Fairy Tale (Hunt) III Fairy Godmother

...the power in fairytales lies in [their] self-determined acts of transformation. Terry Windling, Cinderella: Ashes, Blood and the Slipper of Glass.

Good old Fairy Godmother! In this card, she's standing proud amongst a patch of plump orange pumpkins and winding green vines, two small rats scuttling around her feet. She's dressed in orange and green, too, colours of joy and fertility. From her belt swings a star-studded bag; a ribbon of gold light flies free from it, swirling all around her. Behind the Fairy Godmother is Cinderella - an altogether more washed out sort of a female - and, in the distance is a fairytale castle. Bridging the space between the castle and the pumpkin patch are four white doves.

Forget starry-eyed dreams of princes and courtiers and fancy balls. Cinderella needs to readjust her focus and take a good look at the woman in front of her, 'cos right in front of her is the epitome of a certain kind of person. A fabulous kind of woman.

Those rats scampering around her feet aren't vermin: they're a symbol of all that is resourceful, cunning, crafty, productive and intelligent. They're little four-footed versions of the Fairy Godmother herself. This is the kind of woman who can do anything, make anything, solve anything. Need a new dress? Last year's curtains with an iron-burn on them will provide, and leave enough for a few shirts and tea towels beside. Good crop of blackberries? Then there'll be jam and pie and bottled fruit and cordial to enjoy for the foreseeable future; there'll be blackberry tea to brew besides, and you can bet this woman knows precisely which illnesses and hurts a hot cup of blackberry tea is best for.

Nothing wasted, nothing wanted. 'Make do and mend!' this woman would holler, marshaling her domestic army. Because this is the card of female resourcefulness. This is the card of those generations of women who have kept the household surviving whilst the menfolk went out. Not just surviving, thriving.

So far this isn't sounding very, well, magical. And shouldn't a card about Fairy Godmothers be that?

But what's more magic than the magic of domestic transformation? Forget all that hoity-toity alchemy stuff, with its weird symbols and instruments. If you want real magic, go see a baker. And nobody can keep themselves - and a family - alive on spells and sparkles, or ideas. You need something solid and concrete at the end of the day, for all that hard work, or you're a fool.

She doesn't mince words, this Fairy Godmother.

Yes, this is a magical card; it is a card of transformation. This speaks to our ability to bring change into our life. It also speaks to our ability to materialize - to take a project from idea to plan to production. This is a practical and earthy card - I have to admit, I can't help but think that if we could look close enough, we'd see the soil underneath the Godmother's nails. Stuff doesn't just appear, even if it can sometimes seem that way.

But this is all sounding very serious and solemn, and if there's one thing this card isn't, it's that! This is a jolly card, a jolly archetype, of laughter and friendship and sharing. The power of the Fairy Godmother isn't there for its own sake or to be hoarded. This is power gained to be shared, to be used for the good of the family and the community, not the individual. The Fairy Godmother isn't impressed by the trappings of earthly accomplishments.

Of course not. She's internalized the lessons of the Sorceress; she has no illusions. Life is for the living, says the Fairy Godmother; it'll bring it's own pains and griefs. Why go looking for them? Plant the seeds of the future by doing the work of today; but when the work is done, make sure you take a moment and enjoy the act of living itself. Breathe deep, smell the roses - you should, you tended them! Enjoy good food, good friends, good anything. Treat yourself to something you like. Just enjoy! Food tastes better when it's seasoned by contentment and you don't get that by just slaving away.

In fact, this card reeks of the spirit of Nanny Ogg. She's a character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and she's a witch and an occasional fairy godmother. Wise, powerful and cunning to boot, but not overly burdened by any of it, she'd prefer an evening spent by the fire, bossing around her family and singing raucous songs, than wisping about with moons and crystals and whatnot. She knows where the real magic lies and any magic or power she has, she's earned. And, by goodness, she's going to enjoy it.

And quite right too.

What a wonderful description of the card! And she IS really Nanny Ogg! I´m going to meditate on the card and your perfect description some more before I return.

