Deviant Moon Tarot--The Aces (group)

afrosaxon

The Ace of Wands shows a woman holding a baby, who is in a green pea pod. The woman has three hands: two cradle the baby and one holds a large green torch that is blazing. A beetle is crawling up the wand and INTO the flame. The woman wears a crown of thick green leaves which has fruit and veggies in it (grapes, a carrot(?). Six little trees with white buds spring out of the woman's head. Butterfly wings grow out of her back. The woman wears a brown dress. Her hair is thick tendrils of vines. Lots of green, growth in this card.

The Ace of Swords shows a woman wearing a one-shouldered sky blue dress trimmed in yellow at the neck. She holds a large sword--with a golden hilt-- aloft in a two-handed grip, like she's ready to swing it. Thorny green vines twine around the sword. She is looking to the left; stone (metal?) wings spring from her back. She wears a crown of thick holly-looking leaves and golden, glowing spikes grow out of her head. I get an "avenging angel" feel about this card. The blue and yellow in this card speak to the mental realms. The thorny vines and the heavy sword indicate that the woman bears the truth, even when it's painful...although she is looking away from the sword (looking away from the full truth?).

The Ace of Pentacles is one of my favorite cards in the deck! The card shows a black dragon with a light golden chest and ruby-red wings outstretched; a claw is at the tip of each wing. The dragon looks to the right, sharp teeth bared, tongue curling out, as it grips a large round golden pentacle. The background of the pentacle is a swirl of sparkly reddish-purple and indigo. It's a pentacle card, but I just feel the energy in it--an energy of industry, of working. indeed, the dragon is studded with what looks like metal struts...like a machine.

The Ace of Cups shows a woman holding a large golden goblet that's almost as big as she is! The goblet is filigreed with couples embracing, and its handles are formed of seahorses. The woman wears a flowing sleeveless light purple gown trimmed in gold, with a necklace in the form of a gold collar aorund her neck and gold bracelets on her upper left arm and wrist. THe wrist bracelet is connected by a gold chain to a gold ring on her left middle finger. She wears a golden crown with blue jeweles, and a large red jewel in the center of the crown, over her forehead. Her hair is indigo tendrils that end in golden balls. She is looking down into the goblet with a slight smile.She, too, has stone-looking wings behind her. A tattoo of a red moon is on her left shoulder. There are two sweeps of blue at the bottom left corner of the card; not sure if this is part of her gown or indicative of water. There is a full moon in the sky and a beam of moonlight pours from the mouth of the moon (there is an actual face on the moon).

All of these aces have wings...wings of hope? Some wings are sturdier than others (Swords, Cups)...the mind and love are stronger than anything? The dragon wings are sturdy and strong as well, and indicative of passion. The wings in the Wands are butterfly wings...this is a reference to the caterpillar/butterfly dynamic.

T.
 

Bhavana

The aces - we know what they are supposed to mean - action, ideas, beginnings, possibilities, potential. Some of the DM aces go with the traditional meanings, which I appreciate, esp. the Ace of wands. The other three, not so helpful. I read intuitively, but mostly when I look at the cards as a whole, not as much with individual cards -and reading individual cards in this deck is sometimes hard for me, they don't always give much away.

I see the ace of wands as a lush fertility card - all the growth and green, the fruit and trees on her head, the baby in the pea pod - growth, creativity, babies, new life, new ideas, abundance - the way any self-respecting ace of wands should communicate to a reader. The wings on her neck are moth wings, not butterfly. Moths are more of a nighttime insect. The beetle? I have NO idea!! Sometimes when I look at this deck from an artist viewpoint, I think it is just that something had to be on that wand to balance out with all the action going on in the rest of the image. Why not a bug? This is what "bugs" me about the deck. It doesn't always make sense, some cards I cannot figure out - they either give you nothing, or they give you something that has no real meaning and may just be there for artistic reasons.

Ace of swords is easy - she looks tough, determined, a force to be reckoned with. Get out of her way, fast! Power, strength, force, strong will. Or, the symbolism of a sword/knife: cutting thru things, severing ties, separating oneself from that which is no longer needed or necessary, ie the past, people, whatever.

Ace of cups...hmmmm...the cup symbolizes water, same with the sea horses....a full cup is a good thing, abundance and all that, and the moonlight shining on the cup could mean secretive things, occult, psychic or spiritual, subconscious, dreams etc. The woman is also black, AND she is wearing a slave bracelet. This is where I get confused. Is this symbolic, or is it just the kind of decoration and ornamentation that some artists like to use? If you see other drawings that the artist has done, he is very ornamental in his style. Not everything has meaning, some of it just looks good. All the better that the DM book will be out soon, maybe some of these things will have an explanation. As for the stone looking wings, that is just another expression of his artistic style - he used tombstone images/phots, blown up and reshaped, to create many of the wings and other body parts of the people in this deck. Does it mean anything, or is it just cool? I don't know. Maybe as an artist, I am seeing more of the technical than I should.

Ace of pentacles...this card just says money to me. That big ole blue pentacle looks valuable! Other than that, I see no symbolism here, just a cool image of a dragon. What looks like rivets at first is just the same trim design the artist uses on most of his images, little dots.