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snarkywrites · 3 years

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April Horoscopes: Manifestation

Aries Season is here adding drama, love, and courageous energy into our lives. After seasons with mostly Earth and Air planets, we are back to Cardinal. This is the start of the Astrological New Year and it has arrived with an influx of passion. Venus and the Sun are already in Aries this month and Mercury will enter on the 3rd. One transit to look forward to is the New Moon in Aries on the 11th. Set your intentions and dream big because this Moon will not be afflicted by Saturn. Instead, it is embraced by both Saturn and Jupiter. We will be welcoming the powerful Taurean energy on the 14th when Venus will be in domicile. Sun and Mercury will follow on the 19th, adding to a huge stellium that will conflict with Saturn. Nevertheless, this energy is still lovely and romantic. Mars will shift into a water sign after a long time and the Full Moon in Scorpio on the 26th will add more of that dreamy water energy. A reminder with this Full Moon and the Pluto Retrograde on the 27th, that there is still internal work to be done but we can still feel and embrace the magic and inspiration it will bring.

Aries – Your birthday season is here bringing you a period of contemplation and a little chaos. Mercury enters your sign on the 3rd changing the way we communicate from dreamy to daring and brash. This planet in your sign builds our momentum fuels us with passion and even more drive since it will be joining the Sun and Venus. When the New Moon enters your sign on the 11th, we will be fortunate to experience more of that Cardinal energy that will help us move forward. Expect some magic and manifestation powers during this New Moon. If you want it, envision, and go for it. Venus will be in the sign of Taurus beginning on the 14th. The energy now translates to “treat yourself” and you shall during your birthday season. Venus enjoys being in this sign, so more of the good will accompany you during this time. Another interesting transit will be on the 23rd when Mars enters the sign of Cancer. It will be a frustrating transit as this planet will squaring your sign until June. Try to be patient, because Mars will have you repeating tasks if you do not work things out properly the first time. Get focused, keep going and have fun. The Full Moon in Scorpio will be on the 26th, adding some exhilarating and teary moments as you focus on letting go. Finally, the month closes with a Pluto retrograde on the 27th which is going to allow you to reevaluate your career choices for the next five months once again. Card of the month: Ace of Cups Reversed; create fearlessly.

Taurus – Your birthday season also begins middle of the month but some notable transits for you are Mercury entering the sign of Aries on the 3rd. Here you will be reflective as Mercury joins the Sun and Venus in your house of the subconscious. The New Moon on the 11th will be a great time for you to set your intentions regarding what you wish to gain and what you aspire to do in the next six months. A favorable aspect will be Venus entering your sign on the 14th. You are going to feel lucky and beautiful. Mercury and the Sun will join Venus on the 19th. You are going to be feeling more in your element once Taurus season begins on that day. Mars will enter the sign of Cancer on the 23rd, motivating you to create and produce. Socializing will not be an issue now as you can acquire more fame through social media if you put your all into it. The Scorpio Full Moon on the 26th will once again have you contemplating relationships as you look once again to those dynamics at work and your personal life. Issues relating to October 2020 might reappear demanding you to resolve them. Pluto will close the month with a retrograde in the sign of Capricorn on the 27th, making a positive aspect to your sign. More of that transformative energy will continue to follow you since Uranus is also in your sign demanding changes that will make you uncomfortable, but you can handle it. Card of the month: King of Cups; don’t be afraid of emotions or romance.

Gemini – Mars is currently in your sign making a positive aspect to Jupiter and Saturn. You are making things work and getting things done. Mercury, your ruler will be in Aries on the 3rd. This brings a positive dynamic between Mercury and Mars, which will add to your creative spirit and it will surprise you to see how much content you can produce if you keep at it. The New Moon in Aries on the 11th is a good time to put your projects out there because you could get the recognition you have been dreaming of. Taurus Season begins on the 19th when Sun and Mercury move in to join Venus. During this transit, you will want to take a break from the world and recharge as you await your season’s entry next month. Mars will leave your sign and enter the sign of Cancer on the 23rd, making you work harder for the money. The focus and dedication will allow you to build up your income, just make sure not to overspend. On the 26th, the Full Moon in Scorpio is a period of evaluation when it comes to your daily routines and habits. More contemplative energy followed the next day with Pluto Retrograde in the sign of Capricorn. This transits in conjunction could inspire a trip down memory lane but you will just smile and look back because you are on your way to more success. Card of the month: Queen of Pentacles; Be confident in your position of power.

Cancer – As a Cardinal sign you are probably looking for a way to feel more in control this month. Mercury enters the sign of Aries on the 3rd, allowing you to set your sights on the top and manifest greater things. It is the time to make your career dreams come true as the New Moon in Aries graces your house of career on the 11th. With this Stellium, you are on your way to making big moves and acquiring big things if you plan and get to work. A lot of heart, passion and focus will get you anywhere this year. Taurus energy will be amplified with Venus entering this sign on the 14th. This is a great time to receive praise for the work you have done and to have some fun connecting with colleagues or friends. On the 19th, we enter Taurus Season and Mercury tags along with the Sun to build on your need for socializing and the Full Moon in Scorpio on the 26th adds some excitement and intensity to your house of romance. There will be huge decisions to be made when Pluto goes retrograde on the 27th that will focus on your relationships. There could be people from the past returning in your life. You have the choice to embrace or let them go. Card of the month: Ace of Swords: Use your creative energy now.

Leo – Like the other fire signs, you are going to embrace Aries season since it will make you feel quite excited. The expansive energy that this point in time will bring you is great for pursuing dreams and achievement before the summer. Mercury will enter the sign of Aries on the 3rd, so if you are in school or contemplating going back, you might feel encouraged to go with it and pick the program you are interested in pursuing. You are going to want to digest information during this transit and once the New Moon in Aries occurs on the 11th, you will feel more confident in what you envision for your future. Taurus Season begins on the 19th, which means you are going to shift gears and focus on achievement and recognition during this transit. You have the favorable energy from Venus that will allow you to shine brightly and impress either professors or bosses. When Mars enters the sign of Cancer on the 26th, you are going to want to retreat from the world and this is perfect since it will allow you to work hard on your pending projects or just find new ways to excel at work. The Pluto Retrograde will open your eyes and allow you to express yourself in ways that are going to be more beneficial in the long run. Card of the month: Six of Pentacles Reversed; Focus on yourself more.

Virgo – Aries Season might not feel like much of an inspiration to you as the intense Pisces Season’s magic continues to linger. Mercury enters Aries on the 3rd, which can be an uncomfortable placement for you. You might reconnect with the past and understand your need to make changes in the future especially with the New Moon in Aries on the 11th, prompting you to let go and forgive. Venus in Taurus on the 14th initiates a period of harmony for you. The Sun and Mercury join Venus on the 19th, officially creating a stellium in Taurus. This is going to bring some answers to the questions posed during Aries Season. If you are focused on relationships this period, try to heal before entering a serious one. Taurus Season will give you the courage to face what is to come and peace of mind. The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 26th will have you traveling and communicating. Put your thoughts in writing to release tension and pain. The Pluto Retrograde on the 27th will once more magnify any issues with relationships and romance. Forgive, let go and be open to love. Card of the month: Five of Wands Reversed; opt for peace not chaos.

Libra – You are going to enjoy the powerful energy that this Aries Season has in store for you. Venus and the Sun are already creating harmonious energies to your romantic life. If you are single, you might meet someone interesting during this three-week period before Taurus Season begins. Mercury will be in the sign of Aries on the 3rd, making you bolder when it comes to communicating. The New Moon in Aries on the 11th will be a great time to fall in love again with your partner. Your heart may be full of joy during this transit since there is a sextile to Jupiter, it will bring pleasure and will inspire you. This is powerful and welcoming energy you need to close out this season. Taurus Season begins on the 19th. Sun, Mercury, and Venus will provide you guidance in matters of love as well as the financial. You might have support from others now or will feel compelled to dive into the treat yourself mentality that Venus will bring since it rules your sign as well. With the Full Moon in Scorpio adding to the themes of value and self-worth, you are going to feel empowered. The Pluto Retrograde on the 27th sets the tone for the changes that will need to be made for future success in work and home. Card of the month: Queen of Swords Reversed; watch your tongue.

Scorpio – You are going to work hard for what you want during this Aries Season and it will be successful especially with the New Moon in Aries on the 11th allowing you to show others who is in control and who is the boss. Your work ethic will shine as the planets in Aries form a sextile to Saturn and Jupiter during this season. Taurus Season will bring back some interesting dynamics into your relationships. You are going to evaluate what your partner has to offer beginning on the 19th when Sun and Mercury enter your house of partnerships. But thankfully, Venus is also there, adding comfort and joy to your life as well. You are able to effectively communicate while being diplomatic with friends and/or romantic partners. Single people might meet someone interesting now with striking Venusian qualities that are likely to keep you interested. A major transit will be the Full Moon in your sign on the 26th, a time where cycles are closing. You are going to learn a little more about yourself and your own capabilities. If you have felt down with all these stressful Saturn and Uranus energies, you are going to reclaim some of the control again. Pluto in Capricorn will start its retrograde motion on the 27th. Expect some changes in the way you express yourself during this transit. Card of the month: Seven of Wands Reversed; be wary of others.

Sagittarius – Fire is in the air this month which is a great change from all the Air energy that has accompanied us for the first part of the year. Mercury in Aries on the 3rd is going to make you more charming. The bold energy of Aries intensifies as the planets begin to build into a stellium in your house of romance and pleasure. On the 11th, the stellium is complete with the New Moon that will allow you to meet new people and you will experience a bit of nostalgia. You might reminisce on past relationships, as you think back to the Mars in Aries transit that happened last year. It also does not help that Mars in Gemini is bringing some transformations to the way you view relationships. After the passion and emotion of this New Moon’s energy, you are going to get more driven and focused once Venus enters Taurus on the 14th. You are ready to make your mark, and no one is going to stop you. Once Taurus season officially enters on the 19th, those plans you made earlier in the year will begin to take flight. As Mars changes signs on the 23rd, you are going to deal with a new emotional intensity you probably did not want to handle now. These transits will only help to make you stronger in the long run, so go with the flow and practice patience. More transformative energy with the Full Moon in Scorpio on the 26th and Pluto Retrograde on the 27th. This will be your period of reflection and understanding as you prepare for Gemini Season next month. Card of the month: Two of Wands: Be fearless with your choices.

