My apologies for the long time between card designs. As the expression goes, life is what happens while we're making other plans. :-) However, I do want to stress no matter how long a time lapses between designs I do intend to complete this project. (Very slightly in my defense, this particular blog project requires more by-hand work ahead of time than any of my other blogs. Then a design frequently requires re-doing by hand once I find I can't fit the words properly onto the image in the Paint computer program. So I do tend to put any idea I may have percolating for a Taiga Tarot card on the back burner. And with me back burners are a dangerous place to leave something ... you know, out of sight, out of mind ...)
Now to the Two of Wands -- Much earlier this year I fell asleep asking my dreams for help with a difficult issue. Although on waking I did not recall a dream response (which is unusual) I did find myself immediately beginning to write about the Two of Wands with an eye to it being my next Taiga Tarot card. Since I was still sleep-groggy and scribbling nearly illegibly in my dream journal while sitting at the edge of my bed, I'm quite certain this urge was the answer to my dream incubation question.
Here's the design that ultimately resulted:
Over these past few years whenever I've looked at the Two of Wands (in the Rider/Waite/Smith or similar deck) I've noted the man and the world he holds are in a castle. On the ramparts, so he's both viewable from outside and able to have a good overview, but in a protected situation nevertheless. Here's the Two of Wands in the RWS deck:
This has led me to stay aware of an aspect of sheltering or protection that this card can represent that I don't recall coming across in traditional interpretations I've read. Here's a more thoughtfully written way of putting that from my notes that morning when I woke up designing this card:
"You may feel hemmed in, even imprisoned by circumstances now. But the walls are really more like the shell of an incubating egg -- protective and holding while deep changes are taking place. You are in an ideal position to take a larger perspective on things as you wait for rebirth. And remember that ultimately everything you need is always right here in the palm of your hand."
That writing has actually proven to be quite accurate. Though too often I have railed away at the walls of my "prison," forgetting the life that rests right here, in the palm of my hand.
P.S. Day after posting: I just saw the Two of Wands (especially in the above RSW version) as a possible future generated/encouraged by technology. Living in our own castles in the air, each with our own world in our palm devices. When I first moved to CA (3-1/2 years ago) I rapidly became rather modern by comparison to most of my fellow residents. I began to use and carry not only a cell phone (basic, no email), but an old Palm Pilot and an old camera. Now all three of those devices' capacities are de rigueur in one. And that includes touch navigation, email and internet access, face-to-face calls, the ability to talk and surf at the same time, not to mention games, and so on. The world in the palm of one's hand, indeed! Will we ever need or want to leave home? Even my science fiction and fantasy fan self shudders at the thought that soon enough all of this will be in a tiny implant in our bodies somewhere. Eeeeeww! Guess I really am becoming an old curmudgeon.
BRIEF BACKGROUND ON THE TAIGA TAROT (Click here for additional background on the Taiga Tarot.):
Please note: This deck is not necessarily being designed for use in divination, but rather to share taiga based on each of 78 Tarot cards.
When I decided the name of the deck would be The Taiga Tarot, I liked not only the alliteration but the resemblance of the word “taiga” to “tiger.” One of my power animals is the Siberian Tiger (and by extension, all tigers), which first appeared as three tiger kittens in a dream. What I had completely forgotten at the time was that the area of Siberia in which the tiger ranges is called “The Taiga”!
A “taiga” (briefly put) is an illustrated tanka. A “tanka” is a mood poem written in five lines, that usually references natural images and human emotions. Also, there is often a contrast or conclusion or response in the last two lines to the first three. I recognize that the tanka/taiga I’m developing for The Taiga Tarot are non-traditional. As with the dreamku I write (haiku-like poems about dreams), I am not only attempting to bridge two things – Tarot and taiga – but also bringing my own experimental slant to it all.
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‘til next time, keep enjoying The Tarot,
Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Tarot Gallery & Journal; Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm; and Yahoo DREAMJIN: Group for Dreamku – Haiku-Like Dream Poems. ****
