poopsie
Whew! it took me awhile to get back to the Etruscan deck... I needed to find out more about this next card - Strength. Unfortunately, like in the other cards, I could not find the art source of the card from the archives on etruscan art and tombs. This may have been truly designed by the artist.
Description in the booklet: I seek power. A brutish man is fighting against a fair beast. Each holds the power to hurt the other, but it is a confrontation of intelligence and force, like right and wrong.
The details of this particular card are quite different from first few cards in the Major Arcana. To begin with, the Fool, the Chariot and the Lovers' male characters were depicted are fairly young, energetic, seemingly about to start something -- the fool dances his way to freedom, the chariot is a young man determined to get to his destination in an upright way on his chariot, and the lovers' male is about to experience his first night with his new spouse. The Emperor and the High Priest, Magician are older people, roughly around 40s-50s, well-clothed (aristocratic), looking refined.
And then we see the Strength card where suddenly, out of the blue, a brutish dirty crass-looking figure, muscular dominates the card. If in RWS it is a woman "taming a lion", here it is a roughneck holding a beautiful bird by the neck, and he is about to kill it. The bird is obviously not going to take death sitting down, as it fights back with its left claw holding on to the male private part. If the bird's neck would be straight, it would obviously be taller than the man, although thin. The man on the other hand is more bulk but height-wise would be shorter than the bird. He holds a club to use while his shield is just leaning on the side. The borders below the artwork show leaf-looking shapes put together to appear as if they were hearts. The border above are trainsgles which are alternately upright and inverted.
It may help to look at the symbols and what they may represent.
The triangle shape meaning is described in www.whats-your-sign.com -- "When I wear the ring right side up, the triangles stand erect, and I'm affirming my masculine energies. When inverted, tips pointed down, I'm hailing my feminine wiles. Few objects can match the duplicity of my moods, so I appreciate this versatility." The alternate triangles in the card may suggest representations of both our masculine and feminine energies, which may either complement or go polarized in some occasions in our lives.
The bird is another interesting symbol. I lifted this from the www.history-world.org --
"Roman writers give repeated evidence that the Etruscans regarded every bird and every berry as a potential source of knowledge of the gods and that they had developed an elaborate lore and attendant rituals for using this knowledge."
The brutish man may show the primitive and raw energy we may have, the tendency to sometimes behave in a brutish rogue-like manner, like a buffoon, with no conscience at all, just interested in killing or hurting another in order to achieve or win a batter (battle of egos?)
The shield is what covers us and protects us and in this card, the man has let go of it and seems to have opted to allow himself to be vulnerable to attack, thinking that the club alone will let him win his battle. The thing is, the beast has its claws clinging on to the man's most vulnerable area and this would give him extreme pain once this part of his body is wounded -- his penis which is the actual symbol of manhood and primitive or basal instinct.
My own thoughts on the interpretation of the card:
The card is described as "I seek power". Power is strength, energy, force. It would be interesting to determine what for the brute would power mean -- conquest? winning a battle against someone fairer than he. or an opponent who has an edge over him?
When we draw this card, it may help to identify if we do have power dilemmas in our lives, or issues that constantly put us in an internal struggle. The bird may mean a wonderful value or characteristics that we possess that is now incongruent with how we are behaving - the brute in us. If we needed to make decisions, should we let our head rule over our heart, or our heart over our head? Worse yet, it may also be a struggle between good and evil, our capacity to decide on the rightness and wrongness of our acts and decisions.
How do we tip the scales? What should we listen to more - head or heart? Intellect or instinct? Facts and evidence or intuition?
While we may have let go of our guard (shield) and have allowed ourselves to take on the battle or the struggle naked and vulnerable, we have still armed ourselves with our last line of defense -- our club. In case we lose or are about to lose, we are ready to kill - to commit the wrong act in order to survive. On the other hand, we may also be a victim without realizing it (the bird may have attacked the man and he is simply defending himself). We may have held the bird on its neck and yet, it has us in our "crouch" or our most vulnerable side.
It will help to look into the aspect of where do we derive our strength? Should we destroy the "good" in us let our shadow side take over? Or should we defend ourselves since not making the next move may prove more fatal for us?
