Continuing on the previous post, The Ladies are the second of the forgotten court cards. I am giving this another post so discuss if you want, the merits and problems. This is the way It's being presented in the Travail, but I think it could easily be slipped into a traditional oracular Tarot deck.

 

The Lady is the counterpart to the Knight, a riding court card. The Visconti-Sforza deck had her depicted directly ahorse, just like the knight. It can certainly be done that way, traditionally done that way. So, Lady Godiva references are appropriate, St. Joan of Arc, just some sort of riding female figure of cultural significance if you want women that are actually riding. You have to remember that the court cards at one time, and especially if they were commissionsed, represented someone historically, and that is true of the Tarot as it is of the Anglo-French deck. These weren't always nameless figures. The early artists had specific people in mind for the cards. I think that's some of the reason that people get lost in the meanings of the courts. They have no references to think about. That's why with the Maidens I included fictional characters. People know movie and theater characters now better than they know the characteristics of royals. But with the ladies, these are represented by historical figures. It enhances the maidens which all sort of live in a fiction of unrealized wants, whereas the Ladies actually go out and do the thing that the maidens only sigh and sing about wanting and not only that, Ladies come back to teach what it can be to be a female of the suit outside of the traditional seated role that the queen fills.

 

In my personal take for the design of the cards, I wanted a twist on the idea of the Lady. They are not directly riding, they have a conveyance. The difference between the knight and the Lady is that the Lady is about people-centered "mission" and the knight is about self-driven "campaign." The lady is driven by the ideals of her suit but is still inferior to the Queens who are the traditions and feminine Regnant of their suits. They are slightly lower than the Knights, which are the active service of doing of the King's will according to the suit. Knights go questing as part of their duties as peers while Ladies become governesses. 

 

In this deck they are passengers in a vehicle and with an animal that represents their suit. This is still technically riding, it’s only that the power in her card is in front of her rather than beneath her. Because of this, all ladies reference the Tarot’s major Arcana, VII The Chariot. 

 

In the Chariot, we come to face the concepts of focus, willpower, self-control, communication, hard work and discipline. This is the mission of these ladies in their suits. They serve the middle-manager’s function, to communicate and interpret information between the upper (Knught-Queen-King) and lower courts (Maiden-page-Lady), to be the emotional work center for their suit and to serve as the highest official of the lower court. When you come across a lady in your spread, you need to be asking yourself how you are using the power you have earned and how power is disseminated through you. Unlike the Queens, which hold and sit in their power, these ladies are conduits for power. They are managers, not directors. If they hold power, they lose it. That is why they are small in their image compared to the front and center queens and Maidens, part of the scene rather than being the focus of it. They are in danger of being lost in their missions.

 

Inverted, the Chariot also means that obstacles are in your way and strategy and planning is needed to overcome them. The ladies, too, have this problem. A vehicle is not as agile to overcome obstacles as the knight on his horse. Potholes in the road can break wheels, hedges present barriers rather than hurdles, and even the arrangement of the beast hitched to the vehicle can be a danger. A knight can be thrown, but a lady will be wrecked.

 

The only thing that changes slightly for the Knight, Page and Queen are the influences they offer. The page in the four suit Tarot is the youngest, now it is the Maiden that is the youngest. The Page when the Maiden is in the deck now becomes the student of the world to the maiden being the wanderer. One day, when he grows up, he will be a knight. Until then, he is an apprentice or student or understudy and a message runner rather than a person just starting out. Meanwhile, with the Lady in the deck managing the mission of the suit, the knight is now free to campaign for his suit either as an Errant knight or as a commander of armies. That is the purpose of the knight, after all. The queen with the Lady and the maiden in attendance is now clearer in her purpose, not having to be the sole female in the court. She can now act properly as the director and the soul of the suit. Think of her in the six peer court as the COO whereas the King is the CEO. 

