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Post by Xaa on May 25, 2006 15:03:38 GMT -5
I note that our intrepid bots are blind in that card. No self-delusionary red eyes? Most people who are chained to vice aren't even aware of it.
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Post by Xaa on May 26, 2006 2:46:03 GMT -5
Card 16 is turning out to be... Very emotionally trying, for me. I knew when I started this project that I would have to do this image, I knew what it would look like, what it had to look like. Yet, even knowing all this ahead of time, it's still very trying. You'll see why when I post the image. Please be patient if it takes me awhile to actually get it finished and posted.
[edit] Okay, putting in the lightning bolt helped. That made it a lot less stressful to work on. Should have the results up in a bit. [/edit]
[edit again] Oh - and the 'reversed' card does not mean 'everything is okay." The traditional interpretation is "stuck in a rut", etc. The character is supposed to be looking up at a monolithic building that (theoretically) won't change - and, interestingly, it's a building of their own construction. The Tower represents vice and materialism. It is a tremendous edifice in the Fool's spiritual existence, one that is monolithic and even prison-like. It is a trap for themselves made by themselves.
As far as the Fool's Journey goes, the normal card indicates freedom from the trap of materialistic vices of card 15 by the utter destruction of everything the Fool owns and everything they have built. It is a dramatic loss, but one that frees the Fool to move on, spiritually. [/edit]
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Post by Kilarin on May 26, 2006 10:07:52 GMT -5
Xaa: Oh, I can certainly see why.
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Post by Xaa on May 27, 2006 5:55:46 GMT -5
Yeah. Over four and a half years... Something like four years, eight months, and a couple weeks. Still haven't gotten over it. I don't think I ever will. That day was a personal horror for me on many levels. The original card graphics is that of a bolt of fire or lightning from the heavens. Lightning is the most common interpretation. Adding a lightning-bolt helped, oddly enough. Anyway... The next card is the Star. One of the reasons I disagree with Arthur Waite's turning the Chariot card into a card of balance is because he was doing that with a lot of the major arcana. The Lovers, The Chariot, The Star... Basically, Waite was enamored with the notion of temperance and moderation in all things - it was a very popular lifestyle notion back in the Victorian era. And while yes, temperance and moderation in all things is good, that has nothing to do with the original art or the original meanings. I mean, folks, every card can't mean "balance." And in older art, they didn't. However, the Star truly is a card of balance - and one of renewal. In the Fool's Journey, the Star is the renewal of the body and spirit following the destruction of The Tower, the Fool tapping into the wellspring of their newfound understanding. Visually, the card shows a female pouring water into the water, and water onto the land. In response, the land springs forth with life. In the Marseilles deck, for instance, the Star is the only card which shows an actual tree (rather than the symbolic tree-gallows of card 12) - and, it shows not one, but two of them, springing forth from otherwise bare ground. The Star is a card of balance, rest, and renewal. It's divinatory meanings also include hope, faith, inspiration, optimism, and insight.
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gfb
Full Member
Posts: 76
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Post by gfb on May 27, 2006 9:33:08 GMT -5
reversed card seems to be fine, but I'm unable to view the regular Star card.
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Post by Xaa on May 27, 2006 13:32:47 GMT -5
Try now.
