you would open your wings
and draw a line across the sun
you would pull back the curtain
and take all that is yours in your hand
and you'd throw it over the fields
and you'd not know where it was going
but you'd have the faith to see it done
As previously mentioned, I'm doing these in the order the deck wants them done. This is the seventh. The last two were the High Priestess and the Queen of Pentacles - ladies about robes and veils.
Fuck me if this isn't a wide-open curtain.
An Ace is energy at its source; a Two, therefore, is a vector - a moving thing (of fire, this time), but where does it go? It's cheesy, but I see the Two of Wands as being in a state of superposition; sure of its momentum, but what it is is no longer material.
There is something pretty damn phallic about all this. I could more easily draw you a diagram than put it into words; the Two of Wands is a Two of Chokhma, for starters, a first jag of lightning from the source, looking for a shape to hold it. Many decks have it that the Two then faces a forked path, which from that part on the Tree is true enough; down it must go, but it may or may not take the path of least resistance.
Images of the Two of Wands:
Need to scan the Intuitive one. Til then, here's the Osho Zen - flying away from the setting sun.
See also the One World Two: a pip card, but note the corner symbols - Aries (as in zodiac), Mars (as in planet), and another Mars for good measure. This is what tipped me off about the penis thing.
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(For a list of all card articles, open March 2008 on the sidebar).
Showing posts with label wands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wands. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Three Of Wands
I bowed my head and reached into
the light inside and out I pulled
a ribbon and another
(spiral up in to the trees)
ravelling out and out and then
in my hands
the world.
white smoke-threads in my branches
and in my hands
the world.
So whatever's in that Ace spills out, revs up the Two, and then becomes a form. The fire inside becomes the blueprint for a whole new world - and most Threes of Wands have this 'but now what?' expression; a mixture of pride, awe and confusion. This one has taken his creation straight from the fire, and seems to touch it gingerly, as if it burns. The ribbons are trails of smoke. If he had a name, it might be Fëanor. What has he done now?
One suggested solution to this card is that thing Fëanor didn't do; humility. Another is simply to let the awe roll over you and keep your hands in the furnace. Three is Binah's number; a two is wisdom (a tool), and a three is understanding (the scope of a tool, the work it's done. We speak of Fire here; if we spoke of Water, then I'd say a Three is the glass that catches the flow of Two). It's natural to pause in the hope of gaining understanding, but truly understanding the way your dreams are coming to life in your hands requires that you keep sodding working.
Images of the Three of Wands:
'Experiencing' from the Osho Zen. The point here is that world around you is, if you just choose to commune with it, divine. Awe is a perfectly natural response to that. The Osho Zen in general puts a great emphasis on doing, which is the natural realm of the Wands in any case; you trip up over the Three of Wands because its potential has suddenly become real, and when that happens, it's hard to just keep doing it.
The RWS, an image that some refer to as 'Alexander' - okay, so here's India, but wtf have I done? The Robin Wood image is similar, but the figure seems to send a different message.
the light inside and out I pulled
a ribbon and another
(spiral up in to the trees)
ravelling out and out and then
in my hands
the world.
white smoke-threads in my branches
and in my hands
the world.
So whatever's in that Ace spills out, revs up the Two, and then becomes a form. The fire inside becomes the blueprint for a whole new world - and most Threes of Wands have this 'but now what?' expression; a mixture of pride, awe and confusion. This one has taken his creation straight from the fire, and seems to touch it gingerly, as if it burns. The ribbons are trails of smoke. If he had a name, it might be Fëanor. What has he done now?
One suggested solution to this card is that thing Fëanor didn't do; humility. Another is simply to let the awe roll over you and keep your hands in the furnace. Three is Binah's number; a two is wisdom (a tool), and a three is understanding (the scope of a tool, the work it's done. We speak of Fire here; if we spoke of Water, then I'd say a Three is the glass that catches the flow of Two). It's natural to pause in the hope of gaining understanding, but truly understanding the way your dreams are coming to life in your hands requires that you keep sodding working.
Images of the Three of Wands:
'Experiencing' from the Osho Zen. The point here is that world around you is, if you just choose to commune with it, divine. Awe is a perfectly natural response to that. The Osho Zen in general puts a great emphasis on doing, which is the natural realm of the Wands in any case; you trip up over the Three of Wands because its potential has suddenly become real, and when that happens, it's hard to just keep doing it.