Capricorn – Get ready to feel fired up during the month of April as your focus shifts from the career field to the home. This is your month to make changes that make you feel more comfortable and to bring a nice peaceful energy to your home. Connecting with family will be huge this month as things begin to get more exciting when Mercury is in the sign of Aries on the 3rd, allowing you to reconnect with traditions and the past. With Venus and the Sun already in the same sign, things will amplify with the New Moon on the 11th, bringing you to focus on changes for the future as well as the successes that have allowed you to triumph for so long. Venus will be in the sign of Taurus beginning on the 14th, so if your romantic life felt a little boring, now is the time to meet new people and begin to feel desirable as this planet makes a trine to your sign. Sun and Mercury enter the sign of Taurus on the 19th, adding more flare and creative energy into your life. Your focus will gradually move from work to romance once Mars enters Cancer on the 23rd. Get ready to attract more emotional people that will provide some interesting perspectives to you. The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 26th has you feeling more sociable, so this is a good time to reconnect with friends or just trim your social circles a bit. The month closes with Pluto, the lone planet in your sign will begin its retrograde motion on the 27th. More transformations ahead. Card of the month: Ace of Pentacles: Financial success awaits.

Aquarius – A big year for you and this month is going to bring lighthearted energy. With the Aries stellium forming, the way you communicate will be audacious and filled with courage. For the creatives, this energy will be inspirational and allow you to be more driven. You are going to have a wonderful time connecting with friends and family. Venus in Taurus on the 14th is going to be a favorable transit especially in the home front. This could be bringing more of a need to make aesthetic changes as you want to bring your ideas to life and renovation might make you feel emotionally satisfied. On the 19th, the Sun and Mercury will also join Venus. This Taurus season will be jam packed and a little stressful since the Venusian planets will be facing off with Saturn, but you can handle it. With Jupiter still in your sign you will be able to overcome and handle any obstacles that are in your way. The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 26th will make an opposition to Uranus. If you are feeling an itch to make changes, think things carefully. This is a transit that asks you to go with the flow and continue working towards what you want in the future. The month ends with a Pluto Retrograde on the 27th. While this can feel intense, it will not compare to what you faced last year with the Capricorn Stellium. You now have guidance and personal experience to handle it. Your power will be known after it. Card of the month: Ten of Cups is a reminder to seek your happily ever after.

Pisces – You are going to do a lot and reevaluate yourself during this Aries Season. Mercury in Aries on the 3rd brings you a sign regarding the way you manage finances. Do the research, be patient and try not to overspend with Venus and the Sun currently in the same sign. The New Moon in Aries on the 11th is going to get down to the gritty parts and will have you doing some more inner work. You are going to think about relationships as well with Venus adding bits of nostalgia. On the 14th, Venus will be in Taurus and the themes will move to connecting and socializing. You will reunite with people or just meet new folks during this Taurus Season which officially begins on the 19th. Mars will be moving in the sign of Cancer on the 23rd which can bring excitement, romance, and drama. Try not to be too dramatic during this transit as Mars tends to make us all a little more passionate. In Cancer it is likely to make us all emotional. The Full Moon in Scorpio is a breath of fresh air for you, and it will happen on the 26th. A Cycle will close, and you are going to feel a weight begin to lift off your shoulders. The opposition this Moon has to Uranus might bring some highs and lows, but you are going to feel enlightened after it. The Pluto Retrograde on the 27th adds a little flare to your relationships yet again. People from the past might return or you might see big changes in your social groups. Card of the month: Strength; you are courageous and powerful.

#Astrology #Horoscopes #Aries #Taurus #Gemini #Cancer #Leo #Virgo #Libra #Scorpio #Sagittarius #Capricorn #Aquarius #Pisces

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lacrimaomnis · 3 years

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BRF Reading, 26/6/2021

June is slowly drawing to a close, and I wonder what lies ahead for the BRF. This is intended as general reading for the BRF as a whole as opposed to being specific for every member.

As written, this is merely a speculation and therefore must be taken with a grain of salt. This speculation is not true until proven otherwise.

My question is, how will July probably be like for the family as a whole?

Cards drawn: Five of Wands, The Star, Seven of Wands, Ten of Wands, Two of Swords, Seven of Swords, Eight of Pentacles.

Remarks/Comments: Wow. Not gonna lie, I have that pikawow face for a while the moment I have my cards drawn.

Summary: As three of the seven cards (at least half) of the draw are Wands, it could mean that the BRF will face issues that require careful thinking and planning to navigate. Five of Wands explicitly says there will be yet another conflict and disagreement. It would be a hard month ahead for both them and us.

First card: Five of Wands. This card represents a fight for the sake of, well, fighting. As this is the first and therefore, the most important card in this spread, this perhaps signifies that BRF will see themselves yet again at a fight with the estranged Sussexes. The fight, of course, would not be an actual fight where everyone wields a weapon, but PR fights. We probably should expect a lot more formal palace statements than we have seen and we probably should expect more publicity stunts and PRs from the Sussexes.

Second card: The Star. The only major arcana in this reading. This sets a very different tone from the rest of the cards: while we would see "war" of PRs ahead in July, this card tells us, the readers, and the spectators to have hope. That the BRF should also have hope that the storm will pass, that this war would be temporary. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Traditionally, this card comes after The Tower (XVI) -- a much-needed reprieve after the destruction and everything that came crashing down that was represented by The Tower. This reminds me that some readers around here had seen Meghan's Tower moment is coming, and this gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, we will see that Tower moment very soon. Her Tower moment will give the family their very much-needed reprieve and hope that there can be a way to mend the rift between them and the Sussexes, should they wish so.

Third card: Seven of Wands. This card speaks about challenge and perseverance. This card can be interpreted as that there will be people who challenge BRF to take their place (the Sussexes) or to be interpreted as an advice to persevere through the war brought upon by the Five of Wands. Therefore, the presence of this card can be interpreted that the Sussexes will once again challenge BRF, demanding "their place" or "their right", and that BRF should remain firm and persevere even under the pressure of their demands. This card advises the BRF to move carefully, to map out potential threats as to maximise the chance they have at victory.

Fourth card: Ten of Wands. The burden they carry may seem to be a little bit too heavy. A little bit too much. The important thing to note is that this is only temporary. Tying in with The Star, it is prudent to remember that like every other obstacle, burden, and problem, no matter how burdening or heavy they are, this too shall pass.

This card also tells me that some members might take on more responsibility as the Queen steps back -- we might be able to expect more members of the family to step up and take more engagements, or that the current members of the family will take even more engagements.

Fifth card: Two of Swords. The card of difficult decisions. Paired with the Ten of Wands, perhaps this tells us that one of the more heavy burdens the BRF has to carry has to do with a very difficult decision. Whatever that difficult decision is, this card advises the BRF to weigh the options they have at hand and to act accordingly. This card also warns BRF and us that we can avoid taking that difficult decision for only so long; sooner or later, we have to face it and make our decision.

Sixth card: Seven of Swords. If there is any card I don't want to see while trying to interpret the cards, it is this card. The card of betrayal and deception, this tells me that BRF might again see another betrayal or deception, so to speak. Paired with the Seven of Wands, this might imply that the Sussexes will once again "betray" the family, or, to be franker, the Sussexes will perhaps once again deceive the family. Given their pattern of telling lies so far, I will not be surprised if this does happen.

On its own, however, this card might also advise the BRF to be strategic in what they do, to prioritise things to deal with. As this is also a card of secrecy, this might tell us that BRF is working in secret -- as the pair of this card is Seven of Wands, perhaps BRF is working on something in secret as a countermeasure against the Sussexes.

Seventh card: Eight of Pentacles. This card advises the BRF to keep at it, to keep toiling, to keep their eyes ahead. This card is an encouragement to keep at it because they will reap what they sow.

Conclusion: July will be a quite hard month for all of us and especially the BRF, as we should probably expect one or more PR dramas and fights throughout this month. But we should have hope -- there is light at the end of the tunnel.

#reading: brf #g reads

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anzu-kaiba · 4 years

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Some thoughts on Hocus Pocus, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Magic Zine Tarot Deck & Spell Book, Part 1 (The Major Arcana)

As I mentioned in my previous post on Hocus Pocus, the Yu-Gi-Oh! magic [fan] zine, I have some specific and detailed thoughts on the included Tarot deck and spell book, which I paid extra to get.

Below, a New Moon reading I did using the deck:

Above, left to right, top to bottom:: Queen of Pentacles Reversed, The Emperor, Knight of Swords Reversed, The Moon Reversed, Two of Wands Reversed, Page of Swords Reversed.

First, a disclaimer: I’ve been reading Tarot for about 20 years now, and am most familiar with Rider-Waite-Smith decks, which are one of the two most popular modern Tarot deck styles. While I do bring up history/Tarot tradition in my review of this deck, this review is opinion alone.

Some need-to-know facts about Tarot decks today:

RWS decks are named after the publisher/author/artist behind the Tarot deck (respectively): William Rider & Son, A.E. Waite, and Pamela Colman Smith.

Thoth decks are the other style, created by Aleister Crowley, with art by Lady Frieda Harris.

RWS decks use imagery for all of the cards, not just the Major Arcana (as was the style for centuries before). This helps evoke specific meanings from the scenes, rather than just showing a tableau of five swords, for example.

