Astra said:
More comments - I've been backtracking the thread, since I haven't been around for a while. I love both the Empress and the Emperor as individual pieces, but I had trouble thinking of them as a pair in a deck, simply because they are so very, very different in style.
I'm assuming the contrast was intentional, but I'd looked at the Empress first and was holding my breath to see how you'd put the Emperor into the same type of scenario, and --- whiplash is a good description of my reaction to the Emperor. I could get used to it, probably very easily, but my initial reaction was "huh? what?"
Hi there and thank you very much for your comment and observations. I think your inital reaction ("huh?", "what?"
) was a good one. The only obvious pair (in style) I wanted to make were The Sun and The Moon. The Emperor had to be diferent. It had to be everything that The Empress is not. And that meant the change in style of art as well. To be honest, maybe, somewhere deep in my subconsciousness, I wanted to present those two cards the way I see my parents, and when I think of them, the cards that I make just show that difference. When I was thinking of the Emperor, I had in mind certain symbols that will help me to stress that difference (quotes from my journal on the cards):
CHESS (PIECES) - rules, strategy. Symbol of battle of two opposing parties. In INDIA - regarded as a symbol of cosmic reason and order. Indian chess represents the Indian ideal of government, the preservation of norms and the caste society. CHINESE chess divides space into hierarchies; it is non-dynamic, the wordl is conceived of as a closed universe; the player, the ruler who organizes the wordl, lies in the center Time and space dynamic.
TOWER - symbol of power, also a phallus symbol. In early Christian times a tower often symbolized the entire 'holy city'.
HORSE - a symbol of strength harnessed by reason. MASCULINE. Joy, victory, strength, sexuality.
SQUARE - static, non-dynamic symbol, often used as a foundation of temples, altars, cities. JUNG - symbol of matter, of the flesh and of earthly reality.
CROWN - ennobles the person who wears it. High position, power.
STONE - despite their hardness, though, stones are not often seen as something rigid and dead, but rather as life-giving. Many stones, especially meteorites, were thought to grant fertility and to bring rain; for example, they were touched by infertile women who wished to be blessed with children.
FRAME - boundaries, set of rules one must not break / cross
Probably there is more to the symbolism, but, of the top of my head, that's that.
I wanted a person who is interested in my card to ponder over them and to think about the difference made between the Empress and the Emperor. I think I am not going to change the card since I now like it very much.
And also, It's a good thing you said you could get used to it!
), and these resonate in the same way. I would definitely buy and use this deck if it were published. Thanks for sharing these!