78 Weeks: World

To find out what these threads refer to, please seeThe link above provides suggested dates and links to all threads for this study.

Some amongst us may be working through the deck in a different order, and using different decks.

For more general comments or questions about the 78 weeks, please post in the thread linked above.

Enjoy!

There is something really satisfying about arriving at The World
I have always thought of the World being in a place that you've worked really hard to get to, and I feel that I have worked hard to get here...
I really needed to go through the process from Temperance to arrive here. And now I can just be...and maybe that is what the World is about: just being.
Interestingly there is a image of a smiling sun on the Herbal tarot World and an amazing Comfrey plant. Comfrey is banned in Australia internally, but can be used in a cream form. Comfrey has to be one of the most amazing herbs there is, it can knit broken bones back together and regenerate cells. So if you have a scar or wound that hasn't healed then comfrey cream will sort that out.
And that leads me to thinking maybe the World is about regeneration and healing. Making something new or fresh again.
All the elements are combined.
UNIVERSE is another word that comes to mind, FREEDOM of spirit, of choice, maybe all this and more

Hadar Marseilles

A naked woman dances while surrounded by a red and blue oval, garland. She stands on one foot on the green ground (life - vitality). Outside of the garland are a Bull representing earth, a Lion - fire, an Eagle - air and an Angel - water.

The World is freedom, happiness, triumph, a conclusion, a goal reached, the end.

Many times this card has appeared to me as meaning success. My imagination takes over here and I see the woman as a performer - a dancer, and her accolade is shown by the garland surrounding her. The four elemental beings watching her are the audience. It is more appropriate to recall it as a final performance before a new adventure.

As a side-line thought, I am wondering what she is holding in her right hand. It looks like a pear and being green (meaning life, new) is very apt, as life is freedom. With her contact to earth and the fruit, she is also mother nature, and the garland her protection.

The World

The World

Universal Waite

A naked dancer, draped in a purple sash (purple for wisdom, power, spirituality). She is dancing on one foot, holding two wands within an oval wreath that is tied with red sashes. Around the corners of the card is representations of the four elements - air, fire, earth and water.

This card has a very balanced feel to it visually for me, with an image in each of the four corners, the oval in the centre and the dancer in the centre of the oval. Even the dancer seems to be balancing on one foot and also balancing the wands in each hand. This makes me think that balance is sort of a key to success and that all these things come together in the end for completion. Also as each of the elements are represented in the four corners, it makes me think that the dancer is also a depiction of the fifth element - spirit.

The oval laurel wreath symbolises success and achievement, and being in a completed circle that is held together with the red sashes (red for passion, courage, drive, desire - all of these are needed to reach your goals or achieve your dreams). The oval I understand can also be representative of the cervix and the connection of the birth of a new cycle or adventure upon completion of the previous one.

Apart from the balance, success, completion feelings of this card I also sense a joy and freedeom when I look at the dancer. Dancing around naked (not that I do it often ) but it can give you such a sense of freedom and joy at life itself. It is almost like a celebration of life and free spirit and has a feeling of natural beauty about it.

By posting my notes on the World this week, I do feel a sense of achievement in having perservered with my studies through the Majors and now look forward to beginning again and moving on to the minors.

CreativeFire

The word “Monde” means also pure, clean, in French. Does this mean something to anyone?

The World illustrates for me my belief that we are spiritual beings have a physical experience rather than the other way around. The central wreath representing the portal though which we travel to become physical. The dancer represents us - we can dance through in either direction. She also reinforces the idea for me that we create our own reality. For me, The World represents that state of being where we realise our full potential.

In my quest to draw a Marseilles Tarot depicting the characters in modern dress, The World card required very little change.

smleite said:

The word “Monde” means also pure, clean, in French. Does this mean something to anyone?

Click to expand...

Interesting. I've never heard/seen "monde" used this way in French, however the word "immonde" could possibly be translated as impure I guess, by extension from "not of this world", (a.k.a of another world, probably infernal.)

However I have seen "monde" used in the Italian of Verdi to mean clean. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth sings "Poco spruzzo e monde son!"-- -- a few drops of water and (my hands) are clean. (LOL.. not)

W Wholeness
O Openess
R Reward
L Liberation
D Dance of Life

HADAR

The woman dances in the middle of the card, she has arrived at the end of this journey. She is fulfilled. Completion means she is free to move on to another level. The blue and red of the Vesica Piscis or Mandorla shows a coming together of both the material and spiritual worlds. They are bound top and bottom in a cross shape perhaps symbolising harmony. This almond shape is often used to symbolise the womb and birth and in arriving at the end, we are ready to be born again. The four creatures in the corners represent the four worlds and again show an integration or union. I like to use the term holistic. There is a feeling of being balanced in every sense of the word.

CRYSTAL

The woman in this card stands on top of the world. Her success is obvious. Again the almond shape surrounds her and the four animals are in the corners. There is a greater feeling of liberation in this card. She is celebrating an achievement, a victory, her arms stuck straight up in the air. I also think of someone being in their own little world, the vesica piscis representing a boundary. We can feel quite safe and secure within our own world. Her one arm just breaks free of that boundary.

HAINDL

A dragon circles the world, breathing fire. A passion for life. Unlike the ouroboros, which appears to eat its tail, the dragon is open, This indicates a breaking free, opening up of opportunities. The end of the journey and the beginning of a new one. There are 10 planets below the dragon, a reference to the Wheel of Fortune and 22 planets above it, a reference to the 22 trumps.

Its quite good that having arrived at this card, I also feel a sense of achievement, having kept this study up for as long as I have. The Fool is the last one to come.

Oh, firemaiden, thank you so much for your reply. Can I ask you what “LOL” means?

smleite: LOL = Laughing out loud

I've been thinking some more about "Monde" - perhaps a thread in history to go along with the series contemplating the evolution of the thread titles is in order.

I like the idea that there is a possible link between "monde" - pure, (virginal?) and "world" - otherwise why is there a lady on the world card.

In fact, why is there a virgin on the world card? What does a naked woman have to do with "World"?