Additionally, RWS decks switch the position of Strength (8) and Justice (11) compared to Thoth and other historical decks, where Strength is 11 and Justice is 8. This was done to further associate Strength with Leo/the Lion and Justice with Libra/the Scales.

Some Major Arcana cards have had their names changed as well, e.g., the Hierophant instead of the Pope, and the High Priestess instead of the Papess.

Thoth decks have slightly modified suits and court card names compared to RWS: Pentacles/Coins in Thoth decks are called Disks; instead of a Page, Knight, Queen, and King, Thoth decks have a Prince, Princess, Queen, and Knight (in the same order, so a Knight is higher than a Queen in the Thoth style).

Thoth deck cards also have alternative or secondary names, like Abundance, Lust, and Adjustment; or “Lord of Sorrow,” and “Lord of Despair.” (They’re not all depressing-sounding, though.)

As far as the Hocus Pocus deck goes, each of the Major Arcana cards is done by a different artist (with some repeats), while each of the Minor Arcana suits are done by a single artist (e.g., one artist for Wands, another for Swords, etc.)

The accompanying booklet dives right into the meanings of the cards, with no introduction to Tarot in general, spreads, or anything like that.

While I think it’s awesome that it’s so easy to find out who designed which cards and who wrote what interpretation, it is a bit frustrating that, if I’m on page 26, I can’t readily tell what Suit it’s for without either flipping back to the start of the section or carefully reading each meaning to see if the suit itself is mentioned. It would also be helpful to have illustrations of each card in the book, so that someone knows not only what suit is what, but if they’re looking at the right card (assume they want to look at the image and not read the tiny text at the bottom of the card).

Let’s begin at the beginning: with The Fool.

I’m glad the Hocus Pocus deck went with Yuugi for The Fool; he’s the perfect character for the card, and it matches at least one version of the “official” Yu-Gi-Oh! Major Arcana:

Yuugi’s dressed in clothes that closely resemble a court jester, which is a...choice, but it makes sense if that's the immediate association people have with “a fool.” He’s carrying what appears to be a large carpet and some juggling balls, and behind him there are signs pointing left and right, but other than that, we don’t get a real sense of his “foolishness,” which you typically see with The Fool about to walk off a cliff while sniffing a flower or similar. The point is that he’s meant to be wide-eyed, off on his first adventure to seek his fortune. The expression on Yuugi’s face in this deck, at a minimum, captures that.

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As for The Magician, if a Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot deck doesn’t depict Mahad/The Black Magician or Mana/Black Magician Girl, they’re simply Doing It Wrong™ IMO. I’m glad this deck not only has an incredible piece of art done by @yearslateforyugiohshippings, but that it captures the essence of RWS Magicians in showing the Black Magician using his tool to “activate” the powers of all four suits/the elements: a cup (water), a coin/pentacle (earth), a sword (air), and another wand/stick (fire). Positively stunning.

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The art for the High Priestess, featuring Isis is equally stunning. She’s not my favorite character, but @ruiojousama‘s art is SO DAMN AMAZING that I would seriously consider getting a print of this card to hang up somewhere. It is gorgeously detailed, making it clear that yes, this is the Priestess Isis you know from the series, but also it features a few elements from RWS Tarot Decks: she’s holding a tablet of “secrets,” in this case, a piece of stone that’s cut to resemble the Millennium Pendant/Puzzle. The headdress Priestess Isis wore in the manga also resembles the one associated with the goddess, who often bore symbols of both the Sun and the Moon.

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The Empress is where I got a little peeved. First, the card name is spelled incorrectly, as “Emperess.” Second, The Empress is one of the most feminine cards in the entire Tarot, and while I understand that a Yu-Gi-Oh! deck has limited female characters to choose from it does not have NONE. Where the official Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot depicts Mai, the Hocus Pocus deck inexplicably chooses Atem, perhaps solely so that it can “pair” him with the character featured on The Emperor card, Seto Kaiba.

A few things to know about The Empress: she's associated with Venus, the planetary ruler over Libra (Pegasus, Sugoroku) and Taurus (maybe Honda, maybe Priest Shada). While Mai is canonically a Scorpio, she is probably the most overtly feminine character in the series, openly acknowledging both her “feminine wiles” and her willingness to use them. The Empress is also traditionally depicted as pregnant; she’s the “mother” in the cycle of the maiden-mother-crone triad. While we don’t have any explicit, living, recurring mother characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! (even Yuugi’s own mother only appears once or twice, and I believe at least one of those appearances got cut from the dub), they do exist.

Choosing to make Atem the Empress actually kind of pisses me off, because both as a character and astrologically, he has nothing to do with the aspects of the Empress. The character is canonically listed as being born on the 19th day of the third/final month of the harvest season, or “Shemu.” I calculated this in a previous Tumblr post as being equivalent to March 8 (although there are other possibilities that also make sense), a Pisces, ruled by Neptune nowadays and Jupiter in the past.

Of the other possible signs Atem could have been born under (due to difficulty translating dates from 3,016 years ago), the only one ruled by Venus is Libra, if he was born in early October. The problem is that the Egyptian calendar used three main seasons: Flooding / Planting / Harvest, and another character, Priest Kalim (holder of the scales) was born in the second month of the FLOOD season, and at least one source puts that as being in the second week of October. So either Atem is born in October and is a Libra and ruled by the scales and the Priest of the Millennium Scales is NOT, or Atem is born at a completely different time of year. I think the latter is more likely, given the character symbolism. Atem is not an “empress” figure in any way.

I do appreciate the book pointing out that the Empress, like the Emperor, are not restricted to people who identify as one gender or there other. It’s about energy. But nonetheless, Atem doesn’t display feminine energy throughout the series. He might not be quite as extreme on the scale as, say, Seto Kaiba, Hiroto Honda, or even Katsuya Jounouchi are in terms of masculinity, but he’s certainly not the most “feminine” character in terms of presentation, attitude, or anything.

It bugs me that the characters were drawn simply to be “paired” as Emperor and Empress, and not because the cards actually have a great deal of symbolism associated with them. Yes, the Emperor and Empress are generally considered as married to one another in traditional Tarot decks, but plenty of decks exist that instead have them as “heads of state,” similar to how the Papess/High Priestess is never regarded as secondary to the Pope/Hierophant. If you want to go more mythical, the Empress is Venus/Aphrodite, and the Emperor is Mars/Ares, and you wouldn't dare to tell Venus that she should shut up and go make Mars a sandwich while she stands barefoot and naked in the kitchen. Both archetypes are powerful in their own way, and that should be respected, not twisted to suit a ‘ship.

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I will say that making Seto Kaiba the Emperor makes sense to me. He exudes the traditionally serious, “I am the authority,” energy that is associated with the card.

Fun fact, but Scorpio (Seto’s sign) was ruled by Mars before astronomers and astrologers knew about the existence of Pluto. But if you did want to keep the traditional Mars rulership, then Isis and Espa Roba are both definitively Aries, while Honda falls on the cusp between Aries/Taurus (Mars/Venus).

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The Hierophant is also known as the Pope in some decks, and is supposed to be the card representing tradition, dogma, “the way things should be done,” and so on. The chosen card here is the Black-Clothed Great Sage (Dark Sage), though I think Gozaburo also could have worked here. The official Yu-Gi-Oh! deck has Pegasus, which ALSO makes sense, considering he’s the creator of Duel Monsters and established “how things should be done.” I like how this rendition of the card has the Sage making gestures as if he’s in the middle of casting a spell, much how the traditional Hierophant is often giving blessings to a pair of people, or instructing a pair of priests.

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The sixth card in the Major Arcana is The Lovers. Going back to the different styles of decks, RWS decks tend to feature two (humans) on this card, to better associate with the astrological sign it’s associated with: Gemini, the sign of the Twins. That’s not to say that the Lovers are Twins or anything, just that two/duality is often part of the imagery of this card. Usually Adam and Eve are depicted on this card, with an archangel looking over them. Sometimes you’ll also see the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the serpent, if not the Apple. The Hocus Pocus deck depicts Funny Bunny in the place of the archangel, and Cyndia and Pegasus as The Lovers, dancing atop what is probably meant to be a book of Toon World. It fits, though you would have to think somewhat deeply about Yu-Gi-Oh! lore to be aware of the connection between the characters and one of the lesser-known meanings of the card: CHOICE.

I used to think that the seventh card, The Chariot, was more about choice (left or right? black or white?), but it’s actually more about willpower. I thought that the eighth card in an RWS deck, Strength, was more about willpower (the other name for Strength in older decks is “Fortitude”), but it’s more about self-confidence, a sense of calm/purpose, and control. I suppose you could frame those latter meanings under “willpower,” but I see them as being different in small but meaningful ways.

Going back to the HP deck, I feel it captures the essence of “choice” in there in a subtler way; the official Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, depicting Yuugi and Anzu on camelback in Egypt, doesn’t at all. How? Well, in putting Pegasus and Cyndia in silhouette, we’re left to imagine the expressions on their faces. They seem like they’d be happy, dancing with flowers and vines all around them, but we the viewer/reader know that their love story doesn’t end like the story book they’re standing on. We know that Pegasus makes a choice to try and recapture this feeling and in doing so, sets off the chain of events that make the Yu-Gi-Oh! series possible. Just think: if Pegasus had opted to mourn normally, instead of pursuing the possibility of resurrecting Cyndia again/seeing her again somehow, the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! series would have been different....

As I previously mentioned, the card is associated with Gemini, ruled by Mercury. In that sense, using Yuugi on this card makes sense, as he is a Gemini. Additionally, Mercury/Hermes is the God of Travel (among many other things) so depicting Yuugi and Anzu traveling works, too. Trying to think about all the symbolism rife in a single Tarot card could easily give someone a headache, but it’s there for a reason, and I love it when I see a deck that intentionally makes as much use of the traditional symbols and their meanings while also infusing their own style. In this case, I like how it all works with the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters and story we know and love, too.