Hi DaisyDragonfly.
Wonderful as always. So deep understanding of the woman world and this card.

I would like to add something to this card.
It is splendid continuation of the High Priestess card.
This Cinderella left lonely dark castle where she was grown up. The Moon like symbol of feminine nature means that in spite of closed circumstances she needed this privacy in order to understand her woman nature and blossom as a beautiful innocent flower.
There is thin hair-spring in the beak of the bird. It is the symbol of life forces. In ancient times Priests had their hair cut and left on the head only a tuft of hair. They considered that God will draw them with this tuft of hair to the Haven.
There are 4 birds in the sky = 4 of swords - it is the symbol of loneliness.
it means that it is the end of her loneliness and seclusion, it is left in her past. Now Cinderella enters new life under the protection and influence of more experienced woman in real earthy life.

God Mother takes the wand in her hands (Ace of wands). Empress + Ace of wands means the birth of something new, new life. It means that she is the Mother who gave a birth to her children.
There is a magic bag on her side (Ace of coins). Empress + Ace of coins = it means that is Cinderella will become an Empress all her ambitions will be executed.

Two mice in front of her = 2 of coins. It is bustle of our lives. Life of any common Empress consists of simple repeatable moments - to make breakfast, to send children to school, to make housekeeping things, go to the main job, come back, take children out of school, make a dinner, pay attention to the husband, some hours to sleep and then again.... breakfast, school, job, home... and the same every day, 365 days in the year.
Every day ups and downs. It is the secret of her success. She is learning to be together with some one else, to care of someone else.

2 mice and success???
if you see these 2 mice are sitting on the pumpkin. We know that this pumpkin will become the coach that takes Cinderella to her prince. It is the element of the Chariot - sucsess in life, financial stability, stability in life and health.

At the same time in some readings Empress + 2 of coins means frigid woman or woman who is not able to give birth to children.
PLUS... we have two women on the card. In some rare readings
the Chariot + Empress (reversed) or with High Priestess means lesbian relationships, or couples consist of 2 persons of the same sex.


4 pumpkins on the ground = 4 of coins. it is the symbol of confidence, social benefits and social status, an order at home. Empress + 4 of coins means delimitation of borders. If Empress become married, she gets social status and her life is in borders of her own family she try to develop and express herself in it. She gets her own borders - shoulder of her husband, walls of her house.

If the Moon is the symbol of feminine nature, pumpkin is the symbol of the Sun and men's nature. At the same time 4 pumpkins = 4 NUMBER OF EMPEROR card.
the system of two walls again

High priestess (2) + Empress (3) + Emperor (4)

It is the process of transformation of High priestess to Empress under the influence of Emperor.

The Fairy Godmother. III

Who can resist the Fairy Godmother...and yet when I look at the image it strikes me...this is not your typical....oh she's so beautiful fairy godmother...no indeed...this is an older woman, with beauty in the lines of her face and strength in the way she holds herself. This is a woman who has "lived". This is a woman who "knows." Not just the wisdom that time and experience brings...but the wisdom of being able to see into hearts, to look into eyes and catch that little glimpse of the soul that lets one "know" exactly the truth.

She is a woman of kindness and compassion. Of strength and gentleness. Having endured sorrow, she knows the real treasure of joy.
The Fairy Godmother is a woman of age, with a life well lived, whose paths have lead her through the dangers of life, whose journey has captured a wisdom that only life can give one. She is confident in herself, has ceased to let others value or devalue her...she simply is...The Fairy Godmother.

The fairy godmother on the card is the main figure on the card with a paler woman in the background. Since they are standing among the pumpkins I am assuming the background figure is Cinderella....but hmmmm.
When I look at the card again I wonder...well I think it is Cinderella but at the same time..the idea that it is a younger "version" of the Fairy godmother came to mind. Sort of like the pale figure is a "shadow" of what the fairy godmother was in the past...and that in fact as we age and grow in wisdom....our "past, younger self" fades but is never really gone. We still contain that younger version of ourself. Reminds me of the idea that comes to mind when people say: "they don't "feel" old"...as if that youthful part of a person's spirit is always there. Or perhaps we are both...at times Cinderella and at other times in our lives, the Fairy Godmother.

