Fire – IsleVue

The Four of Wands – A One Page Guide

January 13, 2020February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli 0 Comments Aries, Chesed, Fire, Fours, One Page Guide, Wands

The Four of Wands is pleasant but unfocused and visually empty. What is its most important part? This unusual lack of focus renders the festival distant and joyless. Fortunately, by studying Waite’s divinatory meanings (and a couple of online encyclopedias), we can discover the joy. This festival has an open bar. And what a bar! This is not just any country fête—it is one sacred to Venus. Using an odd device, Waite throws in a reference to “harvest-home,” a very English harvest festival, and by doing so, refers back to Venus. It is a festival of wine and fertility. The Romans called it “Vinalia urbana,” but we can simply enjoy it (accompanied by a glass of “sacramental” wine) as a celebration of sacred and profane love, and the fertility of the earth. It is the Primavera of Botticelli, as rendered by Colman Smith, and bottled by A.E. Waite.

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The Five of Wands – A One Page Guide

November 28, 2019February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli Fire, Fives, Geburah, Leo, One Page Guide, Wands

The Five of Wands is a depiction of youthful competition and the battle of life. Waite’s divinatory meanings have a major difference in tone, though not of substance, versus the Golden Dawn’s; imitation fighting and strife vs. real. Saturn and the Sun in combination are the explanation for the difference in tone. There was a belief dating back to Mesopotamia that the planet Saturn was pre-cursor of the Sun. Saturn the “Sun-Star” may be a fragment of the story of the Golden Age. Saturn was the grandfather god who may have required child sacrifice; he presided over a (literally) darker planet, though the Earth provided such abundance that work was unnecessary. It is Saturn vs. the Sun, a past “imitation,” lesser Sun vs. today’s real, greater Sun. We have hopefully thrown light upon the RWS Five of Wands, but found nothing that challenges its accepted meanings in any way.

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The Ten of Wands – A One Page Guide

October 28, 2019February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli Fire, Malkuth, One Page Guide, Sagittarius, Tens, Wands

The Ten of Wands, like Maynard G. Krebs’ favorite movie, “The Monster Who Devoured Cleveland” is about ends. The Ends of Ages. People’s ends (bodily ends, that is, not the ends of lives). It is, figuratively speaking, the ass-end of the RWS tarot deck. Seriously. Waite, faced with the conflicting natures in the very mixed astrological, alchemical and qabalist influences, seemingly threw his hands up in the air, and complained that it “cannot be harmonized.” Colman Smith’s illustration is unrelenting. It’s not exactly my favorite card, either. If we start by recognizing that a serf who works on the farm has more to do with Pentacles, the suit of Earth, than with Wands, the suit of Fire, we just might find the key to understanding this oppressive card. And if you never look at this card in quite the same way again, my apologies.

Collage Three of Wands and Container Ship

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The Three of Wands – A One Page Guide

October 1, 2019February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli Aries, Binah, British nationalism, Fire, One Page Guide, Threes, Wands, Water

The Three of Wands is not just a nice card, it’s a good, understated design. It is a marvelous representation of the divinatory meanings and has just the right touch of transparency that reveals the story and influences that Waite and Colman Smith chose as a setting. As to the divinatory meanings, focusing on the question of the differences between Waite’s and the GD’s, one can ask a further question: are Colman Smith’s ships coming or going? It seems likely that on the one hand, Waite means to convey that when the Three of Wands is upright the ships are going… outbound to Colchis, adventure, and the golden fleece, or in an alternative reading, to the east to bring back exotic cargo. On the other hand, when the card is reversed, that the ship is returning, with the fleece or exotic goods.

collage Seven of Wands Francisco De Zurbaran Hercules Fighting with the Nemean Lion 1634

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The Seven of Wands – A One Page Guide

September 14, 2019February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli Fire, Leo, Netzach, One Page Guide, Sevens, Wands

The Seven of Wands is one of those cards in the Waite Colman Smith deck where the divinatory meanings are most visible on the surface. It represents a fight, pictured in much the way that Waite describes it in the Pictorial Key. There are clues in the astrological and qabalistic meanings that point to how the divinatory meanings came to be. These clues are not difficult to find. Given Leo, Strength and the Sun, subtlety is hardly obligatory. That Hercules subdued the Nemean lion with a club in the first of his labors complements the themes of Leo and Strength, indicates the endurance of Netzach, and, interestingly, is pretty much the only time the wand/staff is used as a weapon in a real fight.