The RWS, an image that some refer to as 'Alexander' - okay, so here's India, but wtf have I done? The Robin Wood image is similar, but the figure seems to send a different message.
Six Of Wands
one
the first step of a thousand miles
two
the open roads before me
three
I am rising
four
I am stooping under the sun
five
the climb is steep, and I am tired
six
and I am here.
The Six of Wands is suspiciously benign. It is victory, and it is celebration of victory; it is a triumph parade after a long, deliberate effort. The Six of Wands never comes from nowhere, and is rarely a surprise. The Six of Wands says you earned this. On the other hand, it says and now you have to live up to it, which is perhaps why the Wands get so complicated from here on up.
Conway's image has, as far as I know, only one commonality with most Sixes of Wands; it's daylight. Her figure (seemingly naked, possibly male) has climbed his steep curve, and now raises merry arms to the sun. But I am a dawnwatcher, and I think the sun in the image looks like a setting sun.
The Six of Wands tells you to raise your hands and celebrate the ways that your dreams and ideas have come about, but it advises against resting on your laurels; a reversed card may be doing just that, though I'd be more inclined to read a reversal as meaning a failure to celebrate what you have done. Celebration is a moment in every soul, and it is not wrong to bring it to the surface. That said, go read verse 31 of the Tao Te Ching; its message, that war ends with a funeral, not with triumph, was recently echoed by Our Crucial Pamphlet from Penny Arcade.
Images of the Six of Wands:
The Dragon Tarot has the first Six of Wands I fell for; a black letter V, and a diamond beneath it. In my head this card will always be linked to - owned by, part of - Gaiety, the Knight of Wands.
In the Osho Zen, Success is a man astride a tiger, walking over the world.
The Roots of Asia also has a great cat, resting in the shade - this card suggests a Six in territorial victory.
the first step of a thousand miles
two
the open roads before me
three
I am rising
four
I am stooping under the sun
five
the climb is steep, and I am tired
six
and I am here.
The Six of Wands is suspiciously benign. It is victory, and it is celebration of victory; it is a triumph parade after a long, deliberate effort. The Six of Wands never comes from nowhere, and is rarely a surprise. The Six of Wands says you earned this. On the other hand, it says and now you have to live up to it, which is perhaps why the Wands get so complicated from here on up.
Conway's image has, as far as I know, only one commonality with most Sixes of Wands; it's daylight. Her figure (seemingly naked, possibly male) has climbed his steep curve, and now raises merry arms to the sun. But I am a dawnwatcher, and I think the sun in the image looks like a setting sun.
The Six of Wands tells you to raise your hands and celebrate the ways that your dreams and ideas have come about, but it advises against resting on your laurels; a reversed card may be doing just that, though I'd be more inclined to read a reversal as meaning a failure to celebrate what you have done. Celebration is a moment in every soul, and it is not wrong to bring it to the surface. That said, go read verse 31 of the Tao Te Ching; its message, that war ends with a funeral, not with triumph, was recently echoed by Our Crucial Pamphlet from Penny Arcade.
Images of the Six of Wands:
The Dragon Tarot has the first Six of Wands I fell for; a black letter V, and a diamond beneath it. In my head this card will always be linked to - owned by, part of - Gaiety, the Knight of Wands.
In the Osho Zen, Success is a man astride a tiger, walking over the world.
The Roots of Asia also has a great cat, resting in the shade - this card suggests a Six in territorial victory.
Eight Of Wands
ready, set, now or never
horizon close and sky too low
take a straight line in any direction
stretch out hand, foot, eye -
- go
go past the dark and see no walls
go cut the wind, be storm, be light
go find your new destination
go be the journey, be the -
- flight
I haven't done this in a while, so my verse sucks worse than usual, but the picture here - eight abstract figures, lining up to a vanishing point, as if preparing for a race - is evoking the base laws of nature. The figures are identical in form, only shrinking in size towards the vanishing point, and they make me think of photons, and the world's only real speed limit: c.
Eight is the last, hardest turn; between those crazy sevens and the bloodyminded nines; the Eight of Wands is fire in motion, with it all finally figured out and on the go. Traditional readers might say it symbolises travel; perhaps so, but as much of the soul as of the body. If you just changed your mind and are throwing your life into something new and exciting, you might find yourself here. Mind you keep a foot on the ground, though.
(The Intuitive card came out of the deck firmly attached to the Empress, btw. What's with that?)
