Liber T: Tarot of the Stars Eternal - Nine of Wands - Strength

WolfyJames

You can see the card here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/wolfyjames/decks/libertbig/wands09.jpg

There seems to be a struggle between the eight moon arrows and the ninth arrow with a moon and a sun. I guess the Moon is represented by the eight moon arrows while the ninth one is Sagittarius. These two don't seem to like each other. I guess the moon energy here is not a good one, that the negative aspects of the Moon card appear here like illusions, fears, doubts, moodiness, etc. Some of the negative aspects can be viewed with the most of the characters being struck by doubts and fear, being very moody.

The sun lands on what looks like a man with the head of a tapir in the back of the card. Scion says it's Seth, the egyptian god, his body is red and Seth was effectively a red god. So the sun lands on his chest around his heart. I think it means to find within us who we are and what makes us unique and our strengths in order to disperse the moon energy. So it's a tough battle, whether the fight is inner or outer, but victory is not very far as long as we show fortitude.

Cows represent fertility so while the card may seems scary at first it says that once we connect with ourselves we will find riches there and we will be able to harmonize the moon and sagittarius energies for the moon energy is not necessarely negative.
 

Emily

I like the images of the woman and two children - she carries the one child and looks forward, the other child she's pulling. It gives the indication of strength of character - we don't know what this woman is moving on from but she's found the strength to do it.
 

WolfyJames

Emily said:
I like the images of the woman and two children - she carries the one child and looks forward, the other child she's pulling. It gives the indication of strength of character - we don't know what this woman is moving on from but she's found the strength to do it.

This just strucked me and made me remember bad memories of my childhood. In winter, my mother took my brother and I to do the groceries but by the time she was finished there was a snowstorm and there was no taxi left. I was a baby then and my brother pretty much had the same age as the older child on the card. So she called my father (who was a terrible father, by the way) to get a ride home with the groceries and the two of us. My father refused to help her out and told her he was too busy having fun with his buddies. So my mother walked home with the two of us and the groceries in the snow. Luckily for us, some old man saw us and even though he had no car he pushed the groceries to our home while my mother was taking care of us. That is real strength. No need to worry too much, my mother dumped my father some time afterwards.

I doubt I'll be able to see the card in a different way now.
 

Emily

I'm sorry you had such a tough childhood - its amazing how sometimes cards can trigger memories - for some reason the Liber T seems to be able to do that.

The Moon card makes me think of biorythms - I used to do these regularly, I haven't done my biorythms for years but I found the site out I used to use and intend doing them again.
 

Scion

9 of Wands

This is one of those cards (and the same is true in the Thoth as well) that is so much BIGGER than the Waite-Smith interpretation of the Golden Dawn meaning ("Strength"). Rather than a bandaged man after a battle hanging onto a wand to stay standing we get the migration of what could be an entire culture.

An interesting footnote about the translation of the Hermetis: the Latin literally says the decan has “the face of an investigator and the body of a man” which seems nonsensical until you go to the original Greek. In this case it’s a Latin mistranslation of the Greek ‘ichnos.’ An ichneumon (literally “tracker”) is a type of Egyptian weasel that eats crocodile eggs! So this is Strength in terms of survival and desperation, not of displays of steroidal mastery.

In the Book of Thoth, Crowley says “This card is a sort of elementary parable to illustrate the meaning of this aphorism: "Change is Stability." Here the Moon, the weakest of the planets, is in Sagittarius, the most elusive of the Signs; yet it dares call itself Strength. Defence, to be effective, must be mobile.” (Which explains all of these transient despairing refugees, strong because they are in transit.)

Compared to the Waite-Smith interpretation of "Strength," this 9 of Wands is both more epic... showing the destruction and diaspora of entire families and more intimate... with the suggestion of the cunning weasel eking out a living in the jaws of death.