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I briefly mentioned that the meaning of the seventh card, The Chariot, in traditional RWS decks deals with willpower. You’ll see a Charioteer having to direct two powerful stallions (sometimes sphinxes; in the case of the Hocus Pocus Tarot, it’s Exodia and Exodia Necross, which are...interesting choices, but at least readily recognizable). I used to think that each of the creatures carrying the chariot were trying to direct the charioteer (in this case, a somewhat cross-eyed Atem) in their own direction, but a better way to think about it would be the rider having control or the creatures having control. Depicting Atem in this manner makes sense, though again, I might have gone with a different Duel Monster over Exodia.

Often there’s a great deal of hidden symbolism throughout The Chariot, including the charioteer’s armor, the chariot’s cover, and what the realm BEHIND the charioteer is leaving behind, but it looks like much of that has been left out in the Hocus Pocus deck in the interest of recognizability. If I were to interpret the symbols that ARE there, the fact that Atem is leaving either pyramids (symbols of death and rebirth) or dunes (symbols of constant change, among other things) implies that he’s headed toward a new life, or alternatively, being stubborn with his “rebirth” and needing to repeat his actions again. The fact that he’s being led by two forms of Exodia, both themselves symbols of ultimate victory and death, helps balance out the symbolism: Atem is moving away from the traditional death/rebirth cycle of Pharaohs and towards another, one that is widely considered impossible or even dangerous (hence Exodia wearing Pharaonic jewelry, but also having broken chains on its wrists).

That the cover of his chariot is purple is a status symbol of his royalty, but that’s an association typically made thanks to more recent European and Mediterranean practices; you don’t see purple in much Ancient Egyptian art, if only because other colors (red, yellow, green, and blue) were more readily available. Red is the “desert” color, while black is the “Nile” color, or more specifically, the lands near the Nile. Yellow/Gold and White/Silver were often paired together, but gold wasn’t particularly rare in Egypt, so it wouldn’t have been used solely for royalty as a status symbol. Some blue and green stones were harder to find, but there were also fairly cheap or readily available substitutes, like faience (glass). Plenty of other colors existed thanks to the blending of minerals and plants, but not all of them survive today, which is why recreations of Egyptian art, or jewelry that’s been preserved or retouched is so colorful; it tells half the story on its own!

Strength in the Hocus Pocus deck features Jounouchi with his Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Traditionally you’d have someone putting their hand into a lion’s mouth (Strength is in the eighth position in RWS decks because of the lion’s association with Leo, the astrological sign ruled by the Lion), but this makes sense to me. Red-Eyes Black Dragon is a fiery creature, and Leo is ruled by the Sun, and is a Fire Sign. Jounouchi might be an Aquarius (Air), but the Red-Eyes is pretty much his signature card by the series’ end. But Jounouchi doesn’t need to put his hand in the Red-Eyes’ mouth, nor does he need to look particularly calm, or conversely, scared. He just looks like himself, which is what the card is all about: authenticity, self-control, calm... when Jounouchi is at his best, he’s not being over-reactionary or bombastic, he’s a damn fine duelist and a good friend/brother.

The official Yu-Gi-Oh! depiction for Strength is, somewhat unsurprisingly, Seto with Obelisk. It’s also using the Thoth numbering, meaning it’s the 11th card, instead of the eighth. The differences in the art is that one version has Seto “declaring an attack” and not looking calm at all, while the other has him standing more stoically, looking a lot calmer. I prefer the latter art for Strength.

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The Hermit is another unusual card in Hocus Pocus, but I like it: it features Kisara in long robes and holding a long cane/staff, surrounded by what appears to be willow vines. Her eyes are closed as she looks down, and she’s holding up an oil lamp lit by a particularly bright, glowing flame.

In the two variations of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot deck, the Hermit is either Akhenaden (Akunadin) looming over Priest Seto, or Shimon Muran (Sugoroku Mutou’s previous incarnation, and one of the early wielders of the Millennium Key), holding up the Millennium Item with Exodia in the background, holding its palms together as if readying an attack.

I feel Akhenaden or Kisara make more sense than Shimon do, as The Hermit is meant to be a solitary figure who passes on knowledge, but who is otherwise removed from the world for a reason.

While Kisara didn’t necessarily understand why she was shunned everywhere she went, she did eventually learn, thanks to Seto. In the anime, she chose to take that knowledge and not run away and become a hermit, but to save people: specifically, save Seto, even though she knew doing so would cost her life.

Akhenaden, on the other hand, withdrew from a position of power (third in line to the throne) after the creation of the Millennium Items, because he knew his family (including his young son Seto) would never understand the “sacrifice” he made to save the country. He did, after all, oversee the wholesale slaughter of almost an entire village of people, but it was with the intent of “saving” the rest of Egypt from invaders. He succeeded, but when his brother the Pharaoh discovered what he’d done, it pushed Aknamkanon closer to his death, and he died with regrets, wanting Atem to make up for the lives Akhenaden had wrongfully taken in the name of “justice.” He ended up tutoring Seto without the latter ever knowing that Akhenaden was his birth father until it was too late. Had he actually made his identity known after remaking the Millennium Items (I have to assume Shimon knew, but I don’t know why he would keep Akhenaden’s true birth a secret, let alone not watch over Seto as another heir to the throne), maybe he wouldn’t have become the High Priest of Darkness...

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Fun thing about the Wheel of Fortune is that the official Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot deck features the Millennium Ring, much as the Hocus Pocus deck does, but it does NOT show Bakura. Instead, the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck shows Dark Malik in one corner, Isis and Rishid in another, and “Papa Ishtar” looming above.

Normally The Wheel is one of the more ornate Tarot cards in a RWS deck. Here’s a description from one of my favorite Tarot resources, Biddy Tarot,’ about the symbols on the card:

The Wheel of Fortune card shows a giant wheel, with three figures on the outer edges. Four Hebrew letters – YHVH (Yod Heh Vau Heh), the unpronounceable name of God – are inscribed on the wheel’s face. There are also the letters TORA, thought to be a version of the word Torah, meaning ‘law’, or TAROT, or even ROTA (Latin for ‘wheel’). The middle wheel has the alchemical symbols for mercury, sulphur, water and salt – the building blocks of life and the four elements – and represents formative power.

On the outer circle is a snake, the Egyptian god Typhon (the god of evil), descending on the left side. The snake also represents the life force plunging into the material world. On the right side rises the Anubis, the Egyptian God of the dead who welcomes souls to the underworld. And on top of the wheel sits the Sphinx, representing knowledge and strength.

In the corners of the Wheel of Fortune card are four winged creatures, each associated with the four fixed signs of the Zodiac: the angel is Aquarius, the eagle is Scorpio, the lion is Leo, and the bull is Taurus. Their wings signify stability amidst movement and change, and each holds the Torah, representing wisdom.

In both the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Hocus Pocus decks, we lose a LOT of that symbolism in favor of the one iconic “round” shape in the series: the Millennium Ring. Sadly, we also lose the implication that The Wheel represents GOOD luck as much as it does BAD luck. Of course, “luck” is always in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it? While I can’t think of what the Ring specifically did for Malik (especially in the manga) after he defeated Dark Bakura, the latter probably sees the Ring as the source of bad luck for him (he has it because his entire village got killed) but also good luck (it’s his key to getting revenge against the Pharaoh; it’s his connection to Zork and his powers; it allows him to dowse and find what he wants).

As far as the Ishtars each looking at the Ring differently, that could be one way to interpret the characters featured on the Yu-Gi-Oh! card: Isis and Rishid see the Ring as a powerful tool that should not be exploited; Papa Ishtar either didn’t know about it or had some role in it getting into Papa Bakura’s hands (after all, Bakura got it from his father), and Malik abused its powers to achieve his own gains.

That being said, we get a shirtless Bakura thanks to @ruiojousama, so I really have no complaints about the card otherwise. :P

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Justice is one of the cards with altered ordering in Thoth vs. RWS decks, so while in Hocus Pocus, it’s the 11th card, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, it’s the eighth. In the former deck, it depicts Shadi holding the Millennium Scales, which he’s used in the past to determine someone’s worthiness. We later see Bobasa use the scales to determine who’s allowed to go into the Memory World.

Bobasa reveals he’s an incarnation of Hasan/Shadi, and furthermore is the Spirit of the Millennium Stone where the Items were forged. Unlike the Items themselves that got “Spirits” after Zork and Atem went head to head, the Stone got imbued with the dying wish of Pharaoh Aknamkanon to help Atem “balance the scales” that Akhenaden disrupted by murdering everyone in Kul Elna. This also implies (at least in the manga) that High Priest Shada ≠ Shadi in the future. While Dark Side of Dimensions showed us Shadi incarnated in the 20th century, only to get killed by Bakura, we don't know if that Shadi was a human incarnation of the same Spirit, or what. Can Spirits die!?!?

Anyway, the Hocus Pocus card depicts what looks like Palladium Oracle Mahad holding the Scales in one hand, and a staff in another. Why Mahad? I don’t know; he’s the Black Magician and the holder of the Ring, not the Holder of the Scales (that was Kalim).

I guess if you set that aside, it makes sense; Justice and Scales are commonly paired with one another. RWS decks actually tend to show a woman (Justice the goddess) holding scales in one hand AND A SWORD IN THE OTHER. So I can appreciate this card for at least illustrating Mahad with something in either hand, as opposed to Shadi just holding up his hands and somehow levitating the Scales. If he at least HELD the Key in his other hand instead of just wearing it around his neck, it might capture the same essence, which is “what it says on the tin” —justice, fairness, accountability. The art by @sombreset is rich and moody, and I honestly feel like I’m in an ancient temple about to get JUDGED.