Images of the Eight of Wands
The Eight of Wands is one of very few RWS cards that includes no human figure (offhand the only others I can think of are the four Aces and the Moon). That implies a lack of humanity - and a lack of human frailty - in the energies symbolised here. Smith's design speaks of flight, and perhaps of the sky and the eight directions of the wind - prior to the RWS, Wands were associated with air and Swords with fire, and there's a dose of the former element here.
The Osho Zen card is Travelling, one of the more simple in the deck; the mountains imply a difficult road, and it seems to be close to nightfall, but I for one see a lot to look forward to in that picture.
In the Medieval Scapini, a comic-like story is told; for some reason I read it bottom-to-top, and see two lovers speaking coyly, then dancing, then moving apart. It can equally be read top-to-bottom, with the two meeting in a wild dance and then settling down to canoodle. That's the trouble with the Eight of Wands - you never know if you're running from or running to.
horizon close and sky too low
take a straight line in any direction
stretch out hand, foot, eye -
- go
go past the dark and see no walls
go cut the wind, be storm, be light
go find your new destination
go be the journey, be the -
- flight
I haven't done this in a while, so my verse sucks worse than usual, but the picture here - eight abstract figures, lining up to a vanishing point, as if preparing for a race - is evoking the base laws of nature. The figures are identical in form, only shrinking in size towards the vanishing point, and they make me think of photons, and the world's only real speed limit: c.
Eight is the last, hardest turn; between those crazy sevens and the bloodyminded nines; the Eight of Wands is fire in motion, with it all finally figured out and on the go. Traditional readers might say it symbolises travel; perhaps so, but as much of the soul as of the body. If you just changed your mind and are throwing your life into something new and exciting, you might find yourself here. Mind you keep a foot on the ground, though.
(The Intuitive card came out of the deck firmly attached to the Empress, btw. What's with that?)
Images of the Eight of Wands
The Eight of Wands is one of very few RWS cards that includes no human figure (offhand the only others I can think of are the four Aces and the Moon). That implies a lack of humanity - and a lack of human frailty - in the energies symbolised here. Smith's design speaks of flight, and perhaps of the sky and the eight directions of the wind - prior to the RWS, Wands were associated with air and Swords with fire, and there's a dose of the former element here.
The Osho Zen card is Travelling, one of the more simple in the deck; the mountains imply a difficult road, and it seems to be close to nightfall, but I for one see a lot to look forward to in that picture.
In the Medieval Scapini, a comic-like story is told; for some reason I read it bottom-to-top, and see two lovers speaking coyly, then dancing, then moving apart. It can equally be read top-to-bottom, with the two meeting in a wild dance and then settling down to canoodle. That's the trouble with the Eight of Wands - you never know if you're running from or running to.
Nine Of Wands
So look what lies behind me
the night
the forest
embers
this is my fortress
look upon my body
the scars
the strength
the journey
this is my engine of war.
look what lies before me:
nothing?
We shall see.
When I first started learning, in 1999 (or possibly 1998), this was my favourite card in the deck. It chimed with my whole attitude to life at the time; bloodied, unbowed, determined as ever, putting on a tired show of force (or a show of tired force, one of those), not in the least inclined to give in. It's the only stance you can take when you're backed into a corner and can't get out and can't be driven further back either. I've toyed with other cards to represent insomnia - the Knight of Swords or the Tower - but I think it could belong here, at home.
You don't need to reverse this card; it reverses itself perfectly fucking well.
This is, incidentally, the butchest card image I've ever seen in my life, even among Nines of Wands. Big, male, naked, with wands formed into spearpoints, something I haven't noticed on any other Wand thus far. The figure's genitals are fully displayed and his arms are spread wide - not invitingly, not entreatingly, just to show you what he's made of. The whole show is just a ridiculous representation - there is no card like this for masculine posturing, or for base territoriality, or for pride bruised to a pulp but still intact and unyielding. Fuck every other word I've said; this card is your survival.
Like other nines, the spot is secure and lonely and rewarding; we've seen the card of harvest, and the card of the spring tide, and the whirlwind is yet to come; here we have old embers, charcoal, fires burned twice.
Images of the Nine of Wands:
RWS. Love.
Exhaustion - the Osho Zen Nine, trapped in the machine.
