swimming in tarot
I can't hold a candle to what Lilija already said in the Scariest Card thread, but I have been meaning to start a thread on this card for a while.
We have here a woman (my friend thinks she looks like a man) of years, decked to the nines with pearls, and we know they're real ones. She has on a tiara over a brown wig, heavy make-up in an era when respectable women didn't wear make-up, an off-the-shoulder dress, and a red-nailed left hand bedecked with ostentatious rings on every finger but the ring finger. In this hand she holds a carved walking-stick. She is outside a la-di-dah stone mansion with all the expensive stone ornamentation you can think of. It is nighttime, and there are stars in the sky. Light from the unseen moon bathes all. What is the woman's expression? Is it coy? Questioning? Arch, with arched eyebrows and all?
I see here a woman making a pretense of youth, of mutton dressed as lamb. I think she has enough money that she doesn't need to worry about what others think of her, so she piles on the makeup. Perhaps she is an aging courtesan, who got to where she is with her youth and beauty, now faded. This is not said in prejudice against older women. I see no soul-beauty emanating from this person! She looks bad-tempered and used to getting whatever she wants by virtue of her wealth. The red claws...surely symbolic of clawing other people. She looks like she expects to be treated with a lot of respect or kowtowing, especially from men, who will be expected to play the role of gallant to her, for her vanity's sake. I dare say she is pleased enough not to be married, for this affords her independence in an era when women were expected to be dependent; and if I recall correctly, they were (in England, at least) not legally "persons" and therefore not allowed to own property. If she was a courtesan, she had many sources of financial support. To gain "independence", she has stepped beyond the boundaries of society; she is a demi-mondaine. Perhaps she was an actress. Still not respectable. But that's her choice. She looks like she knows she can't take her money with her, so she's going to enjoy every cent...by spending it on herself...but what she doesn't seem to realize is that her youth and beauty have passed, and she has nothing to replace them with, except tyrannical denial. Her cane is her only admission of aging, and doubtless she uses it to demand the respect due to the aged, as much as for walking.
Where is she looking? What role do the stars play, that the creator is making sure are visible?
Any thoughts?
We have here a woman (my friend thinks she looks like a man) of years, decked to the nines with pearls, and we know they're real ones. She has on a tiara over a brown wig, heavy make-up in an era when respectable women didn't wear make-up, an off-the-shoulder dress, and a red-nailed left hand bedecked with ostentatious rings on every finger but the ring finger. In this hand she holds a carved walking-stick. She is outside a la-di-dah stone mansion with all the expensive stone ornamentation you can think of. It is nighttime, and there are stars in the sky. Light from the unseen moon bathes all. What is the woman's expression? Is it coy? Questioning? Arch, with arched eyebrows and all?
I see here a woman making a pretense of youth, of mutton dressed as lamb. I think she has enough money that she doesn't need to worry about what others think of her, so she piles on the makeup. Perhaps she is an aging courtesan, who got to where she is with her youth and beauty, now faded. This is not said in prejudice against older women. I see no soul-beauty emanating from this person! She looks bad-tempered and used to getting whatever she wants by virtue of her wealth. The red claws...surely symbolic of clawing other people. She looks like she expects to be treated with a lot of respect or kowtowing, especially from men, who will be expected to play the role of gallant to her, for her vanity's sake. I dare say she is pleased enough not to be married, for this affords her independence in an era when women were expected to be dependent; and if I recall correctly, they were (in England, at least) not legally "persons" and therefore not allowed to own property. If she was a courtesan, she had many sources of financial support. To gain "independence", she has stepped beyond the boundaries of society; she is a demi-mondaine. Perhaps she was an actress. Still not respectable. But that's her choice. She looks like she knows she can't take her money with her, so she's going to enjoy every cent...by spending it on herself...but what she doesn't seem to realize is that her youth and beauty have passed, and she has nothing to replace them with, except tyrannical denial. Her cane is her only admission of aging, and doubtless she uses it to demand the respect due to the aged, as much as for walking.
Where is she looking? What role do the stars play, that the creator is making sure are visible?
Any thoughts?