DragonFae said:

The fairy godmother on the card is the main figure on the card with a paler woman in the background. Since they are standing among the pumpkins I am assuming the background figure is Cinderella....but hmmmm.
When I look at the card again I wonder...well I think it is Cinderella but at the same time..the idea that it is a younger "version" of the Fairy godmother came to mind. Sort of like the pale figure is a "shadow" of what the fairy godmother was in the past...and that in fact as we age and grow in wisdom....our "past, younger self" fades but is never really gone. We still contain that younger version of ourself. Reminds me of the idea that comes to mind when people say: "they don't "feel" old"...as if that youthful part of a person's spirit is always there. Or perhaps we are both...at times Cinderella and at other times in our lives, the Fairy Godmother.

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What an interesting observation and thought! The Maiden and the Crone!
This is my favourite card in this deck as I love the fairytale of Cinderella as told by Charles Perrault.I advice all lovers of fairytales to read it and the other lovely, but not well-known, french stories in "The Golden Book of Fairy Tales" (Classic Golden Book) by Adrienne Segur and Marie Ponsot, with the girl and the dwarf and the crowned crows on the cover,available from all branches of Amazon. To me, and may others, it´s the most beautifully written and illustrated fairytale book there is. But I digress.
Cinderella is looking meek and mild, as she should, but the fairy-godmother looks less dignified perhaps, than I would have prefered.
On the other hand she is a wonderfully strong, capeable, beautiful, and warm, real life women. She is gentle, kind and wise. You feel that Cinderella is in good and loving hands. I really wouldn´t have the card different than it is.
What I like the most in the Charles Perrault version of Cinderella is that there is a fairy-godmother, the step-mother and step-sisters are less cruel, there are no cutting off of toes or picking out of eyes, Cinderella talks to the step-sisters at the ball and serves them goodies from the prince´s table, and in the end they ask her forgiveness on their knees, and Cinderella forgives them and marries them off with two lords of court. I don´t like the Disney version so much, except for the lovely images and songs. But I digress again.
This is the best Empress I have ever seen, and knowing the story adds so much dept to it. The colours are ideal for an empress - no baby blue or pink, but the automne colours of orange and brown and the fairy-godmothers clear blue eyes. Blue is a colour of hope, I feel. That pumpkin patch is adorable, and the little mice are so sweet.
This picture will not replace "my" fairy-godmother from the one I saw in an illustration as a child, but it will be right up there with it.

It is lovely, isn't it? I like the expression on the Fairy Godmother's face. She's very real.

As to the airy-fairy Cinderella behind her - I figured that she was there just as a visual cue, a reminder of the story itself. I think Cinderella is a difficult character, in a way: with many of the modern retellings, she's very passive. All she has to do is be there in the right place at the right time and everything gets sorted out for her. Just because.

Maiden-Mother-Crone. But which one is which? In Grimm's version of this fairytale, Cinderella is helped by the spirit of her dead mother. There's no fairy godmother and no transformation: 'Just the potent power of the dead.' (Wildling). When that's the power that's being accessed, we're getting into the deep mysteries, where there are four faces to the Goddess: Maiden/Crone & Mother/Dark Mother.

Cinderella, I think, is more akin to Little Red Riding Hood in the Innocence card: she isn't anything, yet. She doesn't know who she is, yet. She has power but she hasn't accessed it. She doesn't even have a name: like Little Red Riding Hood, she's named based on something transitional and external. Cinderella's transformation doesn't begin and end with the magic of the Fairy Godmother: it just begins. Perhaps that's why she's ghostly on the card: she's just at the beginning of the journey of defining self-identity, of defining herself. She doesn't know who she is: maiden, mother, crone, dark mother. The Fairy Godmother is the spark that pushes her on her journey.

