Phoenyx*
Ace of Swords - Intellect
Description of the card: A beautiful clean golden sword, whose handguard (whoever knows the proper term for it, jump right in I know its some sort of guard) is simply jewelled with two red stones, one on either side, with the pommel having one larger red stone. All the stones are circular. From the sword emits four rays of light, very precise, very geometric, making the sword's blade seem to be a fifth middle ray. The background sky seems to be dawn, slightly cloudy. There is a type of building, I'm not sure what kind, or which one it is. An old stone highway seems to be leading windingly to it.
Random thoughts from the card: The sword seem to be newly forged. Its beautiful, sharp, and my guess is, unblooded. The rays of light portray the light that is shed on dark places through thought, maybe the dark places of ignorance? The card seems to portay the best that intellect and thought has to offer. The stormy night has passed, and now the dawn of a clearer day is coming. Maybe this refers to the phrase "to sleep on it". How it all seems to be clearer in the morning. As for the building, I have no idea, I'm going to look in the book to see which place that is.....ah, Saint Micheal's Mount in Cornwall.
Quote from the book (pp.150-51): The Ace of Swords is the root powers of air. It is the magickal weapon brought from the mystical city of Gorias, which no eye has seen but the soul knows. It appears in various guises as the sword Excalibur, the athame, and the curfane.
The suit of swords corresponds to the element of air, the season of spring, the dawn, and the direction of east. Its station on the wheel is the spring equinox, which we call Ostara, when new life germinates and emerges with the increase of light and warmth. Magickally, air rules all mental activity, from the inception of an idea to the abstract knowledge, to the questioning of established theories.
Air is the inspiration of life-giving breath, the gentle breeze on the plain, the rushing wind on the mountaintop, and the destructive hurricane. It is the power of sound, the vocalization of ideas, and the communication of knowledge.
In this card, the Ace of Swords is shown over Saint Michael's Mount, a snall island off the coast of Cornwall, which is linked to the mainland village of Marazion by a causeway. For the ancients, an island like St. Michael's were often sites of initiation snce they were places between places-neither part of the mainland nor islands proper. It is the termination of a long ley or dragon line called the St. Michael's Line which strentches halfway across Britain. This earth energy line is oriented to sunrise at Beltane and Lughanasa, when it is activated as the sun rises and oriented to sunset at Imbolc and Samhain, when the energy is discharged. The southern aspect of this line is called the Great Dragon Line, where churches dedicated to Saint Michael and Saint George abound. Both saints are known as dragon slayers, overcoming the darkness and remembered by torches and bonfires. These sites where our Pagan ancestors invoked the fertile dragon power of the earth were later superimposed with Christian churches dedicated to dragon-slaying deities, a statement that Paganism has been overcome in that area.
Saint Michael is the patron saint of Cornwall and is associated with overcoming winter and death. He is said to have appeared on May 8 on Saint Michael's Mount in 590 CE. Nearby, the Helston Fury Dance, a serpentine dance that banishes winter and winds up a spiral of energy, coiling up the summer, is celebrated on May 8.
Description of the card: A beautiful clean golden sword, whose handguard (whoever knows the proper term for it, jump right in I know its some sort of guard) is simply jewelled with two red stones, one on either side, with the pommel having one larger red stone. All the stones are circular. From the sword emits four rays of light, very precise, very geometric, making the sword's blade seem to be a fifth middle ray. The background sky seems to be dawn, slightly cloudy. There is a type of building, I'm not sure what kind, or which one it is. An old stone highway seems to be leading windingly to it.
Random thoughts from the card: The sword seem to be newly forged. Its beautiful, sharp, and my guess is, unblooded. The rays of light portray the light that is shed on dark places through thought, maybe the dark places of ignorance? The card seems to portay the best that intellect and thought has to offer. The stormy night has passed, and now the dawn of a clearer day is coming. Maybe this refers to the phrase "to sleep on it". How it all seems to be clearer in the morning. As for the building, I have no idea, I'm going to look in the book to see which place that is.....ah, Saint Micheal's Mount in Cornwall.
Quote from the book (pp.150-51): The Ace of Swords is the root powers of air. It is the magickal weapon brought from the mystical city of Gorias, which no eye has seen but the soul knows. It appears in various guises as the sword Excalibur, the athame, and the curfane.
The suit of swords corresponds to the element of air, the season of spring, the dawn, and the direction of east. Its station on the wheel is the spring equinox, which we call Ostara, when new life germinates and emerges with the increase of light and warmth. Magickally, air rules all mental activity, from the inception of an idea to the abstract knowledge, to the questioning of established theories.
Air is the inspiration of life-giving breath, the gentle breeze on the plain, the rushing wind on the mountaintop, and the destructive hurricane. It is the power of sound, the vocalization of ideas, and the communication of knowledge.
In this card, the Ace of Swords is shown over Saint Michael's Mount, a snall island off the coast of Cornwall, which is linked to the mainland village of Marazion by a causeway. For the ancients, an island like St. Michael's were often sites of initiation snce they were places between places-neither part of the mainland nor islands proper. It is the termination of a long ley or dragon line called the St. Michael's Line which strentches halfway across Britain. This earth energy line is oriented to sunrise at Beltane and Lughanasa, when it is activated as the sun rises and oriented to sunset at Imbolc and Samhain, when the energy is discharged. The southern aspect of this line is called the Great Dragon Line, where churches dedicated to Saint Michael and Saint George abound. Both saints are known as dragon slayers, overcoming the darkness and remembered by torches and bonfires. These sites where our Pagan ancestors invoked the fertile dragon power of the earth were later superimposed with Christian churches dedicated to dragon-slaying deities, a statement that Paganism has been overcome in that area.
Saint Michael is the patron saint of Cornwall and is associated with overcoming winter and death. He is said to have appeared on May 8 on Saint Michael's Mount in 590 CE. Nearby, the Helston Fury Dance, a serpentine dance that banishes winter and winds up a spiral of energy, coiling up the summer, is celebrated on May 8.