Goddess Tarot - 4 ~ Power: Freyja

Sorry it's been a while since the last update, but I'm in college and finals are this week. Just a reminder that you guys can start a thread whenever you want. I just would like them to be in order...it just seems like it would be a lot more organized that way.

Freyja is the Norse goddess of creativity, love, and beauty. This site has a lot of information about her: http://www.valkyrietower.com/freyja.html

This card is absolutely beautiful. Freyja is at the reins of her chariot....she is in total control. I do wonder why the artist chose to put her behind the reins of a chariot...something commonly associated with...well The Chariot card. She is being pulled by two grey cats, which according to what I've read are symbols she is associated with. Although I haven't been able to find out exactly why.

here's my contribution

As usual I did a (small)research on Freyja and here's one of the results:

"THE GODDESS FREYJA
Freyja was originally a Goddess of the Vanir, a group of God/desses who fought with the Aesir of Odin, Thor, Frigga, etc. After a long costly war the two sides made peace and part of the deal was the coming of Njord, Freya and her twin brother Freyr to live with the Aesir. She is the best known of the Aesir Goddesses at this time. Also know as the Frowe, her name means LADY. Potrayed as a beautiful Blue Eyed, Golden Haired Goddess Freyja is much desired by not only the Gods and Giants and other beings, but humans as well. However, Freyja is a very strong and independent Goddess who does not submit to anyone or anything at anytime. A strong willed, independent Goddess, Freyja is Queen of the Valkyries and collects half ot the Fallen Warriors while Odin gets the other half. Freyja takes them to her hall the Sessrumnr while Odin takes his half to Valhalla. Freyja also has a hall that was gifted to her when she came from the Vanir to the Aesir. It is called Folkvang.
Freyja is a very multi-dimensional Goddess who is involved in many areas of the Asatru faith. Being a Vanir Deity, which have strong ties to the Alfs, Freyja is very much a part of the Earth and its cycles as well as the other roles she plays as I mention below.
More information about Freyja
Freyja is the Goddess of Love and Sexuality whether it that of lovers or the lust-filled kind. As the Goddess of riches Freyja is formeost in creating and bringing wealth to those she favors. As a Fertility Goddess her feritility brings the life force to the Aesir and humans. Thus she is very much desired by the Gods, Giants, Alfs and humans, but is fiercely protected by the Aesir since loosing her from the ranks of the Aesir would greatly weaken the Aesir and humanity also.

As the Goddess of witches she teaches magick while as the Goddess of shamanism she teaches pathworking, being a seer and Seidr. Her Falcon cloak is one of her tools for travelling amongst the realms, a tool for her followers to use in this present day perhaps? Being a Goddess of battle and Queen of the Valkyries Freyja retrieves half of all the fallen warriors to bring to her hall Sessrumnr. Freyja is also the Goddess for strong independent women and shows them how to tackle the oppression they may encounter and to be in charge of their lives and reach their potential. For men she brings balance to their pathways, empowering them through this balance to also reach their potential. A powerful and independent Goddess who brings multitudes of blessings to her followers, Freyja can challenge and make you work for your goals. But the rewards are deep. In the end she will teach you the joy of living, the joy of being free, being strong, and enjoying every moment of life to its fullest. "

It's on this website:

http://freyja.freehomepage.com/

Anjo

Oh, I found some more...

"Freyja
(Freyja, Freo, Frau, Freia, Frowe)
Freyja is probably the best known of the goddesses. Her title Freyja means Lady, but her original name is not known. Freyja is the wildest of the goddesses, free with her sexual favours, mistress of Odin and several gods and men, though she never wants to marry when the gods want her to do so. She is skilled at the form of ecstatic, consciousness-altering and sometimes malicious magic called seidhr. Freyja is also the chooser of half the slain on the battlefield (Odin gets the other half).
Freyja is the most beautiful and princely of the goddesses. Freyja is the twin sister of Frey (and possibly originally his spouse), daughter of Njord and his sister. Freyja is married to a man called Odur, with whom she had the daughter which is in Snorri's Edda called Hnoss and in Ynglinga-saga Gersemi, but both those names mean the same thing, "dear, bijou". Odur went away a long time ago and has never since been seen and Freyja has traveled to distant countries to look for him.

