Razor's Edge

Thoth Tarot 

Fuming this morning. Had an email from Book Depository. See, I got a deck on Friday, the Golden Tarot Visconti Sforza. The cards are all printed crooked, offset. I sent an email saying they are factory flawed. Got an email back yesterday saying they want to see photos. Well, okay. I sent photos. No response. So I go to the website and send another customer service enquiry asking if they got the photos. The reply this morning says they will offer me a 30% discount and is that acceptable. I was like WHAT? This deck is imperfect and you just want to give me back 30%? So I went online and found my rights under the Sale of Goods Act, plus the Distance Selling Regulations and wrote them back reminding them that actually I have the right to return any item bought online up to seven days from receipt of goods, regardless of condition. And my statutory rights state that any terms and conditions that say I have to pay the cost of returning an item do not apply where goods are faulty. Just sent that 30 minutes ago. I hope to hear back from them that they will be doing the right (and legal) thing with no further fuss.

I was in such a huff that I didn't remember until after I sent the email that the card I drew this morning just before switching on my PC was Adjustment (Justice), from the Thoth Tarot. (Okay, I will be honest with you. The first card I pulled was 5 of Wands! And I said, 'Oh give me a BREAK please!' and drew another, which was Adjustment. So maybe the 5 of Wands was them trying it on and Adjustment is me getting what's due me. I hope so!)

Let's just take a look at this cold little lady of Justice. Lots of icy colours here. The planetary associations are Venus and Saturn, and apparently their colours are emerald green, blue, blue-green, and pale green. (The Golden Dawn have correspondences for everything). The zodiac sign is Libra. Even though Libra is an autumn sign, this is a very wintery looking card to me. Crowley calls her 'Adjustment' - I think he had in mind the constant adjustments needed to continuously keep the scales balanced.

The dominant image in this card is of course the lady herself, followed quickly by the blue orbs surrounding her. She is extremely symmetrical. The shape creates a perfect diamond, from the top of her hat to her pointed tippy toes. The wings of her cloak stand out at sharp angles to complete the shape. She wears a harlequin-style mask (and harlequin-style diamond shapes hover at the top of the card as well). Harris herself seemed surprised at these design elements, which seem to have come to her spontaneously. She wrote to Crowley: 'The Adjustment is being queer with me...Harlequin comes in and out of it and so I must have to submit. But why Harlequin? Is there any connection? And she won't sit down but stands on her toes just balanced. The design result is good. The instructions say Blue-Blue Green. That emerald is a vile pigment in poster paints.'

You can see she didn't end up using much of her disliked emerald green. For me, the diamond shapes and the orbs are about perfection. I like the way the spheres are above and below long rods with pointy ends - if the balance weren't perfect, surely the points would pierce the orbs, like a pin popping a floaty soap bubble. If Adjustment really is standing en pointe wearing that rig on her hat with pointy rods perched between soap bubbles -- then she must be undergoing an incredible amount of stress and pressure to keep the whole thing steady. And look what she has in her scales -- Alpha and Omega. Yeah, that about covers it!  She must have a truly Zen calm there to keep all this up and balanced. What a gal. The phrase 'razor's edge' keeps popping into my head. Justice is like the razor's edge. And it's a very delicate thing.

Crowley's comments aren't helpful at all: 'The Woman Satisfied. From the cloak of the vivid wantonness of her dancing wings issue her hands; they hold the hilt of the Phallic sword of the magician. She holds the blade between her thighs.'

The old lech.

I did a little draw with the Gilded Reverie Lenormand. 'Will I get my money back for this deck?'

I'm seeing this as yes. Could be either, 'Yes, because your repeated email messages are wearing them down,' or 'Yes, but only after a few more annoying exchanges of emails in which you repeatedly state your case.' It could also point to me having to send them a more formally worded letter (a real letter, not an email) but I'm hoping not!