Transference
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The Marseilles card
The Waite-Smith card
A Transcendental Card
This card depicts a winged angel pouring a fluid from one vessel to another. The common title for this card, Temperance, is clearly a blind, an attempt at misdirection. The angel, a female, is transferring something from one container to another. The questions are: What do the containers represent, and what is the nature of the fluid? We have come far enough in the description of the spiritual journey to easily answer these questions.
The container from which the fluid is being poured is the physical body, our apparent seat of consciousness. The container or vessel that receives the fluid is the subtle body of the Fool, which is represented by the previous card, The Chariot. Therefore, the fluid itself is the consciousness of the Fool.
Transference represents the idea of the transfer of consciousness from the mundane realm of ordinary senses to the subtle realm where the Chariot vehicle exists. Note that nothing essential has been lost. The figure does not spill a drop. In some Tarot decks the angel is shown with one foot on land, and another foot in the water. This imagery shows that the transference is between two realms: the mundane world and the sacred world.