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Princess Of Swords

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11.5" x 14.5" oil on primed hotpress board.

I created this Tarot card for the Hive Gallery in Los Angeles. They have created tarot decks using cards from local and international talent, and I am honored to be included in the show. The decks will be printed and the entirety of the card collection will be made into a downloadable app later in 2015.

I chose to use the Princess of Swords-- as opposed to the 'Page' of Swords-- as a version from Crowley's Book of Thoth deck, with art by Frieda Harris. The Court cards are renamed and re-ordered: Page, Knight, Queen and King become Princess (Page), Prince (King, because Princes 'become' Kings eventually), Queens and Knights remain similar.

Diana, princess of Themiscyra, seemed like an excellent match for the Book of Thoth version of the card: tinyurl.com/princess-of-swords
I believe the Thoth deck to be the most symbol-heavy Tarot deck and has a more legitimate provenance, since Crowley himself labored to make it superior and more accurate than the Rider-Waite deck, which is arguably the most identifiable of decks still to this day. Whatever one may think of Crowley, the project was his masterpiece and ultimately a gift to humanity. It lacks (much) of Crowley's vanity and he had worked closely with Lady Frieda Harris to ensure a sort of 'clean' or unspoiled vision to the execution of the art. The deck should be rightly called the Crowley-Harris Tarot, but is attributed to Thoth-Hermes as his book. Dense and imposing as it is, the heart of the work is contains an endless amount of symbolic authenticity which many feel are missing from the Rider-Waite deck. Also, The Book of Thoth does not contain the deliberate mistake-- the 'Hermetic Blind'-- which is installed permanently in the Rider-Waite deck.

Wonder Woman casts away the threat of madness, chaos, and confusion of the Medusean gorgon spirit. The golden Lasso of Truth is wrapped around a radiating emerald censer-shrine which would traditionally have burnt offerings to the gods. In Wonder Woman's hand is not a sword, but a strigel-- a tool used to 'scrap off' perspiration or water when bathing (instead of using a bath towel). She holds it deftly and gently, instead of using force, to show her mastery over the elements.

The Princess of Swords card has a slightly Mercurial/Hermetic/hermaphroditic cast to it, which is why it is excellent for Wonder Woman-- a warrior Amazon, borne not of male-female creation but of Hippolyta's clay (which has recently been rewritten in the DC comics canon). The best reason I enjoy this card, especially the Thoth Deck's elaborate symbolism, is that this card deals with mental illness. It is considered useful to clear the mind as it were. The Princess defends the holy shrine (the intellect, connected to Source energy) from the smokey, hazy, clouding of chaos and confusion. Crowley suggests that it is the shrine-censer itself which is causing all the 'smokey confusion'-- the mind is what clouds our contact with Source energy. But the Princess herself is waving the smoke away, attempting to salvage the 'truth' of the shrine-- which is a connection to godhood. Medusa, to her credit as being salvaged by Athena, appears on the helmet of the Princess in the Thoth deck. Medusa is the 'patron' of depression, rape, and trauma, blessed as she is (since Athena exalts the suffering human in her wisdom and loves humanity most of all). The Princess, with her grace and mastery as blessed by Mercury-Hermes, uses both art and intellect to salvage access to the godhood. Thus, this card is used to overcome mental illness-- depression, sadness, confusion, addiction. A beautiful tool to meditate upon.

I hope I did this card the honor! I will repost a better photo when I can take it. If you are in the Los Angeles area on January 9th, 2015, you can see it in the Hive Gallery's Tarot Show.
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