Sophie-David
Having entered threads for the rest of the Majors from 0 to 6, poor Merlin found himself left on the backburner, so he's going off to his cave to sulk.
This is quite an unusual card in that Merlin is leaving us behind as he walks into the card. Is he checking to see if someone is spying on him as he nears his retreat - or is he turning back to motion us to follow? I suppose it depends if we are ready for our initiation into his masculine magical arts. Like many of the Legend Majors, Anna-Marie presents us with an ambivalent archetype, neither good nor evil but remarkably human. Merlin is motivated to heal the land, but do his manipulative methods sometimes betray his honour, and even undermine the very principles he is fighting for?
Merlin wears a rich cloak of mystic purple-blue, and feathers as a symbol of his spiritual insights and experiences, the elemental Air of intuitive and creative energy in this deck. The connection to the Air energy of Spears is reinforced by the tough trees which grow at these heights, as Anna-Marie suggests, home to the helpful spirits of the dryads. In addition, Merlin carries a wooden staff in his left hand, a symbol of power guided by his right brained wisdom.
Merlin treads very close to an active mountain brook, his guide through the woodlands to his esoteric heights. This pathway of Water expresses Merlin's compassion and love for the people and the land - this motivation directs his steps. A wolf, perhaps the guardian and co-habitor of Merlin's secluded cave, greets him on the path, perhaps looking beyond the Magician with suspicion towards us, the unknown observers. In this deck, dogs seem to be associated with masculine leadership, such as that of the Court Kings. This is a wild dog, suggested that Merlin's consciousness is natural, balanced, cunning, and untamed.
The rocks before him sweep dramatically down to a small cleft which provides a reasonably draft free entrance to Merlin's inner home. The cave not only connects Merlin to the element of earth, but symbolizes the unconscious from which his psychic powers arise.
Lastly - for every good Magician needs access to all four elements - the foxgloves in the bottom right symbolize both the destructive and restorative characteristics of Fire and the intellectual wisdom of Swords. At my web site I have used foxgloves as a metaphor for the poisonous pain which art transforms into healing passion, a transformational medicine for the heart.
And in considering Anna-Marie's art, I cannot help but think that these paintings have been not only reduced in size so much as to obscure detail, but that they have been severely cropped. She devotes a paragraph to the foxgloves in A Keeper of Words yet the flowers only barely make it into the picture. I would have gladly done without the borders to see more and slightly larger detail.
This is quite an unusual card in that Merlin is leaving us behind as he walks into the card. Is he checking to see if someone is spying on him as he nears his retreat - or is he turning back to motion us to follow? I suppose it depends if we are ready for our initiation into his masculine magical arts. Like many of the Legend Majors, Anna-Marie presents us with an ambivalent archetype, neither good nor evil but remarkably human. Merlin is motivated to heal the land, but do his manipulative methods sometimes betray his honour, and even undermine the very principles he is fighting for?
Merlin wears a rich cloak of mystic purple-blue, and feathers as a symbol of his spiritual insights and experiences, the elemental Air of intuitive and creative energy in this deck. The connection to the Air energy of Spears is reinforced by the tough trees which grow at these heights, as Anna-Marie suggests, home to the helpful spirits of the dryads. In addition, Merlin carries a wooden staff in his left hand, a symbol of power guided by his right brained wisdom.
Merlin treads very close to an active mountain brook, his guide through the woodlands to his esoteric heights. This pathway of Water expresses Merlin's compassion and love for the people and the land - this motivation directs his steps. A wolf, perhaps the guardian and co-habitor of Merlin's secluded cave, greets him on the path, perhaps looking beyond the Magician with suspicion towards us, the unknown observers. In this deck, dogs seem to be associated with masculine leadership, such as that of the Court Kings. This is a wild dog, suggested that Merlin's consciousness is natural, balanced, cunning, and untamed.
The rocks before him sweep dramatically down to a small cleft which provides a reasonably draft free entrance to Merlin's inner home. The cave not only connects Merlin to the element of earth, but symbolizes the unconscious from which his psychic powers arise.
Lastly - for every good Magician needs access to all four elements - the foxgloves in the bottom right symbolize both the destructive and restorative characteristics of Fire and the intellectual wisdom of Swords. At my web site I have used foxgloves as a metaphor for the poisonous pain which art transforms into healing passion, a transformational medicine for the heart.
And in considering Anna-Marie's art, I cannot help but think that these paintings have been not only reduced in size so much as to obscure detail, but that they have been severely cropped. She devotes a paragraph to the foxgloves in A Keeper of Words yet the flowers only barely make it into the picture. I would have gladly done without the borders to see more and slightly larger detail.