I discovered last week that a writer’s block doesn’t always indicate a lack of creative energy. It can also be a symptom of creative energy being channelled in the wrong direction.
I spent the bulk of the morning and afternoon of the 25th September at the computer trying to write a couple of different blog posts. By 7pm I had all but given up but rather than power down the computer I decided to turn my attentions to the new tarot deck. This was where my energies should have been directed in the first place for once I started, I was straight in the zone. I worked until the early hours of the morning and completed not one but two new Major Arcana images.
Ironically, the images concerned are the beginning and the end of the Major Arcana; the Fool and the World. You can see them here along with the other cards I’ve completed to date:
The Fool is the beginning of all things in modern tarot but the World speaks of culmination, fulfilment and completion. In the Quantum Tarot, Kay symbolised this concept by linking the card to the hypothetical ‘Theory of Everything’. This is the Holy Grail for many physicists as, if discovered, it would provide an over-arching explanation for all phenomena in the Universe and explain many of the seemingly contradictory laws of Physics.
In traditional Tarot, the World follows on from the Last Judgment. It’s symbolism was originally derived from a combination of Christian and Gnostic sources. Early cards showed depictions of the ‘new Earth’ as mentioned in the book of Revelation. This is the paradise promised by God to those who have attained eternal life. Later cards began to show either the figure of Christ or a mysterious woman within a wreath, both surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists. These are the man, the lion, the eagle and the bull. In the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, these appear as the four faces of the creatures who bore God’s chariot. The faces are symbolic of the four elements and the four directions.
Modern cards usually show a female dancer, often holding two wands. She’s based on the gnostic figure ‘Sophia’ or wisdom. She stands within a wreath of triumph, amidst the four elements and the four directions. She has mastery over the elements and they are balanced within her. In my card, the wreath is a rainbow, bound together by stars; one each to represent the four directions of North, South, East and West. The elements are shown in their literal form rather than through the symbols of the four evangelists.
The dancer represents the culmination of all our hopes, our desires and our endeavours but as always with the Tarot, when one door closes, another one opens. We may have reached our journey’s end but that only means a new phase is beginning.
Chris.
Chris Butler.
Illustrator for the Quantum Tarot. Published by Kunati Books.
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