rwcarter
I've honestly struggled with this card and Barrett's choice of Nuit/Nut/Neith as the deity that is represented. I'm just not seeing Nuit as an appropriate choice for the World as I understand it or as explained by Barrett in the companion book. I'm just gonna start typing and hopefully something of use will make its way from my brain through my fingers and into this post. 
According to Barrett, this card represents perfection and completion, the end of time, the union of the soul with the universe, self-awareness, the attainment of natural perfection, the return to source and the final end of matter.
Nuit was the mother of all the gods. In the Ennead cosmology, Atum-Ra (the Fool) was the first god. He begot Tefnut and Shu who then begot Nuit and Geb. Shu forbade Nuit and Geb to have any children during any month of the year (which at that point was 12 months of 30 days each for a total of 360 days) and kept Nuit suspended above Geb to keep them from procreating. Thoth won five days from the moon and it was during these days that Osiris, Set, Horus the Elder, Isis and Nephthys were born.
Nuit was known as the Lady of the Stars since she was thought to cover the earth, with her front being the starry sky as seen from earth. Those stars are in the background of the card. Traditionally, she was thought to balance on her hands and toes at the four compass points of north, east, south and west. In this card, she balances on her right foot.
Her posture in this card is the opposite of Osiris' posture in the Hanged Man. In the Hanged Man, that posture symbolized sacrifice and waiting. Here it symbolizes balance (in the sense of being whole as opposed to the balance shown in Justice) and completion. This is understandable since the Osirian cycle shown in a number of cards in the Majors culminated in Judgement, right before this card.
The jar atop her head is the hieroglyph for her name. It represents both the womb and the heart. The upper part of the jar is blue, representing the sky (Nuit) while the lower part is terra cotta, representing the earth (Geb). The ankh that joins the two sections shows that life is born from the joining of opposites.
The three solar disks represent, from bottom to top, Malkuth, Yesod and Tipareth, which form the most direct path to Kether on the Tree of Life. Kether means crown, and in this case Nuit's "crown" would be the jar, which represents a synthesis of opposites and the outcome of that synthesis.
Barrett says that the disks also suggest the myth that Nuit gave birth to the sun each morning and consumed it again that night. The solar disks at her throat and vagina support that supposition. But unless she gave birth through her foot, I can't understand the positioning of that third solar disk, unless it's "artistic license."
Nuit holds lotus and papyrus wands that symbolize the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Unification is another form of synthesis of opposites.
Her foot on the head of Apophis the demon god shows that she has complete control over him. Ra was finally able to defeat Apophis as the foot of Nuit's sacred tree. As a snake, Apophis was also a phallic symbol.
She is surrounded by a rainbow-colored almond-shaped band that's divided into the 12 colors of the zodiac (see the Sun). This shape resembles the Vesica Piscis which in turn resembles the entrance to the womb. The snake is needed in order to fertilize the womb, thereby conceiving the egg of creation that is seen in the Fool.
A number of the images in this card suggest synthesis, integration or unification. An implicit form of synthesis that's suggested by this card is what occurs when the lessons of cards 1 - 20 of the Major Arcana are integrated, thereby creating a new individual who waits to be born in the Fool so that he can begin the process of going through those lessons again and integrating at an even higher level.
A swirl of violet courses around Nuit and through the symbols of the four elements in the corners of the card. These swirls symbolize the end of all things since violet is the end of the visible spectrum of light. The swirl could be thought of as part of the fabric of the universe. As such, it joins together the four elements, the mother, the phallus, the womb and the Vesica Piscis. The result of this unification is a new life.
The pyramids behind Nuit represent earthly materialism (the handiwork of men) that has been left behind. Although the pyramids have lasted for thousands of years, they are insignificant when compared to the infiniteness of time and space.
OK. Maybe I understand the choice of Nuit a little bit better now that I've typed all this. I'll have to sleep on it....
Rodney
According to Barrett, this card represents perfection and completion, the end of time, the union of the soul with the universe, self-awareness, the attainment of natural perfection, the return to source and the final end of matter.
Nuit was the mother of all the gods. In the Ennead cosmology, Atum-Ra (the Fool) was the first god. He begot Tefnut and Shu who then begot Nuit and Geb. Shu forbade Nuit and Geb to have any children during any month of the year (which at that point was 12 months of 30 days each for a total of 360 days) and kept Nuit suspended above Geb to keep them from procreating. Thoth won five days from the moon and it was during these days that Osiris, Set, Horus the Elder, Isis and Nephthys were born.
Nuit was known as the Lady of the Stars since she was thought to cover the earth, with her front being the starry sky as seen from earth. Those stars are in the background of the card. Traditionally, she was thought to balance on her hands and toes at the four compass points of north, east, south and west. In this card, she balances on her right foot.
Her posture in this card is the opposite of Osiris' posture in the Hanged Man. In the Hanged Man, that posture symbolized sacrifice and waiting. Here it symbolizes balance (in the sense of being whole as opposed to the balance shown in Justice) and completion. This is understandable since the Osirian cycle shown in a number of cards in the Majors culminated in Judgement, right before this card.
The jar atop her head is the hieroglyph for her name. It represents both the womb and the heart. The upper part of the jar is blue, representing the sky (Nuit) while the lower part is terra cotta, representing the earth (Geb). The ankh that joins the two sections shows that life is born from the joining of opposites.
The three solar disks represent, from bottom to top, Malkuth, Yesod and Tipareth, which form the most direct path to Kether on the Tree of Life. Kether means crown, and in this case Nuit's "crown" would be the jar, which represents a synthesis of opposites and the outcome of that synthesis.
Barrett says that the disks also suggest the myth that Nuit gave birth to the sun each morning and consumed it again that night. The solar disks at her throat and vagina support that supposition. But unless she gave birth through her foot, I can't understand the positioning of that third solar disk, unless it's "artistic license."
Nuit holds lotus and papyrus wands that symbolize the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Unification is another form of synthesis of opposites.
Her foot on the head of Apophis the demon god shows that she has complete control over him. Ra was finally able to defeat Apophis as the foot of Nuit's sacred tree. As a snake, Apophis was also a phallic symbol.
She is surrounded by a rainbow-colored almond-shaped band that's divided into the 12 colors of the zodiac (see the Sun). This shape resembles the Vesica Piscis which in turn resembles the entrance to the womb. The snake is needed in order to fertilize the womb, thereby conceiving the egg of creation that is seen in the Fool.
A number of the images in this card suggest synthesis, integration or unification. An implicit form of synthesis that's suggested by this card is what occurs when the lessons of cards 1 - 20 of the Major Arcana are integrated, thereby creating a new individual who waits to be born in the Fool so that he can begin the process of going through those lessons again and integrating at an even higher level.
A swirl of violet courses around Nuit and through the symbols of the four elements in the corners of the card. These swirls symbolize the end of all things since violet is the end of the visible spectrum of light. The swirl could be thought of as part of the fabric of the universe. As such, it joins together the four elements, the mother, the phallus, the womb and the Vesica Piscis. The result of this unification is a new life.
The pyramids behind Nuit represent earthly materialism (the handiwork of men) that has been left behind. Although the pyramids have lasted for thousands of years, they are insignificant when compared to the infiniteness of time and space.
OK. Maybe I understand the choice of Nuit a little bit better now that I've typed all this. I'll have to sleep on it....
Rodney
