Mythic Tarot - Queen Swords

rwcarter

Atalanta sits on her silver throne upon a barren plain. She holds an upright sword in her left hand while she pours water from a jug onto the ground with her right hand.

Atalanta
  • known as The Huntres because she devoted her time to hunting and became really skilled at it
  • she was disappointed in love through having too high ideals
  • her name means unswaying
  • her father wished for a male heir and he abandoned her on a hill where she was rescued and suckled by a bear sent by Artemis-Hecate
  • she grew to womanhood among a clan of hunters
  • Meleager, son of Ares, fell in love with her, but she refused to become a housewife
  • after winning many contests, her father finally recognized her and promised to find her a noble husband; because she had been told by an oracle that she would be unhappily married, she agreed on the condition that the man must either beat her in a foot race or let her kill him if he lost; as the fastest human on earth, she knew no one could beat her
  • with Aphrodite’s assistance, Melanion was able to beat her in the footrace and wed her; Atalanta actually loved him, but they lay together in a grove sacred to Zeus, who turned them both into lions; as the Greeks believed lions only mated with leopards, the two were never able to be together again
Overview
  • the reflective, stable, contained dimension of the element of Air
  • aloofness and the inability to touch the mind, which can hold onto an ideal of perfection to the exclusion or devaluation of sensual concerns
  • her identification with the masculine world of the mind and spirit made her fit for friendship, but not for erotic love
  • regal and dignified, , she is lonely because her ideal of perfection doesn’t allow anything too human to interfere with it
  • the inherent duality in Atalanta’s story is that while her ideal of perfection may drive love out of her life, it also has a creative side, spurring both her and others to become more than they are
  • waiting fruitlessly while the water of feeling spills, wasted, on the ground
  • has loyalty, integrity and the ability to bear sorrow without breaking, but is also emotionally frustrated and isolated because she’s untouchable
  • the need to prove oneself to someone who is ultimately just beyond one’s reach
  • expecting perfection because one has been expected to be perfect and failed
Aquarius
  • concern with the ideals of justice, truth and equality
  • independent and progressive, often known as great reformers
  • friendly, tolerant, easygoing and striving towards and ideal of brotherhood yet can also be cold, aloof and with little sympathy
  • courageous and enthusiastic ideals can turn to stubborn fanaticism
Random Thoughts
  • pricing oneself out of the market
  • rigidity and frigidity
  • a tomboy
  • to dream the impossible dream
  • strong shoulders to lean on

The keyword/phrase I came up with in my workbook on 18Aug91 was "idealism".

Rodney