So many pictures. The Magus. The Fool. Strength. The Hermit. The Star.
That's six of twenty-two taken care of. This deck is turning into a statement about urban life in Freddy Beach, NB. I wish I could take credit of intention. I intended an amalgam of the Thoth, Arthurian (Keeper of Words), and Rider-Waite decks. I intended each set piece and bit of costume flotsam to have a purpose. I saw the locations scouted as incidental, with import related only to the composition of the final piece. It's taking on a life of its own.
In one of Charles de Lint's short stories, he refers to each city having a kind of guardian spirit. Perhaps it's fairer to his depiction to call them personifications of the city they embody. If the capital city has one, it's certainly nudging me toward its soft underbelly. Not to violate; just to see. . .
In any case, I interpret the cards as follows:
THE FOOL (0) - The beginning and the end. Folly and mania; a free spirit.
THE MAGUS (1) - Pure Will, a microcosm. Five elements at play and command.
STRENGTH (11) - Magnanimity in action; power.
THE HERMIT(9) - A rogue, a ranger. Woodland esoterica and reclusivity; misinformation.
THE STAR (17) - Hope, a bright future.
You object?! Of course you do. I'm assuming that when Waite switched the traditional placement of Strength and Justice, it was a foil within the esoteric tradition of the Golden Dawn.
A comparison of Thoth and R-W decks can be found on Wikipedia and Lelandra.com.
I also take the hopeful meaning of the Star over the "abandonment" reading. And the Strength card will end up looking like a cruel hybrid of the Keeper of Words card and the Thoth card. Despite the picture above, no cats were harmed in the making of the card. We're not going Visconti-Sforza, here . . .
The traditional Strength card in the Sforza deck has a male with a weapon raised as if clubbing the lion.
- Discussion of the Strength card in A Keeper of Words on Aeclectic.net.
- More on the positioning of Strength and Justice; same place.