Medieval Scapini Nine of Wands. Crushed and at sea - notably less posturing than most Nines and yet sending the exact same message.
the night
the forest
embers
this is my fortress
look upon my body
the scars
the strength
the journey
this is my engine of war.
look what lies before me:
nothing?
We shall see.
When I first started learning, in 1999 (or possibly 1998), this was my favourite card in the deck. It chimed with my whole attitude to life at the time; bloodied, unbowed, determined as ever, putting on a tired show of force (or a show of tired force, one of those), not in the least inclined to give in. It's the only stance you can take when you're backed into a corner and can't get out and can't be driven further back either. I've toyed with other cards to represent insomnia - the Knight of Swords or the Tower - but I think it could belong here, at home.
You don't need to reverse this card; it reverses itself perfectly fucking well.
This is, incidentally, the butchest card image I've ever seen in my life, even among Nines of Wands. Big, male, naked, with wands formed into spearpoints, something I haven't noticed on any other Wand thus far. The figure's genitals are fully displayed and his arms are spread wide - not invitingly, not entreatingly, just to show you what he's made of. The whole show is just a ridiculous representation - there is no card like this for masculine posturing, or for base territoriality, or for pride bruised to a pulp but still intact and unyielding. Fuck every other word I've said; this card is your survival.
Like other nines, the spot is secure and lonely and rewarding; we've seen the card of harvest, and the card of the spring tide, and the whirlwind is yet to come; here we have old embers, charcoal, fires burned twice.
Images of the Nine of Wands:
RWS. Love.
Exhaustion - the Osho Zen Nine, trapped in the machine.
Medieval Scapini Nine of Wands. Crushed and at sea - notably less posturing than most Nines and yet sending the exact same message.
Ten Of Wands
and it started with a skeleton
a structure made of code
an architecture, a paper destination
and the dark clouds are gathering
and the city is so far.
no one else lifts for you
and you're tired but you're still lifting
still not there
you never will be
there is no time to stop and stare
because it's out there, it's real, and all you do
is try to pad the words around it
try to put flesh on the skeleton
seventy-eight bones
and the words are never perfect
can't be exhausted
you're never right
you'll never say it all
you'll never reach the end
and your words will rot
will be forgotten
your lifting lost, yet those bones will last
and centuries hence, a girl will take her deck
her seventy-eight shards of information
will shuffle, will draw the ten of wands
and she'll nod her head
and feel tired of words,
and you and she
will have the same old bones.
This is a great card for being irritatingly close to finished with your tarot project, for srs. I have, idk, maybe 18 more to go after this one and at the pace I started off at I'd've been done in under a week but now I'm out of focus and only adding one every so often and I planned to be done before this time last year and and oh come on we've all felt like this and that's why there's a goddamn card for it. Hello. I am Thene, and this is the Ten of Wands. It's heavy, but that's the point - some things are, especially things that are very close to payoff. Drawing it is like a promise. Just think of what you can do, how free you'll be, if you can just lug it around the next corner.
I really like the Intuitive Tarot version of it, too - it's a person building the frame of a house, far from the city, and so the burden is also going to give them lasting shelter - but it's a huge and lonely burden, and the clouds are coming. It's still seemingly less pointless than the RWS et al. It's more than just firewood. Some things we labour over can last longer than our lifetimes - our words are still there even if they have no more readers, our homes will last on even if they stand abandoned and empty - and I've posted scans here of the Visconti tarot, drawn hundreds of years ago. Whatever time you put into anything becomes part of the landscape of the world - doesn't matter how little or how much it means, because its presence is enough for the Wands. You dreamed and you did and you're tired and they're done with numbers, they're happy.
And you put down your deck, and tarot goes on.
Images of the Ten of Wands
The Osho Zen deck is going with a Freudian word, 'Suppression', and its character is roped-up and weighed down by a box full of cloudy nothing. It's showing the illusory nature of the Ten of Wands; you really can just up sticks and leave at any time. Nothing's stopping you from freeing yourself from the burden. But sometimes, you want to keep holding them up until you're through.
Scapini's is a long road with many people on it. I'm not up enough on the whole Catholic thing to really know, but I think it might be reflecting one of the Stations of the Cross. Not that Wands are into hyperbole or anything like that.
