Comparative Card Meanings

[tarotbear]

On another thread, Witchy Cowgirl and I started a dicussion about how the meaning of a card is affected by the design and the artist. Does anyone have some examples they would like to share- either how a particular deck is better, worse, off-the-wall, or what have you?

DEATH- The Rider is the standard skeleton on horseback, Book of Apocalypse kind of horror image that emphysizes dying- which is not the meaning of this card (even if that is what the DC sniper had in mind). In the Robin Wood deck the image is replaced by a faceless figure in a bright crimson robe, beaconing you down a wooded path. Both cards still speak of changes and transitions, but the RW does not frighten you, whereas the skeleton bespeaks of judgements and misery. Would you rather be mowed down by a spectre of death, or guided forward, even in uncertainty?

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Yes, I see your point. I'm still using the Rider-Waite deck exculsively. (I look forward to beginning my study of THE WITCHES TAROT after Thanksgiving.:) )
But espically as your describing. The Death card showed in a "health" reading I did for Hubby. I had to calm myself before continuing. I knew before I started that it may not be the best thing for me to do such a reading for someone I'm so connected to. When I showed him the cards I warned him not to flip out when he looked at them. He handled it well, after all, the need to change his habits was not anything that we found as a surpirse. But I think the card in the Robin Wood deck probably wounldn't have shocked us so bad.;)

[tarotbear]

The Death card is about change. It is not as drastic as the change in the TOWER, nor as slow as the change in the Knight of Pentacles cards.

The DEATH card says a change is coming, even as you speak. The change WILL come, as sure as Death; it cannot be swayed or deflected. You will have no choice but to accept this change when it hapens for you will not be able to return to your former life as you knew it (In the hanged Man, another card of change- you are being given an opportunity to affect the change in some way.)

What people fail to realize, since the DEATH image is so scarey, is that the change could be fabulous! It is a death of a past way of life. What comes afterwards could be totally cool! Do not be afraid of the change; accept it and embrace it.

[Emaleth]

In my Tarot of the Old Path the image of Death is not horrible. Actually, the Death figure stands surrounded by the beauty of nature, you can see a forest in the background and a flowing river. I think it well shows the meaning of the card, the slow change like the flowing river or the seasonal changes of nature.

There is also a small baby in the picture and a butterfly, which I also interpret as symbols of change and growth.

Blessed Be

[Eeluna]

In the Shapeshifter deck, the death card is labeled Rebirth--which I think is may be a better name. It's one of my favorite cards in the deck, and I don't find it scary at all. It has a woman--I consider Her to be the Crone Goddess--partially transformed into a raven. She holds a cup from which water flows and a red rose. Behind Her is the full moon with images of the Triple Goddess. In the lower corner is a scorpion and a beetle. I consider it a card about transformation, and I usually think of it as positive.

[Aine of the Fae]

I also have the Tarot of the Old Path (my primary deck) and the Shapeshifter Tarot as well as the Hanson-Roberts Tarot, which is based on Rider-Waite. The differences between the three decks are amazing. While the cards have similar meanings from deck to deck, what I pick up from the pictures and intuitively from each deck is very different. I wouldn't mind meeting the Queen of Swords in my Hanson-Roberts, but the Queen of Swords in my Tarot of the Old Path, ooohh, she's not so nice.

[tarotbear]

Then there is the much-maligned DEVIL card which is usually brought out by anyone trying to show you that since the Devil is pictured in the deck, Tarot belongs to the Devil! ( Does that mean if Madonna was pictured, the Tarot would belong to her?) Most people who use this tactic have no clue how much christian symbolism is in tarot, and the devil card is a left-over from the Middle Ages. In fact, the Devil is a Judeo-Christian creation and does not exist as such in most of the World's major religions.

Anyway - the Christianized Devil sits on his half-block signifying half-truth or half-knowledge, pointing his torch downwards so that light is not given off. He is giving a 'black magic' hand signal ( looks like Spock's 'Live Long and Prosper' to me!). Much is made of the naked male and female chained to the block. They are the same figures that appear in the Lovers card #6, and the Devil is #15 ( 1 + 5 = 6). If anyone pays attention, they will see that the chains are quite loose, and could be pulled off over their heads, but the figures remain there. they are chains of their own making, sort of like jacob marley's in 'A Christmas Carol'. This card you are chained to an incorrect ideal, or perhaps the devil you know is more comfortable to deal with than a Devil unknown.

In the Robin Wood ( who removed Christian symbolism since she is Pagan and the devil doesn't exist in Paganism), Robin used her concept that the Devil card is about GREED. The naked figures try to haul a riches-laden trunk out of a cave, yet the trunk is chained to the walls. They could just as easily take armloads of the jewels ( the trunk is unlocked) and walk out the door with heaps of treasures, but they stubbornly try to move the unmovable chest. They want it all.

I believe the Connolly deck has one of the oddest 'Devil' cards , and it makes no sense to me. Ms. Connolly whose 'shove it down your throat Christian approach to tarot' -- which I find tiresome, does not have a Devil in her deck. She replaced it with the figure of the Risen Christ from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the four symbols of the suits are chained to Jesus' limbs. I don't get it.

The best Devil card I have seen is in the St. Petersburg tarot-- the Devil is Josef Stalin! --- wonderful!

[Emaleth]

In Tarot of the Old Path the Devil is renamed as Temptation. In the picture there is a man chained to a tree, with a beautiful, scantly clad woman at his side;) . On the ground there is also a purse of gold coins.

For me this card represents what its name suggests: temptation, any kind of it, whether the greed for riches or lust. In this respect this card is quite similar to the Robin Wood deck.

[Flaire-FireStar]

What people fail to realize, since the DEATH image is so scarey, is that the change could be fabulous! It is a death of a past way of life. What comes afterwards could be totally cool! Do not be afraid of the change; accept it and embrace it.



What I like about the RW Death card is that there is a bit of bright sky in the background, which, to me, symbolizes hope on the horizon. Seemingly that not everything is going down the drain.


Just my .02 for now...