8 Rada -- Simbi

afrosaxon

This card gives me difficulty:

http://alpha.mxat.ru/WWPCM/decks05/d02446/d02446s8.jpg

8 Rada is supposed to be the equivalent of the 8 of Swords.

In this card, Simbi the magician is shown working with snakes. His magic is shooting out of his hands...but it is also obscuring the snakes. In fact, the magic is so...blinding, that one pays more attention to it than to the snakes. Though he works with a snake around his head (instead of sitting on the crown, like the Rada Mambo), I'm not getting much of a sense of wisdom and knowledge.

Simbi is the lwa of illusion and trickery. He is often portrayed as a green snake (vs. a red snake for Damballah).

This card shows a magician shooting magic out of his hands. Simbi (green snake) is coiled around his head (around the 3rd eye) The snakes seem to be shooting out of his hands along with/as part of the magic. The bottom hand is almost obscured by magic.

The snakes around the bottom hand are reminiscent of the Hydra. The top two snakes are facing each other: are they aware of the illusion? Are they communicating with each other? The snake at the top of the card has his head in a position to potentially bite the magician; this indicates that the illusion may come back to bite the magician someday.

The hand/arm positions are the opposite of Dr. John [The Magician]  a mockery? Proof of falsity, illusion? Still the same positioning in a reversed card.

The background is dark green, the color of stagnant water in a pond, lake, swamp, or other still body of water (as opposed to an ocean or river).


This card is to indicate that of illusion and trickery. Simbi may not be doing as spectacular things with the snakes as one may think...we can't see clearly through the magic, so who's to tell? His right hand is almost completely obscured by the magic, and his left hand (which is held in the air) is more visible. This pose is a mimic (mockery?) of that in the Dr. John card [The Magician]: "as above, so below". But while Dr. John has the tools needed to make things happen, Simbi is just faking it.

Also, while the book refers to Simbi as male, the figure looks more feminine in this card.

Thoughts?
 

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elkahib

Eight of swords and Rada Simbi to me say that a person is bound by the bright, shiny thing that someone else wants them to look at while the tricky peep gets on with their true agenda.

Simbis are strong magicians, meaning they don't need the acoutrements that others need to make magic. This gives them a distinct advantage in fooling others.

Knowledge here is applied to get something over another person. The Magician's power applied for self-service, if you will.

As always, this is just my take. I am probably wrong ;).

El.
 

Grip Dellabonte

Your take on the cards is much appreciated, elkahib! Please free to weigh in as often as you like. I have learned something from every post of yours that I've read so far. :)
 

elkahib

Thank you kindly, Grip :).

I'm sorry I missed the original posts in the first place, but hope to make up for it.