The Roots of Asia is a sky blotted out by wings, and the feeling I have about what's going on there is that they've built their own trap and fallen into it.
a structure made of code
an architecture, a paper destination
and the dark clouds are gathering
and the city is so far.
no one else lifts for you
and you're tired but you're still lifting
still not there
you never will be
there is no time to stop and stare
because it's out there, it's real, and all you do
is try to pad the words around it
try to put flesh on the skeleton
seventy-eight bones
and the words are never perfect
can't be exhausted
you're never right
you'll never say it all
you'll never reach the end
and your words will rot
will be forgotten
your lifting lost, yet those bones will last
and centuries hence, a girl will take her deck
her seventy-eight shards of information
will shuffle, will draw the ten of wands
and she'll nod her head
and feel tired of words,
and you and she
will have the same old bones.
This is a great card for being irritatingly close to finished with your tarot project, for srs. I have, idk, maybe 18 more to go after this one and at the pace I started off at I'd've been done in under a week but now I'm out of focus and only adding one every so often and I planned to be done before this time last year and and oh come on we've all felt like this and that's why there's a goddamn card for it. Hello. I am Thene, and this is the Ten of Wands. It's heavy, but that's the point - some things are, especially things that are very close to payoff. Drawing it is like a promise. Just think of what you can do, how free you'll be, if you can just lug it around the next corner.
I really like the Intuitive Tarot version of it, too - it's a person building the frame of a house, far from the city, and so the burden is also going to give them lasting shelter - but it's a huge and lonely burden, and the clouds are coming. It's still seemingly less pointless than the RWS et al. It's more than just firewood. Some things we labour over can last longer than our lifetimes - our words are still there even if they have no more readers, our homes will last on even if they stand abandoned and empty - and I've posted scans here of the Visconti tarot, drawn hundreds of years ago. Whatever time you put into anything becomes part of the landscape of the world - doesn't matter how little or how much it means, because its presence is enough for the Wands. You dreamed and you did and you're tired and they're done with numbers, they're happy.
And you put down your deck, and tarot goes on.
Images of the Ten of Wands
The Osho Zen deck is going with a Freudian word, 'Suppression', and its character is roped-up and weighed down by a box full of cloudy nothing. It's showing the illusory nature of the Ten of Wands; you really can just up sticks and leave at any time. Nothing's stopping you from freeing yourself from the burden. But sometimes, you want to keep holding them up until you're through.
Scapini's is a long road with many people on it. I'm not up enough on the whole Catholic thing to really know, but I think it might be reflecting one of the Stations of the Cross. Not that Wands are into hyperbole or anything like that.
The Roots of Asia is a sky blotted out by wings, and the feeling I have about what's going on there is that they've built their own trap and fallen into it.
Page Of Wands
I've walked across the forest
through brush and rivers, in its hands
and I walk on-
I've walked across the sky
four winds, five rainstorms, in its clouds
and I walk on-
and now into the desert.
I feel no heat; I have shade.
I feel no thirst; the rains are with me.
The forest is inside me.
The sky rest on my brow.
I like this Page of Wands; it seems a wiser young adventurer than many. The card always reminds me of a someone who I never really knew, someone I hope I'll know better one day - her name is Dominique, and I think the reason why she is adventurous is because everywhere around her she sees the rewards of adventurousness. The Page Of Wands, you might say, knows only the survivors.
A Wand could never tumble into the pitfalls of the Page Of Swords; Wands, even a Wand who doesn't have it herself, value lived experience, value realities - they just value dreams equally so. That's not perverse, just nature - you can't love anything without being drawn to its opposite, and the Wands are up-down channels between one world and the next. Their flames need fuel. She's only just setting out, but the Page of Wands is carrying her journey upon her sturdy back. She only knows the survivors. Her eyes are wide, but alert. She has yet to see disaster.
Images of the Page of Wands:
Phrixus, the Mythic Page - the image shows him fleeing from his evil stepmother, on the back of what later became the Golden Fleece. His twin sister took a nosedive into the sea shortly before this image was sketched.
Amano brings out a possible reverse meaning of his Page of Wands; he's dreaming. I think all of Amano's pages have two faces; this shows one daylit face, playing with a flock of birds - and in the corner of the card, blocked from the other figure by a swan, is a shadowed face, eyes closed, surrounded by darkness and stars. This Page seems to be yet to leave his bedroom; the birds are, perhaps, his colourful dreams. (And damn, now I wish I knew what the swan means in Japanese myth).
The Osho Zen Page says life is a jape, and she and all the rest of us are clowns.
through brush and rivers, in its hands
and I walk on-
I've walked across the sky
four winds, five rainstorms, in its clouds
and I walk on-
and now into the desert.
