Anima and Animus for Knight and page?

[Cerulean]

I've been 'story-boarding' a deck idea with words and pictures. The concept I was curious about discussing here is using the Anima and Animus for the Knight (Rider)/Prince (Thoth) and Page (Rider)/Princess (Thoth) courts of each suit:

http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/anima.html

However my storyline has Anima and Animus of one suit as brother and sister...so the story is not about them marrying each other, it's about them finding their developing paths and if they find a relational complement in another suit.

I have Rose Gwain's book that introduces some personality type suggestions to each court suit and the undeveloped aspect of the court page/princess and knight/[prince.

My questions...has this been done or overdone before? Also, sometimes I've read that perhaps there are clashes between suits...say wands and swords might have an elemental fire-air clash and produce a whole lot of smoke!

Thanks in advance for any ideas, suggestions...

Regards,

Cerulean Mari

 

[Astra]

I'd say it works better with the Prince/Princess concept than the Knight/Page metaphor. It's certainly a strong backdrop to current Western culture.

I went through the descriptions on the link you posted, and came back with the feeling that the whole concept would be rather limiting if I were trying to read with the cards, but that's to be taken with at least half a salt-shaker, because I tend to be more than a little irritated with "One True Love" questions - and they're the mainstay of most readers.

Don't know if it's been done before - hopefully, there will be people who can point you to specific decks - and can't see that it matters much. Even if concept is identical to another deck, the outcome won't be, by the time it gets a large dose of Cerulean added in.

On the elemental clashes - well readings are done for people, and people have all sorts of tangled interactions. If these tend to reflect those interactions, then it should work very well.

 

[Cerulean]

Ah, thank you Astra!

The dose of Cerulean made me laugh.

While it would be fun to story-board a neat concept, aka Rose Gwain, it might be rather easy and too simple to suggest that people were seeking 'complements' to their personality types--say the reading showed they were Page or Princess of Fire seeking a singing dreamer type to reform OR they were thirsty for inspiration. Then in the reading, if a resolution card with a Chalice/Cup showed up, the reader taking meanings from a book would suggest soothing ideas only based on bringing in the element of water--which might be too simple for most people after initial readings.

I know I'm probably talking out of just reading some sources like the Ananda Tarot book and Rose Gwain's reflective book, which makes for rather simplistic ideas.

I could see it irritating an experienced reader if every time a Chalice/Cup showed up there were only mushy, positive balances suggested for the meanings. At the moment, I only worked out for instance, the number/court/major with watery images in such a reading as hinting at the degree of balance they find if seeking that "element"/personality aspect.

Back to the drawing boards!

Regards,

Cerulean Mari

 

[Astra]

But.... but water is also riptides and tsunamis and the vasty depths of the ocean - how do you mean, mushy?

 

[Cerulean]

Thanks for the note--

My Ananda Tarot has explanations that I like, and sometimes when I was doing the storyboard, I tended to put a positive slant...not following the Ananda's structure, but the 'positive slant' in meanings.

But one review remarked she was receiving a 'mushy' positive vibe from every meaning when she read the descriptions.

But water has many many symbolic meanings and so do human interactions. I think I want to add more depth to my shallow water and chalices story ideas, that's what I mean.

Regards,

Cerulean

 

[Astra]

Ah. Well, I would agree that as much depth as you can stand to put in the cards won't hurt them.

What I have to remember is that others don't agree. The biggest negative comment I've had on the WorldTree deck so far was that it didn't support warm and fuzzy readings very well at all. At least, the commentor thought it was negative - I didn't.

That same "mushy" feeling that the reviewer comments on in the Ananda may sell as many decks as any other feature it has, because there are a huge number of people who want to do only positive readings, and a huge number of querents who only want to hear them.

So, I guess it's play with the ideas until something says "YES!", and then start the next stage.