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The 4 Aces
Out of all the
cards I have done so far in this deck it is the 4 aces that I am
most proud of. As ones they are the united embodiment of each
of the 4 elements. They are not just the first cause of the
element; however, they are the completed element from the last
cycle giving birth to the new cycle.
As I created
them I asked myself, “What would a pure creature of Fire
(Water, Air, Earth) look and act like?”
There are
similarities between them all, such as they all have wings and
they are all hermaphrodite like elemental angels. I see wings
as connections, appendages, growing out of the back of the heart
chakra and spreading out over a huge web of connectedness we all
share.
The animals
chosen to represent them are obviously the four animals from
Ezekiel’s vision but whose association with their elements can
be individually traced back quite far into history, for example
the lions association with Fire or the Sun. In tarot decks it
is common to find these 4 animals arranged in the corners around
the dancing woman in the World card.
The Ace of Wands
The Lion, an elemental of Fire.
The body of the Lion is very athletic, tense and in motion. He
has hawk wings, another animal commonly associated with Fire or
the Sun. When I look at him, I swear I can hear him rattling
his feathers! I also have to tell the odd story of color mixing
that happened while I was painting him/her. I had originally
planned on this painting being made of reds and its contrasting
color green for growing life. As I mixed the colors for the
hills in the background I intended to begin with the reddish
color in the closest hills and then add blues and green the
farther away they got for an atmospheric look. Every time I
added any blue or green the color did not get cooler, NO! It
got redder! I did this many times, amazed. As you see from the
final painting the hills get redder the father away they get.
It is a strange coloration but I think it looks pretty good.
This is one of several times a painting for this deck has been
so physically assertive about the colors it wanted to be.
The Ace of Cups
The Angel,
elemental of Water. Dove wings.
As I was
painting this one I had a problem all the way through trying to
find a position for his left arm that I liked. Eventually I
just cut it off and gave him/her a Greek statuesque looking
stump. It seemed like a good idea for awhile, but the more I
looked at it the more I started to see that I was trying to
amputate something from him/her and perhaps from myself. The
element of water to me is not only a symbol for mother but it is
also a symbol for the dark waters of the void and unknown, a
very scary place sometimes. Upon realizing that I didn’t want
to face this shadow side of myself or of this card I have
him/her the arm back and to represent the shadow added the black
snake.
One more thing
that needs to be pointed out in this summary is the black glyph
of water, the upside down triangle. There is a red material
emanating from it and covering parts of the body. It represents
blood, menstrual blood, and the blood of the bloodline
everything on earth is subject to; we all come from a mother,
even moments chained in time.
The Ace of Swords
The Eagle,
elemental of Air.
Feathers are the perfect natural representation of swords. They
manipulate the air providing a bird (who even has air pockets in
their bones) with lift, balance, power or silence, depending on
the shape of the feather. A feather is shaped like a dual bladed
sword or knife.
In many ancient cultures the eagle is associated with death or
the journey of the soul. The eagle often carries the souls of
the dead to the afterlife and does the same for the Sun. It is
swift and powerful and has clarity of vision we can scarcely
imagine. In some Native American myths the eagle is able to
look directly at the sun without being hurt. It is possible to
see this as a metaphor for looking at the countenance of God
without being harmed.
The element of Air, to me, is the ascending, spirit half of the
Earth/Air twins, born by Mother Water and Father Fire. It is
like a strike of lightning, conveying electricity in both
directions evening the tension between what is above and what is
below. The heavens and earth are always creating each other and
transforming each other and the lightning path is the channel of
transmitting this energy. The bare branches of the tree, behind
or even emanating out of the Eagle remind me of this. The crepe
like material wrapped around the Eagles body binds the eagle to
the earth, assuring that the channel is complete from heaven to
earth and earth to heaven, the anchor of a physical body.
The Ace of Disks
The Bull,
elemental of Earth.
His/her body is
strong, solid, muscular and well formed and he has the wings of
the silent, nocturnal owl. The owl isn’t relevant to me just
because it is so fitting in a dark labyrinth; it is also
relevant because of an acronym I made up a long time ago. The
word is OWL and it is derived from the phrase ‘one who looked’.
In Jewish
mysticism you may encounter a story about why God decided to
create the universe. At one time he was the entire universe,
there was nothing but him. He wanted to see himself, but in
order to do so had to remove himself from part of the universe.
It was into this empty space, devoid of God, that he poured his
ray of light, as a positive manifestation of himself. This is
the beginning of the lore of the creation of the Sephiroth and
the Tree of Life. One Who Looked, to me, is the name of God
after he has become a positive manifestation of the whole
universe and then been able to see his own face in the
experience of the physical universe, Malkuth. One Who Looked is
the living personality of the universe, in the earth plane, if
there is such a thing. I am always happy, thinking of this,
that the owl is known for its extraordinary vision in the dark
with its two giant eyes.
The bull who
inspired the main image is the Greek Minotaur, half human and
half animal (half earthly and half divine?) who guarded the
labyrinth, a symbol of the womb of the earth.
This image also
contains all of the elements in lesser degree, as the earth
plane does. In the upper right corner are the wings for the
element of Air. The bottom right corner has stalks of wheat
(can’t you see it growing on the rolling hills below the Ace of
Wands?). The lower left is another spiral and the upper left is
the head of a labrys.
The words labrys and labyrinth have similar etymological origins
in the Latin word labium which means lip or labrum
which means the edge or brim of a vessel. The labrys, or double
headed axe, resembles the labia of the female vulva and has been
used all the way back to the ancient times and into the present
as a symbol of the same. The other half of the body below the
labrys is the serpent or snake, and together they become a
winged serpent, a symbol of the rising kundalini. These are
symbols of the groin, genitals, and reproductive organs, male
and female, in the creation of the earth and universe, the
beginning creative energies fitting for the Ace of Disks.
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