The Sun.....

TemperanceAngel

I know this is an optimistic card, of sorts, but it kinda bugs me...
What's on the other side of the wall and why is the child and horse moving away from it?
And why is the Sun also on the other side of the wall?
Thanks in advance XTAX
 

poivre

The Sun is giving life of renewing or transforming. The Sun is bright & mabee ones animal desires is breaking away from old boundaries with new life & strength. Mabee when we get this card it is telling us that we must be aware of our strength & optimism we get from renewing our life & we are innocent of this
strength.
Ths Sun gives life & growth.

Just an idea.
 

Vincent

TemperanceAngel said:
I know this is an optimistic card, of sorts, but it kinda bugs me...
What's on the other side of the wall and why is the child and horse moving away from it?
And why is the Sun also on the other side of the wall?
Thanks in advance XTAX


The first part of your question is easy to answer;

Part of Waite's description of this card reads;

"...a walled garden-wherein are two children, either naked or lightly clothed, facing a water, and gambolling, or running hand in hand."

In other, older Tarot decks, you can see the children, and it may be that Waite, at one time intended to place the children on the card.


Try reading the description here for your other answers;
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktar19.htm



Vincent
 

TemperanceAngel

Re: Re: The Sun.....

Vincent said:
The first part of your question is easy to answer;

Part of Waite's description of this card reads;

"...a walled garden-wherein are two children, either naked or lightly clothed, facing a water, and gambolling, or running hand in hand."

In other, older Tarot decks, you can see the children, and it may be that Waite, at one time intended to place the children on the card.

Thanks, Vincent, that was really helpful as was the link, but for some reason that card is really bugging me at the moment, I think I have sunblock....
XTAX
 

mac22

TemperanceAngel said:
I know this is an optimistic card, of sorts, but it kinda bugs me...
What's on the other side of the wall and why is the child and horse moving away from it?
And why is the Sun also on the other side of the wall?
Thanks in advance XTAX

Well according to Waite in _The pictorial key_ "...It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a child."

For Waite the grey stone wall represented the past life bound by a narrow perception of reality.

As Pollack reminds us "...Once you realize the Garden of Eden is within you, you are free to leave it, taking it with you as you create a new life." The 4 sunflowers represent the 4 Qabalistic worlds & the 4 kingdoms of nature. In the B.O.T.A. deck there is a 5th sunflower bud representing the spiritual kingdom. The flowers behind the wall [representing Life & the Word]. As Case notes when stone is used in the Tarot it refers to the Hebrew word ABN which in turn relates to AB, the Father, and the one self of the Human race. human speech [the wall] is actually the manifestation of this union. The horse represents solar energy. The rays of the sun are alternatively wavy & salient represent vibration & radiation.

Hope this helps clear a few things up...:)
 

TemperanceAngel

Re: Re: The Sun.....

mac22 said:

As Pollack reminds us "...Once you realize the Garden of Eden is within you, you are free to leave it, taking it with you as you create a new life."
Interesting, in my meditation on it this week, I saw what was behind the wall as the 'field of dreams' and the Ten of Cups imagery symbolized this...
Maybe I am not ready to leave the field of dreams.....

For those of you who are new to AT, we have a mediating with tarot thread in the Using Tarot Cards Forum.
Everyone is welcome to join us :)
XTAX
 

mac22

TemperanceAngel said:
Interesting, in my meditation on it this week, I saw what was behind the wall as the 'field of dreams' and the Ten of Cups imagery symbolized this...
Maybe I am not ready to leave the field of dreams.....
XTAX

Everything in it's own time. The Tarot is after all a journey of self discovery. :)
 

Vincent

Re: Re: Re: The Sun.....

TemperanceAngel said:
Thanks, Vincent, that was really helpful as was the link, but for some reason that card is really bugging me at the moment, I think I have sunblock....
XTAX

If you wish to know the divinatory meaning, then Rachel Pollack might be as good as any other writer, but if you wish to know the meaning of the symbols, as Waite intended them, then you will usually have to look further afield.

If the answer cannot be found in Waite himself, the next best bets are Golden Dawn material, Eliphas Levi, and of course, the Bible.

Israel Regardie says of the card;

"The Sun has twelve principal rays which represent the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac. They are alternately waved and salient as symbolising the alternation of the masculine and feminine natures."

(On the subject of the rays, has anyone been able to work out what that strange squiggle alongside one of the rays on the right of the XIX, might be?)

The two children that Waite refers to in his description, are also referred to in the Philosophus Ritual of the Golden Dawn;

"The two children standing respectively on Water and Earth represent the generating influence of both, brought into action by the rays of the Sun. They are the two inferior and passive Elements, as the Sun and Air above them are the superior and active Elements of Fire and Air. Furthermore, these two children resemble the Sign Gemini which unites the Earthy Sign of Taurus with the Watery Sign Cancer, and this Sign was, by the Greeks and Romans, referred to Apollo and the Sun."

There is also a connection to the Fool card, signified by the red feather worn by both the child, and the Fool.

Waite seems to be a little clearer than usual in his description of this card, but if all you want are the divinatory meanings, then the LWB is fine.



Vincent
 

Indigo Rose

Re: Re: Re: The Sun.....

TemperanceAngel said:
Thanks, Vincent, that was really helpful as was the link, but for some reason that card is really bugging me at the moment, I think I have sunblock....
XTAX

I made an interesting observation, that I had not noticed before. The expression of the Sun in both the Rider Waite and Universal Waite is odd. The left eyebrow is slightly lifted so it appears that the Sun is giving a smug expression. When I spend too much time looking at it, it bugs me. Perhaps that is one of the elements you are responding to TA.