energy around you. Maybe it’s a relationship that’s a real slog, and you fight all the time etc. Well I can tell you that’s probably not “in the flow” and where you’re supposed to be. If you’re at a job and you hate it and it makes you sad and depressed, that’s not what you’re supposed to be doing!! Don’t be stupid and just quit, but maybe save some money so you can get out of there.
Or better yet, depression about something has an upside. That upside is juxtaposition, meaning contrast. If you’re depressed because of that shit job for example that you know isn’t your soul’s true purpose, start thinking and daydreaming about things that could be, and see which ones of those make you happy vs. depressed. You don’t have to go any further in the dream than imagining you’re already doing it. I call that technique “tuning in”. i.e. Tuning into the environmental energies. It’s a bit like looking at a map when you’re lost.
It’s also helpful to try to remember and feel what that little version of you wanted. Children by the age of 2 typically in my personal research are well aware of what their soul’s path is in this lifetime. In fact if you ask them correctly many can actually tell you. Many actually tell their parents all the time why they’re here and who they were, but the most parents or even pre-school teachers pass this off as “stories” or the “child’s imagination”. If they’re not talking you can also always tell by the things they draw for example, or their general interests. Usually this gets taught out of them with practicality by the time they reach 1st grade or so. At that point most kids have lost touch with that past life energy as it mixes in with present life energy. And we talk about the “why” of that in my article about cookie dough from a while back. I’ve linked it there for ya.
All that said, you were a kid too, and it’s important to try to tap into that energy. It’s still there. And I might add just like future you, past you is trying to send you messages all the time. You need Temperance to hear them though. They’re very quiet and they won’t break through the madness and chaos of our societal surrounding energies on their own. What did that little boy or girl version of you want? What did they dream of. For most people old photos or memories will do the trick. Because I assure you while society is WAAAY off path, and you might be as well, we/you all started on the right path with in-depth knowledge of where we were supposed to be going.
Now some might say, “well Steve i wanted to be a ballet dancer, but I weigh 400 pounds now, soooo ya know…” Okay… well first off I personally would pay BIG MONEY to see a 400 pound ballet dancer.. I’m tired of watching those little twigs up on stage. Second of all whatever silly dream “childhood you” had is a guideline. You want to tap into it for how it made/makes you feel. You can then take those feelings, now firmly back in your grip, and find something else that makes you feel similar. This is what I call “feeling your way in the dark”. And it’s what most people who are not ACTUAL energy readers have to do to get in the proper flow of the environmental energies around them. It’s kind of what I do when I give a reading. I feel things, and I apply them to past memories or experiences and then blurt it out to you all with a bunch of swears and dick chakra wise-cracks.. With of a wisdom for good measure of course.
But also as some additional tips to find Temperance and tune into environmental energies to help you time things or change things. DON’T fixate on things. Don’t be rigid in your opinions, or plans. Allow for the fact you could be wrong, this gives the energy around you some space and wiggle room. Nothing worse for ME than being around a person who just holds firmly to their beliefs about anything no matter how fucking illogical and wrong they are. Be like water, which goes with the flow and takes the shape of whatever it’s poured into.
But most importantly of all…. Relax…. Temperance is about balance. And balance doesn’t exist in chaos and worry and over-thinking. Temperance is an energy that I personally have categorized as “self-contained”. Meaning it just shows up on its own when the conditions are right. But in our world today it’s tough for those conditions to ever be right. Everyone is in such a damn hurry. And this hurriedness can even screw with your perception of time. I wonder sometimes if Gen Z will find their lives at the end of it all much shorter than any other prior generation, even though chronologically they may live the longest thanks to upcoming advances in technology. (Yup it’s true 70 is about to become the new 20. And don’t worry I have an article planned on why this is a bad idea. There’s a reason we don’t live forever. And if you end up liking that article you can thank my niece who asked me why don’t live longer. In that article I’ll share the answer I gave her and some additional grown-up thoughts.)
I tell people this all the time and most don’t like it when I say this because it’s always someone who’s having business problems or personal issues that I’m telling it to. But I’ll say it here anyway because I’m a glutton for punishment. “In my experience if it’s meant to be and is aligned with our soul’s true purpose it nearly always happens smoothly and quite effortlessly.” “I say nearly because it sometimes might get off to a rough start but that dissipates quickly.” “Sometimes there are rough patches, but again they smooth out rather quickly and easily.”
Temperance energy if you can find it within yourself is an energy that when put to work will appear to the outside observer as luck. You will look like someone to others that things just happen for. Even if on the inside that’s not how you feel. In reality it’s not luck at all. There’s no such thing as luck. Everything is energy, and there is no luck, there is only flowing with the current, or against it. We can always control this. We decide if we’re in the flow or not.
What Temperance actually is, is low resistance energy. It’s your inner-tube of sorts on the river of energy. It’s balanced, and like the inner-tube it bounces right off any rocks you may hit or bump into as you flow the current of the environmental energy around you. Temperance is required to float down the river, and it is REQUIRED to be able to spot and find our soul’s true purpose or as I like to call it, “our proper road or path of destiny”. But there are many paths that suit our soul. Most don’t have just 1 path. Sure there may be a main path for you, but there are many nice roads to drive down for each of us. I myself have seen several incarnations of myself in this lifetime alone. SLT is but one of them. You take someone like Ben Franklin for example who seemed to find a new soul’s path every few years or so. So this is common. It’s certainly not just me, you, and old Ben.. lol
The thing is it’s so easy to spot those proper roads of destiny… Which is why it’s frustrating to watch so many people miss their own. Our soul’s true purpose is actually a smooth freshly paved road that’s literally surrounded by bumpy dirt roads. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which road is better for your car (you) to drive down. It’s easy to spot.
Sometimes though it’s okay to take a few of those rocky bumpy roads. If for no other reason so you have some contrast to be able to spot when things are in the flow. But if all you know are the bumps, and you’ve never experienced the smooth, that’s a key indicator that you need to stop and access things. That again is paying attention to surrounding energies. And that again is Temperance.
No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Even me. I’m sure a few reader think I made one by writing this article. LOL.. But without Temperance we can’t even spot the mistakes because we’re moving too fast to see them. Life as I often say is a series of corrected mistakes. That’s true, that’s actually all it is. Nobody gets it right 100% of the time. And like I said I won’t blow smoke up your ass. Even on a smooth road while you’re in the flow, there’s always a pothole or two. But that’s a lot different and easier to handle than the bumpy old dirt road you’re stuck on with Temperance.
Don’t be a hungry Heron… Be a well fed one…
— Cheers
