Owl Song
Vampire Tarot (Place) The Brides (Empress)
This card seems to have more shadow meanings and associations than than the earlier cards I've looked at. Its traditional Tarot equivalent is the Empress. The card shows 3 vampire females as they materialized in front of Johnathan. They are beautiful and seductive and Johnathan is both entranced and repelled by them. If Dracula had not intervened, Johnathan would have submitted to their kiss. He was in a similar trance-like state to the ones we later see Mina in.
The Tarot Empress is the number 3 and here we have three brides. Place references the idea of the triple goddess. Place chose significant colors for the brides' dresses: white, red, and black. This choice of color reminds us of the Triple Goddess Symbol, composed of waxing crescent, full moon, and waning crescent. According to author Robert Graves, these symbolic colors represent:
"...the New Moon is the white goddess of birth and growth; the Full Moon, the red goddess of love and battle; the Old Moon, the black goddess of death and divination."
Usually the Empress is depicted with fruits and flowers. She is at one with the earth. Often she is shown either pregnant or holding an infant. The vampire brides are in exact antithesis to this nurturing image. Dracula admonishes them for attempting to seduce Johnathan. Even so, he appeases their hunger:
""Are we to have nothing tonight?"said one of them, with a low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as though there were some living thing within it. For answer he nodded his head. One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half smothered child. The women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horror. But as I looked, they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag.""
The Brides do share the Empress' sensuality, although they are far more blatantly sexual--and dangerous. A full moon can be seen in the window behind them.
What could this card mean in a reading? A sensual experience, an appealing, attractive person or situation, a smothering kind of affection--like an overgrown garden, the traditional Empress archetype but subverted and out of control. I can also see how the card could refer to the traditional meaning of abundance. For Dracula, the Brides are a possession of sorts; they represent his wealth, dominance, and the affluence of his "kingdom."
This card seems to have more shadow meanings and associations than than the earlier cards I've looked at. Its traditional Tarot equivalent is the Empress. The card shows 3 vampire females as they materialized in front of Johnathan. They are beautiful and seductive and Johnathan is both entranced and repelled by them. If Dracula had not intervened, Johnathan would have submitted to their kiss. He was in a similar trance-like state to the ones we later see Mina in.
The Tarot Empress is the number 3 and here we have three brides. Place references the idea of the triple goddess. Place chose significant colors for the brides' dresses: white, red, and black. This choice of color reminds us of the Triple Goddess Symbol, composed of waxing crescent, full moon, and waning crescent. According to author Robert Graves, these symbolic colors represent:
"...the New Moon is the white goddess of birth and growth; the Full Moon, the red goddess of love and battle; the Old Moon, the black goddess of death and divination."
Usually the Empress is depicted with fruits and flowers. She is at one with the earth. Often she is shown either pregnant or holding an infant. The vampire brides are in exact antithesis to this nurturing image. Dracula admonishes them for attempting to seduce Johnathan. Even so, he appeases their hunger:
""Are we to have nothing tonight?"said one of them, with a low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as though there were some living thing within it. For answer he nodded his head. One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half smothered child. The women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horror. But as I looked, they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag.""
The Brides do share the Empress' sensuality, although they are far more blatantly sexual--and dangerous. A full moon can be seen in the window behind them.
What could this card mean in a reading? A sensual experience, an appealing, attractive person or situation, a smothering kind of affection--like an overgrown garden, the traditional Empress archetype but subverted and out of control. I can also see how the card could refer to the traditional meaning of abundance. For Dracula, the Brides are a possession of sorts; they represent his wealth, dominance, and the affluence of his "kingdom."