Freyja is like Odin often a stirrer of strife. She came among the Aesir to cause trouble as Gullveig (Gold-Drunkenness). She was stabbed and burnt three times, but arose from the flame each time. Through this torment she transformed herself into Heith (the-Glorious), mistress of magic, in a typical shamanic initiation. This also seems to have started the war between the Aesir and the Vanir.

Freyja lives in a lodge, in heaven, called Folkvangur. She also has a palace called Sessrumnir, that is a big and beautiful. Freyja as her brother Frey is though to have originally been a fertility goddess, but there are no sources suggesting that she was called on to bring fruitfulness to fields or wombs. She is rather a goddess of riches, whose tears are gold and whose daughters are precious objects. Freyja taught the gods to use seidr, magic.

When she travels she drives a wagon drawn by two cats, perhaps large forest-cats such as lynxes but some believe they are weasels. When traveling Freyja often changed her name, using names like Mardoll, Horn, Gefin and Syr. Those names suggest that she was the guardian of homes, and the name Syr has to with the fact that she sometimes rode the boar Hildisvini (Battle-Swine). Freyja has also (like Frigg), a gyrfalcon coat, which she uses when she needs to fly.

Freyja's chief attribute is the necklace called Brisingamen, which she bought from four dwarves at the price of four nights of her love. This necklace is sometimes seen today as embodying her power over the material world, but this necklace has been the emblem of the earth-goddess since the earliest times.

The Jotuns are always trying to take her away from the gods, and it is clear if that happened it would be a great disaster. She was obviously known to be the embodiment of the holy lifeforce on some level."

It's on http://www.islandia.is/~oldnorse/gods/freyja.htm

Anjo

I have just spent some time looking at the websites you've mentioned.

What a fascinating Goddess! I haven't got the book that goes with the deck and wondered if there were supposed to be any correspondences between Freya IV POWER and the conventional Emperor? There would have to be, I guess.

I love the idea of Freyja being accompanied by cats, and they are such powerful cats. Another thought I had, from something on one of the web pages, is that Freyja could be invoked by women at night for protection.

I also love the association of Freyja with the chariot. She is a warrior Goddess and she seems also to get around quite a bit and it seems really appropriate for her to have such a royal carriage.

Isn't it interesting that in conventional Tarot, you almost never hear of the Emperor being associated with sexuality but with this Tarot almost all the Goddesses so far have some association with sexuality.

Moongold

description of the card

In this card we see a red haired woman standing on a chariot, driven by two gray cats. The woman is young and looks beautiful, with a pink and green dress, and the chariot is in the sky, between the clouds, we can even see the lanscape down.

My impressions:

Here's a young woman, that is totally in control of a situation, without stressing at all. She's powerful (the card itself is called power), but she uses that power with care and rationally. She seems to have power over the earth (we see the earth below her chariot), but also beyond that, as if everything was under her control (actually that thought feels right, because I feel as if she's taking care of us).

This card is associated to the Emperor, and we see that control and power are probably the key words, and both ideas are associated to both cards.

I'm not surprised that Freyja is also associated to sexuality; after all she's a very beautiful young woman; and she looks like she's not scared of her own sexuality, and has no problems of going against conventions. She simply knows what she wants, and goes after it.

Anjo

Freyja, Queen of Valkyrie, goddess of beauty, independence, and sexuality. Mistress of Herself. Freyja, of scarlet locks and beauteous body.

I have always felt a strong connection to Freyja- perhaps it is my Scandinavian heritage, or just the sheer power and beauty of which she is mistress. And here, we see her in her glory- whirling through the sky in her cat pulled chariot- robes billowing behind. I wonder if the frame displays her palace- it seems to be her style of dwelling, grand, beautiful, and stately. This is my favorite "emperor" card of any deck- one with which I can actually connect.