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The 12th card of the Major Arcana is The Hanged Man, formerly known The Traitor (in traditional Italian Tarot decks, anyway). Hocus Pocus uses photography here, and I’m pretty sure the person depicted is meant to be Seto Kaiba, at least based on other photos in the Hocus Pocus zine, but it’s honestly hard to tell. The card is meant to be one of “new perspectives,” as the Hanged Man is not hanging by his neck, but by one ankle. Some say he’s hung himself; the Hocus Pocus Tarot book implies a connection to the Norse God Odin who hung himself from Yggdrasil in order to gain knowledge of the runes. While this is an uncommon interpretation of The Hanged Man in my learnings, it’s not unheard of. I imagine if he’s NOT Odin and yet he’s gaining a new perspective, it's on the actions he took that caused him to be hung/branded a Traitor in the first place.

While typically The Hanged Man is shown with a halo around his head, implying some sort of spiritual awakening or enlightenment, the Hocus Pocus card features Seto (?) surrounded by red and white roses. It almost seems as if the white (whole) roses turn into red rose petals, which is an interesting “evolution,” demonstrating a loss of innocence, or the cycle of things from light to dark, birth to death. Gaining that perspective is one part of becoming older, and accepting hard truths is something Seto Kaiba is arguably great at (pivoted from being an orphan to being a CEO in a few years) to horrible (”magic? reincarnation? What nonsense are you going on about NOW?!”).

If you’ve ever played the Yu-Gi-Oh! video game Duelists of the Roses, it makes Seto into Christian Rosenkreuz and affiliates him with the Yorkists (who used the white rose as their emblem) and Yuugi becomes Henry Tudor (who used the red rose). Together, though, red and white roses represent UNITY.

Flowers and colors have their own whole language, so I won’t get into that here, but it’s interesting to imagine that red, the color of vitality, passion, and life is also the “end of a cycle” in the Hocus Pocus card, representing Seto bleeding out, perhaps, or that which one can never truly regain once innocence is lost.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! deck uses Jounouchi from his duel with Yuugi at the Docks during Battle City instead, and arguably any “halo” he has is artistic more than anything else. Still, if you think he started to “glow” as he realized what Malik was telling him to do Yuugi clashed with his true feelings, that could make for an “enlightenment halo” too. There are only a handful of moments in Yu-Gi-Oh! where you can argue someone had a real “a-ha!” moment, and I think the one the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck picked makes a lot of sense. I’m more unclear on the Hocus Pocus choice, since it doesn’t even look like Seto (?) is hanging. But, perhaps like Jounouchi in the card above, he’s figured out he did something awful the hard way, and that’s why the roses are going from white and whole to red and broken? He does look a bit injured...

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The 13th card in Tarot is almost always Death. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot uses Akhenaden as the High Priest of Darkness here, which makes sense; he’s a truly terrifying character, but at the end of the day, he’s still human, whether or not he’s got both eyeballs.

But Death is traditionally depicted as something INHUMAN, a skeleton sometimes clad in a robe and sometimes in armor. It doesn’t care who pleads before it, it doesn’t care whether men, women, or children fall before its horse’s hooves, nor peasants, serfs, or kings.

The Hocus Pocus deck also depicts a human here: Bakura. I’m not a huge fan of the art style on this card, but it appears to be Bakura holding up a planchette (cursor/pointer) for a ouija board, though the “eye” is very faint and hard to see, so it almost looks like a guitar pick. The dub changed his “killer” five-card combo (depicting five ghostly planchettes spelling out letters) from saying DEATH to FINAL, so I guess the wording on the cursor here makes sense, but there would have been no harm in maintaining the original wording, I feel.

While the background is suitably creepy, with open eyes and wide, grinning mouths, it loses the “all fall before death” feeling, and instead renders the card into something simultaneously sad and twisted.

DEATH IS NOT A BAD CARD. DEATH DOES NOT IMPLY ACTUAL DEATH.

The card is meant to refer to a great transformation, a transition from one stage of life to another. For example, getting Death in a Tarot spread about your career could mean you’re about to lose your job, but are likely to get another one. Death in a relationship spread could indicate a breakup, but it could just as equally indicate marriage, pregnancy, or any number of other “transformative” moments in a relationship. In other words, Death is not a destination, it is a part of the journey, a point in a much longer spectrum.

I would have preferred something like Necrofear here, a card that looks creepy but is actually in something of a “mothering” pose with the broken doll in its arms. Or maybe any number of skeletal Duel Monsters, like poor ol’ Skull Servant (Wight). Or maybe something more Egyptian-styled; Osiris is the God of the Underworld in Egyptian mythology, but would people have picked up on that if the two-headed red dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh! were used here? Hmmm.... There are many possibilities, but at least Bakura makes a degree of sense, even if it misses out on the “transformative” and “unerring” aspects of the card.

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Bakura gets another card in the Hocus Pocus deck with Temperance, depicting him much as he appeared in the episode where he embodied the Duel Monsters card “Change of Heart.” But aside from the black wings and overall shadowier tone to the “Dark” side of the card, he doesn’t resemble “Dark Bakura” on one half and Ryou Bakura on the other. Nor does it appear that the material he is moving from one Cup to another is fire transforming to water, just dark smoke moving from one place to another.

At least Hocus Pocus’ rendition makes more sense than the Yu-Gi-Oh! one, which depicts Mana and Black Magician Girl. Neither seems to be doing any sort of magic or alchemy, which is normally what the archangel traditionally depicted on the card is considered to be doing. But we do see the “transformation” of Mana, a scared, playful young apprentice magician, into a powerful magician and wielder of ka in her own right.

The card is known for showing two halves: on one side of the angel, a body of water, while a lush landscape sits on the other side. Temperance is one of the Tarot cards named for the Four Cardinal Virtues (including Strength and Prudence, which some see in The Hanged Man and others see in The Hermit), representing moderation or balance, This is different from the balance seen in “Justice,” though.

The only change I would make to the HP card is to have the smoke Bakura is moving from one cup to the other change color ever so slightly, to indicate it is not out-of-balance, either within him (a character overflowing with Darkness) or in the world (a world prone to catastrophe).

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And then there’s the 15th card, The Devil. Unsurprisingly, we get Zork for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot card, who’s as good a depiction of The Devil in Yu-Gi-Oh! as any. The Devil isn’t necessarily representative of evil, but more like sin, addiction, or our own failings. For this reason, Zork is one good choice for it, but so is the Hocus Pocus illustration by @mimibanii, which teeters on downright NAUGHTY!

It features a horned and winged Dark Malik wearing next to nothing, one hand clenched in a fist in front of him while the other flexes in claws off to the side. He’s stinking his tongue out in a devilish taunt, and he’s got a demonic third eye on his head that compels you to stare. Behind his wings, serpentine “tails” twist and turn. As far as representing temptation, this card does an excellent job of that!

The traditional RWS Devil often features two people getting tortured or punished, often humans chained up and in the process of transforming into devils themselves. They usually lack the awareness that their imprisonment is one of their own making, and that they are perfectly capable from escaping it should they so desire, but they can’t even think to look at each other, let alone their captor, to consider such a possibility. While those elements don’t appear on the HP card, I like the idea that Dark Malik’s closed fist could be interpreted as holding something (like a rope or chain) or as a subtle warning (”back off! You don’t want to get involved with what I do!”) compared to the clawing, more relaxed and open hand to his side. Overall, his pose is not inviting, it’s warning: “I’m dangerous, don’t mess with me,” but the look on his face is tempting, inviting trouble. This is an excellent card!

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Card 16, The Tower in any Yu-Gi-Oh!-themed Tarot deck is Kaiba-related, no matter what: in the Hocus Pocus deck, it’s Kaiba Corporation HQ surrounded by stormy red clouds; in the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, it’s Alcatraz Tower, site of the Battle City Finals.

Personally, I like the HP choice better, but I would have kept the traditional RWS depiction of people falling from the Tower--in this case, Gozaburo would have been the apt choice, though I suppose that could be disturbing to see, even if it were as a tiny figure.

Normally, lightning strikes the tower and sets a fire, which is why the people are falling from it, and often the deck depicts a crown falling too, indicating, like Death, that catastrophe and disaster don’t care who you are, and they come in many forms. Also like Death, the Tower isn’t inherently a bad card; while it IS representative of a major upheaval, whether that's good or bad depends on how prepared you are. For example, Kaiba Tower certainly didn’t represent BAD change for Seto, who took over the company and transformed it into something more aligned with his vision and values.

While the HP card doesn’t have lightning, the Yu-Gi-Oh! one does, but it also features Jounouchi and Dark Yuugi looking backward at the viewer, indicating some awareness of what they are about to go and face. However, they had no idea Kaiba planned to blow up the Tower regardless of the results of the Finals, so it just goes to show: there’s only so much planning you can do in life; at some point, you just have to LIVE.

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The 17th card in a RWS Tarot Deck is The Star. Yu-Gi-Oh!’s Tarot deck features Dark Yuugi with Osiris; Hocus Pocus’ features Isis, holding up a glowing ball of light while seated before a river or creek.

The Hocus Pocus deck art here (by @veelucienarts) is absolutely stunning, with a purply-night sky and a shadowy building behind Isis as she practices her magic, tall reeds and palms swaying behind her. The light above her casts shadows on the many folds of her robes, even a section that might be wet because of one of the two water jugs spilling into the river. This illustration captures many of the same elements traditionally shown on an RWS Star card, while still keeping it very much in-theme.

After The Tower, one is back to basics, having to start over anew. While the Isis depicted on this card doesn’t look like she just fell from the Tower or anything, if you imagine her instead as the GODDESS Isis, she just learned her husband has died and been chopped up into bits. She’s got to do whatever she can with whatever she has to find him and somehow make him whole again, with her magic, which is perhaps the most powerful on Earth. Isis here has only the clothes on her back, so to speak; nothing else but her own skill and knowledge to help her get from this dark, wet place to where she needs to be.

This card is meant to depict hope after darkness, faith and renewal, and a sense of purpose or understanding of self after a time of chaos and disruption. Both the illustration and the Hocus Pocus deck do a decent job of capturing this meaning.