The card actually does pose more questions for us to think of and ponder on.
Description in the booklet: I seek power. A brutish man is fighting against a fair beast. Each holds the power to hurt the other, but it is a confrontation of intelligence and force, like right and wrong.
The details of this particular card are quite different from first few cards in the Major Arcana. To begin with, the Fool, the Chariot and the Lovers' male characters were depicted are fairly young, energetic, seemingly about to start something -- the fool dances his way to freedom, the chariot is a young man determined to get to his destination in an upright way on his chariot, and the lovers' male is about to experience his first night with his new spouse. The Emperor and the High Priest, Magician are older people, roughly around 40s-50s, well-clothed (aristocratic), looking refined.
And then we see the Strength card where suddenly, out of the blue, a brutish dirty crass-looking figure, muscular dominates the card. If in RWS it is a woman "taming a lion", here it is a roughneck holding a beautiful bird by the neck, and he is about to kill it. The bird is obviously not going to take death sitting down, as it fights back with its left claw holding on to the male private part. If the bird's neck would be straight, it would obviously be taller than the man, although thin. The man on the other hand is more bulk but height-wise would be shorter than the bird. He holds a club to use while his shield is just leaning on the side. The borders below the artwork show leaf-looking shapes put together to appear as if they were hearts. The border above are trainsgles which are alternately upright and inverted.
It may help to look at the symbols and what they may represent.
The triangle shape meaning is described in www.whats-your-sign.com -- "When I wear the ring right side up, the triangles stand erect, and I'm affirming my masculine energies. When inverted, tips pointed down, I'm hailing my feminine wiles. Few objects can match the duplicity of my moods, so I appreciate this versatility." The alternate triangles in the card may suggest representations of both our masculine and feminine energies, which may either complement or go polarized in some occasions in our lives.
The bird is another interesting symbol. I lifted this from the www.history-world.org --
"Roman writers give repeated evidence that the Etruscans regarded every bird and every berry as a potential source of knowledge of the gods and that they had developed an elaborate lore and attendant rituals for using this knowledge."
The brutish man may show the primitive and raw energy we may have, the tendency to sometimes behave in a brutish rogue-like manner, like a buffoon, with no conscience at all, just interested in killing or hurting another in order to achieve or win a batter (battle of egos?)
The shield is what covers us and protects us and in this card, the man has let go of it and seems to have opted to allow himself to be vulnerable to attack, thinking that the club alone will let him win his battle. The thing is, the beast has its claws clinging on to the man's most vulnerable area and this would give him extreme pain once this part of his body is wounded -- his penis which is the actual symbol of manhood and primitive or basal instinct.
My own thoughts on the interpretation of the card:
The card is described as "I seek power". Power is strength, energy, force. It would be interesting to determine what for the brute would power mean -- conquest? winning a battle against someone fairer than he. or an opponent who has an edge over him?
When we draw this card, it may help to identify if we do have power dilemmas in our lives, or issues that constantly put us in an internal struggle. The bird may mean a wonderful value or characteristics that we possess that is now incongruent with how we are behaving - the brute in us. If we needed to make decisions, should we let our head rule over our heart, or our heart over our head? Worse yet, it may also be a struggle between good and evil, our capacity to decide on the rightness and wrongness of our acts and decisions.
How do we tip the scales? What should we listen to more - head or heart? Intellect or instinct? Facts and evidence or intuition?
While we may have let go of our guard (shield) and have allowed ourselves to take on the battle or the struggle naked and vulnerable, we have still armed ourselves with our last line of defense -- our club. In case we lose or are about to lose, we are ready to kill - to commit the wrong act in order to survive. On the other hand, we may also be a victim without realizing it (the bird may have attacked the man and he is simply defending himself). We may have held the bird on its neck and yet, it has us in our "crouch" or our most vulnerable side.
It will help to look into the aspect of where do we derive our strength? Should we destroy the "good" in us let our shadow side take over? Or should we defend ourselves since not making the next move may prove more fatal for us?
The card actually does pose more questions for us to think of and ponder on.
