The Gothic Tarot by Vargo - Ten Of Cups

WolfyJames

cjtarot has also written interesting stuffs on this card, and other cards as well, in a thread on The Gothic Tarot and he/she accepted graciously to be quoted here.

cjtarot said:
I want to respond to the quote about the Lovers, the High Priest and the Empress standing in the same arch...

The Empress, guards her home...the relm of beond. (note the Emperor is inside with all the babe's doing NOTHING)

The Hight PRiest guards the knowledge in the Relm of beond

The Lovers..It is your choice (or is it) to enter into the Relm..note the lovers almost look farther into the arch..

Also look at the High Priestess and the 9 of cups...
.
The HP..guarding the unknow of our sub consious - or the door to the afterlife.

The 9 of cups.. Cups are emotion, our life flow if you will..the 9 is showing the final preperation before we are fufilled, before the final journey into the ultimate unknow..(Note the 10 of cups is within that arch..the claiming or the dark angel leading you away)
Click to expand...

============================================

Vargo's cards were based on earlier works, you can see some of them on his website. This card is called Succubus.

A succubus is a female demon who has sex with men during their sleep; she also takes their semen away with her (semen was considered being life then) and waste them slowly to death with sex.

A man is lied down on a ??? (sorry for my bad English, but I can't come up with the word), and there are two skulls engraved on it. He appears unconscious, but he could be dead or asleep. A woman, dressed in black with red trims, and black wings, is over him. His shirt is open and she's scratching his torso with her sharp nails. She's not looking at him though but at us. The pedestal is on the third step. There are three arches in the back, above, and ten cups on the top of them. Her lips are red.

To me, this card, along with The Lovers, is the sexiest card in the deck. She's finally getting what she wants and she's slowly enjoying it, taking her time. In the meanwhile, he's defenseless, but even if he were to wake up, he probably would let her do whatever she wants anyway. Sex, voluptuous pleasure, intensity... this is what she's is looking forward to. And this is deadly, for if she has sex with him too may times, she may kill him in the process; so not only she takes bits of his life by drinking his blood, she also kills him slowly by having sex with him.

This card also reminds me of the story of the goddess Selene, who fell in love with Endymion, and she made him immortal by making him sleep forever, and she joined him every night.
 

Umbrae

Ahhh – a favorite card of mine. As I said in that other thread – this is the “I wanna be him” card.

It’s a very dualistic card.

She takes of him. Perhaps destroying him (or this cycle of him; or this ‘part’ of him) in the process. Perhaps not. She takes of him.

However – He had to give of himself to be in such a position. There is no unilateral give or take. He placed himself in the position to give and be taken of.

There is a deep sexual/sensuality to the card. A profound pleasuring of and to both.

And this appears to provide a deviation from a standard interpretive theory which might discuss family and joy, or sucess. I see two eternal lovers sharing the deepest joys that can had – a deep joy from the depths of the soul…and life eternal…yeah - see - I wanna be that guy…
 

Alissa

"Succubus" makes a lot of sense to me. (I have a personal possession that I've nicknamed "The Succubus" but that's a different story).

This card is hot, hot, hot. The volumptuous demon partakes of her prey, her presence is luscious, ripe. The red of her lips and her cloak's edging, as well as the twinkling eyes of the ruby-like jewels in the floating cups, give the only color to the scene. And, perhaps, a trail of blood beneath her fingers that scratch.

Is that the wound that reddened her lips?

The man is incapacitated, for sure. Is he dead, resting, enraptured, or drifting in between them all? I almost expect his hand to reach up and caress her thigh, as she stands over him, in an embrace.
 

firemaiden

No fair... you guys are meanies, posting about a hot hot card, with no picture attached....
 

WolfyJames

Well well well... Apparently, we have way too much imagination! ;)
 

firemaiden

hahahah, yes Wolfy... although the card is truly beautiful -- after all your descriptions, I was expecting to see something...er... well, how to say this... something, a bit more... direct... hahahah, I mean, this gal is barely even touching him yet. :D
 

Alissa

firemaiden said:
this gal is barely even touching him yet [Alissa's italics]. :D
Click to expand...
...~exactly.

editted to add : it's interesting how he chose to add the red to the image he used for the deck. Effective. It makes the scene "pop".

Nice lighting in his cards too....
 

Adjustment

Thanks WolfyJames for the beatiful picture, this card is really hot, I will have to get this deck, it sounds very interesting.
 

mj07

Umbrae said:
And this appears to provide a deviation from a standard interpretive theory which might discuss family and joy, or sucess. I see two eternal lovers sharing the deepest joys that can had – a deep joy from the depths of the soul…and life eternal…yeah - see - I wanna be that guy…
Click to expand...

family: the vampire is getting herself a husband, maybe? and in procreating this way, he'll also be her child

joy: I think they'll both be pretty happy! she already is!

success: got that, too!

I think the card fits pretty well into the standard interpretation, as well as adding a lot of its own!
 
The Gothic Tarot by Vargo – Seven Of Swords The Gothic Tarot by Vargo - Ace, Two and Three Of Cups