"Move The World With Your Mental Leverage..."

This spring I biked out into the furthest reaches of Queens to visit a statue I'd read about on Forgotten New York. Planted in front of City Hall in 1922, Civic Virtue failed to channel the spirit of the times, and the portrayal of a virtuous warrior trampling octopoid seductresses (meant to symbolize "civic vice") struck suffragettes as a bit off-message. After a 19 year trial period full of many complaints, the statue was exported to the newly-erected Borough Hall in 1941, which is so far from Manhattan, it might as well be in Pennsylvania.

Charmed by anything octopoid, I was determined to see and photograph the statue myself before it fell completely to ruin. In my photoset on Flickr, you can tell which details charmed me the most: a skull grasped by its face, the suckered tentacles slowly being eroded by pollution, the Black Lagoon-esque gargoyles that once spewed water into the fountain (it's now full of garbage). The best surprise waiting for me was this pair of sneakers suspended in the muck -- it takes very little imagination to wonder whether there's an actual person down there still attached to them. A warning, perhaps, to misadventurers like myself.

Regardless of whether Civic Virtue is a triumph or failure of municipal art, he makes a damned fine King of Swords. If the suit of Swords relates to reason, discernment, awareness, and conflict resolution, then the King shows the masterful application of these qualities at its finest and most effective. This is you at your sharpest, able to make war or peace with your judgments. It will require much discipline and a very strong foundation to stand upon as you move the world with your mental leverage, but the vices coiled around you will cower and despair as you rise up to do what needs to be done.

As for the sexism outcry, which persists to this day, I don't really get it. It's mythology and symbolism -- it is what it is. Justice is always portrayed as a female, is that sexist?

Previously On Arcanalogue: The King Of Swords