Sketchbook - Nine of Coins

As warm and idyllic as Pamela Coleman-Smith's concept of this card may be, it doesn't visually convey much meaning, other than suggesting how nice it probably feels to be a rich lady with hired landscaper.


But in Tarot cards, all surface details, no matter how banal, have meaning. You just have take a moment to ruminate on them. For example, observe what Arthur Edward Waite (in his Pictorial Key to the Tarot) describes as "a bird upon her wrist." That's right, even the man who co-created this deck sees little going on in the Smith's drawing except this:


He seems to have completely overlooked the fact that this woman is a falconer. She's clearly wearing a large heavy glove on her bird arm, and the fowl itself (puny as it may be) is hooded. So what we're looking at is actually thematically closer to this:


That discovery became a window which allowed me to gaze very deeply into this card. At a glance it seems almost like Coleman-Smith is copy-catting her own Empress card, but in truth the two are vastly different. The Empress (Arcanalogue examples here) is an emissary of the forces of nature, which we see fruiting in unkempt splendor all around her.

There is little "nature" on display in the Nine of Coins. Rather, we see a woman who has harnessed the laws of nature and put them to work in a way which produces abundance. For example, consider her arbor: cultivating grapes suitable for wine-making is an obsessive, almost scientific discipline. So is training a bird of prey to hunt game. Suddenly this woman, fancy as she may be, does not seem nearly as frivolous as she first appeared. In fact there's something almost stony about her... she's probably daydreaming about hunting wolves in Mongolia.



Since I'm not a lady of leisure and means, I was forced to draw what I know. This is a picture of my tip jar at work. I've written a little bit about waiting tables here on the site already; I can never seem to get past how impossible the job seems while I'm doing it. When the restaurant is completely packed, every table full, with a line of people out the front door waiting to sit down, there is this wave of despair that washes over me. How in the world am I going to handle this, I wonder. I always manage to scramble and sweat and grin my way through it somehow, leaping through the hoops in an adrenaline-soaked frenzy. And not only that, I return week after week, well aware of what lies in wait for me. Instead of being horrified, I am awed by the discipline I've discovered in myself. Where exactly does it reside, and how do I tap into it and apply it to other goals?

The overflowing tip jar that greets me at the end of each shift has become a sort of magical talisman to me, it provides an immediate sense of validation (way more than, say, a direct deposit paycheck-stub). I leave the restaurant feeling like an alchemist, all of my physical exertion and mental pyrotechnics transformed into literal gold. Staggering home, I look like a revenant and smell like enchilada sauce -- but I feel like the woman in this card. Capable. Accomplished. Tested. Ready. Fabulous.

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine Of Coins

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Sketchbook - Nine of Wands

During my first year of community college, a professor told my Psych 101 class that there were certain simple evaluations that clinics used to quickly determine whether or not a person might be suffering from mental problems. One of these, he claimed, was to look at someone's keyring and see how many keys were kept on it. The more keys they carried with them at all times, the more likely they were to have an illness of some kind.

(Remember, I did say this was a community college.)

Anyhow, I believe this was supposed to be a sign of obsessive behavior, or perhaps the sort of painfully inflated sense of responsibility or self-importance that a troubled person might have. I've never looked at my own keyring the same way since. Right now I have six keys, which I'm sure is well within the safe zone.

I do wind up picking up spare and scrap keys all the time, though. I find them all over the city, on the sidewalk and such. I kept a bunch of them in a coffee can until finally one day I decided to see if they'd make any sort of music as a wind-chime. I'm happy to report that keys are in fact quite musical. So then I went down to a locksmith and asked them if they had any scraps that they weren't doing anything with, and before I knew it, by entire backyard was lousy with wind-chimes. At least my keyring is normal!



The Nine of Wands is a strong reminder that you already possess everything necessary to ensure your success and stoke your confidence. Keys also happen to be symbols of influence, inspiration, and access -- the more you have, the fewer doors that can be shut against you. Keep too many of them, however, and you'll never be able to find the one you're looking for when you need it most. Bravery and prosperity only become a burden when the weight of them becomes too great for one to bear alone; I recommend finding a creative outlet for these blessings while they are still well within your grasp.