 

 On the Ladies of the temporal suits:

 

The Lady of Swords: The Lady of Swords is in a hot air balloon and geese with ribbons around their necks are flying alongside her. This looks like they are not coupled, but they are indeed invisibly connected as is appropriate for the suit of air. Both the birds and the balloon are being borne by the same air currents. That is why she is in a balloon and not a powered aircraft. This lady is looking at the ground with binoculars in one hand and carries a sheathed saber at her hip. It is of note that this is the only card in Swords that has the sword sheathed. It implies guarded thought and measured passion, only to be drawn at the appropriate time. It would be detrimental for her to draw a sword next to the ropes that hold her basket to her balloon.

 

Historical Lady of Swords: Mary Wallstonecraft

 

The geese that are tied to her through the currents she is carried on also symbolize her role as the person of commitment and loyalty. Geese are also a beast of migration and transformation and symbolize personal growth. Air in this Tarot is the first suit whereas traditionally it is fire that comes first. This lady exploits that, depending on the difference in air pressure between heated and cooled air to carry her aloft. It isn’t the fire alone, the fire in this card is in service to air, not it’s predecessor. It took a cunning mind to think up a way to exploit fire as well. Thought and passion come before anything else.

 

On the dark side, Do you feel targeted? Someone is watching over you. It’s up to you to decide whether that person or entity is your ally or your enemy. But make no mistake, whatever you are doing, someone is cataloguing it for future reference. You will have to decide either the plan or strategy to overcome this oversight. Communication is needed, perhaps confrontation. You must know your situation enough to know what is needed. Geese are the messengers of gods and ancestors so you might be getting a conformation that your situation has been seen and heard, but they are also a warning of dangers to your wellbeing. Sometimes the message we get for our asking is not the one we want to hear.

 

Either way, Look into the ways others impose on your autonomy. If they are an ally, they will work with you, validate you and listen to you and if they are an enemy they will be looking at your strengths and faults for a point of exploitation. The realm of Air is the realm of sound. Communication is key when you find yourself watched. Pay attention to how you feel about the geese. It is important to your understanding of the situation whether you are intimidated, drawn, repelled or welcoming of them. Geese are a source of family, protection, transformation and communication. Depending on how you feel about them will point you in the right direction when you see this Lady in your airspace.

 

Lady of Cups: This lady has a draft horse, as is appropriate for the suit tied to water. Horses were created by Poseidon and all of them are sacred to him. She rides a barge drawn by this horse. Her ride is the canal barge that was invented to convey shipments and people along manufactured waterways like the Erie Canal in the United States and the Llangollen Canal in the United Kingdom. She stands on her barge, a signal of her common upbringing, as the pages and maidens stand, but she wears the charismatic clothing of her station. She lifts her goblet in toast, right hand on the cup part and the left supporting the base. The action is reminiscent of the blessing of wine at Eucharist.

 

When you see her, think about the community of engineers required to build the locks and canals. Think about the workers, the laborers and the trainers of horses and of the cities that were built because the canal connected the interior of the landmass to the seaports. 

 

Towns were built from nothing to support this movement and expansion. This is why she holds up the cup. She is toasting the many people who made this marvel possible. By the actions made to move water where there was naturally no safe way to navigate, now there are places where people can call home comfortably, allowing trade and commerce, yes, but lasting memories, places to gather, and places to feel in, worship in, commiserate in and celebrate in. The Lady of Cups brings life where life was not previously possible. The whole world becomes infinitely grander and smaller at the same time, and she glorifies them and not herself for the achievement.

 

Historical Lady of Cups: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn  

 

On the dark side, she is the consummate politician.  Think everything negative you might think of that professional archetype. Not a queen, a ruler by association to a person with divine mandate, but the voice and representative of the people that uses her position to maintain her social net and hide her selfish dealings.

 

The Lady of Rods (Wands): This lady is rich, powerful, hardworking, full of pleasure in doing her work and driven by it as well. Her ride is the carriage, and her animal is the mule. Mules are bred to work and purposed to do nothing else. The hybrid of a donkey and a horse, a mule is the soul of inner strength and stubborn resilience. Remember that Rods, the suit of fire is about following passion and desire. A carriage affords her the space to continue working even while travelling. Work never ends for this Lady, and if anything is worth doing, it's worth doing right now rather than waiting for opportune moments. She will spark her own moments and her light will ignite others to follow her example. She is going to look elegant and dangerous and composed every step of the way.

