Elements of the Suits

Ruby Jewel

MandMaud said:
You're inspiring!

"Use it like a sword" - did you do that on purpose too?

"can cut through poverty when it is put to work for good.....or bury us in tragedy" - I often say, magic and electricity and fire and eloquence, and any other kind of power, are not good or bad in themselves, it's all in how they're wielded!

Of course you can call me Maud, lots here do. It was my great-grandmother's middle name, that's why I chose it as my "middle" name for my spiritual online identity. She died long before I was born, but I heard about her and always felt a connection with her; my gran (her daughter) said I was like her.

My maternal grandmother's name was Maud Murphy. My paternal grandmother's name was Ruby Risley and that is why I chose "Ruby Jewel" for my tarot readers name....I wear a lapis lazul pendant on a silver chain to carry her spirit with me in my tarot readings. She was a full-blood Cherokee and died of kidney failure at age 36.....I always feel her presence.

Yes, I used the term "sword" as cutting through poverty. It seems to me that all the suits work synchronistically to make a magical "world". If we take any of it for granted the magic is lost....and the magic lives on through our consciousness. I see the tarot as a medium for connecting to that consciousness....as if by magic. The spirit world wants us and waits for us to connect in whatever way we choose.

Thank you so much for the beautiful salutation.

Tanga

MandMaud said:
...ETA: Just remembered - although the coins thing is largely how I connect Pents with earth, most of the time Pents make me think of the body, our physical aspect. Which does confuse people, often!

Earth is the element of the material. The body is material (from the earth we come - and to it do we return) - so yes, Earth is physical.

Ruby Jewel said:
.....yes, there is magic in money as well.....especially when it is used in the world rather than horded.

Ruby Jewel said:
...I see the tarot as a medium for connecting to that consciousness....as if by magic. The spirit world wants us and waits for us to connect in whatever way we choose

"Magick, magick, everywhere
In the Earth and in the Air
Magick seals our circle round
In magick cords are we all bound

...within it's field all love is found!" - Wiccan chant.

(What lovely stories of grandmothers).

Ruby Jewel

Tanga said:
Earth is the element of the material. The body is material (from the earth we come - and to it do we return) - so yes, Earth is physical.

"Magick, magick, everywhere
In the Earth and in the Air
Magikc seals our circle round
In magick cords are we all bound

...within it's field all love is found!" - Wiccan chant.

(What lovely stories of grandmothers).

That's a wonderful chant. I don't know much about the Wiccan world, but the more I encounter it the more I feel attuned to it. I think everyone must have a grandmother story because they were so wonderful.....Many of us can never forget them and carry them in our hearts...as we see here in this thread.

Tanga

Ruby Jewel said:
... I think everyone must have a grandmother story because they were so wonderful.....

Not all of them.

Aeric

I've also seen Swords as Air because they are the only suit object that requires intellect and reason to produce.

You can take a tree branch from anywhere and call that your wand. You can find shells or hollow stones to use as vessels. A pentacle with a star may be man-made, but its shape is a flat disk. I like Crowley's choice of Disks as the word because it's more general, and there are many disk-shaped things in nature that can serve as pentacles if you look for them: sections of trees, round stones, etc.

But unless you're wondrously lucky to find a piece of obsidian or a piece of stone naturally broken at just the right angle for a sharp point, you can't find a sword, and not one in the classical shape. A sword must be forged from metal given a purpose by humans. Making a good sword requires applied thought, skillful planning and execution. Even knapping a rough hand-axe requires reason and skill beyond just taking the thing from the environment. Swords are symbols of human culture and evolution. To evolve and progress, there must be ideas and projects, the realm of Air.

MandMaud

Ruby Jewel said:
I wear a lapis lazul pendant on a silver chain to carry her spirit with me in my tarot readings. She was a full-blood Cherokee and died of kidney failure at age 36.....I always feel her presence.

I associate lapis with my own grandmother too - but turquoise, more.

Tanga said:
Not all of them.

Aeric said:
I've also seen Swords as Air because they are the only suit object that requires intellect and reason to produce.

You can take a tree branch from anywhere and call that your wand. You can find shells or hollow stones to use as vessels. A pentacle with a star may be man-made, but its shape is a flat disk. I like Crowley's choice of Disks as the word because it's more general, and there are many disk-shaped things in nature that can serve as pentacles if you look for them: sections of trees, round stones, etc.

But unless you're wondrously lucky to find a piece of obsidian or a piece of stone naturally broken at just the right angle for a sharp point, you can't find a sword, and not one in the classical shape. A sword must be forged from metal given a purpose by humans. Making a good sword requires applied thought, skillful planning and execution. Even knapping a rough hand-axe requires reason and skill beyond just taking the thing from the environment. Swords are symbols of human culture and evolution. To evolve and progress, there must be ideas and projects, the realm of Air.

This is a really good point. It makes sense of relating Swords to the internet etc, too.

And since we got onto usernames... yours seems to indicate an affinity with the air element, eh.

Aeric

Not recently, gravitating to water. I go through stages. The Ae is now mostly the archaic ligature.

MandMaud

Aeric said:
Not recently, gravitating to water. I go through stages. The Ae is now mostly the archaic ligature.

Oh well. Win some, lose some.

Herodotus

Aeric said:
Not recently, gravitating to water. I go through stages. The Ae is now mostly the archaic ligature.

I identify very strongly with Earth myself, which was part of the reason my mix-up of earth and fire bothered me enough to begin this thread. If I had mixed up fire and air, for example, it wouldn't have gnawed at me as much.

kwaw

jeu révolutionnaire 1793/94

Ace of spades = Neptune/Water

Neptune [symbolisant l'Eau] : [carte à jouer d'Élément d'un jeu révolutionnaire]

Hearts = Phoebus/Fire

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84124166/f1.highres

Phebus [représentant le Feu] : [carte à jouer d'Élément d'un jeu révolutionnaire

Clubs = Eole/Air

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8412421h/f1.highres

Eole [représentant l'Air] : [carte à jouer d'Élément d'un jeu révolutionnaire]

Elements of the Suits

Ruby Jewel

Tanga

Ruby Jewel

Tanga

Aeric

MandMaud

Aeric

MandMaud

Herodotus

kwaw