Quote:
Originally Posted by wachusettgirl  Could someone please say what the cards were because I'm not that familiar with the tarot, and was having trouble reading the text... This was fun!! |
Actually, I kind of regret announcing that these were tarot cards, because the complex illustrations made me curious as to how different people would sense it. Would some say "the first card as a feminine energy, but not sylph-like, more like a mother" or would they just get "a strong sense of the color green-- grass, trees, green fabric, just green everywhere"? Or, would they just get the information of a Queen?
For the rightmost card, for example, I think I have just plain weird associations...
From left to right:
The Empress. A rotund woman, perhaps pregnant, sits on her throne, wearing a bright green gown. She has a shield beside her, with the sign of Venus on it. Denotes a fecund earth and the creative powers of the feminine.
A poster on another forum said he sensed "blue" perhaps a way of interpreting the protective mother aspect, "balanced, leaning towards positive" in the way that mother nature provides for us both predators and food as a cycle of life. The Empress is the spring and summer, the agriculturally fertile time.
The Moon. A moon shines above two pillars, the left pillar being higher to indicate dominion of the intuitive. A lobster creeps up from the lake at the bottom of the card, up to the bank, to bring a strong denotation of the deeper and darker nature of water. Two dogs, perhaps hunting dogs, indicate the "wild self" and a connection to the Huntress, the goddess Diana. The path leading from the bank to the vanishing point is not straight, denoting the changeable, illusive nature of this "Scorpionic" water.
For a card that stands for illusions, this seems to have come though pretty clear and literal.
The Magician. A young man dressed in a white tunic and red robes stands behind a table. The sign of infinity floats over his head, and on the table lay four "magician's tools": plate, cup, wand and dagger. This echoes in the tarots minor suits, which have become our playing cards (clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades.) The orange sky behind him indicates the dawn. The Magician is the masculine "initial" force, and consequently can be as immature as he is necessary. By the colors of his robes, he
should be a holy man, with the rose vines of secrecy "sub rosa" draped around him-- but by his pose he is showy, turning magical mysteries into something vulgar and available to all. In that sense, the magician is also a scientist.
The Hierophant A pair of crossed keys indicate secrecy. Still, two acolytes bow before an elderly wise man, in order to share in the spiritual knowledge. The Hierophant, Rabbi, or Pope, being more mature than the magician, will present this knowledge as is proper: through rigid structure and ritualism. Denotes religion, law, bureaucracy, and tradition.
An elephant never forgets!
Death A skeletal rider on a pale horse moves from the left of the card, to the right. A king lies dead under the horse's hooves, indicating how great an equalizer Death truly is. In the background, you can just see the silhouette of
a fleet of ships or sailboats as they make their way over the water. Instead of a scythe like most other decks, this Death waves the flag of the five-petaled rose, indicating a strong feminine energy-- it is negative in the sense of absence, a vacuum whose force sucks us back into the cosmic mother who birthed us. It may also be an elaborate reversed pentagram, showing spirit under matter rather than transcending it.
Because this Death is a soldier, rather than the farmer in other decks, he has a sword strapped to his hip. I see him as a samurai, waving the flag of the short-lived sakura (cherry blossom) and knowing that all life is ephemeral.