10 coins RW, what's the old mans black wand about ?!?! Any takers !!!

Uncle Fester

I get the general gist of the ten of coins and it's many meanings but I'm just thinking the one thing that perplexes me is the old dude with the white hair has a rather large wand and its black and was thinking knowing RW probably has some significance Iether kabbalistic or otherwise ??? He is like the dead ancestor that know one else sees ie he's camouflaged and the dogs sense him with the instinct....don't think its black due to shoddy reproduction although of course the mass produced RW are pretty atrocious !
 

re-pete-a

It could be that "the rod of life " is black because the life is draining away from the old one...Usually the rods in the Wands cards are alive ...hence the leaves.(RWS)
 

Richard

It looks to me as if the staff is being used by the guy in the center, not the old man. FWIW, black is the color of the element Earth in Sephirah 10 of the Tree of Life.
 

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Teheuti

Just like the child and the dogs, this black wand could be an allusion to the staff carried by the Fool. As the final card in the deck (not counting the Court Cards), the Ten of Pentacles could be referring to the journey being over - the staff that held the Fool's travel bag has been put aside. The old man, like Odysseus (and there are several possible references to him here), has returned home, after his long travels, and is recognized only by his dogs and then his son.
 

Zephyros

It looks to me as if the staff is being used by the guy in the center, not the old man. FWIW, black is the color of the element Earth in Sephirah 10 of the Tree of Life.

Sorry for being so morbid, but he might actually be dead, or living dead, or a living corpse. After having lived a life man goes back into the earth to give nourishment and renewal and all that. He's certainly seems to be the oldest person in the minors, as far as I can recall. So the black would make sense.
 

foolMoon

Even old, he is still powerful with his possession - money, house and land? Just guessing.
 

Zephyros

Even old, he is still powerful with his possession - money, house and land? Just guessing.

While material matters are indeed intrinsic to this suit, his very body holds the seeds of regeneration. Simply put, when you're at the end, there's no place to go but the beginning.
 

ravenest

I think one cant relate a 'discoin' card with a wand on it to how wands appear in the suit of wands ... well you CAN , but it might lead to :confused:

Just to be clear ... (and I would have thought obvious)

In the style of those cards, depicting a walking staff is not rare.

It seems clear to me the old man is NOT holding the staff , so any reference to old man and the dead black wand and life draining aweay from the old man :rolleyes: are off target. The middle figure has the wand. That is what happens when you try to make analogies, allusions and intuitions without LOOKING AT THE CARD PROPERLY or considering its meaning (beyond the whim of today) ... totally off on a tangent :rolleyes:

It is a black staff with what looks like a white tip ... surely that should hint at something?

Waite was a romanticist not a magician.

http://cx.aos.ask.com/life123/how-to-make-a-magic-wand_86796577.s300x300.jpg

I like to remember 2 things when visually studying these cards; Waite (and all his accretions, views and influence) and the 'pseudo-medieval' stage productions on the minors.
 

Abrac

In all the original RWS decks it's black, so you're right Uncle Fester, it's not from shoddy reproduction.

It's very hard to tell who has hold of it, but it does look to me like it's the young man. It could be a hunting spear and the dogs his hunting dogs. It's leaning against the wall and it looks like he's either grabbing for it or placing it there.