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine Of Wands

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Sketchbook - Nine of Cups

I drew this card and the Ten, back to back, while traveling on an airplane to Arizona for a family visit. Funny how the lesser Cups cards usually seem to refer to romance and the greater ones to family relationships. Perhaps it's because love has to be thinner and more aqueous in order to flow freely toward new people -- in streams as opposed to channels, pools or gulfs.

For the Nine I wanted to show how emotional expression could flow from many different points of access and unite in a common cause, whether it be familial or horticultural. Each cup gathers and re-routes its own small amount of condensation or rainfall, an insignificant effort made great when you appreciate the scale of the entire network. Working in concert to distribute life- and love-giving attention where it is needed most, this ungainly construction illustrates the benefit of granting others access to the tender parts of ourselves which are still growing.

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine Of Cups

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"The Finish Line Is In Sight..."

Here we are again, at the final card in a run of 78 posts. As you probably know, my cards are posted in no particular order -- whatever I come across, I write about. The last few are so hard to find subjects for because the card options are so limited; I've been agonizing over the Nine of Cups for days now, trawling MetaFilter and other sites with a desperate, predatory eye. And then I have to be extra scrutinous of what I pick, to keep myself from forcing comparisons just to get it all over with.

What a relief when my eyes beheld a project which turned a notoriously crooked side-street in San Francisco into a life-sized Candyland board, upon which children from various youth charities were invited to play and feast! As an adult who's played numerous (regular-sized) games of Candyland with children, I'm surprised and sad to note how much my adult brain recoils from the simplicity of a game I cherished when I was four. And the board has changed a lot over the years, too. There's simply no way to have a Candyland experience that will live up to your memory of the game -- until today, when Lombard Street became temporarily paved with colored squares that led children and adults to the cake and treats waiting at the finish line.

Through games, even those that seem silly and pointless, kids learn that if winning is possible in make-believe challenges, then it's possible in real ones (and vice versa). The Nine of Cups perfectly illustrates that rush of giddiness you feel when the finish line is just steps away. You're finally arriving at the point you set out for so long ago. In this way, I think the entire suit of Cups represents the journey that the Moon card takes us on through the underworld of our unconscious, and thus in the Nine we see the dawn finally breaking.

My favorite Nine of Cups card is this one from the Victoria Regina deck. This lady has the breathless, rather simple look of someone who is purely enjoying life and not thinking too hard about any of it. I envy her. As we've seen, there will be plenty of time later to turn our eyes to the future and decide which trials await us next. For now though, isn't it enough to just enjoy the last moments of the game we're playing, while we're actually still on the board?

Think of that moment when you're playing a game with friends and someone finally wins. There is that strange satisfaction that falls over people as they start putting the pieces away and cleaning up their mess; it's like waking up from a pleasant dream. I am excluding, of course, the numerous games of RISK and Monopoly that end with shouting and hurled statuettes. But even then, there is that moment where our brains transition from their game modes back to reality. For a while, we were not ourselves, or perhaps we were a part of ourselves that doesn't get to come out and play very often. In that moment before the conscious mind fully re-asserts itself, we are effortless. At the end of a good Tarot reading you will feel the exact same sensation.

Growing up means being in charge of finding and savoring these moments for yourself -- they are not provided for you by others as generously and miraculously as they were when you were tiny. I can't think of a better note to end this cycle of cards on. For me, the game is over. For you reading this, the good news is that you can still win... if you play your cards right. [Via]

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine of Cups

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"Every Step Forward Can Be A Step Upward..."

Recently discovered video footage shows that legendary Match Game panelist Charles Nelson Reilly won the Tour de France with two flat tires and a missing chain. He had his very own line at the DMV. He's even been seen swimming upstream with the salmon to spawn.

I was really excited to see that Weird Al chose this potent pop-culture figurehead as the subject of his latest musical tribute -- even more so than when I laid eyes on the velvet CNR painting seen above! Riffing on the trend of attributing action stars like Chuck Norris with ridiculous and godlike powers, Al has singled out the devastatingly witty actor, director, and TV personality as a god among men. And rightly so!

