Temperance

Major Arcana XIV, Temperance depicts an angel — often identified as Michael — pouring liquid between two vessels, one foot on land and one in water, a path winding toward a distant crown of light. Waite's Pictorial Key describes this as the card of combination, moderation, and the blending of opposites into a higher unity. The angel's act of pouring represents the alchemical operation within the soul, the tempering of extremes. In the Golden Dawn attribution this card corresponds to Sagittarius and the path connecting Yesod to Tiphareth on the Tree of Life, the reconciling passage after Death's purgation.