RedMaple
This card is based on the famous Venus of Willendorf statue,. Rachel Pollack suggests that we think of her as "The Great Goddess of Willendorf." She says "Clearly the pendulous breasts, the round belly and hips, and the sturdiness show her as an ida of motherhood (she is not actually pregnant.) .... Some people will view this figure as odd-looking, even ugly or funny. We have learned to see the ideal female as tin and weightless, unconnected to such distasteful realities as childbearing or work. Such attitudes distort our perceptions of beauty."
I have always liked this ancient statue. In fact, I had a replica of it for a long time, until I gave it to a friend who was trying to get pregnant. (She has since had two beautiful daughters.)
I grew up when the voluptuous female was still in style, Marilyn Monroe was the image given to us as the ideal feminine at a time when I was a little girl, still undeveloped. In my teens, with my small breasts, and slimness, I felt less than a full woman. Later, after having a child, suddenly the image changed to Twiggy, and my body, now with large breasts and more rounded, was again at odds with the style. Somewhere along the way, I encountered this portrayal of a woman in the Venus of Willendorf. I don't know how long it was before I found her beautiful, but she was always intriguing.
I can certainly see her as a nurturing mother, yet I'm not sure how this relates to Cups. Even Pollack says of her that she is "an earthy woman."
Perhaps it is seeing the creative process as one of gestation and birth. Her arms and legs are so de-emphasized, it is as if her very essence is fecundity, all breasts and belly. The womb of water, breasts which give milk -- two watery realms. Her genital area is exaggerated, so I think of the blood of birth and menstruation, another watery mystery.
OK, as I write this I am seeing the relationship to water, that as human beings we are 90% water, living on a watery planet, beginning our existence in the sea of our mother's wombs, becoming that sea ourselves.
Again, very archetypal. I have no idea how I would read this in a spread, but it is a fruitful image to meditate on.
I have always liked this ancient statue. In fact, I had a replica of it for a long time, until I gave it to a friend who was trying to get pregnant. (She has since had two beautiful daughters.)
I grew up when the voluptuous female was still in style, Marilyn Monroe was the image given to us as the ideal feminine at a time when I was a little girl, still undeveloped. In my teens, with my small breasts, and slimness, I felt less than a full woman. Later, after having a child, suddenly the image changed to Twiggy, and my body, now with large breasts and more rounded, was again at odds with the style. Somewhere along the way, I encountered this portrayal of a woman in the Venus of Willendorf. I don't know how long it was before I found her beautiful, but she was always intriguing.
I can certainly see her as a nurturing mother, yet I'm not sure how this relates to Cups. Even Pollack says of her that she is "an earthy woman."
Perhaps it is seeing the creative process as one of gestation and birth. Her arms and legs are so de-emphasized, it is as if her very essence is fecundity, all breasts and belly. The womb of water, breasts which give milk -- two watery realms. Her genital area is exaggerated, so I think of the blood of birth and menstruation, another watery mystery.
OK, as I write this I am seeing the relationship to water, that as human beings we are 90% water, living on a watery planet, beginning our existence in the sea of our mother's wombs, becoming that sea ourselves.
Again, very archetypal. I have no idea how I would read this in a spread, but it is a fruitful image to meditate on.