Three of Wands

The Three of Wands--a card of vision and foresight and planning. A man stands facing the sea beyond the magical mountainous formations, two wands in his hands and one driven into the ground, eyeing the unexplored island in view. His presence is certain and commanding; he hungers for the unknown, to explore and discover and expand his horizons.

I have included two cats also, as these animals (usually lions and tigers) are frequently associated with fire, the element of the wands suit. The plant in the foreground is Centaurea maculosa, a pioneer species, hardy creatures that are the first on the scene to colonize broken ecosystems. These species pave the way for others and help create new and more stable ecosystems. There are several seeds of Centaurea wafting through the air, and maybe just one will make the difficult journey to that island or other islands beyond. As such, this card reminds us that there are other opportunities outside our known and familiar environments, and we must be bold and open-minded in order to find them.

I have also drawn a spider web, indicative of hard and strategic work. Fruit adorns the boughs of the tree, signifying the rewards of persistence.

Queen of Swords

She is the Queen of Swords--calm, cool, and utterly collected. Don't stare too long into her eyes, unless you want them to pierce right through the pith of you, for this queen is perceptive and very intelligent. Even if she does take your measure, her understanding of what she sees is unbiased and intellectual, and you can expect her to be honest.

I have included in my design many creatures of the air, the element of the swords suit, including the snowy owl. The owl is a well-known symbol of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom who popped right out of Zeus's head fully grown and armed. The snowy owl in particular hunts using what is called the "sit-and-wait" method, relying on its own patience and astuteness to catch its meal.

I have also drawn a number of nests with eggs in order to indicate the latent power that is inherent in all queens. Like Joan Bunning says, queens express the qualities of their suits from the inside. In a sense, the eggs within the nests symbolize the birthing of ideas.

The flowers at the queen's feet are anemones, or windflowers. Anemone is Greek for "daughter of the wind," which is very fitting in the case of the Queen of Swords.

Page of Cups

The youthful Page of Cups. She's a mermaid, in her element--water, holding a beautiful goblet and staring at it for all the possibility it represents! According to Joan Bunning, she is emotional, intuitive, intimate, and loving, and I couldn't think of a better creature of the water to emphasize these qualities and the child-like character of the page than the sea otter ( I was going to add a dolphin because of their social nature and constitution for communication, but they will figure into other cups cards). Sea otters are always ready for play, and when they are ready for sleep, they wrap themselves in kelp and hold hands to keep from drifting away from the group.

Sea otters are also an example of a keystone species: they prey on sea urchins and keep the numbers of those echinoderms in check, determining the well-being of the whole ecosystem. Areas without sea otters are often deserts of urchins without any kelp forests, which support an extremely high number of species. The sea otters also keep mussels in check by removing them from rocks, allowing for greater biodiversity in those habitats as well. So, one can view these creatures as messengers of a sort, with their presence indicative of the health of the ecosystem on the whole.

Five of Pentacles

This card was easy for me to interpret just by looking at it (in the original RWS deck), so that when it came up, I could integrate its meaning into my spreads fairly easily. I also knew how I wanted to change and add to the original design.

Like in the original, there are two figures who look like they've fallen on pretty hard times; they're cold, poor, probably sick, exposed to the elements without any place to go. In a word, they are suffering. They also are within the limits of civilization, but alas, no one is reaching their hand out to these unfortunates--perhaps they are being rejected for one reason or another. Any one of those things may be manifested in your life if this card comes up.

Even so, there is hope. In the heart of winter, when nothing grows, snowdrop flowers (Galanthus genus) poke through snow mounds with their seemingly delicate flower heads, reminding us that spring is coming--an end to the despair and sorrow is nearing. And even in the bitter cold of wintertide, there is beauty--in the singular shapes of snowflakes, each completely unique, the only one of its kind that will ever be.

I've also drawn some dead leaves around the snowdrops. At first sight, the brown desiccated things look quite sad and dreary, but it is what they become and come to provide that is beautiful and integral. Leaves decompose to become leaf mold, which can be used as a moisture-containing mulch for plants and as a soil conditioner. Eventually, leaf mold turns into humus after all the worms and microorganisms have had their fill. As a gardener, I add other organic material to my dead leaves in order to make compost--black gold :)

Ace of Pentacles

I could imagine what I wanted to draw for this card right away, probably because its meaning is so grounded in the practical concerns of everyday life. That, and I really love drawing rioting foliage and earth deities and animals, which work quite well in the pentacles suit.

Instead of a hand holding a pentacle coin emerging from a cloud in the sky, I have depicted a wood nymph coaxing a pentacle coin from a blooming chrysanthemum. The dryad is an earth deity, earth being the element of the pentacles suit. She stems from her tree form to tend to the blossom, grape vines entangled in her branches and shaping a canopy overhead. The chrysanthemum symbolizes the joy and optimism that come with this card. The abundance in the scene--of the radiant flower and the clutches of juicy fruit, to the precious crystals rising from the rent in the tree trunk--is meant to indicate an overall feeling of material wealth and prosperity.

The deer that is sheltered beneath the flower represents the ideas of trust and security; the little creature knows that she is safe from harm under the protective cover of petals. The connection with the earth that all of the beings in this scene embody remind us to act with a firm grasp on reality, to stay grounded. Good things will follow.

Eight of Swords

As I started using my Tarot cards more and more, this card frequently reared its head. I'd ask what to do about my flagging self-motivation and finishing a project, and *ta-daaaaaah*, there it would be. And the Eight of Swords reflects how I feel about my seeming inability to finish anything--it really is all in my head.

The woman in the picture is all tied up in briar, trapped and confined, and added to that, she's blindfolded. She cannot see what options are open to her in order to get out of this unfortunate situation. She cannot see that there is a sword at her fingertips, if only she would let go of the fear, unclench those fists, and extend her fingers. Alas, she feels helpless, a victim of circumstance unable to do anything about it, and so she feels the best thing to do is wait to be rescued.

But while the sweetbriar is spiky and prickly, it is also sweet, giving off a fragrance reminiscent of apples and is quite beautiful in bloom. There is a promise in the single rose blossom. I've also drawn a raven perched on one of the swords. A raven is a creature of the air, the element of the swords suit, and I like this page on raven symbolism. These birds normally bring to mind death, but they are also known for their intelligence and in many traditions symbolize knowledge and wisdom and can even be taught to speak. As Avia Venefica says, they can often be heard croaking out sounds like cras, cras, which in Latin means "tomorrow." I like to think of that when I look at this card: the bird is telling the woman that this period of helplessness and sorrow will not last forever. This, too, shall pass.