I feel no heat; I have shade.
I feel no thirst; the rains are with me.
The forest is inside me.
The sky rest on my brow.
I like this Page of Wands; it seems a wiser young adventurer than many. The card always reminds me of a someone who I never really knew, someone I hope I'll know better one day - her name is Dominique, and I think the reason why she is adventurous is because everywhere around her she sees the rewards of adventurousness. The Page Of Wands, you might say, knows only the survivors.
A Wand could never tumble into the pitfalls of the Page Of Swords; Wands, even a Wand who doesn't have it herself, value lived experience, value realities - they just value dreams equally so. That's not perverse, just nature - you can't love anything without being drawn to its opposite, and the Wands are up-down channels between one world and the next. Their flames need fuel. She's only just setting out, but the Page of Wands is carrying her journey upon her sturdy back. She only knows the survivors. Her eyes are wide, but alert. She has yet to see disaster.
Images of the Page of Wands:
Phrixus, the Mythic Page - the image shows him fleeing from his evil stepmother, on the back of what later became the Golden Fleece. His twin sister took a nosedive into the sea shortly before this image was sketched.
Amano brings out a possible reverse meaning of his Page of Wands; he's dreaming. I think all of Amano's pages have two faces; this shows one daylit face, playing with a flock of birds - and in the corner of the card, blocked from the other figure by a swan, is a shadowed face, eyes closed, surrounded by darkness and stars. This Page seems to be yet to leave his bedroom; the birds are, perhaps, his colourful dreams. (And damn, now I wish I knew what the swan means in Japanese myth).
The Osho Zen Page says life is a jape, and she and all the rest of us are clowns.
Knight Of Wands
fire can look like anything
like an eye
a cloud
an open flower
like the shape of a man
like his eyes
his smile
like anything
I know you
know your footsteps on the path outside
know the calm blue inside you, just before-
doesn't seem so, all looks so still now,
but all will burn.
This is such a cool-looking Knight of Wands, the coolest I am ever likely to see; he's barely even smiling. But we know. We know it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. We know that if something can be done, then something must be done. We know that it will never be enough.
There is a girl dancing in my head.
When I wrote the King of Swords, I said I'd tell you about these guys, these sublime people. But I never know where to begin. Her name is Gaiety. And she doesn't care what you think. Her purposes will become clear once the smoke blows over. Possibly, anyway. You don't even know, for certain, that it was her who did it, but it always is.
It just looks like she's not holding the reins.
Wands are about seeing-dreaming-doing-changing, and Knights are a suit's champions, the ones who go too far on purpose. This is fire-of-fire. And when they burn out, they burn out bad. Also, reversed Wand-Knights tend to be nihilists; a profoundly irritating bunch.
Images of the Knight of Wands:
Intensity: the Osho Zen Knight, not waiting around.
Amano's Knight, barely visible behind the things he's set in motion. If a Knight of Wands is shown mounted, it's traditional for the horse to be bucking on its back feet; ready to move and looking damn swish.
like an eye
a cloud
an open flower
like the shape of a man
like his eyes
his smile
like anything
I know you
know your footsteps on the path outside
know the calm blue inside you, just before-
doesn't seem so, all looks so still now,
but all will burn.
This is such a cool-looking Knight of Wands, the coolest I am ever likely to see; he's barely even smiling. But we know. We know it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. We know that if something can be done, then something must be done. We know that it will never be enough.
There is a girl dancing in my head.
When I wrote the King of Swords, I said I'd tell you about these guys, these sublime people. But I never know where to begin. Her name is Gaiety. And she doesn't care what you think. Her purposes will become clear once the smoke blows over. Possibly, anyway. You don't even know, for certain, that it was her who did it, but it always is.
It just looks like she's not holding the reins.
Wands are about seeing-dreaming-doing-changing, and Knights are a suit's champions, the ones who go too far on purpose. This is fire-of-fire. And when they burn out, they burn out bad. Also, reversed Wand-Knights tend to be nihilists; a profoundly irritating bunch.
Images of the Knight of Wands:
Intensity: the Osho Zen Knight, not waiting around.
Amano's Knight, barely visible behind the things he's set in motion. If a Knight of Wands is shown mounted, it's traditional for the horse to be bucking on its back feet; ready to move and looking damn swish.
