thefoolofdelphi

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blessing the boats by Lucille Clifton

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There was no fixed programme—they took things as they came. They were explorers, each day pushing on into unknown country. No place existed till they reached it and decided to stop.

– David Malouf, from “Lone Pine,” The Complete Stories (Pantheon, 2007)

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The light of his faith quite put out, and his affections made desolate, he had clung with all the force of his nature to his work and his money; and like all objects to which a man devotes himself, they had fashioned him into correspondence with themselves. His loom, as he wrought in it without ceasing, had in its turn wrought on him, and confirmed more and more the monotonous craving for its monotonous response. His gold, as he hung over it and saw it grow, gathered his power of loving together into a hard isolation like its own.

george eliot, silas marner

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But I still did not realize how mad she was, and how accustomed to dreaming; and that she would not cry out for reality, rather would feed reality to her dreams, a demon elf feeding her spinning wheel with the reeds of the world so she might make her own weblike universe.

Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (Knopf, 2022; orig. pub. 1976)

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Six of Cups. Art by Ambi Sun, from 78 Tarot Nautical: The New Wave.

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I’m terrified to see how this beast turns out. the painting took so long but I want it to turn out like this piece:

and if it works it’ll be worth it 🤞🏼

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Nine of Pentacles. Art by Taylor Hultquist-Todd, from Myths & Legends: An Illustrated Tarot.

Medusa I feel needs no introduction - here she is in her snake like glory

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Five of Wands. Art by Lyn Thurman, from the Wisdom of the Depths Tarot.

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The Magician. Art by Lindsay Mound, from The Pasta Tarot.

The Magician is one of two Major Arcana cards in The Pasta Tarot to feature nonna, an homage to grandmothers every where. Traditionally, the Magician is a younger man, holding a wand up to the sky as he channels divine energy into action. This card always reminds me of the Sorcerer in Dungeons & Dragons. A foil to the learned, scholarly Wizard, the Sorcerer is tapped into magic directly, with no need for tomes or study. There’s a wildness about The Magician that taps into the fear that comes alongside awe. Luckily, he, or she, is on your side.

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Sword of Light

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“I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”

—

Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (Mills College, 1983)

this passage planted itself in my consciousness when i was 24, and 10 years later, it informs so much of my approach to living, thinking, creating.

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The Lovers. Art by Charlie Quintero, from Mars Power Tarot.

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Knight of Pentacles. Art by Jessica Howard, from The Forager’s Daughter Tarot: Afterlight Edition.

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The Chariot. Art by Nogi San.

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Six of Swords. Art by Tom Glencross, from The Leeds Tarot Card Project.

“Before working on my own design for the Six of Swords, I was primarily inspired by Pamela Colman Smith’s incredible visions for the Smith-Rider-Waite Tarot deck, and by Rachel Pollack’s interpretation of the Six of Swords in her text ‘The Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom.’ Like all of their drawings, Smith’s image for the Six of Swords is richly layered and offers many lessons to learn.

As the Tarot has historically been used for divination and guidance, I wanted to create layered collage made up of physical and totemic objects. Instant photographs have a magic  alchemical nature. Velvet is a material known for its ability to beguile and entrance by absorbing light and giving an illusion of impossible depth.

There are three unlit matches, but their potential faces downwards to the earth where they cannot be ignited. A further three burned matches make a total of six, though they point upwards, extinguished and useless. The Tarot is built from contradictions and balances, and I wanted to create my own symbolic ambiguity using matches as a domestic reflection of the suit of Swords’ mixed potentials.

I used a layered double exposure for the first Polaroid, doubling the readymade three swords from the heraldic arms of the 13th century le Peitevin family, early founders of Kirkstall Abbey.

For the second image I am photographed just as Smith’s figures are depicted – from behind – standing at the brow of a hill in the middle of a journey, wearing a long coat with broad shoulders.

In Pamela Colman Smith’s Six of Swords, the figures seem to bear the weight of the swords as if they are great responsibilities, heavy enduring pains carried upright with well-practiced calmness and dignity. This lesson from the Six of Swords resonates deeply with me, and is the key inspiration for the design.”

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Eight of Pentacles. Art by Iouliana pillai, from the ETA Tarot.