Lo Scarabeo Tarot - K & Q of Swords question

Could somebody, who knows more about symbolism than I do, tell me why they are each holding the head of member of the opposite sex? (I think)

Intellectualism - conquering - in control
but after than I'm stumped. (No -I'm not too familiar with Thoth. Are these ideas in the Thoth deck?)

Thanks ~
*S*

The beheaded head.

I am not a specialist but I may try to explain what I think

In Crowley's Thoth tarot the Queen is depicted as an amazon, so she hold an beheaded head...
So maybe the King which is Inexistant in Crowley tarot had been composed also with a head, just to match.

It is a very interesting deck by the way... I was not sure at all, buy it on a glimpse and am more and more compelled to it since

Hope that my answer help a little bit.

Thank you! I have a Thoth deck but obviously haven't looked at it much. That Amazon thing got right by me!! You're right - in Thoth the "kings" are Knights.

*S*

A Guess

I must admit, the severed heads in these cards startled me a little when I first saw the deck, and I'd wondered at their meaning myself. If the King was absent in the Thoth, I figure that frees us to speculate. I'd wondered if you could argue that the disembodied heads (heads being the seat of thought) show/warn that thought/logic in the absence of feeling/intuition/sensation is ultimately dead?

I know nothing about the thoth, I'm afraid, but this struck me as bizzare too.

Intutivly, my mind jumped to the idea of control over one's Anima/Animus or one's shadow.

Or perhaps the conquering of gender boundries, it would seem to me that having some one's head, and the brain encosed within it shows that the one who still has their head attached is the superior specimen.

Strong women control weaker men and Strong men control weaker women.

I can see these cards as being important to people who feel like their thoughts are being supressed by a memember of the oppsite gender.

"No one will respond to my presentation, I'm selling to men who see me as 'little missy'" or "I cant deal with kids, I dont have the mother's touch". Both of these ideas are conquered with the Queen and King. Because the woman has the men's brains in the palm of her hand, and the man has a mother's brains at his disposal likewise.

Again, I dont know anything about anything, these are just the thoughts that struck me. XD Thoguht I'd throw my hat in the ring.

sleepingcat said:

"No one will respond to my presentation, I'm selling to men who see me as 'little missy'" or "I cant deal with kids, I dont have the mother's touch". Both of these ideas are conquered with the Queen and King. Because the woman has the men's brains in the palm of her hand, and the man has a mother's brains at his disposal likewise.

Click to expand...

This is brilliant, it makes perfect sense to me. Sort of like overcoming mental limitations, especially those imposed by gender roles.

Image to the King
Image to the Queen

Edited to fix the link.

I think, it's showing the "harshness" of each of them...sort of as a warning..."if this is you, beware of beheading (biting the heads off) those around you."

Men can be too harsh, and "kill" the more sensitive ones around them. Women too, can be too harsh. It's mainly your TONGUE that does it, and the toungue is the sword of the body. Our sWORDS can lash out and really hurt people, especially if we are rash, and we need to govern this aspect of ourselves. Our Intellects can do this to our hearts, as well.

The King of Swords, while being a fierce warrior and strong, brilliant, and charismatic leader, on the negative side, can be biting, careless...This holds true for the Queen as well, strong, intelligent, willful... but on the negative, controlling...a "shrew".

I think the cards, if upright, in displaying the heads, can be showing a little of their dark side, as a "warning" or object lesson against going too far and becoming this way...if reversed, they are saying that it has gone too far and become this way.