For me, my favorite deck, the Hanson-Roberts, happens to illustrate a figure that looks a heck of a lot like Kisara to me, so I wonder what it would be like if the card depicted a Kisara shortly after she first manifested the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and realized just what she was capable of doing. Or perhaps, a Kisara reborn in a new world, without having to worry about being shunned for the way she looks.

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The 18th card, The Moon, like The Star, is another GORGEOUS card, this time illustrated by @kuriiiiiiiiiii. It appears the the two characters depicted are meant to be Mahad and Set, but I could be wrong. It’s an interesting choice, either way, for a card that doesn’t normally depict humans at all, let alone two of them (unless you count the face of a lunar goddess in the Moon itself).

The Moon is associated with Cancer, the Crab (or similar creatures, like lobsters and crayfish), and is traditionally a feminine, watery “planet.” it’s considered mutable, or always in a state of change, which contributes to this card’s association with things that are hidden, confusing, or wrapped in illusion.

Fun Fact, but The Moon (the card) is not actually associated with the moon (the planet). The High Priestess is instead associated with the moon, while The Moon (the card) is associated with Pisces (the zodiac sign), even though that sign is ruled by Neptune/Jupiter. Pisces is the sign of the Fish, and Neptune is the Roman god of the Oceans/Seas/Water, also known as Poseidon in Greek mythology.

Pisces-wise, I think it’s a missed opportunity for Ryouta Kajiki (Mako Tsunami) here; where’s the love for my favorite water-loving, shark-riding Duelist?

The Yu-Gi-Oh! deck uses Dark Malik again here, looking off to the side somewhat solemnly. But note that it tries to incorporate the imagery of a crayfish/lobster with what appears to be a demonic scorpion instead, and the two dogs/wolves are replaced by Egyptian jackals, normally seen as the Guardians of the Underworld. Oh, and the Moon itself is actually RA in Sphere Mode, with an eclipse-like glow around it! Since the moon’s light truly is the light from the sun reflected, I thought this was a nice touch.

What a fascinating choice for the manga deck, but a stark difference to the Hocus Pocus deck, which simply has the two mages standing beside one another in some very ornate—and ahem, tight-fitting—clothing with what looks like a hole in shattered glass behind them. The “confusion” aspect comes through for me here, if only because I am confused about what I am seeing on the card! It’s still beautiful, though.

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Just three more cards to go! The Sun is the 19th card, and traditionally depicts a naked child on a white horse, galloping through a field of cheery sunflowers, daisies, or another “happy” harvest. The sun itself often has a bright, shining face.

The Sun in the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck is a bit cluttered, featuring Dark Malik holding out the Millennium Rod, Dark Yuugi and Jounouchi with their Duel Disks, and Ra baring its teeth behind them. If there’s supposed to be a sense of carefree joy in this card, we don’t get it from the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck.

On the other hand, the Hocus Pocus deck features Mana, Mahad, and Atem, with the latter apparently manifesting a hot (if the sweat on Mahad’s face is any indication), glowing ball of light. While I don't recall ever seeing Atem manifest magic in this way at any point during the series, I think it’s a fun concept, and the look on Mana’s face certainly seems elated, as it seems like Atem’s showing off to her, or perhaps “gifting” her the glowing ball somehow. So there’s at least some level of happiness radiating from the card,

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One of my FAVORITE illustrated cards in the Hocus Pocus deck has next to nothing in common with its RWS counterpart; the 20th card, Judgement/Judgment often depicts “the resurrection,” or an archangel blowing a trumpet to herald the coming of an (unseen) Messiah. People rise from coffins, naked as the day they were born, raising their arms in happiness.

The Hocus Pocus card instead shows an older Yuugi (in a casual outfit) holding a Duel Monsters card with the completed Millennium Puzzle behind him (he’s not wearing it, so that's how we know it’s not Dark Yuugi). To the side is Yuugi wearing a Battle City Duel Disk and surrounded by an arcing chain, reminding me of the Battle City duel against Jounouchi, especially the look on his face: he’s happy that his friend has snapped out of his trance, but he’s about to make his own great sacrifice. At the bottom is Yuugi in his school uniform, looking frustrated and sad as he tries to assemble the Millennium Puzzle.

It’s worth pointing out that, despite the name, Judgement is not the same as Justice.

If balancing your true nature is what happens on the Millennium Scales (when your heart is weighed against the feather of Ma’at), then facing the Pharaoh and all his High Priests is akin to facing Osiris himself, which is why we get them illustrated on this card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck.

But if we look at Judgement instead as Judgement Day (not Terminator style, but in the more Biblical sense), then what’s depicted on the Hocus Pocus card seems a little bit like a chronology of Yuugi’s life: from being desperate for more friends/a deeper friendship to a confident, respected Duelist with many friends around the world. He didn’t wait for the world to evolve to suit him; he evolved to find his place in the world.

If you haven’t noticed by now, the Major Arcana contain some pretty big messages, some recurring themes and cycles. So Judgement is the final “big decision” type of card before the cycle completes once and for all: your last chance to understand the world before things change irrevocably for the final time, and you become set in your ways, and hopefully figure out who you “really” are.

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Last card in the Hocus Pocus Major Arcana is The World, which features Horakhty in the center surrounded by Exodia in the upper left, Ra in the upper right, Obelisk in the lower left, and Osiris in the lower right.

This layout reminds me more of the traditional layout of The Wheel of Fortune, but that’s on purpose: both The Wheel and The World depict a person, an eagle, a bull, and a lion, representing the four fixed signs of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), along with the four elements (Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, respectively), four compass points, four seasons, four corners of the universe, etc. Four in Tarot is a number representing stability, a good solid foundation, and balance. While Exodia wasn’t part of the original “spell” to summon Horakhty (it was the original three Egyptian Gods), it makes sense to add such an iconic Egyptian Duel Monsters card here, especially lacking other Egyptian God Cards from the actual Egyptian pantheon, like Nephthys, Horus, Anubis, and so on. We saw characters NAMED after Gods (Set, for example), but no other Egyptian God “cards.”

If Ra = Light/Fire, Obelisk = Earth, and Osiris = Thunder/Water (only because Thunder = Storms = Rain in my book), then presumably Exodia would be representative of Air somehow. Alternatively, you could look at Osiris as being Air, since it is the Heavenly Saint God Osiris, or perhaps since Osiris is the God of the Underworld, Osiris represents Earth and Obelisk is Fire (being a War God), and Ra is Air, making Exodia Water somehow. You decide.

Normally the figure in the center is dancing, looking back to the past while their body moves toward the future. They have the powers granted by The Magician with them, but they are otherwise unencumbered and are ready to begin a new stage, to be reborn anew. It’s hard to depict this concept any more than it already is on this card without cluttering it too much, so I like the decision to use Egyptian Gods here.

Worth pointing out, but there are two variants of this card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, one depicting the gang with their hands together “marked with a special sign” (a.k.a. the happy face Anzu drew) and their four portraits in the corners: Anzu/Leo/Fire; Yuugi/Gemini/Air; Jounouchi/Aquarius/Air, Honda/Taurus/Earth. You can see we’re missing a Water sign here, but Kaiba or Bakura would have been the Water sign on this card, and they weren’t part of the original “special sign” circle.

The other card shows the Millennium Stone/Tablet-- the thing that held the seven Millennium Items and, as mentioned earlier, “housed” the Spirit that manifested as Hasan/Bobasa/Shadi. Though the Stone has no movement, it depicts the past and the future at the same time: it is where all the heartache of the series began, with the creation of the Millennium Items, but it is also where the series ends, when the Millennium Items are once again placed on the stone, Zork is sealed permanently, and Atem goes to his final resting place.

Neither the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga deck(s) nor the Hocus Pocus deck are perfect; no Tarot deck is. But as far as the Major Arcana in this fan-produced deck go, they are overall VERY well done and do a good job at capturing the essence of most of the traditional RWS interpretations of the Tarot cards.

The cards themselves are buttery soft and high-quality, and come in a beautiful deck box. The back design is thankfully reversible, and looks somewhat like a cross between an Egyptian design and a stained glass window, though I can’t help but see the “flower” on the back as part of an eggplant emoji every time.

...I blame Devil Malik.

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apprentice-liuyin · 4 years

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Liuyin Mei

“Uneasy are souls that awaken in smoke”

General information

Known as

Sima Liuyin: Birth name

Leonie Mei: Alias

Occupation

Shop Keeper

Magician

Spirit medium

Medical apprentice

Favorites

Favorite meal: Lamb skewers

Favorite drink: Chrysanthemum tea

Favorite flower: Tea rose

Personality traits

Birthday: January 23rd

Age: 26

Zodiac sign: Aquarius

MBTI: ISFJ-T

Pronouns: They/them only

Main(s): Asra (primarily), occasionally Julian as well

Patron Arcana: Death, Page of Pentacles

Relatives

Note that their family back in Langya would still utilize the traditional naming format of <surname, given name>, unless they have specific titles.

Liya Zheng: Paternal aunt, their father’s elder sister who left Langya and settled in Vesuvia. Liuyin inherited her magic shop.

Lieutenant Zheng: Father, subordinate to General Sima. A harsh and temperamental man, from whom Liuyin became estranged.

Sima Yu: Mother, daughter of General Sima. A healer and free spirit who became fettered by the expectations of family.

Sima Xiaoping: Younger brother, five years Liuyin’s junior, born when Liuyin was still living with their grandparents.

Sima Qianren: Younger brother, eight years Liuyin’s junior, born when Liuyin was still living with their grandparents.

General Sima: Maternal grandfather and patriarch of the Sima family.

Madam Sima: Maternal grandmother, wife to General Sima, owned a teashop in her youth.

Zheng Xuan: Paternal grandfather and guardian, a countryside farmer with an affinity for magic, though no abilities of his own.

