[galadrial]

Graham seems to like the motif of a palette collar. If related to the throat chakra, it makes me think that William speaks through his art. His body language seems to denote that the painting is finished and that he is both confident that it reflects the best of his current abilities and yet a bit defiant, as though daring you to critisize unless you are yourself a master and can critique in a manner that is instructive. He looks aware that his work is already highly saleable yet not as good as it will become, for William is dertermined to reach his peak.

Graham's booklet says: "Mastering skills is only achieved through self-discipline and determination. William is a great abstract painter standing by his most recent canvas. Because of his talent and dedication, William has many admirers knocking at his door.
Divinitory Meaning: The Eight of Coins represents the mastering of skills and becoming a specialist.
Reverse Meaning: Wasting talent, empty ambitions."

[spoonbender]

On the Eight of Coins we see William, who has just finished a painting. His model, a large mouse, is still posing, lying on a bench in front of a window. But why a mouse? In my book on animal symbolism, it says: “Mice help you concentrate and help you pay attention to details. They can teach you how to reach great things by working on small things.” I always think of this card as a card of meticulous, detailed work, so that fits in nicely.

For some reason, William wears a painter’s palette around his neck. I love Galadrial's interpretation:

Originally posted by galadrial
If related to the throat chakra, it makes me think that William speaks through his art.

The way William is standing there with his arms crossed, he seems a bit reticent, but nonetheless he seems proud of his work. He seems paler than most people in this deck, so he probably hasn’t been out much, but has been working hard. His clothes seem a bit short for him, don’t they? Perhaps it shows that he has "grown" a lot since he first started working on this painting?

What I think is nice, is that the painted coins count equally as the coins that served as a model, because it’s only then that you can count 8 coins in the card. This shows to me the importance of this work in William’s life, and how real and alive it has become for him.

On two tables lie sheets of paper with sketches on them – this reminds me that William wouldn’t have gotten this far without practice. You can’t become great at something in a few days – it takes a lot of hard work to get to the point where you are as skilled and respected as William (Graham writes that William has many admirers knocking on his door!).

Spoonbender

[Little Baron]

Great post SB. There is little for me to add as you and Galadrial have picked out some really great points - the throat chakras, the practice and growth and the concentration of mice. Thanks. Some great information there.

Yaboot

[spoonbender]

Thanks, Yaboot! I'm glad you comment on my posts occasionally, because it gives me the feeling that someone is actually reading what I write, and that helps me to carry on studying this deck .

Thanks!
Spoonbender

[Little Baron]

Your welcome SB.

I havn't been working with the Phantasmagoric recently, but when we started these threads the whole process was a labour of love and I am sure you can see that by how involved we all got. I am just continually surprised that more people do not respond, even though, when we were posting a while back, it did generate quite a lot of interest and views, even if not all of the people posted their comments.

I am sure there are more waiting in the wings and what with the consistent influx of new members, some are sure to be charmed by the deck soon enough. I only fell across it by chance and then posted a query on here, to which Maan replied. She had tried to get a study group going previously, but with no success. With the two of us posting and pushing together, more started to join the ranks and eventually, we got the study group, which was great.

I am sure that the more posts you reply to, the name will start to gain more views and interest as people see it consistantly popping up on the forum. I love the deck and think it is worthy of so much more attention than it gets, and these threads are such a wonderful 'manual' for it, since there is so little written about it. Aside from a few online reviews and the lwb, there is little else which can deter a reader from learning the deck.

Look forward to hearing more of your entries here and will post when I can; its hard to sometimes think of something new to say, but you have brought some fresh insights to these threads. Thanks for expanding my viewpoints on the cards.

Best wishes

Yaboot


****Maybe a request in the General section may whip up some interest for more study*****

[spoonbender]

It’s the first time I drew a card from the Phantasmagoric for the second time. This time the 8 of Coins was telling me that things don’t always go as fast as we want them to. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort and determination to reach what we want. Rome wasn’t built in one day. It’s important to keep working hard on what we want to achieve and not to give up hope, because at one point, our hard work will pay off, and we can be the person we want to be (in the case of William: an accomplished artist).

Spoon

[annik]

I like much this card. It is an artistic card. There is a painter. There is a few associations in my mind. Our perceptions on the life of painters, the romantic view we can have. There is a lot of famous painters : Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh, ... They may be very high in color but they all have a talent and a wish to express themselves.

What is interesting is painters have a connection with inspiration. Their inspiration is more visual. This painter have a model. I wonder where our little painter got his inspiration to get his model and about the composition of the painting. But the end result is lovely.