Fairy Lights Pairs: 10 of Wands and Hierophant

This pair from Fairy Lights Tarot reminds me of the story of Solomon and the two mothers:

16 One day two women came to King Solomon, 17 and one of them said:

Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home, 18 and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us.
19 One night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. 20 Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me.
21 In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasn’t my son.

22 “No!” the other woman shouted. “He was your son. My baby is alive!”

“The dead baby is yours,” the first woman yelled. “Mine is alive!”

They argued back and forth in front of Solomon, 23 until finally he said, “Both of you say this live baby is yours. 24 Someone bring me a sword.”

A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, 25 “Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him.”

26 “Please don’t kill my son,” the baby’s mother screamed. “Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just don’t kill him.”

The other woman shouted, “Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby.”

27 Solomon said, “Don’t kill the baby.” Then he pointed to the first woman, “She is his real mother. Give the baby to her.”

28 Everyone in Israel was amazed when they heard how Solomon had made his decision. They realized that God had given him wisdom to judge fairly. (Kings 3:16-28, Bible, Contemporary English Version). 

There's something about the woman with the baby standing before the authoritative-looking male figure which made me remember this tale. The mother who had been so burdened (10 of Wands) has now been given her child by the wise king (the Hierophant, his head asparkle as he is levitated by faeries). 

The card pair perhaps points to where we could turn when 10 of Wands burdens oppress. The Hierophant is sometimes maligned as a card of rigidity and dogma, but there are times when turning to a higher authority, to established institutions, is called for. There are times when someone other than ourselves actually may know better. And there are times when we have no alternative but to appeal to these higher authorities. 

What this card has to do with me today, I don't know. The work day is over and I was neither burdened nor put in the position to act as or appeal to a higher authority. And the evening's entertainment is to go to the cinema to see 'Alpha Papa'. Ah ha!! 

Fairy Lights Pairs: 9 of Cups and King of Coins

I've sat and stared at this pair of cards from Fairy Lights Tarot, and here's the story that came to me. This is a king on a quest -- I don't think it's the Holy Grail, I think he's looking for Prester John. He's not going to find Prester John or his kingdom, because they don't exist on this earth. But maybe they exist on another plane, a plane which our king can't quite see because he's just so grounded.  It's actually pretty fanciful for the King of Coins to be out questing for a legend, so he should be given credit for starting off on the journey at all. But he's too tuned in to the here and now and the evidence of his senses to every find the citadel behind him.

We have two opposites here - the 9 of Cups, as seen in the form of the ghost tree made up of birds, is a card of feelings, deep internal experiences that defy words or even thought, mere feelings. And the King of Coins is so solidly grounded in his role as protector and provider, it would be quite out of character for him to indulge in whimsy.

How can the king learn to be more like the tree? How can the tree learn to be more like the king?

Fairy Lights Pairs: Knight of Swords and 8 of Cups

Now this is an odd picture. Where to start?  In the foreground, we have a body of water. Perhaps it's frozen. Let's hope it is, otherwise that Knight of Swords is doing a good Jesus impersonation. I have no idea why he's out there in the middle of the water, and neither does that faerie stag with the fiber optic antlers--he looks pretty startled. Behind this odd encounter, there's a very large, rangy house with Escher-like stairs and a ghostly tree. All in all, it's a weird scene and I don't know what to make of it! Tread softly as a deer, 'cause you're skatin' on thin ice???

Oh well, I'm flummoxed, so let's look at the individual cards. We've got the Knight of Swords, and in this image he seems less intent on battle than nurturing that small spark he's carrying. Maybe it's that which he's defending, because he does seem to be carrying it like one would behave in an egg-and-spoon race, eyes focused on it. The big house in the background makes me think of institutions, like social or educational institutions, and of course the Knight of Swords is all about thinking and doing the right thing as a result of those thoughts. He's not terribly nature-focused. The 8 of Cups usually stands for moving away from the familiar and striking off into unknown territory, and if that deer really does intend to step off the earth and out onto the ice (or possibly the surface of the water!), then he is certainly moving toward unfamiliar territory!

Okay, so if we look at them together, perhaps it is saying to let our thoughts and perhaps study lead us to strike out into new territory -- new experiences, new thoughts, new feelings. That's a nice message for a Monday. Something fresh would be nice, but it doesn't come to us. We have to discover it and move toward it, however tentatively and delicately.

Fairy Lights Pairs: High Priestess and 7 of Wands

Today's pair from Fairy Lights Tarot (LoScarabeo 2013) is the High Priestess and 7 of Wands. Let's have a look at the whole picture. There's a lady in a pointy hat reading a small book. She's reclining on a hillside. At a distance, at the bottom of the hillock, a smaller figure creates a swirl in the air with her arm. She's wearing a vivid pink dress and facing away from the nearer lady with the book.

Maybe the reader is the nanny or babysitter of the little girl in pink. I don't get the impression that she is her mother, but rather someone who is simply there to monitor or keep an eye on her. Both of them are lost in their own imaginations. The reader is immersed in her book, her inner world is occupied by someone else's imaginings, someone else's words. The little girl in the clearing, in contrast, is creating her own magic using her own vivid imagination. Neither is superior to the other; both are valid ways of using the imagination. That's the story I see in the card combo.

Looking at the cards as separate entities, the High Priestess has many elements of the traditional RWS: a headdress, a white pillar and a black pillar, a book. A throne of sorts. An air of detachment, and of being tuned to the inner rather than the outer. The 7 of Wands, however, is a sharper contrast to the RWS image, which usually shows a youth defending himself from an onslaught coming at him from below. The girl in the pink dress in the Fairy Lights 7 of Wands is creating her own 'onslaught' of magic and loveliness from her own imagination. Is she creating this fantasy world in defense against a childhood where she is largely ignored by those around her? I do get that suggestion from the book-reading childminder on the hill. The girl has to play alone, she must amuse herself. It's rather a sad scene, a well-off child, a child who seems to have everything, but who lacks the one essential thing for a happy childhood: companions. She has to make her own. And if she's going to make them, they might as well be beautiful faeries. (Which begs the question: did she make up these imaginary friends, or have they been provided by a higher source?)

Have you ever indulged in elaborate fantasy as a defense? How did it help you? Did it hurt you? Has it, as implied by the presence of the High Priestess, deepened your connection to your higher self, your inner Spirit?

Fairy Lights Pairs: Star and 6 of Swords

Fairy Lights Tarot, LoScarabeo 2013

This week, I will feature pairs from the Fairy Lights Tarot by Lucia Mattioli (LoScarabeo 2013). The distinguishing feature of this deck, other than its ethereal and non-traditional art work, is that the paintings were done and then divided in half and each half assigned to represent a tarot card. As the LWB says, each card can be read on its own, or placed side by side to blend meanings to create a new story and expand upon the message of the tarot. The pairings are not traditional. In fact sometimes it is quite a stretch to see how traditional tarot card meanings would align between the pair. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look at them in pairs, so I matched them all up and scanned them into my computer (still not done with them actually!) and then to draw, I open the folder, close my eyes, circle the mouse around and click. Whatever I land on is the draw for the day. :D