This still doesn't quite make sense to me. Air is intellect, so why is it going to menials and farmworkers? Criminals and outcasts, that I can see
The argumentative and often sneaky swords could certainly stand for rebels and those not quite in line with social conformity...but farmers?
Hi Thirteen,
First of all, please remember I said Western Hermetic traditions (on which Tarot might be based) seem to me as a
bastardization of Vedic Philosophy ... in other words ... the Vedic teachings arrived in the West only partially and much got "lost in translation" as it were.
But let's explore your question:
Farm OWNERS = Pents (K pents) Pents generally indicate Land ownership or business
Farm Manager = Q Pents
Farm Foreman = Kn Pents
Migrant workers = swords. Like the air they have no permanent place and travel where the work is. They come and go. Here today, gone the next.
I mean, once again, shouldn't the Air stand for scholars and writers?
Yes! Let's consider this very question. Vedic Philosophy is ANCIENT. In their time the profession of "journalist" or "novelist" did not exist. Only writing was of the Brahmin caste (Water / Cups) as Priests and Ministers were the elites of that time. Writing was religious or scientific in nature and not considered as a secular activity at all! Even the idea of "science" divorced from "religion" is fairly modern. Throughout most of history science and religion were linked ... we moderns forget that Pythagoras was a RELIGIOUS & SPIRITUAL teacher in his day. Mathematics was spiritual to the ancient greeks.
So the idea of secular writing or secular science is completely absent from Vedic thought.
The first fictional novel ever written was Tales of Genji written by Lady Murasaki in 1100s. So a Japanese woman actually invented the whole idea of fiction pot-boilers for entertainment };>
This took MANY years to catch-on even in the West.
We moderns are left with assigning a SUIT to a profession which has only existed a short time in the grand scheme of things. So by all means ... let's make it swords ... makes perfect sense to me. But so does the idea of migrant works as swords.
If we go back to what Morwenna originally said (Swords/Air as Aristocrats) then it makes sense because (1) Aristocrats were usually the ones who were warriors and learned the fine art of battle ... <<snips>>
Yes, when I first leaned Tarot, I learned Swords as Military. When I studied Vedic Astrology and saw the Military as Fire (or wands in tarotology) it threw me. I pondered. I reflected. I scratched my head. Finally for some of the reasons I mention above ... I went with the Vedic method which would say the COMMANDERS are WANDS but the foot soldiers and mercenaries are Swords. Like the migrant farm workers ... the foot soldiers go where the wind blows them. Or they are mercenaries with no solid allegiance. A Wand / Fire soldier has true allegiance, loyalty, and sense of duty to his cause. The sword soldier is a mercenary or got conscripted against his will.
Yet now in our modern times ... I also put certain types of sales ppl as Wands. Realtors for example seem as wands to me. But realtors didn't exist back in the day ...
As a modern, I also assign swords to LEGAL. But as with writing ... a secular legal system did not exist back in the day. Priests dispensed justice or maybe the military nobility. Lawyers and judges and parole officers and such didn't exist then as they do now.
And Cups/Water, while certainly including the spiritual and those who might go into the religious orders, need not, IMHO, be learned. I'd also add to the Cups/Water poets and artists—some educated, some not.
Maybe?
To me, cups is the suit designation which changed the least over time. It still goes for religious, medical, teaching, service. But now also add the hospitality industry.
Now-a-days when "anyone" can get a college degree ... we do not associate religion with academic knowledge ... in fact sometimes just the opposite! Yet in Ancient times ... the clergy WERE the most educated. Whether we are talking about Ancient Egypt or Medieval Europe ... education was synonomous with the Priesthood in historic times.
Yes, I agree with you here Thirteen.
I feel uneasy actually with all of the correlations with suits etc. As you say, what about the intellectuals and poets ... Wouldn't they be in an honoured place?
Oh it's a bit confusing...
Will keep thinking on it!!
B
Couldn't agree more! I have reflected on these questions for years ... and consciously chose to base some of my tarotology on Vedic Science. But also I have studied very deeply in Vedic Science so it makes sense to me in a way it may not make sense to most Westerners.
Great questions to work-out that sword-like intellect [
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