Queen Of Wands
my wand;
raises bubbles of fire from the earth to the sky
charms snakes,
snakes of fortunes,
tails wrapped around gold
my wand;
lifts my head high, crowns it with riches and rainbows
charms others,
with my body,
makes all things golden.
makes flesh be fire.
(I feel particularly uninspired tonight. Damn).
As with other Queens we have discussed, this lady is in control, not in command. That's fitting for a snake-charmer; using her arts and skills to turn risk into good fortune. In China, snakes stand for prosperity - I wonder if Conway was instead thinking of the Queen's snake as sinister, or as a bringer of forbidden knowledge, or as a sexual symbol? I read it as a good sign and as a dangerous one.
She hardly needs more sexual symbols; she's not naked, but adorned - bare breasts ringed with gold and with a beaded chain. To me the getup looks deliberately sexually submissive, but is it my eyes she has in mind? I can't know, can't know more than what I'd make of so many jewels, so much eye-makeup. She is the Queen of Wands. Her rod is budding fire. She controls the channel between dreamings and doings - she sees that creations are made real, she guides fantasy into reality.
Did Conway intend her to give the seeming of a prostitute? I hope not; I hope not because there are plenty of real prostitutes out there and they are more than just people who make other people's dreams come true; they are themselves, like everyone else. But it sure looks like Conway was doing that, and if she was, she's made it look like the ever-downside of all Queens; it's a trap. Why does this Queen display her bounties, and adorn her flesh rather than enjoy it in comfort? (The image is not of a strong woman - her arms shows no muscle tone, her collarbone is deeply recessed, her breasts are very small. Only the neck that supports her jewelled collar shows and strength).
I know I must come back here one day; I am uninspired, I can't hear in my right ear and that's fucking with my proprioception, and I can't see the upside here at all. There must be one, somewhere.
Images of the Queen of Wands:
The Intuitive Queen - yes, just this once, you can see the lady I was looking at.
Sharing - the Osho Zen Queen. The idea here is that the Queen of Wands has so much that she can share without noticing. Maybe Conway was aiming for that too, a sharing of treasure and sensuality and experience from someone who had much to give, but she fucked up for me with that frail body and that unfortunate collar. (though, again, those who wear collars often do have power and experience to share - but you can't aim that niche, lady, you just can't, because tarot images are images, representations meant to be read).
Amano's Queen of Wands - head bowed, rod resting on a hand notably darker than her own. It's very hard to see where this Queen ends - she seems half-pedestal, half-architecture.
The Scapini Queen - I included this because it includes a common icon of the Queen of Wands; a cat. In the RWS, this cat is black - here it's a ginger tabby. Sometimes, it's a tigress.
raises bubbles of fire from the earth to the sky
charms snakes,
snakes of fortunes,
tails wrapped around gold
my wand;
lifts my head high, crowns it with riches and rainbows
charms others,
with my body,
makes all things golden.
makes flesh be fire.
(I feel particularly uninspired tonight. Damn).
As with other Queens we have discussed, this lady is in control, not in command. That's fitting for a snake-charmer; using her arts and skills to turn risk into good fortune. In China, snakes stand for prosperity - I wonder if Conway was instead thinking of the Queen's snake as sinister, or as a bringer of forbidden knowledge, or as a sexual symbol? I read it as a good sign and as a dangerous one.
She hardly needs more sexual symbols; she's not naked, but adorned - bare breasts ringed with gold and with a beaded chain. To me the getup looks deliberately sexually submissive, but is it my eyes she has in mind? I can't know, can't know more than what I'd make of so many jewels, so much eye-makeup. She is the Queen of Wands. Her rod is budding fire. She controls the channel between dreamings and doings - she sees that creations are made real, she guides fantasy into reality.
Did Conway intend her to give the seeming of a prostitute? I hope not; I hope not because there are plenty of real prostitutes out there and they are more than just people who make other people's dreams come true; they are themselves, like everyone else. But it sure looks like Conway was doing that, and if she was, she's made it look like the ever-downside of all Queens; it's a trap. Why does this Queen display her bounties, and adorn her flesh rather than enjoy it in comfort? (The image is not of a strong woman - her arms shows no muscle tone, her collarbone is deeply recessed, her breasts are very small. Only the neck that supports her jewelled collar shows and strength).