Sarnai: Paternal grandmother and guardian, wife of Zheng Xuan, a Kokhuri-descended magician who was Liuyin’s first teacher.v

Physical description

Gender: Nonbinary

Height: 5′6′’

Eye color: Plum-purple

Hair color: Black-brown with orange and red undertones

Appearance

Liuyin is a youth with a compact frame, plum-colored eyes, a long and pointed nose, and dark hair that shines copper in sunlight. Their bearing is collected and serene, with a slight smile to their lips. Their customary outfit consists of an inner blouse that resembles an ao, or Chinese upright-collared blouse popularized in the Ming Dynasty that was usually worn outside the tucking of a skirt, as well as an outer cross-collared robe, and any other clothing they may wear would come in shades of blue, grey, and white. They often wear clothing with butterfly motifs on it, as a silver butterfly was their familiar before their death. Their hair is usually left half-up in buns decorated with butterfly pins, and half-down, with sideswept bangs and locks of hair looped over their ears before being pulled back into a bun.

Personality

Liuyin is a person who is serene and demure on their exterior, almost to the point of seeming withdrawn, aloof, or distant from others. However, they bear a naturally warm aura, with a high-spirited but practical-minded personality with a quick wit, being able to banter easily. They have a sincere and well-meaning heart, as well as loyalty to those they care for, to the point they may act recklessly, going against their usual analytical approaches wherein they slice every action down to its bits and pieces, to save those they love. Thus, they rarely get angry unless someone they love is at risk. They hate boredom and insincerity.

History

Family background

Liuyin Sima was a member of the House of Sima, a noble clan of the nation of Langya, a kingdom to the south of Vesuvia which was located east of the Shining Steppe and west of the Strait of Seals.

Their grandfather was General Sima, a powerful military official overseeing the command of the cavalry of the nation, as well as the current patriarch of the House of Sima.

Their mother was the daughter of General Sima and his wife, and an adept healer.

Their father was a lieutenant under General Sima who was arranged by Madam Sima to marry the general’s daughter.

Childhood

They were pretty unplanned as far as children goes-- their mother had to put their studies to become a healer on hold to carry Liuyin to term, and once they were born, they were sent to live in the countryside with Liuyin’s paternal grandparents, since there’s really no place for a baby either in the barracks or in a healer’s academy.

Their paternal grandmother, Sarnai, when she was young, was a Kokhuri shaman and magician, before marrying her husband and settling down as a farmer in the countryside. Liuyin had gained some degree of healing magic ability from their mother, and Sarnai helped hone Liuyin’s paternal magical capabilities, in communicating the restless dead as well as creating an entrance and space within the spiritual plane akin to magicians’ gates and Asra’s oasis, respectively.

Adolescence

When Liuyin was ten years old, they moved back to the General’s manor to live with their father and mother, and their two younger brothers, one of whom was already 5, and one who was 2 at the time. Due to the strict disciplinarian method of parenting their parents and maternal grandparents enforced, Liuyin, who was raised in a more casual and relaxed environments found themselves miserable and often butted heads with their parents, which was then duly punished.

They, at this point, practically lived only for summer visits to their grandparents, where their magical growth increased by leaps and bounds. When they were 16, their father forbade them from seeing their grandparents, and Liuyin had run away from home in retaliation, first stopping by their grandparents’ house, who then sent them on their way to Vesuvia, where their father’s elder sister, Liya, had opened a magic shop.

Arriving in Vesuvia

Liuyin arrived in Vesuvia on the eve of the Masquerade, where they were received by their aunt. They found Asra reading fortunes behind the shop, and they befriended him under the pseudonym of Leonie Mei-- over the course of the next half year or so, Liya had taught Liuyin all she knew about magic, after which Liya had received an offer of professorship at a prestigious academy in Zadith, leaving the shop to be tended to by Liuyin and Asra.

The Red Plague

By the time the Red Plague struck, Liuyin had shed the name of Leonie Mei and went by Liuyin Mei instead, eschewing their family name completely. When the plague broke, Liuyin and Asra had argued over whether to leave the city or stay and help-- Liuyin stayed, Asra left. Liuyin initially tried to ease the pain of the deceased’s families through her divination abilities, trying to allow the spirits to move on.

Somewhere along the line, realized that wasn’t enough and apprenticed themselves to Julian as a medic. It was there in the palace, researching for a cure, that Liuyin succumbed to the disease, dying alone, and being sent to the Lazaret, where they were eventually cremated.

The Masquerade

Broken by their death, Asra resolved to resurrect them. Meanwhile, Count Lucio, failing rapidly from their battle with the Red Plague, hosted a feast on the night of the masquerade designed to gift him a new body, a ritual that Asra sabotaged, stealing the body to resurrect Liuyin. And the rest, from that point, is history...

Powers

Smoke divination: Liuyin has the ability to use a special blend of incense smoke to induce within themselves a hallucination or dreamscape, in which they would be presented with a series of seemingly-disjointed visions, from which they had to determine a storyline or solution to their question. They can also inhale this in the presence of a corpse or scene of crime, and it would show them things that, if interpreted correctly, would show them the cause of death or how a crime was committed. They can also contact more recently-deceased spirits when inhaling this smoke, and thus can use this in a manner similar to an exorcism, laying a spirit to rest.

Potion making: Liuyin is talented at potion-making as well as cooking, as well as a hobby in

Personal gate: Liuyin’s gate to the Arcana realm, taught to them by their grandmother. Later, with Asra’s help, they rediscover and unlock their gate.

Trivia

Liuyin’s inspiration draws from both Chinese folklore as well as popular culture.

Liuyin’s initial inspiration was from Lan Caihe, a nonbinary Taoist immortal said to be patron to florists and gardeners. They traveled the kingdoms wearing a single shoe and ragged blue robes, singing improvised songs about the impermanence of youth.

Other inspirations for Liuyin come from Mei Changsu, Guo Deyou, Kuang Lu, Xiaolongnu, and Lan Wangji

Their name, Liuyin, means “shadow of the willow”. Their birth surname, Sima, means “master of the horse”, and their given surname, Mei, means “plum”.

Their favorite season is winter

Their voice is mid-tone, and a bit husky.

They speak three languages-- the common tongue of Vesuvia, the common tongue of Langya, and the common tongue of the Steppes.

Template credit: apprentice-liuyin

#liuyin mei #willow's shadow #the arcana #the arcana ocs #the arcana fan apprentice #the arcana original character #art: mine

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crabbng · 4 years

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[redacted] (Bonic) (Bon) - [bohn-EEK] [bahn] - 25 - 03/26 - he/him - The Devil/Five of Cups/Five of Swords/Nine of Swords/Ten of Swords/Six of Pentacles/Four of Wands/Seven of Wands/King of Wands - After Bon came into the service of Maighstir Cu, he was told he no longer had a past, and that he no longer had a place amongst people. His decisions had removed him from humanity and he was now property of the Maighstir. That humanity was safer this way.

[im putting together hopefully a better cast page for kos so im compiling stuff, but in the meantime you’ll get some character introductions]

#kings of sorts #my city now #bonic #character introductions #koscast

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the-mystic-star · 2 years

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Day 26 of the #mysticstarchallenge September 2022 challenge hosted by @the_mystic_star. What card symbolises your awareness of peace? Five of Pentacles. 🍁 At the moment you feel disconnected from true peace. You have aspects of peace in your life however there is a disconnect from truly embracing it. That said, the peace you are able to connect with brings you stability and growth. The deck: Witchling Tarot ✏️ #mysticstartarot #mysticstar #mysticstarhealing #tarotchallenge #monthlychallenge #divinationchallenge #septembertarotchallenge #septemberchallenge #witchlingtarot https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci-qeKnpZCK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#mysticstarchallenge #mysticstartarot #mysticstar #mysticstarhealing #tarotchallenge #monthlychallenge #divinationchallenge #septembertarotchallenge #septemberchallenge #witchlingtarot

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michelles-garden-of-evil · 4 years

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Episode 41 Review: 78 Pick-Up

{ Youtube: 1 | 2 | 3 }

{ Full Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

Hello and welcome back to my Garden of Evil, where today we begin an especially weird week of Strange Paradise. This is Ian Martin’s final week writing the show, albeit with heavy executive meddling at this point. In previous weeks, some of the things mentioned in the Lost Episode summaries still happened, or certain plot points still appeared with a different outcome, but that mostly stopped last episode and will only happen once more with one more plot point. For reference, here is the Lost Episode summary for this episode:

Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer (November 7, 1969), p. 84.

That doesn’t happen in this episode. Actually, not much does compared to a typical Monday episode--or does it? Usually, Martin reserves the most important events or revelations for Mondays and Fridays and uses Tuesday through Thursday for less important plot points, recap, and building suspense, but this time we get a Monday episode that’s mostly focused on the latter. This breaks with the previous weekly structure of the show and underscores how hasty his rewrite of Episode 41 must have been.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a list of the most important events that occurred on previous Monday episodes:

1: Jean Paul releases Jacques 6: Jacques gives Alison her first dream about him 11: Alison writes to Dan for help 16: Matt arrives on Maljardin 21: Dan suspects Jean Paul of murder 26: Alison uncovers her first clues about Dr. Menkin’s experiments 31: The cryonics tank leaks 36: The 1st séance

And on Fridays:

5: Dr. Menkin dies 10: Tim and Holly arrive on Maljardin 15: Jacques fires Dan 20: Alison's second dream about Jacques 25: Raxl and Vangie learn that Elizabeth is a witch [didn’t amount to much in the aired version, but foreshadows her original plotline] 30: Jean Paul decides to arrange first séance 35: Vangie foresees her death on Maljardin 40: Jean Paul's emergency meeting

For comparison, here are the biggest events from Tuesday-Thursday episodes: (brackets indicate events that I believe were originally intended to be more significant)

Week 1: Holly escapes Westley House (3), Jacques signs his name on Dan's documents (4), Alison arrives on Maljardin (4) Week 2: Holly flees to Caribbean (7), Dan shows Vangie Jacques' signature (8) Week 3: Elizabeth arrives on Maljardin (12), Tim begins Portrait of Doom (13) Week 4: Conjure Man dies and makes Vangie Conjure Woman (17), Jacques brings Dan to Maljardin (18), [Holly discusses her nightmare about Tarasca (19)], Erica's funeral (19) Week 5: Raxl and Quito show Matt the temple (23), Jean Paul steals the bottle of cyanide (23) Week 6: [Jacques cements his relationship with Elizabeth (28)], [Raxl predicts the possession of other characters with her cards (29)] Week 7: Jean Paul brings Vangie to Maljardin (32), the guests learn that Quito is a zombie (33), [the Holly portrait is damaged (33)] Week 8: [Holly starts searching for the secret passage (37)], [Jacques gives Alison more notes (38)]

So what happens in Episode 41, which feels more like a mid-week episode? Let’s explore it together and see what took the place of the beginning of Elizabeth’s mental descent into the 17th century.

