Modern SpellCaster’s - 8, Strength.

Tanga

I have to start with the FROGS and SNAKES building a fire in the background of the card… - since someone just mentioned a burning curiosity about it. :)

The fire floats on a mound in the middle of a lake, and the frogs and snakes, are keeping it alive by adding kindling to it from the mainland.
In the middle of the fire - is a giant egg.



Where I go to with this imagery is to one place: (a favourite place actually :) :) ).

1) The frogs and snakes could reflect -
The ancient Egyptian Ogdoad.
These were the Oldest Gods of ancient Egypt - the ones that came before everyone else and “were always there”. They were a set of four pairings of male frog headed and female snake headed Deities (the male and female side of the whole, or husband and wife polarities) - that made up “a dark watery mass of primordial chaos”.
- from this primordial chaos - which was unstable - there sat a mound on which lay an egg - and from this egg (The Cosmic Egg) - the SUN GOD, RA, was born.
And from thence, the rest of the Deities followed.


These 4 primordial pairs are:
Nun and Naunet (water, of primordial chaos), Amun and Amanaunet (invisibility, of primordial chaos), Heh and Hauhet (infinity, of primordial chaos) and Kek and Kauket (darkness, of primordial chaos).
The longer of the two names in each pair, is the female form (snake).

So… we have frogs and snakes tending a fire… that’s heating a giant egg.
We have a deep primordial element in Strength, that is in an active “firing” or “nurturing” phase giving birth to:

- the SUN GOD (that, would be the light bursting from the egg.)
"LET THERE BE LIGHT!" - yes?
When the Sun God emerges - this - is the moment of Creation; of the World, and of all the Egyptian Deities that then follow (with which we are more familiar :) ).

The Ogdoad:
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Ogdoad (Egyptian)&item_type=topic


I think of this EGG also, as symbolic of the Fifth Element Akasha or Spirit - the binding part that runs through the other 4 elements and the collective unconscious of all life froms…

Such intrigueing visual “side detail” to this card…
Strength - is finding the primordial building blocks within, for our own creations...
and finding our inner connections to our Divine Spark.
Owning our power.



and then we have the more familiar LADY and LION in the foreground.
She’s naked (Skyclad)- with flaming red hair and alabaster skin - she has embodied the Goddess and is displaying the strength and magnetism of her Goddess given female form.
Is she following direction from Gardenarian Wicca and the Gospel of the Witches:

“And as a sign that ye are truly free,
Ye shall be naked in your rites, both men
And women also…”


She rides the male lion with ease - and she’s performing magick, because she’s waving her wand in the air.
Are her efforts concentrated on facilitating the development of that giant egg in unison with those frogs and snakes? Channelling her deepest creativity.
Digging deep into her primordial resources.

~~~~~



“Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.”

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequte.
It is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light - not our darkness, that most frightens us…
We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us…
and as we let our light shine - we give other people permission to do the same...”

- Marriane Williamson.


Ritual use:to overcome addiction and other beasts, for defensive magick (great one for that recurring "self protection" issue - from "-ve energies/entities/ thoughtforms etc.) and increasing daring.
Owning ones true power/Will.
 

Essjay

Hi Tanga. Thank you so much for addressing this card and the frogs and snakes. You've certainly shed some light for me and I'm intrigued by the story of Ogdoad.

This makes far more sense than my theory of a family BBQ! :laugh:

I see the lady as directing the frogs and snakes but not sure who that would make her? As you say, perhaps she isn't necessarily a known figure but merely facilitating the ritual.

Again, thank you - such an interesting card xx
 

Tanga

I see the lady as directing the frogs and snakes but not sure who that would make her? As you say, perhaps she isn't necessarily a known figure but merely facilitating the ritual.

We are here in the now - but we are also, a part of everything that has ever been. (stardust :) ).
We are the product of Divinity, as well as a spark of the Divine.
In this way she is "directing" - although - she was not "before the Ogdoad" creating or directing it - if you see what I mean.
A paradox? :D
A circular argument. A mystery beyond full understanding.

In Wicca - one is not just sitting under the shadow of the Deity, but is a part of them and therefore can "become them" or "wear their face" and "manifest/create - as a Deity may".


Such as in "Drawing down the moon" - a ritual where the Goddess speaks through someone, addressing the ritual group.