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Post by Xaa on May 28, 2006 6:03:42 GMT -5
Card 18, the Moon. And here is where I deviate from more "traditional" interpretations - but, for good reason. See, the original meaning of The Moon's art was patently obvious to the original viewers. The original art was, for the most part, fairly consistent across all decks - two canids apparently howling at the moon, with a lobster or similar coming out of the water, all looking at the moon high above. To the Rennaisance mind, the meaning was obvious - all creatures, land and sea, wild and tame, go crazy at the sight of the full moon. The illusory and potentially harmful (lunatic) nature of the Moon is borne out in the traditional "divinatory" meaning of the card: Deception, trickery, disillusionment, error, danger, disgrace, and double-dealing. The 'reversed' meaning is "Deception is discovered before damage can be done, trifling mistakes," and sometimes "taking advantage of someone." Problem is that today, we don't believe that the moon drives all animals crazy. Even those who do believe the moon has an influence on behavior like that only think it affects people. Animal behavior during the full moon is pretty much the same as it was when the moon wasn't full, they don't go crazy. And today, pretty much everyone knows it. So, to the modern viewer, the image of the animals and the moon doesn't carry the same meaning. In fact, for many people, the card is an enigma. It's this enigmatic nature of the art which has caused more modern interpretations that vary from the obtuse to the flatly wrong. For example, many point to the lobster coming out of the water in the RWS deck and say that it's clear the card is associated with the astrological sign of Cancer - and, since the lobster is there in nearly every other depiction, it always has been associated with Cancer. Problem is that the symbol for cancer is a crab, not a lobster, and yes, they knew that in the Rennaisance. Tarot imagery didn't have anything to do with astrology until Arthur Waite came along, really. Why? Well, because in the Rennaisance, Astrology was considered a science (not kidding). Knowing where the planets would be (or once were) on any given day and date took mathematics - and not simple math one can do on one's fingers, either. Moreover, the "how" of it all was concealed by Astrologers both to protect their profession and to keep from being accused of heretical thought. You see, accurately calculating the position of the planets without driving youself batty with tremendously complicated "retrograte movement" calculations required one to understand that the Earth was not at the center of the universe (which, once you start mathematically calculating planetary positions and drawing star charts, becomes pretty much obvious after a bit). If you remember, Gallileo had quite a bit of problems when he made the assertion that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, and in the end he had to recant and agree that the Sun orbited the Earth. Thus, since it took a highly-trained and rather secretive professional to accurately calculate one's "star charts," and professional astrologers could and did demand high fees for their services, Astrology was a diversion for the rich, not the lower classes. Yes, most people believed the stars influenced one's life - but, nobody had any real clue *how* unless they were wealthy enough to afford an Astrologer to explain it all to them. Well, the "Fool's Journey" kind of breaks down at this point, because of the enigmatic nature of this card to modern viewers. If you recall, I explained that the Fool's Journey was a notion that saw it's germination sometime around the turn of the 20th century, and came to fruition in the 1950's. However, this card doesn't really fit the "story", per se. So, you end up with a lot of really convoluted explanations to try to fit it in - like this one from Joan Bunning: Read that again. Basically what she's saying is "imagination is a bad thing, it can leave you bewildered and lost." Ummm... Joan, people who don't have imagination aren't even interested in Tarot cards, nor are they interested in spiritual journeys of introspection and self-discovery. See what I mean? There are many other examples of confused interpretations like this - I could go on, but you get the point, I think. Modern people aren't getting the message that the people of the rennaisance got from this image. Soooo... I re-did it. Now, it's more clear that what's happening is the dogs are barking at the moon, they're nutzo. In the reverse image, they're calm. Pretty simple. The spin I'm giving this card is that the only remaining challenge for the Fool in their journey is the simple irrationality and occasional madness of the world around them. Things don't always make sense, and sometimes it's impossible to know the "why" of things. This fits in with the typical perception of the world that people had back when Tarot card images were pretty much stablilized in the 15th century - the ordinary person really didn't have that clear a grasp of *why* the sun would rise in the morning - they only knew it would. The world is full of illusion and deception, many times caused by our own lack of understanding. The con-man doesn't make money when people understand what he's really saying. The world is also full of a lot of just plain craziness. I drop the buttered bread while walking across the new carpet, it *always* lands sticky-side down. Always. Very often, the only way to deal with the inherent deception and craziness of the world is to simply accept the world as it is, craziness included. Accepting reality for what it is, whether we understand the "why" of things or not, and keeping an eye out for those who would try to trick us for their own gain. This is something many Rennaisance writers talked about, including Shakespeare. So, accepting the world as it is, craziness and all, is the last step in the Fool's true understanding of both themselves and the world around them. In short, the Fool comes to understand that not everything can be understood.
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Post by Xaa on May 29, 2006 7:41:51 GMT -5
Did a really great render of "Judgement." Got everything done, then realized that card 19 is "The Sun." "Judgement" is card 20. Gonna take a nap, then get back to work on 19.
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gfb
Full Member
Posts: 76
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Post by gfb on May 29, 2006 15:32:45 GMT -5
Try now. Thanks. Works now. Hehe. I've done that (haven't we all?).
