The Classical Cardinal Virtues
Three and three-quarter virtues hiding in the trumps
Prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance — the four classical cardinal virtues passed from Plato all the way down to the Middle Ages, the four pillars of Europe's moral imagery. The tarot trumps openly took in three: Justice, Strength (Fortitude), and Temperance. This lesson looks at the virtue groundwork under these three cards — and at the famous open case: where did Prudence go?
The four cardinal virtues: from Athens to the church door
The list settled remarkably early: Plato's Republic already names the four — wisdom (later prudence), courage (fortitude), temperance, and justice — and by way of Cicero and Ambrose down to Aquinas it became the standard frame of Christian ethics. Medieval churches, tombs, and manuscripts are covered with their personifications — each virtue with a fixed design, as recognizable as a traffic sign. The tarot trumps took parts straight from this visual vocabulary: tier one.
The virtue groundwork of the three cards
Justice: Justitia with sword and scales, and no blindfold — tarot's design settled before the blindfolded type became fashionable. Strength: Waite's own title is "STRENGTH, OR FORTITUDE," and subduing the lion bare-handed descends from one of the two standard ways of painting the Fortitude personification (the other is breaking a stone column). Temperance: liquid poured between two vessels is the literal illustration of Temperantia watering wine — the angel and the rainbow goddess later attached to this card all come after that plain origin: it is, first of all, a cup of wine being watered down.
e.g. The feel of "blending, proportion, take it slowly" when reading Temperance is all built into the act of watering wine.
The open case: where did Prudence go
Three of the four made it in; Prudence (Prudentia) is missing — one of the most famous open cases in tarot iconography. Several candidates: some nominate the Hermit (a lamp and an old man walking with care), but his attestable lineage is Father Time with the hourglass swapped for a lamp; some nominate the World (one reading makes it a Dantean "dance of wisdom"); and some hold that it is simply missing — early decks never agreed on the number or the names of their cards, and no one decreed that all four virtues had to show up. The honest conclusion: an open case is an open case. Learning to say "I don't know" is part of this chapter's coursework too.
The working feel of the virtue cards
Knowing the groundwork is virtue recalibrates the reading's center of gravity on its own: when these three cards appear, the question is usually not "what will happen" but "what quality is being asked of me." Justice asks you to weigh and then answer for it, Strength to master the hard with the soft, Temperance to get the proportions right — they are homework cards, not event cards. That feel comes straight from their origin: virtue personifications were always paintings of how a person ought to be, not of what is about to happen.
Key points
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The list of four
Prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance: fixed by Plato, carried through Cicero and Aquinas into the standard frame of medieval moral imagery. Tarot openly holds three; Prudence is missing.
Temperance = watering wine
What the Temperantia figure pours between two vessels is wine being watered: the feel of blending and proportion is built into the act — the angel and the rainbow goddess were attached later.
The Prudence case
The missing fourth virtue: the Hermit theory, the World theory, and simply-missing all exist — no verdict, and the honest conclusion is "open case."
Virtue cards are homework cards
When Justice, Strength, or Temperance appears, the question is usually "what quality is asked of me," not "what will happen" — virtue images paint how a person ought to be.