Sophie-David
The choice of Dido's tower for Card #16 of the Major Arcana, equivalent to The Tower, was a very creative decision. This is a truly deep tower card, both in image and background story. Dido has been left by her lover Aeneas. Although she is Queen of Carthage, Dido feels that life holds nothing for her. She builds a funeral pyre at the top of a lighthouse tower and lays down in the flames as her lover's ship sails away. In seemingly unbearable loss, the longing, despair, grief and anger that burns within leads her to the physical flames that end her life. As queen she perhaps has no close friends to help her, or she has rejected them all in her single-minded passion for Aeneas.
The painting conveys a strong sense of foreboding. Dido's face is full of sorrow. She has removed her crown, her sense of identity and purpose. As she approaches the tower she sees the ship carrying away her lover. Now she turns her back on him and holds one arm in the other, her inner wound expressed in her outer body. Just as her emotions storm within, her surroundings are full of heavy passion: the seas surge on the rock, the wind pulls at her dress, the sky and sea are ominously grey, and lightning tears at the distant horizon. At the top of the tower the desperate flames burn with the false hope of relief.
Although it never seems that way, it is from the greatest depths of sorrow that the greatest blessings come. If she could but wait for the dawn, take but one step at a time, there is hope for lasting healing. She has surrendered her soul to the man who leaves on the tide and now she feels completely empty - that there is nothing left for her. But all the love and beauty she gave to him are still hers, these are the very treasures that made her love so deep and real. It is not the man who leaves her, but her own self that made her love so priceless. She cannot recognize this yet, she has lost faith in life and in herself, but the truth is that only a gifted soul can feel the immense power of transformative love - the love she created with him is a rare and precious thing that only the fortunate ever experience. She is overcome by the very emotional depth that allowed her to experience erotic love in glorius fullness. At the peak of her human experience she forgot her sacred purpose, to burn as flame but not be consumed by it. This is the tragedy of her surrender to oppression.
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John Haule has an interesting take on this story in The Lovers' Quarrel: Fight For Renewal. This site has a complete synopsis of Dido and Aeneas, this one contains the full text of Christopher Marlowe's play, and lastly here is information on the opera by Henry Purcell. These sources add details such as these: the couple made love in a cave and Aeneas never reclaimed his armour from her, Dido deceived her sister into having the funeral pyre built, Dido did throw away her crown, and although Dido fell on her lover's sword after she climbed onto the pyre this did not shorten her agony.
The painting conveys a strong sense of foreboding. Dido's face is full of sorrow. She has removed her crown, her sense of identity and purpose. As she approaches the tower she sees the ship carrying away her lover. Now she turns her back on him and holds one arm in the other, her inner wound expressed in her outer body. Just as her emotions storm within, her surroundings are full of heavy passion: the seas surge on the rock, the wind pulls at her dress, the sky and sea are ominously grey, and lightning tears at the distant horizon. At the top of the tower the desperate flames burn with the false hope of relief.
Although it never seems that way, it is from the greatest depths of sorrow that the greatest blessings come. If she could but wait for the dawn, take but one step at a time, there is hope for lasting healing. She has surrendered her soul to the man who leaves on the tide and now she feels completely empty - that there is nothing left for her. But all the love and beauty she gave to him are still hers, these are the very treasures that made her love so deep and real. It is not the man who leaves her, but her own self that made her love so priceless. She cannot recognize this yet, she has lost faith in life and in herself, but the truth is that only a gifted soul can feel the immense power of transformative love - the love she created with him is a rare and precious thing that only the fortunate ever experience. She is overcome by the very emotional depth that allowed her to experience erotic love in glorius fullness. At the peak of her human experience she forgot her sacred purpose, to burn as flame but not be consumed by it. This is the tragedy of her surrender to oppression.
***
John Haule has an interesting take on this story in The Lovers' Quarrel: Fight For Renewal. This site has a complete synopsis of Dido and Aeneas, this one contains the full text of Christopher Marlowe's play, and lastly here is information on the opera by Henry Purcell. These sources add details such as these: the couple made love in a cave and Aeneas never reclaimed his armour from her, Dido deceived her sister into having the funeral pyre built, Dido did throw away her crown, and although Dido fell on her lover's sword after she climbed onto the pyre this did not shorten her agony.