I think the key word to define both Reilly and the Nine of Wands is "irrepressible". Your initial dream or plan has endured ups and downs, pushing through times of adversity and controversy and has emerging intact on the other side. It's a testament to your strength and flexibility that you've reached this peak -- but you can't defend it forever! If you're smart, you'll leave on a high note and pole-vault to the next challenge, channeling the energy of this success into new enterprises. If you wait until your star is sinking and your confidence is waning, you might chicken out.

Reilly perfected this art in his career, jumping from role to role as seasons changed, working as a teacher here and a director there. His final project was a one-man show about his life in show business, which he performed up until the time of his death. So instead of bogging down in your previous notions of accomplishment, keep moving -- with a little imagination and courage, every step forward can be a step upward. [Via]

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine Of Wands

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"Neither Eyes Nor Hands Are Free To Fulfill Their Purpose..."

In my favorite old lobotomy-drama, Suddenly Last Summer, Tennessee Williams has a doctor refer to his specialty operation as "the sharp knife in the mind that kills the devil in the soul." The line is heavy with bitter irony -- the playwright's own sister, Rose, received that very treatment when her moods and hysterics became a burden on her family. Rose's capacity was permanently limited by the operation, and Williams never forgave himself for being unable to intervene in the family's decision.

Regardless, that was the prevailing belief at the time: that making incisions into key areas of patients' brains would pacify them somehow. This concept surely owed a lot to the curious case of Phineas Gage, a railway foreman who suffered a massive brain injury in 1848 when he used the butt of a three-foot iron spike to tamp down a gunpowder charge. When the charge accidentally ignited, it blew the spike clear through his head so forcefully that when it fell to earth, it landed about 30 yards behind him.

It was downright miraculous that he survived this incident at all, but in fact Gage recovered -- mostly:

"Some months after the accident, probably in about the middle of 1849, Phineas felt strong enough to resume work. But because his personality had changed so much, the contractors who had employed him would not give him his place again. Before the accident he had been their most capable and efficient foreman, one with a well-balanced mind, and who was looked on as a shrewd smart business man. He was now fitful, irreverent, and grossly profane, showing little deference for his fellows. He was also impatient and obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, unable to settle on any of the plans he devised for future action. His friends said he was "No longer Gage..."

This disturbed many people at the time, because it forced them to question the nature, or even the very existence, of the human soul. For a brief time, Gage toured in exhibitions along with the spike itself; later he moved to Chile and worked as a coachman, where he eventually died of seizures related to his injury. He beat impossible odds, but lived his last twelve years on earth as a stranger to everyone who had ever known him. I can see why doctors began to dream of a surgical cure for insanity, but ultimately they ran up against a far more sobering truth, one which Williams understates grimly: "Whenever you enter the brain with a foreign object... even a needle-thin knife... in the hands of the most skilled surgeon... there is a great deal of risk."

This daguerreotype of Gage is the only known photograph of him; it was uploaded to Flickr in 2007 with a bunch of other unidentified portraits, and in 2008 another Flickr member pointed out whom it appeared to be. It strikes me as incredibly sad that the only portrait of him in existence was taken after he was "no longer Gage." We all deserve to be remembered at our best, but often it's our worst that stands the test of time.

I couldn't help but think of the Nine of Swords (and flinch) while reading Gage's tale. It really puts a visceral new slant on the card's traditional imagery, that's for sure. But it also provides a very heavy metaphor for the drastic changes wrought upon us by life's misfortunes.

Afflictions and persecutions may have the potential to refine and redeem you in the long term, but in the short term they create a crisis of persepective that puts blinders on your essential humanity. Fear, pain, and pressure begin to seem more real than love, reason, or respect. Meanwhile, you're still out there in the world, trying to interact with people and act like everything's just fine. Unless you're a master at hiding your thoughts and feelings, it's probably obvious to everyone else that you're not feeling like yourself, but you can't expect them to help you when you're positively radiating unpleasantness.

