kittiann
This is an interesting card. An old man (from RWS) stands front and center holding a Tree of Life model made from unmarked coins. This arrangement is taken from the Thoth deck, but it's interesting that the coins are blank rather than copying the Thoth's symbols. There's a dog to the right of the man, and a child to his left, both taken from the RWS card (thought the child looks older, and is female, rather than the young male child on the RWS). There doesn't seem to be any Marseilles reference here.
It may be strange coloration, but I see the bottom of the man's robes as resembling a tree trunk. This is an obvious Tree of Life reference, but I wonder if it also illustrates something of what we become as we grow and get older - more rooted, stronger, becoming more like an old redwood than a bendable and fragile sapling. The dog on the man's right reminds me strongly of the Moon card, where dog and wolf face each other; except this time the dog's opposite is a young girl carrying a basket of grapes. Perhaps she is the younger self of the woman in the nine of pentacles, off to sell her very first harvest at the market. The dog and the child seem to me as two sides of the same coin (haha!). Both the dog and the child have chosen material comforts and being cared for over a wild life (a wolf, or a wild child) that would mean they have to fend for themselves. They look up to the elder/tree, and cherish the wisdom that he has to share with them (the knowledge of the tree of life, spiritual knowledge?). This card, to me, is about cycles. We are all young, we all grow old. It's the knowledge of that cycle, learning to live in it and enjoy it to the best of our abilities, that's key to this card.
It may be strange coloration, but I see the bottom of the man's robes as resembling a tree trunk. This is an obvious Tree of Life reference, but I wonder if it also illustrates something of what we become as we grow and get older - more rooted, stronger, becoming more like an old redwood than a bendable and fragile sapling. The dog on the man's right reminds me strongly of the Moon card, where dog and wolf face each other; except this time the dog's opposite is a young girl carrying a basket of grapes. Perhaps she is the younger self of the woman in the nine of pentacles, off to sell her very first harvest at the market. The dog and the child seem to me as two sides of the same coin (haha!). Both the dog and the child have chosen material comforts and being cared for over a wild life (a wolf, or a wild child) that would mean they have to fend for themselves. They look up to the elder/tree, and cherish the wisdom that he has to share with them (the knowledge of the tree of life, spiritual knowledge?). This card, to me, is about cycles. We are all young, we all grow old. It's the knowledge of that cycle, learning to live in it and enjoy it to the best of our abilities, that's key to this card.
