Onyx
The Mona Lisa Study Group currently is small and dominated by the threads on the idea of the puzzle. I thought I would start a couple of threads that look a cards individually.
There are a lot of amazing cards in the deck. To start the artwork is stunning on all the cards and that is therefore an important part but a small part in choosing just a couple for me that stand out above the rest.
I began by putting the cards in different piles based on how I like them. I found that I had a pile I liked based on how I saw they depicted a RWS style. Then I had cards that I like that fit my meanings for them but in different ways than the standard RWS image pattern.
My top five cards in the deck and why I like them. In no particular order.
Death: The idea of Death being illustrated in the symbolic act of cross dressing brings the idea of transformation to a whole new level. Shocking and genius at the same time. I believe that this may be one of the most pivotal cards in the deck.
5 of Pentacles: The grieving woman, the barren landscape and the empty trees just convey the idea of brokenness and emptiness that I associate with the card. The scavengers are circling in the sky around her. The cards pale yellow tones also show the sense of dry earth and heat. In the end you don’t know if the woman is dead , alive or wishes she was dead. This is one of the cards that convey hopelessness so well in this deck.
5 of Chalices: Grief. A family gathered around a grave as the father pours a cup of wine on top of the newly dug mound. The RWS image for the 5 of Cups conveys the idea of sadness but here you have a visual clue to the reason and the depth of the sadness. (Because of the Judgment card, which I link with this one, I believe that it is the grave of a child, a youth who had died far too soon.) A mother’s pain, a child’s confusion and a father’s grim determination to get over the pain, you see the family dealing with the loss and when you look at the card, you seem to join the funeral.
3 of Swords: The sorrow of a mother’s desperation and grief when she can no longer care for her child. This card is part of a story of a child that is left on a doorstep. I am uncertain if the woman in the image is the mother looking over the letter she will leave with the child, (3 of Chalices). She may be the woman who will find and raise the child (Knave of Wands, 10 of Chalices). Either way it is a moment of sadness.
The Stars: I like the idea of the Star being the card of fortune telling in the deck. (There is another moment of divination in the deck. The 4 of Swords shows the use of a pendulum.) The hidden woman reads the palm of the surprised young man. What is being said and what has she told him to cause him to look so surprised? We see the fainted glimpse of red hair that can lead us to consider who else she may be in the deck.
I have to say that I didn’t realize that I picked Death, Sorrow, Grief and Material Sorrow as four of the cards until they were all chosen. I did decide to finish with the Stars since it was more positive. In retrospect I like cards that can show vivid depictions of the darker side of life and this deck can do that. It is beautiful but it doesn’t sugar coat the world.
Onyx.
There are a lot of amazing cards in the deck. To start the artwork is stunning on all the cards and that is therefore an important part but a small part in choosing just a couple for me that stand out above the rest.
I began by putting the cards in different piles based on how I like them. I found that I had a pile I liked based on how I saw they depicted a RWS style. Then I had cards that I like that fit my meanings for them but in different ways than the standard RWS image pattern.
My top five cards in the deck and why I like them. In no particular order.
Death: The idea of Death being illustrated in the symbolic act of cross dressing brings the idea of transformation to a whole new level. Shocking and genius at the same time. I believe that this may be one of the most pivotal cards in the deck.
5 of Pentacles: The grieving woman, the barren landscape and the empty trees just convey the idea of brokenness and emptiness that I associate with the card. The scavengers are circling in the sky around her. The cards pale yellow tones also show the sense of dry earth and heat. In the end you don’t know if the woman is dead , alive or wishes she was dead. This is one of the cards that convey hopelessness so well in this deck.
5 of Chalices: Grief. A family gathered around a grave as the father pours a cup of wine on top of the newly dug mound. The RWS image for the 5 of Cups conveys the idea of sadness but here you have a visual clue to the reason and the depth of the sadness. (Because of the Judgment card, which I link with this one, I believe that it is the grave of a child, a youth who had died far too soon.) A mother’s pain, a child’s confusion and a father’s grim determination to get over the pain, you see the family dealing with the loss and when you look at the card, you seem to join the funeral.
3 of Swords: The sorrow of a mother’s desperation and grief when she can no longer care for her child. This card is part of a story of a child that is left on a doorstep. I am uncertain if the woman in the image is the mother looking over the letter she will leave with the child, (3 of Chalices). She may be the woman who will find and raise the child (Knave of Wands, 10 of Chalices). Either way it is a moment of sadness.
The Stars: I like the idea of the Star being the card of fortune telling in the deck. (There is another moment of divination in the deck. The 4 of Swords shows the use of a pendulum.) The hidden woman reads the palm of the surprised young man. What is being said and what has she told him to cause him to look so surprised? We see the fainted glimpse of red hair that can lead us to consider who else she may be in the deck.
I have to say that I didn’t realize that I picked Death, Sorrow, Grief and Material Sorrow as four of the cards until they were all chosen. I did decide to finish with the Stars since it was more positive. In retrospect I like cards that can show vivid depictions of the darker side of life and this deck can do that. It is beautiful but it doesn’t sugar coat the world.
Onyx.
