Apocalipstick
I randomly pulled a card from ye olde RWS for this, and this is what came up.
In regards to our focus, the first thing that comes to mind about this card is a bedtrick. Shakespeare seemed to have loved a good bedtrick, and there are folk tales just about in every culture that deal with the ol' switcheroo in bed. There is even one particularly delicious ghost story involving Don Juan, a widower and his lovely yet spectral wife.
The 7 of Swords has that whiff about it, particularly with the smug look and sneaky padding away the figure on the RWS has going. This is the bed-trickster getting away with it.
The interesting thing about bedtricks is the questions of identity they raise. Outside of a folk-tale or fiction millieu, would you recognize your lover in the dark? Most people would say "yes," and mean it. But in the context of a bedtrick, the person you think you've spent your night with is really someone else altogether. And this person knows that the only way to obtain sexual access to you, is to lie about personal identity.
If sexual union is, at its most intrinsic level about sharing, and sharing ureservedly, then the bedtrick fails to connect the two lovers even as it provides the illusion that a connection has been forged.
In a more everyday context, the 7 of Swords can theoretically represent any attempt to gain someone's interest through presenting an appealing facade. The self is kept separate, at a distance. There is only pretend emotional closeness, in spite of whatever genuine feeling may be there.
Any other ideas?
In regards to our focus, the first thing that comes to mind about this card is a bedtrick. Shakespeare seemed to have loved a good bedtrick, and there are folk tales just about in every culture that deal with the ol' switcheroo in bed. There is even one particularly delicious ghost story involving Don Juan, a widower and his lovely yet spectral wife.
The 7 of Swords has that whiff about it, particularly with the smug look and sneaky padding away the figure on the RWS has going. This is the bed-trickster getting away with it.
The interesting thing about bedtricks is the questions of identity they raise. Outside of a folk-tale or fiction millieu, would you recognize your lover in the dark? Most people would say "yes," and mean it. But in the context of a bedtrick, the person you think you've spent your night with is really someone else altogether. And this person knows that the only way to obtain sexual access to you, is to lie about personal identity.
If sexual union is, at its most intrinsic level about sharing, and sharing ureservedly, then the bedtrick fails to connect the two lovers even as it provides the illusion that a connection has been forged.
In a more everyday context, the 7 of Swords can theoretically represent any attempt to gain someone's interest through presenting an appealing facade. The self is kept separate, at a distance. There is only pretend emotional closeness, in spite of whatever genuine feeling may be there.
Any other ideas?
