The Lover's Path: Princess of Coins - Danae

Sophie-David

Dressed in earthy browns and golds, Danae, The Lover's Path Princess of Coins, thoughtfully looks down to ponder the suit's large gold coin, and perhaps simultaneously ponders her pregnancy. As we have seen in the Major Arcanum Fortune - Danae and Zeus, she was raised by a controlling, self-centred and materialist father, then seduced and bought by Zeus, archetype of the immoral and exploitive wealthy lover. Yet Danae remains grounded in life, taking responsibility for what she can control, fertile in the physical and practical domain. As Kris Waldherr summarizes, "Danae exemplifies the ability to make the best of what life brings us".

Behind her, a riot of young trees which remind me of cottonwoods, break out in youthful fertility and exuberance, echo the unconscious drives of the young woman in the foreground. At home in well watered soil, opportunistically branching at will to catch every photon of light, these trees can grow to a massive and stately size, remaining resilient to strong winds and abundantly rooted. Concerned about it splitting in two, I remember pruning a young cottonwood to reduce it from a dual to a single trunk. This introduced an imbalance in its structure and it came down in the winter winds. Yet the abundant roots projected it into explosive new growth the following year and in no time at all it had resumed its former height. Cottonwoods exude a warm earthy scent, and their leaves and branches dance with noisy abundance in the breeze. Since this scene is set in Italy, it is likely that the trees are the similarly behaved poplars rather than cottonwoods. In many ways these trees echo the vibrant adaptability and youthful physicality of the sensual Princess of Coins.
 

irisa

This story is perfect for the Pentacles suit I think...

Reminded me too of a Waterhouse painting stolen in 1947.. titled Danaë it depicts Danae and her baby son's rescue from the chest by King Polydectes after they had been set adrift by her father.

http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/danae.aspx

irisa
 

Sophie-David

Thank you for that wonderful link Irisa, what a fascinating story and a beautiful painting! I also checked out Waterhouse's Circe Invidiosa while I was there, its quite a poweful image too. I assumed that Danae and her trunk would appear in the cards for the Five of Coins, but I can see that the image that Kris chose works a lot better.
 

Jaelle

Hi! I don't know if this is the right place where to ask this question but i bought this gorgeous deck a few days ago, did a couple of readings and found it very easy and inspiring to work with but i only have one doubt about the court cards! The question is...do you consider princesses as pages and princes as knights? Or just female/male versions of the same card? and if this is the case, are they pages or knights?
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but i've always used traditional decks with the usual pages and knights cards and i'm a little lost here!

Thank you in advance! :)
 

Sophie-David

Hi Jaelle, welcome to the group!

In this deck I do consider that the Princesses are Pages and the Princes are Knights. I think Kris Waldherr is attempting to restore a gender balance to the Courts, but she leaves the traditional order the same. In several other decks the Pages are of indistinct gender so that they may be interpreted as female or male.

Choosing only one keyword for her book for each member of the Court of Coins, I see a developmental progression from Princess to King:

Princess = Taking Responsibility
Prince = Development
Queen = Fertility
King = Success

So this deck is conventional in this sense, unlike Kris Waldherr's Goddess Tarot in which the Prince is the Page and the Princess is the Knight, and the Queen outranks (is more developed than) the King: see this link.

I understand that Kris was residing in or at least inspired by Venice when she did much of the work of The Lover's Path. I notice you are living in Milan, Jaelle - do you find this deck very Italian? I'm thinking particularly of the Ace and Ten of Coins which I recently studied.

Cheers
David
 

Jaelle

David, thank you so much for your explanation! It helped me a lot! Now i understand the cards better :)

Hmmm i don't know if i find the deck very "Italian"...i think the whole deck has a very classical style, i love decks that have a mythical touch! Certain cards show the Italian inspiration more than others, according to the story they are depicting. I think the suits that shows the biggest Italian influence are the Coins and Arrows, especially the Arrows...the story of Eros and Psyche. At least that's the feeling i get when i look at the cards, the arrows suit is my favorite of this deck!