The castle in RW - pentacle suit

I can't see any burning tower in that card, even in an enlarged scan like this one. There is a strange squiggle in one of the towers on the right side of the figure, but it doesn't look burning, at least not to me. I can't see a burning tower on any of the cards in that suit, actually.

closrapexa said:

I can't see any burning tower in that card, even in an enlarged scan like this one. There is a strange squiggle in one of the towers on the right side of the figure, but it doesn't look burning, at least not to me. I can't see a burning tower on any of the cards in that suit, actually.

Click to expand...

That squiggle may represent a sneeze while the artist still had pen on paper, which resulted in a minor error which went uncorrected (like the mistake in the Sun card).

On the other hand, the Four of Pentacles is the third decan of Capricorn. There is a remote possibility that the ruined tower could be a reference to Mars (as in the Tower card), which is exalted in Capricorn, but I don't see how this can be related to the meaning of the card.

Also, the red-roofed castles may refer to a more martial period of history, red being the color for Mars, but this seems a stretch.

Just a random thought; houses - thatch or slate ... castles; the more 'refined' and expensive (?)ceramic tiles.

However I have no reason to offer as to why roof tiles are red and still seem to be (Last time I flew into Sydney 99% of house roofs appeared red.)

closrapexa said:

I can't see any burning tower in that card, even in an enlarged scan like this one. There is a strange squiggle in one of the towers on the right side of the figure, but it doesn't look burning, at least not to me. I can't see a burning tower on any of the cards in that suit, actually.

Click to expand...

eye of the beholder ?

I like the way I can upsize your scan there .... now I am wondering about the mystical symbolism is in the pattern of the dots that make up the background colour

closrapexa said:

I can't see any burning tower in that card, even in an enlarged scan like this one. ....

Click to expand...

Well, smoldering? rooftop. My imagination runs away with me. The unedited effects of an artist's sneeze makes more sense, but why leave it?

Yeah, the red roofs do suggest times of opulence in antiquity. But maybe the difference between the flat-topped gray buildings and bright red "titled" structures suggests a contrast between the mundane/common world and that of a royal/spiritual authority.

Lacking knowledge of PCS's mind, we can't know what she meant specifically by the castles. Any meaning or story that we attach to them are ones we create in our own minds.

However, if we examine the art of the period and Smith's known influences, we find children's story books, the theatre of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving (emphasis on a 19th c view of Shakespeare - see Charles Lamb, etc.), and Arthurian/mythic England, influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites as it enters pop-culture. The structures are the fantasy Camelot or the castles of Macbeth or Hamlet, or the palace of Old King Cole (was a merry old soul) - a world of Kings, Queens, Knights and Pages, representing a mythic world of adventureous tales and quests. The oft-noted Odysseus-theme in the 10 of Pentacles adds the idea of achieving the end of your quest - a coming "home" to one's true self and the finding of one's true "family" - where one is known for who one really is. And, of course, there is (especially in Pentacles) the idea of monetary success, stability and the establishment of a notable lineage - epitomized by a castle (would a factory have served this better?).

From The Diamond Fairy Book, a piece by Charles Robinson, which book also featured the art of PCS: http://artofnarrative.tumblr.com/image/53544481499

Or, see the work of Howard Pyle in which castles appear in a great many of his backgrounds:
Correction: http://artofnarrative.tumblr.com/image/2932588138