Life as Tarot
Decan of Scorpio
I recently completed the 5, 6, and 7 of Eggs (Cups) for my Parrot Tarot deck. I few months ago I did a post about the 5,6,7 of Sticks where I go into detail about decans and why I am grouping the minor arcana this way when I create them. You can read that HERE if you want a refresh.
I finished these just as the Sun went into Aries which of course begins the year-long decan walk. This has become a popular magical practice over the last several years where each 10 days (or one decan), you do some kind of working, ritual, art, prayer, whatever, to the ruler of that decan represented by a Tarot card. Next year, once my deck is finished, I plan on going through a decan walk with all of the parrots and I’m excited to have you all come along for that.
But I have to finish the deck first! With the completion of these three cards, I have 18 cards left to do. That to me feels like the home stretch. But let’s dive in, shall we?
These three cards are the decans of Scorpio, which means each one has the Death card as one of its correspondences and then as the second, the Tower, Sun, and Venus respectively. The plant correspondence for the Death card is Corpse Flowers, which are plants generally in the Amorphophallus genus. They all create a bloom that smells like a rotting corpse and are some of my favorite plants in the world.
5 of Eggs, Lord of Disappointment, Scorpio I
The Disappointment card, as it’s known in the Thoth deck, brings together Mars and one of its ruling zodiacal signs, Scorpio. Mars in Scorpio is not like Mars in Aries, where we think of a Roman legion fighting in formation. Mars in Scorpio is like a ninja, stealthily taking care of the dirty business by the cover of darkness. This seemed like the perfect fit with the Ultramarine Parakeet, not because of anything that they are inherently, but rather, the circumstances that they find themselves in in their native homes of the Marquesas Islands. These lovely little birds are predated upon by rats, a colonial introduction to the islands. I kinda can’t think of a more Mars in Scorpio thing than that. But they are also threatened by clear-cutting and the burning of their forest homes for wood-carved souvenirs and farmland. In the card itself, you can see that the water flowing around the eggs is hot and steamy from the She-Oak tree branches burning with the fire of the Tower card. This card means exactly what its name suggests, a bummer of a disillusionment moment that makes you feel all wallowy in the depths. [Remember, Eggs (Cups) are generally thought of as Emotions.]
6 of Eggs, Lord of Pleasure, Scorpio II
The next card, the 6, is called Pleasure in the Thoth deck. We have the radiant giver of life, the Sun, joining its opposite, the extinguisher of life, Death. For reasons I won’t dive into here but I’ll probably go off about the Kabbalah one of these days, the 6s in the Minor Arcana are always balanced and very positive, no matter the suite. So despite these opposing archetypes, this is a very balanced and harmonious card. This card also evokes nostalgia and has a sweet quality and is honestly one of the nicest cards in the deck. So to go with that theme, I chose the Budgerigar as its corresponding parrot.
Many people have had Budgies as pets and many more have had them as children. They are actually the third most popular pet in the world behind a dog and a cat and have been bred in captivity since the 19th century. Having hung out with one while pet-sitting for a friend for a while, I can honestly say I get it as to why. This little bird has a huge personality and is spunky, sweet, lovable, and a total trickster. And as the pudgy little hand is pointing out, the water surrounding the eggs in this card is flowing freely like a babbling brook, unencumbered by the difficulties around it.
7 of Eggs, Lord of Debauch, Scorpio III
The 7 brings in the correspondence of Venus, the Empress card. Venus is in detriment in Scorpio, which means it doesn’t do all that great there. The kind of ladies that like to hang out with ninjas in the middle of the night (see above reference) are generally not the kind that keep polite society (albeit they are probably a lot of fun and have great stories). And that is exactly the tension of this card. I have a tendency to think that Uncle Al (Crowley) was a little too harsh with 7’s. His melodrama really found a home in Netzach and stop me before I go off on a Kabbalah tangent here….
For this card, instead of keeping with the Thoth meaning as much, I went a bit more towards the Rider Waite Smith meaning of Illusion. The macaw pictured above is a Glaucous Macaw. These beautiful macaws are one of South America’s blue macaws, like the Hyacinth, the Lear’s, and the Spix. However, no one has seen a Glaucous Macaw for many decades. There is a sighting and then literally no one can confirm it. There is no evidence that these birds still exist not only in the wild but in captivity too. There are areas of their natural habitat that are so sparsely populated and so minimally explored that there is a real likelihood that there is a wild population out there somewhere. And it is exactly this mystery that surrounds their very existence that makes them a perfect fit for this card.
Above you can see the Death card and the three corresponding Majors to the cards in this decan. I always lay all of the cards out before beginning any of the Minors like this so I can see what I am working with and what pattern, parrot and plant I will be working with when I make my design.
And below you can see this same layout with the Thoth deck along with the three Minors below each of their corresponding Majors.
The next three cards are going to be the 5, 6, and 7 of Feathers (Swords), Defeat, Science, and Futility. Phew! That’s going to be a rough two weeks to get those done. Wish me luck!
Here is this week’s YouTube installment of Painting with Krisztina:
These are Beautiful!