When Dan enters the Great Hall and tells the other guests where he’s been, both Matt and Vangie give him the side-eye.

Dressed in a dirty black turtleneck, Dan returns from his exploration of the eponymous garden of Maljardin, where he was searching for the missing cyanide and/or the way out (I don't care about either subplot--give me Jacques, dammit!). "What are you all planning?" he asks as Vangie, Matt, and Tim eye him with suspicion. "Another séance, Vangie? Or a prayer meeting, Reverend, to save us all by communication with the infinite?"

Matt asks him where he was and he says that he was searching for the way off the island. "Like Holly," Tim comments, which is the only reason why he's even in this scene. Cue recap, although surprisingly little from Mr. Boring Artist, whom Martin seems not to know what to do with anymore. Considering how bland Tim is, I don’t blame him.

Vangie making her favorite facial expression.

Uh-oh!

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is upstage right, and the gorgeous but volatile Jean Paul has arrived to bitch out Dan for wanting to leave Maljardin! “Have you been on a journey, Dan?” he asks. “Here on Maljardin, they all meet the same end.”

“And some end in death,” adds Matt, which further angers the master.

“Is that a prediction or a predilection, or perhaps a threat?” Jean Paul asks, because he’s the only one allowed to make death threats on Maljardin. God Jean Paul forbid the Reverend return the favor.

“A fact, Mr. Desmond.” Too bad Jean Paul doesn’t care much for facts.

Holly is safe for now!

Both Alison and Holly(!) follow him upstairs. Holly says she feels fine now, which she attributes to Alison’s arrival just in time to show Jean Paul Dr. Menkin’s notes at the end of last episode. And then Jacques torments Jean Paul in front of all the detained guests:

Jacques: “Yes, be discreet. If I make you seem mad, they will betray you...”

“...and your sleeping Erica in her vulnerable cryocapsule.”

Holly: “Look at him. It’s like he’s in another world! Just like he seemed to be another man down there in that creepy crypt.”

He reminds everyone that visits to the crypt are off-limits and marches off, ignoring Elizabeth’s attempt to calm him down. Alison shows the notes to her increasingly estranged fiancé Dan and recaps to him about how she now only has five weeks of notes left. Meanwhile, in the dining room...

In a trance, Vangie solemnly lays a spread of Tarot cards on the dining room table, when suddenly she crushes one within the palm of her hand:

Matt notices that she is in a trance and Alison rushes over to get her out of it. When she does, Vangie is confused:

As is the tradition on this blog, I will attempt to interpret the Tarot cards that Vangie has drawn to determine the message. I suspect that Ian Martin deliberately chose specific Tarot spreads to subtly foreshadow planned events (see also my Episode 29 review where I analyze one such spread) in addition to all of the other Tarot symbolism he uses. Let’s start with the cards on the table:

And their possible meanings, taken (mostly) from Tarot.com and The Tarot Guide:

The Devil can also refer to the id, chaos, sexuality, obsession, or abuse, but I believe that it’s more likely meant literally here. Death may be meant literally (which is not how it’s normally used in the Tarot), but change would make just as much sense in the context of Jacques’ plans for Maljardin. I had trouble identifying the card at the top, but I think that most likely it’s the Ace of Cups in reverse. Ace of Cups RX can mean (among other things) sadness, unrequited love, or pessimism, but it could also mean a shadow version of Alison, whom Vangie’s previous readings represented as the upright Ace of Cups. Sounds like Rahua, although that’s doubtful because the show has all but forgotten about her. More likely, it foreshadows Alison’s death or another form of undoing.

As for the card crumpled in Vangie’s hand,

The Eight of Wands seems a very odd choice in combination with the others, because of its positive meaning:

Success--but for whom? I’m guessing Jacques, which would explain her reaction. The spread implies that Jacques’ plans to steal Jean Paul’s body for good (the change), followed by discontent, sadness, and loss, will succeed.

In the Great Hall, we hear Dan tell Tim and Matt about how, while searching Jean Paul’s bedroom, he found a map drawn by Jacques of the only escape route through the channel. “They’re probably false and intended to lure sailors to their watery grave,” the Reverend speculates, given the cartographer in question. Unfortunately for them, Jean Paul overhears their conversation. “The Reverend knows the Requiem,” he threatens passive-aggressively.

Jean Paul must have contact with his Erica, even if it kills him as Vangie predicts it will.

Then Jean Paul visits Vangie in the dining room to insist once again upon another séance. She reluctantly agrees, although she feels very uneasy about it. By now the Conjure Woman has laid another Tarot spread, consisting of a different combination of cards:

And my interpretation:

The King of Swords--which we know represents Jacques--is reversed, and so is the Knight of Pentacles. As with the reversed Ace of Cups from the first spread, the reversed Knight could either mean the revival of Dan’s 17th-century counterpart d’Anton or (more likely) Dan’s demise. Whether the reversed King of Swords still means Jacques or instead refers to his reversal Jean Paul is unclear, but I think the latter is more likely. The King’s characterization on The Tarot Guide is very negative, but “power-crazed,” “controlling,” and “ruthless” do describe the man Jean Paul has become, and Vangie does predict in this scene that he may soon die. The Queen of Cups, which has previously represented both Elizabeth and Holly, appears upright, as do the Knight of Cups and the Queen of Swords. The Tarot Guide’s description for the Knight of Cups mentions an “artistic, creative” man, which sounds like Tim: the only male guest in Maljardin to not have previously been associated with a Tarot card. The identity of the Queen of Swords is unclear, but I have a feeling that she is meant to represent Erica. The Nine and Ten of Swords indicate that at least some of these characters will die, and there will be no way of preventing it.

Later in the episode, she lays a third spread while talking to Elizabeth:

My interpretation:

Elizabeth asks what the cards means, and Vangie gives this curious explanation: “That a woman who seeks love will receive what she gives...Nothing else.” Evidently, that includes burnout (Ten of Wands reversed) and regret/missed opportunities (Four of Cups). But which woman could these cards be about? Is it Elizabeth, Holly, or someone else? Could it even be...Erica?

Elizabeth suggests that Vangie invite her to tomorrow’s séance, then leaves when she sees Matt. They discuss the upcoming séance and Matt tells her, “I will certainly not consent to take part in the circle a second time.” But the Tarot cards say otherwise:

“What we say is one thing,” says Vangie. “What takes place is another. The Fool. The cards say you will. They cannot change it, and neither can you. The cards do not lie. Forces join the battle. Which is good, which is evil, who knows? You can’t change it, in spite of yourself!”

Vangie lays two spreads of Tarot cards in this scene. The first is too blurry to interpret, but appears to include either the Nine or the Ten of Swords:

The second--which Vangie implies relates to the events at tomorrow’s séance and which includes the Fool as its fifth card--is interesting:

My interpretation:

I did not expect to see the Hierophant--which represents tradition and conformity when upright--in any of her spreads. It just doesn’t seem relevant to any of the themes of the Maljardin arc, unless we count the generational gap between Holly and the establishment. The Tarot Guide gives “reversed roles” as one suggested meaning for the Hierophant reversed, which fits neatly with Ian Martin’s original (now scrapped) plans for at least one additional possession (but probably more). Five of Cups reversed is pretty straightforward: Jean Paul is trying to move on from his wife’s death by contacting her spirit. Likewise for the Hanged Man, whose trapped state could represent anyone on the island except for Jacques. The Ace of Cups here could represent idealism or compassion, but it has always meant Alison in previous episodes, so I’m sticking with her as my interpretation.

As I’ve written above, I don’t actually know if any of these cards (save the Fool) were mentioned in this episode’s script. There’s no way of knowing if any of these arrangements were deliberate or if Angela Roland was actually just drawing random cards in her scenes. Mostly, I’m interpreting these cards because there isn’t much else to do in February in the middle of a pandemic. It keeps my mind busy and it gives me something to talk about re: this episode other than weekly plot structure.

There’s one more scene of her pulling cards. The three cards in this spread appear to be the Five of Cups RX again, the Ten of Swords RX (either a total disaster or one narrowly averted), and the King of Wands RX (most likely Jacques). She has just pulled another when she lets the rest of the deck slide out of her hand onto the table. She has a nervous breakdown:

The combination of the Tarot spreads full of omens of doom lead Vangie to a nervous breakdown the day before the séance.

This episode serves the function of building suspense to the second séance, which we know will happen soon. Vangie does not want to hold it because of the danger that the cards have foretold, but she knows that there’s no way out of it and (according to her) the cards don’t lie. What doom awaits Maljardin in the coming weeks? Only time will tell. It won’t be Tarasca, but it will be something seriously strange.

Coming up next: A mysterious black rabbit appears in the Garden that has not known wild animal life in three hundred years.

{<- Previous: Episode 40 || Next: Episode 42 ->}

#strange paradise #review #ian martin #maljardin arc #week 9 #episode 41 #analysis #lost episode summaries #passive aggressive jean paul #plot structure #speculation on ian martin's original story #suspense building #tarot

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