What about that snail.

Merci Marlo
I have often felt that music was an important part of this card, real or imagined, and searching I found a beautiful interpretation in The Shadowscapes Tarot, and so placed the two cards side by side for comparison.



Working on this, a had a very powerful impression of how the Snail is moving left to right, often seen, but here strongly felt.

KariRoad

This has probably been said before, but the snail reminds me that this is a creature who has built its own home and carries it around with him on his back. Like the woman in the Nine of Pentacles, he can survive and live on his own...but because he is "out" and crawling in the RWS 9P, he is also looking for more. He can do fine alone, curled up in his shell, but he is still wondering what else there may be in the big wide world outside that shell.

Still, his shell (which he builds himself around his fleshy part as he grows) is his protection, so he can fend for himself. And most snail shells I have ever seen are really beautiful with intricate designs...so the 9P woman can build herself a real fine home...and this makes me think of feng shui, too. For what that's worth.

my take on the snail...

i look at the little guy in context of the picture.

it takes patience and hard work...

...to build a castle
...to amass wealth
...to grow and train a grapevine
...to train a falcon

think he just illustrates this to the Nth degree.

Very ingenious intuitive interpretations of the snail, but I wonder why it was put there in the first place. The decan of the Nine of Pentacles is Venus in Virgo. There are Venus-like floral (?) designs all over the woman's robe. Perhaps the snail suggests Virgo because of its earthiness.

Most creatures in the RWS images seem to have been included for a concrete reason. The little lizard-like animal beside the throne in the King of Wands wasn't chosen arbitrarily. It represents a salamander, which is a fire elemental (Wands = Fire in the Waite deck.) The King's title is Prince and Emperor of Salamanders.

How about that black cat in the Queen of Wands?

ETA. I have become more and more convinced that the snail represents Virgo. It is an earthy creature with characteristics of self-sufficiency and completeness (carrying its portable house everywhere like a backpacker, being hermaphroditic and able to mate without particular consideration of gender, and even known to be capable of reproducing parthenogenetically on occasion).

LRichard said:

How about that black cat in the Queen of Wands?

Click to expand...

i know! looks like it just jumped out of a bathtub in a cartoon strip, shook off, and sat down. seems like it doesn't belong at all, unlike the bunny in the queen of pentacles...