Intuitive Tuesday -- Temperance Reversed & Nine of Cups (Reversed)

Every Tuesday I select one card and give you my interpretation of it. See how it applies to your life and ask, "What messages are here for you?"

As I shuffled the cards to select this week's Intuitive Tuesday tarot card, I said, "Tell me what messages I need to bring to my readers this week." I selected Temperance (reversed) from the Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti and Barbara Moore.

To confirm the message and impressions I was getting, I pulled a second card, the Nine of Cups (reversed), which has a similar meaning to Temperance (reversed)...thus confirming today's messages.

Temperance is one of the Major Arcana cards, which indicates an overall life theme or spiritual lesson. Temperance in its upright position is a card of moderation, blending, taking a middle course or combining energies.

In its reversed position, it can indicate being extreme in one's behavior and or some type of excessive behavior or lack of balance.

The Nine of Cups (reversed) -- the card that confirmed today's message for me -- is a card of being out of balance as well, smugness, too much of a good thing, greed, overindulgence, etc.

These two cards combined may be a heads-up that something may be out of balance in your life.

The underlying thought might be, "If this is good for me, more of it must be even better."

This reminds me of my father's saying, "Everything in moderation...including moderation."

To me this means that things work best when there is balance and moderation. Whenever you get too into anything, there is a tipping point and it can become excessive and possibly bad for you.

Think about things that are labeled as "good for you." Even broccoli, exercise, and religion, can be taken to an extreme.

I remember my college professor in Micro-economics describing it as decreasing marginal utility. He gave the example of eating potato chips. When you eat your first chip, it tastes DELICIOUS and you want another chip. As you continue, there comes a point when your enjoyment increases at a slower rate...and at some point actually diminishes (possibly after a couple of handfuls of chips).

Today's cards -- Temperance (reversed) and the Nine of Cups (reversed) -- ask you to take a look at what you might be doing that is good for you (in moderation), but may not be as good when taken to the extreme.

Does something pop up for you as you are reading these words? If so, perhaps slowing down a bit may be helpful for you. Stopping excessive behavior and introducing temperance may be just what you need.