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The Six of Wands – A One Page Guide

August 30, 2019February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli Christian mysticism, Fire, Kings, Leo, One Page Guide, Sixes, Sun, Tiphareth, Wands

When we look at the Zodiac/Tarot Wheel for the Six of Wands, we immediately recognize a pattern: the king of the gods, the king of planets, and the king of beasts. Tiphareth also has “kingly” connotations. And though there’s no king on the RWS illustration, Waite goes out of his way to tell us the man on horseback might be the king’s courier in the divinatory meanings. Then, perhaps, we notice the divergence between the Golden Dawn group’s and Waite’s divinatory meanings is quite a bit wider than usual. When I traced how Waite treated the planetary component—the Sun— I recalled a piece in a magazine linking the victorious Christ of the Book of Revelations to the Sun card. Long story short, Waite appears to have turned the Six of Wands into a sublimal proselytizing piece for Christian mysticism. Waite adds one more king, namely, “The King of Kings,” Christus Invictus, to the mix. And the message his courier carries is the Gospel. We can trace practically all Waite’s divinatory meanings to this concept. The bottom line for modern readers, though, is not inconvenient. It’s a positive card that pleases pretty much everyone: but it’s not just an announcement of forthcoming victory, success, (or reversed, a warning about an enemy) anymore. For me, at least, I now see the Six of Wands as more about a victory of the spirit rather than a victory in the material world.

Tarot

The Eight of Wands – A One Page Guide

August 14, 2019February 7, 2020 John Iacovelli Eights, Fire, Hod, One Page Guide, Sagittarius, Wands

The Eight of Wands is notable for its differences versus other cards in the minor arcana. The first thing one notices is that there aren’t any people. If you exclude the Aces, only this and the Three of Swords among the minor arcana depict no people. The second thing we note is that Wands don’t normally fly. At least we hope they don’t. But in this case, the Wands fly like arrows because the astrological sign for this card’s decan is Sagittarius, who is the centaur hunter with the bow and arrows. Both the qabalistic and the elemental influences signify movement and action. Hod even represents the feet, though its hermetic interpretation also includes “motion through the immovable,” which may represent a magical movement. Fire additionally conveys “conversion” as a possible meaning (think of the chemical effect of fire), which may tie into Waite’s stress upon the movement approaching a threshold or end of journey. Jupiter, the planetary influence provides the characteristic of having a purpose or goal, related to and extending that same meaning. The Eight of Wands, therefore, is fairly straightforward in taking its divinatory meanings from its astrological/qabalistic/alchemical influences, though there are one or two minor points of variance, which we’ll explain in the main posting.

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Tarot Fundamentals, though more expensive than most alternatives, is my recommendation as the single best book for beginners. It has the grounding you need in tarot history; it lists the astrological, elemental and qabalistic influences for every card; it provides excellent "how-to" essays on approaches such as intuition and the journey of the fool; and it provides illustrations of the renderings of eight decks for every card. The primary authors have continuing relationships with the Tarosophy Tarot Association, and this book is meant to be an encyclopedic volume of a good portion of their teachings.

Tarot: History, Symbolism and Divination is the best history of the origin of tarot, bar none. The first two thirds of the book should be required reading for anyone who wishes to even begin to truly understand the major arcana. Robert M. Place does have his "hobby-horse"—alchemy—and he gives far too little emphasis to the Golden Dawn. But his explanation of how the symbols in the majors got there and what they mean is unparalleled. The last third of the book is a description of the RWS deck.

The Lo Scarabeo Tarot is the "go-to" deck I use when I have my own questions. (I use RWS for other people). It's an attempt to reconcile the Golden Dawn, Waite/Colman Smith and Thoth. It doesn't do it perfectly. It's gorgeous. It's not for everybody. But if Tarot "theory" is your cup of tea, it may be a good choice for you, too.

To be honest, Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot is more "cute" and "fun" than insightful, in my opinion. But it is great fun. It visually relates Pamela Coleman Smith's theatre work to the deck she drew.