You may or may not be able to change the circumstances in your life that sent you into this tailspin, but there is one thing you have control over, and are still responsible for regardless of all else: your own awareness. Pull free from fantasies of worst-case-scenarios, refuse to let your fear or melancholy manifest as procrastination, and begin to deal with the details of your life as gamely and realistically as you possibly can. Remember: when you cover your eyes with your hands, neither eyes nor hands are free to fulfill their purpose. For all you know, the exit might be right in front of you. [Via]

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine of Swords

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"The Body Is The Garden Of The Soul..."

A few weeks ago I started the Two Hundred Sit-Ups challenge, which of course led to my attempting the One Hundred Push-Ups challenge. Now I've been suckered into taking on Two Hundred Squats as well, and let me tell you, I feel like I've been kicked down the stairs, but I'm hoping to conquer them all eventually. All three sites allow you to track your progress, and measure out new goals for you based on what you've done so far. All that's required to begin is testing yourself to see how many of whichever exercise you can already do. From there, the path to super-strength (I'd settle for average) is laid out before you, all you have to do is follow it.

This should be a pretty inspirational card for anyone who draws it; the Nine of Coins promises concrete returns on any investment of labor that you can bring yourself to make. The Seven and Eight provide examples of disappointing or mixed results, but the Nine can be considered an unmitigated success story -- an unimpeded process all the way from seed to harvest, all challenges overcome. Drawing this card could mean that you're about to reap the benefits of a work already in progress, but it's also a good omen upon which to start a new enterprise, particularly one that is personal and self-edifying. I chose to highlight fitness goals (as Tony Kushner wrote in Angels In America, "The body is the garden of the soul.") but really anything well-plotted will do, as long as it's something you can tend with your own eyes and hands and effort.

Previously On Arcanalogue: The Nine of Coins

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The Four Nines

I think it's especially appropriate that the Nines were the next foursome I was able to complete after I finished the Threes. In that post, I elaborated a little bit on how the number of a card helps define its meaning. The first three cards in the suit, the Ace, Two, and Three, formed a triangle of points by which the initial point could begin to gauge its own position:

•
•. .•

The process, by which one point unfolded into three, doesn't stop there -- it's actually the beginning of a fractal design. Our triangle is now itself a unit that spawns two other triangles, like so:

•
•. .•

•. .•. . . . . .•. .•
• . . . . . . . . •

If you have a hard time visualizing that, then look at this animated image, a perfect illustration at how this process would continue to play out. These three triangles would become a collective unit that would then become the crown of a set of 27 points, ad infinitum.

Many consider fractal patters like this to be a model of how the universe itself sprang into being. For our purposes, it's a way of imagining the classical elements compounding and unfolding and crystallizing into more and more concrete realities. Far descended from the pure, intangible realm of the Aces, the Nines are a looking-glass version of our everyday world and what we aspire to accomplish in it. All the danger, intrigue, idealism, bliss, and security that we hope to find just around the corner. Though the actual results often leave us unsatisfied, the carrot continues to dangle in front of us as our life fans outward from the present moment. The smarty-pants Nine of Swords shows the toll this takes on us as we occasionally realize the hopelessness of our constant effort -- but who can fault us for continuing to reach, again and again? Unless we cultivate anything to replace it, desire is the only force strong enough to usher us forward through the moments of our lives. It's written into nature itself.

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Nine of Wands

The fairly remote Himalayan nation of Bhutan just crowned a new king, and photos of the coronation ceremony simply must be seen to be believed. The BBC comments that the new king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, has big shoes to fill:

"His father won international acclaim for his role in turning Bhutan into a constitutional monarchy while his emphasis on gross national happiness -- the idea that spiritual and mental well-being are more important than material prosperity -- made him the darling of development groups the world over."

