Tarot of Prague Cafe club - Prudence

Jewel-ry

Hi there everyone,

Today I've been thinking about this deck and in partcular the reprint and the Prudence card.

I havn't had her come up in a reading yet but I think I really need to start throwing some ideas around about her so that when she does turn up, I will have a springboard from which to work with. Does anyone else have any thoughts about her?

I havn't done any research on her yet but as soon as I do I will post it here.

http://www.bohemian-cats.com/examples/Prudence_small.jpg

Your thoughts appreciated.

Thanks
:)
 

baba-prague

I haven't yet used her either - I suddenly had to do a couple of quite serious readings and didn't want to experiment in those. But I just have a feeling Prudence will fit in and I want to try this card out and see what happens. I'll report back. Meantime, there was a very good thread on Prudence (as an icon and symbol, rather than to do with any specific deck) a while back in the "History" forum - I will try to find it.

What interested me when designing the card was the difference between Prudence and Temperance. They are so closely related but not by any means the same...

anyway, off to think more then I'll be back.
 

baba-prague

This is the thread on Prudence that may be of particular interest:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24836&highlight=prudence

We had about four "Prudence" figures from Prague to choose from (there must be many more here, but we had four good photographs that we found interesting). In the end we went for this very elegant depiction - it's classic, with the mirror and snake, but I liked it also for its delicacy - some depictions we had were much less so.

One thing I picked up from rereading the thread above is the reference to Prudence in Frances Yates' "Art of Memory" - in which she says that the art of memory is a fundamental part of the virtue of Prudence. I like this very much as a way of seeing and thinking about this virtue. To me, the observation about memory tells us (in part at least) that "prudence" is not an in-born virtue, but one that comes from experience - and the ability to learn from it.
 

annik

I like this card. And the woman who hold the snake. She is holding the snake in a way that the snake can look at himself in the mirror. I find it cool! I wonder if the snake is taking conscience of himself.
 

Jewel-ry

I have been looking again at this card and have found that I quite like most of what is said here

http://www.catholicherald.com/saunders/02ws/ws020228.htm

I like to see prudence as reflecting on the past in order to foresee the best way forward. Acting in accordance with moral goodness and duty. To foresee the consequences of action is a wonderful virtue imo and one that I for one would dearly love to have lol.

All in all a good person or deed. A moral judgement. Doing what you know, in your heart of hearts, to be the right thing to do.

It says on the link posted that Prudence is the 'mother of all virtues'. Isn't that a lovely way to look at it? When I consider that she may encompass all of the other virtues - Justice, Temperance and Fortitude, I can begin to see why she does not stand alone in the tarot. To have all of those qualities one would have worked through the Major Arcana and would possibly be facing that wholeness and fulfillment that is so readily seen in The World card.

~
 

Satori

I've laid out a series of cards from the Tarot of Prague.
I have Prudence out of course, and what I'm looking at is the tilt of the head.
Prudence looks to my left as I face the card and to her right.
If you look thru the deck, the interesting thing is that most of the women in the deck tilt their heads to the right, my right, or look straight. There are exceptions of course.
Prudence looks down and left, again my left.
5 Pents looks left and up.
Star looks down, but her head has a tilt to the left.
The World looks to the left.

Does this matter???
I tend to think in terms of the right side of the card as the future, and the left as the past. (But this is something that gives me meaning only in terms of the reading I'm doing, and isn't something I'm always thinking about.)
I do this consistently, regardless of the deck.

So the following things occur to me when I see the Prudence card. A vast expanse of water is behind her.
My first thought looking at her was: "Still waters run deep." There is some chop to the water, not much, but some, and her clothes look windblown.
There is a coquetteishness to her stance that is also a bit too casual when you look at her face.
She is a bit like the snake to me. She could be ready to pounce if need be.
There is a sense of her being coiled and ready to strike....there is a sense of the snake in the ribbons at her waist. The way they flutter in some way echoes the undulation of the snake in her hand...
Her face has a slackness to it, but also a sweetness.
She doesn't seem to care what it is the snake will see in the mirror.

These are just my first obversations on this card, and I'll post again on her once I've thought more about her. I have kept her in the deck and she has not appeared, but I think that her appearances will be very interesting.

The other thing that interests me is the cards in the deck with the water featured and the skyline. Also interested in the rooftop cards, but that isn't the case here. Here is the water behind the figure and the sun brightening the tops of the buildings...looks like a dawning to me, but I'm sure that during a read it could perhaps look like sunset. But there is a clarity to the sun that says sunrise to me.

I think the distance of the water behind her and the color of the water speaks of a time essence. That Prudence occurs over time and with experience, that it is a murky journey, and that what you see (mirror) depends on the viewer, the viewer's level of conciousness and level of threat.

The thing that bothers me is the spaciness I see in her face. She doesn't seem all there. There is that dreamy quality to her face...and the other thing I find interesting is that she seems to be rolling her hips, almost dancing...so I wonder what it is she hears. What is she listening to? That's it. She appears distracted as if she is listening to something.....