[telcontar]

The card shows eight geese soaring into a warmly coloured sky, signifying either sunrise or sunset. In the background you can see a castle on a hill, right before you is a crack in the earth, an abyss.

I love this picture. And I love one sentence from the booklet that sums up a meaning I never saw before: "A group combines their energies while maintaining individuality".

Though there are neither wands nor persons in this picture I think it carries the essence of the 8 of wands very well. Of course you could say the wands in the RW are already falling down again and that signifies better that your aim is at reach and perfection of something is close. But as I always preferred to see the card as pure movement, start or finish not strictly implied, but open to interpretation, I like it very much. - But I've always been drawn to birds of passage, anyway

[Lee]

The image could also be taken to refer to conformity issues in general (in both positive and negative ways), which certainly comes up a lot in gay experience.

-- Lee

[telcontar]

Yes, conformity issues came to my mind, too, when I looked at it. Birds in a flock often merge so much that you're not sure if they are still individuals at all...

By the way, did you know that Graylag Geese can show male homosexuality, too? Ganders pair with each other for life just like the heterosexual animals. In fact, gander pairs seem to be even more stable than gander/goose pairings and are more intense in their displays.

Similar thing with Canada Geese and Snowgeese, but they don't pair for life (but for many years) neither with geese nor with ganders. And I don't know about intensity there. Doesn't matter, anyway, the interesting thing is that there might be at least two gay ganders on this card.

By the way, they are even more vigilant and often at the margin of the flocks hatchery and so they might be quite beneficial for the flock as watchers.

And yes, they have sex, too Won't get any more graphic of course

[Lee]

Originally posted by telcontar
By the way, did you know that Graylag Geese can show male homosexuality, too?

I knew this but had forgotten it at the time I designed the card! Now I'm really happy, the card works even better for me now that I know that, thank you so much, telcontar! This is one card which I was a little unsure of, since the picture didn't spefically relate to homosexuality. But now I know it really does! The power of serendipity.

-- Lee

[Lee]

I've checked in my original notes, and it seems I cannot take credit for the geese. Oh, well!

My original notes read "eight birds," and do not specify geese. Antonella must have chosen to use geese. Now, when she made that choice, was she aware of the connection between geese and homosexuality? I don't know. Since I don't speak Italian, I can't ask her. I guess this will be another of those little mysteries.

-- Lee

[tarotbear]

Eight geese (gay or otherwise - Birds of a feather? LOL!) flying across this card is SOOOOO much better than the silly Wands of the RWS deck; without any 'motion lines' to show they are moving, much less falling to earth, this card has perplexed many a querent. I usually explain this card about 'things set in motion' and the Wands look so motionless! The geese have a beautiful 'fluidity' to their graceful flight.

Eights also indicate a positive change of mind, because the benefical qualities of the number eight (2 times 4 - a number of solidity) are rarely diluted. Birds in flight and a change of mind is a great analogy.

[Elentir]

Another gay bird connection: a Yiddish word for gay man is "faygl," which also means "a little bird." [Strange, too, on a personal note, my Hebrew name is Jonah, which means "dove." And I was named after my great-grandmother Frances, whom everyone in Yiddish called Faygl. Talk about overdetermination!]