kwaw
Liralen said:This card came up in a reading yesterday and the word "wizard's robe" came to my mind when I looked at the old man.
But I don't see a connection between a wizard's robe and the way I normally see this card (for me it means wealth, especially inherited wealth and traditions).
What do you think?
"...The mere numerical powers and bare words of the meanings are insufficient by themselves; but the pictures are like doors which open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn in the open road with a wide prospect beyond."
A. E. WAITE Pictorial Key to the Tarot Rider & Company, second edition 1971, p.169
I agree the strange harp like sigils on the old man's cloak perhaps suggest he is some sort of wizard or shaman; we may imagine in their form the shape of a lyre, wrapping him in the music of strange faerie instruments while on a vision quest in the land of faerie, a journey through the great distance:
“…When my Exempt Mistress is seated by her golden harp, you should see how the world goes by- how the world goes by in Faerie and the Crown comes down. It was in offices of music that she came to me more than all- strange music sounding from far away, and pipings of mysterous musicians. The instruments are unearthiy in Faerie, and especially among the old hills; but in all that lived and breathed I found that there were lutes and strings in her presence, and I knew at last what is said in quiet places by the wind-harp. There are woes unknown in Faerie and weeping voices in the night-time; but she lifted in sweet music her hands of healing and said unto them: "Peace, be still." She carried the cure by music through wounded reams of Faerie. She opened out all its mysteries in melodious voices. The daisy breathed about her like a choice garden of roses, and the honey-suckle was a sweet incense, as if rising before a high altar. The waterfalls and streams and rivulets ran in light beside her. I saw the rainbow of Faerie shining to the eyes in splendour and beating at the ears in music. The sound of many waters glistened in rainbow colours. The quests of Faerie were set to her subtle melodies, all that wide worid over. She took the thoughts of men upon great voyages. I heard the heart of Faerie throbbing. I heard also such messages in the night-time that my own heart was put to rest…
“… This is also the end of all stories, like those which I have been telling unto now. Sunset and night-time are over; my Morning-Glory shines in the glory of morning, with gleaming hair "back blown from rosy bands, And light and joy and fragrance in her hands." Hereof is therefore my journey through the great distance, and such is my Swan-Song. I have been making poems of Faerie through my whole life; but this is the end of my poems.
A.E. WAITE. A Journey through the Great Distance (The Gypsy, May 1915)
http://adepti.com/docs/gypsy.txt
Waite's fellow Golden Dawn member Florence Farr would play an instrument (including I believe a harp) when leading members through a group path working. One method of pathworking was to use the cards themselves as a starting point, in which "the pictures are like doors which open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn in the open road with a wide prospect beyond."
Doorways, entryways of all sort including for example arches thus symbolise too an entry into the land of faerie, the world of spirit vision, the great distance into which the old shaman wrapped in strange music journeys, present but apart from the daily life around him.
The journey throught the 'great distance' is the great distance of a lifetime itself of course, and perhaps for the old man, it is a journey of reminiscence of the life whose end is approaching ~ contemplating his swan song.
An old man and a child, eaching petting a dog, looking at each other ~ The number 10 is like perhaps the double headed Janus of New Year, the old face looking back, the new forward.
The child while clinging to its mother has reached that curious age to look beyond mother and domain; the old too clings to mother earth and life but is also perhaps also looking beyond the domain to the long journey ahead; each pets a dog, each dog anticipating 'walkies' on a journey ahead beyond the domain of infancy and old age, beyond home/body ~ the number 10 not a circle but one of the unavoidable crossroads (X) upon life's journey; an adventureous spirit may embrace the prospect and an anxious one delay, but in the end it is inescapable. One cannot stop in one place forever, old man and child must make that crossing, step round that corner into the wide open prospects beyond.