"An Intuitive Link With One's Craft..."

Earlier today I quoted Waite's Pictorial Key To The Tarot for lulz, but this is a good chance to quote it for truth. Last year author Sloane Crosley promoted her new collection of humorous essays I Was Told There'd Be Cake by presenting a series of dioramas, each based on a different tale from the book. I ran across this bit on Gawker today saying that she's now auctioning off one of the dioramas to benefit Housing Works, a NYC-based charity that fights AIDS and homelessness.

Here's Waite's description of his Queen of Coins, circa 1910:

"The face suggests a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein. Divinatory Meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty."

Don't know that I have a lot to add to that, as the parallel to Crosley's photo above is incredibly apt. But I will say that I personally loved her book; it's a beautifully curated catalogue of the worldly (and often humiliating) experiences that groomed a young woman into a battle-weary New Yorker. The diorama aspect of the project certainly plays to the Martha Stewart (or Amy Sedaris, whichev) aspect of creative pragmatism and hard work that this card is known for. Her work is never done, there is always a new wrinkle -- something also signified by this Housing Works venture.

The difference between a Queen and a Princess in the Tarot boils down to the cultivation of an intuitive link with one's craft, until creation and judgment become united and are wielded almost unconsciously. Here's looking forward to more of everything, both for and from Crosley.

Previously On Arcanalogue...