Every bit of this, from the bold colors and happy faces to the idealism in the Bhutanese political doctrine, is what I'd like to think of when I read the Nine of Wands. As the suit's numbers have risen, so have the stakes for success and the amount of responsibility one assumes in striving for it. A new threshold of accomplishment has been reached, one which requires many components to work together in order to keep things running smoothly. This can be quite challenging to the ego -- having to consider the good of the whole, instead of calculating risks based purely on one's own fortitude the way one used to do -- but as long as one aspires to a functional, healthy, beautiful degree of success and control, then the possibilities are almost limitless. (See the Ten of Wands for a look at power which pushes onward and rages out of control.) [Via]

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Nine of Cups

While America has had an unnaturally calm hurricane season, areas of Vietnam are experiencing the worst flooding in decades after recent heavy rains. The news says another typhoon is on the way, which can only increase the rapidly rising death toll. However, the photos and video streaming out of Vietnam show an incredible amount of optimism, with many going on about business as normally as possible under the intense conditions. Some, like the engaged couple above, seem to barely notice the high water; for the time being, their faith and comfort in each other and the support of their families are enough to sustain them.

The bliss of the Nine of Cups itself occupies its own sort of eye in the storm. Balance is restored despite the excesses, delusions, and disappointments that have piled up in the Seven and Eight, and one's ability to love and care for oneself and others seem to have only been strengthened by those trials. On the other side of it is the Ten, which may test the limits of that blessing -- but we'll deal with that when we come to it, right? The Nine gives you permission to celebrate what you've overcome and to dream of a future in which you'll continue to thrive, come what may. It's worth noting that we do this by using what we've learned, not by pretending the bad times never happened. [Via]

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Nine of Coins

First of all, you won't truly understand the sheer outrageous grandeur and cuteness of the Bunny Mandala unless you click above and examine it from all vantage points. Go ahead, I'll wait.

While you're busy doing that, I may as well write the usual stuff about how rabbits are associated with fertility and luck, and that one of my favorite decks associates them with the suit of Coins (behold: the Ace). I should also mention that card Nine carries an immense payload of glad and comfy tidings: gain, professional fulfillment, a fundamental sense of well-being -- it's as if the universe fully supports whatever endeavors you've been laboring over. Fruition blossoms in any aspect of your life that you favor with discipline, with a little extra luck doing the rest of the heavy lifting! If you draw this card, consider it a toast to your health, wealth, and happiness -- and drink quickly, lest it prove to be fleeting.

But you're probably still admiring the bunnies as they dance in hypnotic patterns. Want to signal to the universe that your arms are wide open to make the most of good fortune? Make this mandala your desktop wallpaper for a week. [Via]

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Nine of Swords

While internet-age concepts of privacy leave pretty much everyone feeling a little bit more exposed, they also makes us shockingly confident. The spectrum of ways in which we are able to be cruel to each other has broadened, and we even have more methods of wounding ourselves. The image above is from an article about the ways that gangs and violent criminals are using social networking sites to broadcast their lifestyle and intimidate their communities (in this case, Philadelphia). However, they're often so short-sighted that they wind up posting photos brandishing drugs, loot, and firearms in full public view, providing law-enforcement with a handy record that can help identify them and link them to crimes. "I've got at least a hundred more of these kinds of pics on my harddrive, all taken from public Myspace profiles," the article's author commented.

The Nine of Swords is commonly referred to as "Cruelty," and usually depicts a figure being menaced at the business end of a dangerous weapon. You can't blame someone for being uncomfortable at the sight of this card in a reading. However, if you look closely there is an important distinction to be made. All of these figures are suffering, though none of them are in any real danger -- yet. What they're suffering from is anxiety, fear, paranoia, and despair -- and while these may not be pleasant, they're at least our own, and we have the tools to resolve them if we can see them for what they are. Photos like the one above have effectively preyed on fear, altering an entire city's perception of itself -- but once one's initial fear is overcome, these images are actually quite poignant. Suddenly the young men in them appear completely desperate, completely powerless, grasping at straws in order to fulfill childish egotistical fantasies -- and they demolish themselves as they do so, playing ever further into the hands of law enforcement. Truly, the cruelty they inflict cuts them just as deeply. It would be ideal for each of us to discover that truth before we do something irrevocable... but better late than never. [Via]

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