The World and the Court Cards

Genny

Up to now The World, and the Kings and Queens still gets me baffled..The wheel of fortune, having a sort of a similar presentation with the World card, is easy to understand compared to these cards.

Why i understand on the following cards so far:

The World:
- Involves Ascension..moving onward, sounds like what the Chariot would mean to me

King of Sword:
- Involves mastery due to which a person has achieved being the head of the family

Queen of Sword/Wands:
- I still don't see anything depressing with it along with the Queen of wands.
- QoS: She holds the sword pointing upward and her left hand is raised in which the Queen seems to be declaring something..unlike the Page of wands where he has the same look but towards his element.
- QoW: I noticed some changes in the Background behind her throne. The left side with the tall mountains and a bright complexion is the good side while the barren-gray area on the right is the bad side. Then i look at what the queen is holding on both hands..her Element on the right hand(near the left side of the background)..and a Sunflower on the left(near the right side of the background.) Well, The sunflower tells me of something nice and happy..it being on the right side and facing to us makes me rethink of it. Plus, the Queen is looking left (right side of the background)

King of Pentacles:
- Abundance..being in the king would mean, great abundance..Tells of great, blooming, success in business (What i saw during my last reading)

King of Wands/Queen of Pentacles:
- Not much to share, since i don't really understand these cards.

King/Queen of Cups:
- KoC:The person in this card is so great he wanted to separate himself with the world..People to wishes to see him as to venture off.
- QoC: About nearly as the same with the King..seems to be admiring her cup.

I check on some of the symbolism in the object in these cards like The four entities in every corner of the World card being the anima mundi..(did i get it right?) and the wreath surronding the woman in that card would mean Infinity. The Promengrates/Grapes help me understanding what the KoP meant. The rocky-gem-like rocks under the throne of the QoC didn't help me much in understand that card more.

I hope this post didn't looked annoying.
 

LTG2201

The World is all about completion and togetherness. The circle, the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), the four fixed positions of the zodiac (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio), the four elements (fire, water, air, earth) and the directions (North, East, South, West). The dancer is hermaphrodite like, the male and woman. All of these indicate the many things becoming one.
 

gorgeousbutterfly

"The dancer is hermaphrodite like, the male and woman"

-thats strange because she looks very much a female.
 

Genny

I guess the dancer being a Hermaphordite has something to do with The World card meaning "united as one".
 

Fulgour

Hermaphroditism

LTG2201 said:
The dancer is hermaphrodite like, the male and woman. All of these indicate the many things becoming one.
Hello LTG2201 ~ Do you know this, or did you read it?
If this agrees with your own point of view, wouldn't it
be helpfully clearer to say that this is what you think?

I have found that some people attempt to impose mixed
sexual characteristics on The World Dancer for reasons
having to do with alchemy that usually aren't explained.

To me it is rather far-fetched, intellectually showing off.
What does it add to the card, what's missing without it?

"Ambiguity" has a titillating appeal, but at an edgy price.
It is unfeeling to the one person in 83,000 born this way.

Hermaphrodites have been reported throughout history...
and it is usually a story of love and family caring we hear.

*

Intersex: a group of conditions where there is a discrepancy between the external genitals and the internal genitals (the testes and ovaries). The older term for this condition, hermaphroditism, came from joining the names of a Greek god and goddess, Hermes and Aphrodite. Hermes was a god of male sexuality (among other things) and Aphrodite a goddess of female sexuality, love, and beauty.

Pseudohermaphroditism: One that possesses the internal reproductive organs of one sex while exhibiting some of the external physical characteristics of the opposite sex.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001669.htm
US National Library of Medicine
 

Fulgour

Fulgour said:
I have found that some people attempt to impose mixed
sexual characteristics on The World Dancer for reasons
having to do with alchemy that usually aren't explained.
from
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/41a/41a12.html

Hermes was, contrary to the other Greek gods, both male and female,
a hermaphrodite. For this reason the sign [Mercry Glyph] has been
used both in biology and botany to mean double-sexed.
&
The hermaphroditic character of Mercury (the alchemists were interested
in opposites, also the opposite sexes) gave it a special position in the field
of alchemy. Apart from meaning mercury, and compounds with mercury,
it was also used to signify the coniunctio, or uniting of opposites,
in esoteric alchemy.

Plus there's MORE :) ~for what it's worth...
 

kwaw

gorgeousbutterfly said:
"The dancer is hermaphrodite like, the male and woman"

-thats strange because she looks very much a female.

I agree, while there is a literary tradition claiming the dancing maenad is hermaphrodite it is not clear from the central image itself which appears female [though it is male in some other older decks].

The concept of the 'two becoming one' is represented by the mandorla or vesica piscis, which being formed of the interlaced section of two circles is taken as a symbol of synthesis [the two circles representing thesis and antithesis].

In eschatological terms, the card being last, the concept represents return to the one or source, or return to the beginning [the cosmos restored to its original perfection before the fall].

Kwaw
 

Parzival

The dancer is dancing, too, one with the World in dynamic joy, not absorbed into blank oblivion. Alchemically, the 4-corners are one in the dancer and the dancer is one with them. Holistic hallelujah and om ! -- Not necessarily at the end of time. Possible by human beings while in the fully present present moment. Realizing Cosmic Consciousness in actual reality. A state of Being/Becoming attained by Buddha, Christ, and some others, -- as I see it, a pointing image to That.
 

firecatpickles

kwaw said:
In eschatological terms, the card being last, the concept represents return to the one or source, or return to the beginning [the cosmos restored to its original perfection before the fall].
I do not know what "eschatological" means, but since you were talking about "in the beginning so also in the end it shall be" (sort of): We are all female at first in the womb (world?) from conception. I think this ties in... :grin:

K:spade:K
 

DoctorArcanus

Fulgour said:
Hermes was, contrary to the other Greek gods, both male and female,
a hermaphrodite. For this reason the sign [Mercry Glyph] has been
used both in biology and botany to mean double-sexed.
&
The hermaphroditic character of Mercury (the alchemists were interested
in opposites, also the opposite sexes) gave it a special position in the field
of alchemy. Apart from meaning mercury, and compounds with mercury,
it was also used to signify the coniunctio, or uniting of opposites,
in esoteric alchemy.

There are ancient cards (such as this 1500 ca uncut sheet) in which Hermes appears on the World card. This pattern can be found in particular in Bologna Tarot decks.

Marco