Mouni Sadhu tells us, “The sign of the Hebrew alphabet corresponding to the Fourteenth Arcanum is Nun; the numerical value is 50, while astrologically it belongs to the Scorpion”. The titles he gives are Deductio, Harmonia Mixtorum and Reversibilitas. He says that the angel portrayed is a Solar Genius wearing the insignia of the pentacles of the Tarot, the triangle in a square with a point in its centre. The meaning of the card Temperance corresponds to the idea of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis.
Our author continues, “The uninterrupted stream between the golden and silver vessels induces the thought about the leveling of the liquid in both. The aim of deduction is to level, a priori, the basis of existence of all objects affected by our judgment, and to establish a full system of association. The aim of harmonizing the astrosome is to level all manifestations of our ability to accept, and to create the impulses of our will, and by that, to create the perfect inner world in the heart of the androgynous individuality. The aim of the modern science of evolutionary development presents a general plan for balancing of the total sum of energy in the whole complex of non-reversible phases of action.”
Temperance mingling wine with water
Mouni Sadhu summarizes these ideas as exhibiting Universal Equilibrium, which finally ends in perennial Peace, such as Christ spoke of.
The first thing I would like to note is that the Hebrew letter Nun in its classical script form appears as a crown upon a bent Vau, the sign of the nail. Because the occult world uses the Nail as a name for Satan, and we see here a crown, perhaps this Arcanum contains more than Mouni Sadhu is telling us. After all, what would the innocuous sounding name Temperance be doing between Death and The Devil?
Statues of this winged angel show a woman who is diluting wine with water. In the book of Proverbs, we hear of Wisdom mingling wine in preparation for a banquet. Yet on the other hand, Isaiah 1:21-23 declares, “How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them”.
The word temperance is used three times in the New Testament. In the first instance in Acts 24:25, Paul is speaking with the ruler Felix, “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee”. Rather than being sandwiched between Death and the Devil, here Temperance is between Righteousness and the Judgment To Come.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. So here we find temperance in a list of nine of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Is it true according to the Bible that the Angel of Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, can mingle two opposite elements to bring about Peace?
The third scripture which uses the word temperance is found in 2 Peter 1:3-7, “According as his divine power hath given unto us, all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness charity.” This list does not sound like the Arcana of the Tarot.
As I noted earlier in regard to the Hebrew letter Nun, it looks like a Crown upon The Nail. I Corinthians 9:25 says this: “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
Arcanum Fourteen is often seen as an illustration of temperance in the use of wine. But the Bible also uses it in connection with the sin of fornication, and translates the Greek word for temperance as meaning to “contain”, that is, to exhibit self control of one’s sexual lusts. Mouni Sadhu does not address these common uses of the word temperance. Perhaps the reason is that numerous reports say that he always had some young girl on his arm. These changed often, as one observer has stated that after a while these girls fled from him in fear. Thus I Corinthians 7:9 unmasks the fornicator Mouni Sadhu.
The illustration of the angel Temperance shows her with one foot on a rock, or land, and the other in the water. As temperance is found between righteousness and judgment to come in Acts 24:25, perhaps it might be interesting to follow this lead in the Bible. In Revelation 10 there is a mighty angel with a little book in his hand and when he comes down, ” he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. His appearance has to do with the warning that there should be time no longer, for “the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”
Psalm 75:7-8 says, “But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.”
Revelation 18:6 speaks of the future time when Mystery Babylon’s sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities, saying, “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” I suspect that the angel Temperance shown on the Fourteenth Arcanum tarot card is not as innocent as she looks. After all, she is termed the Solar Genius, and as a Jewish high priest wears an ephod with the Urim and Thummin, she also wears a breastplate of judgment termed the Pentacles of the Tarot. What is more she stands at the right hand of the Devil and the left hand of Death.
MOUNI SADHU UNMASKED 