Souls Cards I, Card 1

Even though the cards themselves don't have titles or numbers, they are in a numerical order on Deborah Koff-Chapin's website- so I thought it would make it easier for everyone if I just posted a link to the gallery page illustrating the cards.....

http://www.touchdrawing.com/3SoulCards/SC1/SC1gal.htm

and the card I was looking at today is card #1.

I thought I would just write a sort of stream of consciousness about the card as I studied it... what does it make me feel- or think- or presume??

My first impression- lovely card. Maternal. Protective. The child looks happy- he is out with his mum, and her arm curls lovingly around him, while he indulges in playful fantasies- catching (or intuiting?) things coming out from her head.

But something about her gaze bothers me- she's so VACANT looking. There is a (plant?) growing up the other side of the mother- she nestles the bud of the flower in her other arm like it is a baby. She is distracted- not looking at the older child, who seems to be aware of the thoughts eminating from her head- and who actually has his back to her- trying to catch mummy's attention?

While I looking at this scenario, a phrase kept coming into my head- 'Mother's Little Helper'... so I did a Google, and it came up- (an old Rolling Stones song about the "use of prescription drugs among housewives" according to Wikipedia).

That's what this card actually makes me think of. Over-stretched and over-stressed mums... coping and smiling like zombies for the neighbours or the over-critical in-laws; bit of post-natal depression, maybe??
And the older child who knows that something is terribly wrong- but doesn't know what, because he is too young to understand.

I'm suddenly thinking of Sylvia Plath now- oh, dear. I'll stop there.

Well, THAT's an interesting start, isn't it?!

I intend to study the card more in-depth this week... will post more insights and thoughts later.

elnor

I have the soul cards as well and would love to join you in the study of them. I do not use them that often but would like to explore them more so I could make better use of them. I find them to be very penetrating into the depths of one’s unconscious. For me this oracle is an immensely useful tool that can be quite piercing with its revelations concerning the depths of the psyche.

The first thing that strikes me about this card is the colors of blue-green, yellow-green, and white. Colors that represent change, deep emotion, growth, development, and The Divine for me. The woman embraces a child with one arm and a large plant with the other. I get the sense she is moving, needing to go places and accomplish tasks all while herding the child and large plant with her. Where she is going and what she intends on doing I do not know. But she seems somewhat lost in the mundaneness of her reality; forgetting the beautiful glorious phenomenon that she leaves in her wake, a marbled mosaic of a veined leaf.

Yet the child has not lost an awe and wonder for this magical world. The child looks back at this glorious event and reaches to experience this beautiful phenomenon. S/he reminds me of the developing child so eager to experience, grow, and understand this strange and beautiful world around him/her. This young one has yet to fully realize the hurt and sorrow that this woman has experienced in her life; whose vigilance and focus on the material plain is an act of survival for herself, this child, and this plant she protects. Her efforts are to protect all of them. While she strives to accomplish this important mission she, in an unconscious effort to protect herself, dissociates from his/her experience of this spiritual phenomenon. What the child reaches for represents a loss too painful to recognize, to reexperience. In the woman’s efforts to survive the physical world she has lost touch with her inherit divinity.

When I look at the leaf-like impression behind her it reminds me of an angel’s wings. She is the wounded divine guardian of this child who has forgotten her own divinity.

Forrest

Forrest-
thanks for your insights! I'm glad there is someone else who is interested in taking on these cards...

a bit of extra input- I've just asked my boyfriend his impressions of this card, and he said he sees in it the story of the Garden of Eden...that the larger figure is an angel, trying to guide a young Adam who is eagerly reaching up to touch the knowledge coming out of the angel. The angel is thinking, "You'll be sorry!" and is trying to urge Adam away from learning what he should not know.

(He also said that the leaf patterns make him think of mathmatical equations- but he's been programing on the computer most of today, so he's a bit adled. )

elnor

Elnor said:

Forrest-
a bit of extra input- I've just asked my boyfriend his impressions of this card, and he said he sees in it the story of the Garden of Eden...that the larger figure is an angel, trying to guide a young Adam who is eagerly reaching up to touch the knowledge coming out of the angel. The angel is thinking, "You'll be sorry!" and is trying to urge Adam away from learning what he should not know.
(elnor

Click to expand...

It is so fascinating how others can pull such different things from these cards. What is so mystical about these cards is how just about anybody, regardless of whether they work with Tarot or other oracles, can have a strong intuitive response to these cards.

I think it is interesting that your boyfriend pulled out the archetypal theme of the fall of man. Here you have the divine parent (the angel) warning the human child (Adam) not to seek the power of knowledge or there will be serious consequences.

It seems that despite the differences in impressions and imagery generated from this card a general theme is emerging from all of our responses. There is a child who is eager to grow and develop in the company of a parent, mundane or divine, who is trying to protect the child, often leading to overprotection due to the parent’s anxiety.

What are others thoughts on this?

Forrest