 

Historical Lady of Rods (Wands): Julia Child

 

On the dark side: They more commonly say that the work of a man is never done, but a man still kicks his boots off and demands dinner and a decompression session at the end of the day. That is actually kind of the theme of the Knight of the suit, that risks are good, but haste makes waste. This Lady doesn’t entertain such nonsense. She works her career, comes home, handles the business of the home and still finds time for her loved ones. She doesn’t complain about it because she never concludes that it shouldn’t be that way. When stressed, she very easily can be known for burning everyone around her that is not moving at her pace just like a wildfire can sweep a plain. She may even be the one to spark that blaze if she thinks it needs doing. While the Knight of Rods will go off galavanting, the fire of the man of action, The lady of Rods is the fire of the homefront, for better or worse. 

 

Unfortunately for her, feelings are not a hallmark of fire. Undaunted, she fails to connect to her emotions where it concerns pursuit of success by any means, even at the cost to her own well-being. Burnout sneaks up on the lady of fire. So does a loss of a sense of self. This is the lady who will, after raising her children and having her career, suddenly wake up one day wondering what all the hustle was really for, not knowing who she is anymore apart from what she is known for.

 

Lady of Coins (Pentacles): Here is lady that needs no man. The Knight of this suit is quiet and plodding. He is the Earth that remains stable, patient and workable. By contrast, The Lady of Earth is the calamitous soul of the Earth in motion. This is the spirit of the earthquake, the volcano, the render of continents and the uplifter of mountains.

 

Her ride is a covered wagon with coins for wheels and her beast is an Ox. She is a lady who knows that what she believes and works toward, she achieves. Feminine Earth can nurture in gentle seasons, but it can also destroy lives in cataclysms. The lands around a volcano are renowned for their fertility but also for their proximity to the forces of catastrophic change.

 

Failure is not an option for this Lady, not because she stubbornly refuses to consider it, but because she knows failure is inevitable. She is just the kind of person to turn every failure into a learning experience rather than a stopping place. As the Lady of the suit of Earth, it is keenly felt that her legacy will never die and her needs will always be met because she’s worked for them and on them in practicality and diligence, sparing not even her own comforts, if it will mean a better life for her descendants. She is not afraid to destroy everything to start anew, not phoenix-like as the lady of Fire does, but as a force of Earth.

 

Her caravan wagon turns on coins for wheels and creates the ruts that guide tomorrow's highways. The Ox is a trained bull, not a steer as they usually are, and that is a direct reference to bull markets. The covered wagon is a symbol of core needs. Strong, capable, independent, defiant and practical in the face of troubles, possessing a jack-of-all-trades encyclopedia of worldly knowledge inside her head. Unlike the lady of Rods that may burn out, working a goal until she forgets who she once was, she doesn't lose sight of who she is, she just transforms seamlessly to a new purpose as lava transforms to fields of soil and stone. Her unshakable character is the product of clear goals, expectations, consents and boundaries.

 

Where the Lady of Rods operates on the success in the ever-present and conventional moment, giving life to all around her even at the risk of burnout, the Lady of Coins is intrepid, independent and future seeking. Remember, this is the Earth that builds mountains in an upheaval of lava. Lava is made through heat and pressure of the Earth, not fire. She will rejoice in hardship, knowing that her necessary calamity today will be the fertile soil of tomorrow. The Good Earth isn’t good because it’s kind. It’s good because it has potential for bounty. That bounty is revealed in the Queen of Coins. And yes, sometimes the Queen of Coins does look enviously at the Lady of Rods, wishing that her subordinate would be more like that. But the knight of Coins is already settled enough. He needed the raw force of Earth to balance him.

 

Historical Figure: Charley Parkhurst

 

On the Dark side: THis lady's attitude toward life isn't coming without contention. She many detractors, keen to call her problematic, overly independent and unruly. They question her character, motives and actions constantly. But those people don't want a Lady who is unconventional and unstoppable so she bothers people who expect courtly women to be demure and feminine. Her weakness is that people will see her tumultuous methodology and think her scandalous and dismiss her, only realizing sometimes centuries later, that her planned "unwomanly" behavior truly shaped history for the better.