I know I must come back here one day; I am uninspired, I can't hear in my right ear and that's fucking with my proprioception, and I can't see the upside here at all. There must be one, somewhere.
Images of the Queen of Wands:
The Intuitive Queen - yes, just this once, you can see the lady I was looking at.
Sharing - the Osho Zen Queen. The idea here is that the Queen of Wands has so much that she can share without noticing. Maybe Conway was aiming for that too, a sharing of treasure and sensuality and experience from someone who had much to give, but she fucked up for me with that frail body and that unfortunate collar. (though, again, those who wear collars often do have power and experience to share - but you can't aim that niche, lady, you just can't, because tarot images are images, representations meant to be read).
Amano's Queen of Wands - head bowed, rod resting on a hand notably darker than her own. It's very hard to see where this Queen ends - she seems half-pedestal, half-architecture.
The Scapini Queen - I included this because it includes a common icon of the Queen of Wands; a cat. In the RWS, this cat is black - here it's a ginger tabby. Sometimes, it's a tigress.
King Of Wands
the fire in my hands
is the fire of the sky
is the fire of my crown
is the fire of the waters
is all fire; all fire kindled as one fire,
held as one fire,
wielded as one fire.
it illuminates the darkest hour
and yet
still it is dark.
This guy. Is the first card back after the break I took following the World. I've lost my thread, but that's okay; the big snake would've eaten it anyway. And this kind of writing is still easy, is still good. I think I have adopted his attitude to creation; it should be what is most natural for you to create, it should rest easily in your hands, and should allow the fire inside you to guide your hands smoothly; it should seem to connect you to what is above, and to what is in the flow of life. The King of Wands has it cracked.
He's a raving egomaniac too, but tends to be blind to it because he regards his dreams as being separate from himself when everyone else can clearly see just how much his confidence, and his very self, rest upon his fires. Yes, he's powerful (and a helpful card to draw), but not necessarily stable, or substantial. The fires in his hands and mind are also a candle that burns at both ends.
Images of the King of Wands:
From the Intuitive Tarot.
The Scapini image brings out the King's aggression; he has a big stick and he's ready to use it. This ties in to the sex/phallic aspect of Wandiness that I tend to overlook because literal anatomy has no discernible bearing on Wandiness; but the guy is showing off his body and is ready to lift that big stick - and all the while the fire burns above him, pointing upward.
The Osho Zen, by contrast, couldn't be more serene, and he's got there by turning fire upon himself. Fire is destructive in careless hands, but creative if you put care and time into knowing of it - and this person is making himself, shaping himself, in the warmth of the flames.
Amano's King of Wands has big rings and delicate fingers.
The Mythic King of Wands is Theseus of Athens - adventurer and hero, but leader and lover too. [For a given value of love.]
is the fire of the sky
is the fire of my crown
is the fire of the waters
is all fire; all fire kindled as one fire,
held as one fire,
wielded as one fire.
it illuminates the darkest hour
and yet
still it is dark.
This guy. Is the first card back after the break I took following the World. I've lost my thread, but that's okay; the big snake would've eaten it anyway. And this kind of writing is still easy, is still good. I think I have adopted his attitude to creation; it should be what is most natural for you to create, it should rest easily in your hands, and should allow the fire inside you to guide your hands smoothly; it should seem to connect you to what is above, and to what is in the flow of life. The King of Wands has it cracked.
He's a raving egomaniac too, but tends to be blind to it because he regards his dreams as being separate from himself when everyone else can clearly see just how much his confidence, and his very self, rest upon his fires. Yes, he's powerful (and a helpful card to draw), but not necessarily stable, or substantial. The fires in his hands and mind are also a candle that burns at both ends.
Images of the King of Wands:
From the Intuitive Tarot.
The Scapini image brings out the King's aggression; he has a big stick and he's ready to use it. This ties in to the sex/phallic aspect of Wandiness that I tend to overlook because literal anatomy has no discernible bearing on Wandiness; but the guy is showing off his body and is ready to lift that big stick - and all the while the fire burns above him, pointing upward.
The Osho Zen, by contrast, couldn't be more serene, and he's got there by turning fire upon himself. Fire is destructive in careless hands, but creative if you put care and time into knowing of it - and this person is making himself, shaping himself, in the warmth of the flames.
Amano's King of Wands has big rings and delicate fingers.
The Mythic King of Wands is Theseus of Athens - adventurer and hero, but leader and lover too. [For a given value of love.]
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