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Post by Xaa on May 29, 2006 16:39:53 GMT -5
Okay, got it now. The Sun is another card that modern viewers don't get. The "divinatory" meaning is "Satisfaction, accomplishment, success, love, joy, engagement or a happy marriage." So, in the art from the older decks (like the Marseilles deck), we see a hot sun shining down from above into a walled garden area, and two children playing together in the garden wearing nothing but their braes (underwear, back then - kind of like a loincloth). Now, to the Rennaisance viewers who were originally looking at this art, the meanings were pretty clear. To even have a walled garden implies wealth. Children are prosperity and happiness. The children are running around in their underwear because 1) it's hot, and 2) in a walled garden, it's safe. The children also imply successful marriage, love, etc - and, more importantly, one's posterity is assured. Fairly straightforward, to someone from five centuries ago. This is a card of success and completion. Today, however, we have the notion of the Fool's Quest - and people today don't have the same view of things they did five centuries ago. Modern people don't look at children and think "ah, their parents were successful, their posterity is assured." We don't have the same associations towards children that they did in the 15th century - we don't view children and expensive accomodations as necessarily being the main goal in life. So, we end up with explanations like this one, again from Joan Bunning: If that seems funky to you, you have to remember Joan (and most other modern Tarot writers) are still hung up on the Moon (18, see previous post) and see the Sun as being it's opposite, providing clarity where the moon gave only confusion. And, they don't get the notion that if there is a story to be told here, then 19 would be the climax - the accomplishment of the quest. Sooooo... I re-did it. In my version, we see the Fool at the completion of her quest. She has attained the knowledge she set out to find in card 0 - knowledge that, unbeknownst to her, she already had. She has revived the animal passions suppressed in her overly-technological world (which we saw her doing in the Star), yet is master over them. These animal passions went a bit crazy in card 18, but by card 19, she has them completely under control. The blue rose she sought, mystery, is in her left hand - her right hand is outstretched, as though to say "there we are! Done!" The Sun as a card of completion and success. "But wait - there's two cards left!" you reply? Yep, true. Because card 19 leads us to a question: Having attained the knowledge that she set out to find back at the beginning, just what, precisely, is our Fool going to *do* with it?
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Post by Xaa on May 30, 2006 5:06:09 GMT -5
Card 20 - Judgement.
Again, this is a card that has changed little, if at all - though our understanding of it's meanings is not precisely the same as it was back in the Rennaisance. See, back then, religion was pretty much the largest concern of most people - it was literally a part of their everyday life. Hell and punishment weren't metaphorical notions that philosophers bandied about, they were very real to the people of the rennasiance. The art in the Judgement card calls upon the christian allegory of Judgement Day - the notion being that come the end of this world, all the dead will be raised to life again, to be judged. The question that the art for this card posed to the medieval mind was "are *you* ready for Judgement day?" Life was short, back then - most peasants didn't live past 40. If you were rich you could afford better food and better clothes, you often managed to make it to fifty or sixty. The biblical "threescore and ten" was considered the absolute maximum lifespan - it was unheard of for anyone to live past seventy, regardless of how rich they were.
In the case of the deck I'm working on, it isn't Judgement Day for the Fool - it is, as you can see, Judgement Day for someone else. Someone who, apparently, has been dead quite some time. In the background we see Justice, again - from card 11. The balance on her chest shows us that she is the same character, as does the blind helmet. In her hands is an electronic notepad and a stylo. She is passing judgement on the interred - either after their awakening, or as a part of determining whether or not they will be awakened at all. Yet, I think the art still carries the notion of "judgement day" to the modern viewer. If you were awakened decades or centuries after your demise, would you be prepared to be judged on the legacy you had left behind? Alternately, would the life you have led and your legacy be enough for people of the future to even bother to revive you at all?
This, however, is the answer to the question that we posed yesterday, in "what is the Fool going to do with the knowledge she has so recently won?" She, like the Hermit who helped her, is now going to take what she knows and try to help others, helping them to achieve the rebirth and renewal that is hers.
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Post by Kilarin on May 30, 2006 11:54:26 GMT -5
Side saddle, huh?
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Post by Xaa on May 31, 2006 9:10:30 GMT -5
And, at last, card 21. I put a lot of thought into trying to bring across the meaning. Incidentally, I know that "The World", at first, seems a misnomer - in all of the decks which have been done before, there is no picture of the world in it. Well, the reason for this is because at the time the original art was concieved, 1) nobody looking at the art really knew what the whole world looked like, and 2) even if they did, that's not what "The World" means. Today, we would say "The Universe," or "The Totality of All." In other words, "The World" doesn't mean "Planet Earth," it means "Everything." In this deck, the card is labeled "Totality." Oh - and I tried putting together a three-card spread as a help file like I did the other one, but with the art I have for this deck, the damn thing came out to seventeen meg. So much for .png format saving you space.
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