On a less spiritual level, isn't the card and the story also about female relationships?

DaisyDragonfly said:

On a less spiritual level, isn't the card and the story also about female relationships?

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You are so right. Womens relationships good and bad.

III: The Fairy Godmother

An initial description:
Four large orange pumpkins sit in a green garden amidst yellow blossoms. A pair of mice sit atop one on the left, and a blue flowered bag on the right, which a golden light is spilling out of that surrounds the main figure. The main figure is an older woman who is standing behind the bag. Her long, gray hair fans out around her smiling face, and a crown is on her head. Flowers adorn her hair and drift down from it. Her face is strong and kind. Around her neck is a necklace; her top is orange, with a vine pattern and scales adorn the sleeves ending in dark green arm warmers. her skirt is green with floral vines, reminiscent of the Lake Maiden's. A glowing wand rests in her hand. To her right is the moon, and behind it, a thorn guarded castle with tall towers. To her left is a maiden. The girl is pale against the dark wash of blue night, and her hair is a glowing blonde. She is wearing a pale green ball gown. Above her are four birds, the front one bearing a green thread.

Preliminary meanings:
The fairy godmother is there in the time of need. She is wise and shares knowledge, bestowing it upon those who are worthy of great gifts. Things are about to shift.

The basic fairy tale from once upon a fairy tale: (Cinderella)
Cinderella was beautiful and kind despite being mistreated by her step family. They receive an invitation to the ball and she stays. Her fairy godmother sends her off, beautiful. The prince loved her. The next night she returned but left her slipper behind. Cinderella is discovered and her sisters repent.

personal significance:
The fairy godmother is a symbol of karma-- goodness is rewarded.

book symbolism, etc:
The fairy godmother is connected with the power of nature and the conductor of forces. The moon is a reminder of constant change. This card represents growth. Connect with your enterprising spirits and become more intuitive and aware of potential.

variations of Cinderella:
-The Baba Yaga (russian): Her stepmother sends her to the baba yaga, her aunt. Real aunt gives her information and gifts. Cat helps her escape. She escapes and her father shoots the mother-in-law.
-Cenerentola (Italian): Daughter (Zezolla) had a great governess. She kills step mother and has governess as mother- who secretly has 6 daughters and makes her a slave-- changing her name to Cenerentola. Fairy sends her wish granting tree that dresses her and sends her to the ball three times. She loses her slipper on the last time and all the women have to try it on. It fits her and she is queen.
-The Cinder Maid (French): A ball was called, and the daughter was not allowed to go, but her father wanted her to. The hazel tree at her mother's grave dresses her three times for three balls. The last time she leaves behind 1 shoe. They send around a herald with the shoe. The eldest cuts off toes and is found out. The other cuts off her heel and is found out. Cinder Maid marries him and is happy.

Traditional meanings of the Empress (From Gray's book):
Traditionally the Earth Mother. She symbolizes the productive, generative activities of the subconscious. She is the multiplication of images or universal fecundity. She represents material wealth, fertility and the creative arts.

Parallels:
Both the Empress and the fairy Godmother symbolize wealth and gifts. Pictorially they share symbols of nature and growth.

The Empress (From Journey of the hero):
Traditionally embodies Mother Nature and the force of culture. She embodies everything natural. She is surrounded by the symbols of fertility and is the source from which all life arises. This is the card of creativity and gives birth to something new. She is the mother archetype.

Related to the Fairy Godmother:
The godmother watches over her charge like it is her own child, helping and nurturing its life and giving it a new start of their own.

Meditation/writing jump off:
I held my wand and smiled proudly at my bag of magic fairy dust. The mice sat at my feet, waiting with the pumpkins for my next command and the birds began to fly in, waiting as well. The moon's power flowed through my veins as I began to work my magic, helping the ethereal girl prepare for her destiny to come true; for the prince of the ball at the castle. The magic surrounds me like the wings of a butterfly.