Labyrinth Gate (48 page)

Direction:
East

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Snake

Plant:
Mandrake

Picture:
A mature woman in a wimple stands holding a newborn. Behind her we see part of a chamber with a window and part or all of a bed or birthing chair.

Meaning:
Birth, creation; bringing something into being; a new direction, goal, endeavor; a propitious time to begin (a new venture, turn a new leaf).

2. THE HEIRESS

Letter:
B

Element:
Earth

Direction:
South

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Pig(s)

Plant:
Climbing rose

Picture:
A young woman sits at a dressing table, examining herself in a mirror, various bits of jewelry and makeup jars on the table before her. Reflected in the mirror, one can see doors opening to a balcony on which is a climbing rose.

Meaning:
The mirror of knowledge; the heiress represents the priestess (the adept) who, seeing herself, sees knowledge—who knows herself; but also, worldly vanity; material fixations; love of luxury; prideful love of self; stagnation in selfishness and self absorption.

3. THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN

Letter:
R

Element:
Earth

Direction:
Heaven

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Bull

Plant:
Lily

Picture:
On a throne suspended in the air sits the crowned Queen of Heaven. Her expression is detached, her eyes raised to something beyond her, one hand across her chest, the other trailing down. At the hem of her voluminous skirts crouch three tiny supplicants—one man, one woman, and a calf.

Meaning:
Forgiveness; selflessness—giving of one’s substance to succor others; also, detachment.

4. THE EMPRESS OF BOUNTY

Letter:

Element:
Earth

Direction:
Center

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Cockatrice (basilisk)

Plant:
Wheat

Picture:
A richly robed matron with long, luxurious hair sits at a loom. At her feet sit four wild animals: a mouse, a wren, a toad, and a lizard. Around and beside her, the fruits of the earth.

Meaning:
Plenty; mother of All Things; the bountiful.

5. THE DREAMER

Letter:
P

Element:
Earth

Direction:
Underworld

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Mare

Plant:
Belladonna

Picture:
A blindfolded young woman dressed only in a simple shift runs wildly through a forest of horrors: spiders, bugs, and weirdling creatures populate the branches. As she runs, she is (accidently) stepping on a snake.

Meaning:
Unreasoning fear, terror, nightmare, lack of control, brutality; imagination, also its dark side; magnification of what you are at this moment—whether for good or bad; ability to harness the sheer power of the unconscious.

6. THE ARCHER

Letter:
L

Element:
Earth

Direction:
North

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Stag

Plant:
Hemlock

Picture:
In a winter forest, a naked woman draws her bow, aiming at an unseen target.

Meaning:
Revenge; fixed unalterable purpose—purpose which must be carried out; justice; the “furies.”

7. THE GATEKEEPER

Letter:
E

Element:
Earth

Direction:
West

Rank:
Queen

Animal:
Worm

Plant:
Dill

Picture:
An old woman sits beside a stone archway. In her hands she holds knitting. At her feet sits a lantern.

Meaning:
Knowledge of life and death, of passage from one state to another; wisdom of life and its processes; knowledge of the future.

8. THE TUTOR

Letter:
J

Element:
Air

Direction:
East

Rank:
King

Animal:
Hawk

Plant:
Fennel

Picture:
In a library a man holds a book. He could be either offering it or receiving it.

Meaning:
The dissemination of learning; the beginning of self-knowledge; curiosity about one’s own inner processes.

9. THE PHILOSOPHER

Letter:
F

Element:
Air

Direction:
South

Rank:
King

Animal:
Swan(s)

Plant:
Pansy

Picture:
In a marketplace, a man holds forth to a collection of listeners (male and female).

Meaning:
Exchange of ideas, cross-fertilization of ideas on the stage of the marketplace, the square; stagnant, monopolizing pontificating.

10. THE PHYSICIAN

Letter:
K

Element:
Air

Direction:
Heaven

Rank:
King

Animal:
Eagle

Plant:
Foxglove

Picture:
A robed man seated at a table holds the tools of a physician; behind him one sees the paraphernalia of the alchemist.

Meaning:
Healing; the use of thought and rationality to have an impact on the material; helping others with no thought of one’s own gain.

11. THE EMPEROR OF ORDER

Letter:
—

Element:
Air

Direction:
Center

Rank:
King

Animal:
Gryphon

Plant:
Iris

Picture:
A man seated on a throne carved of living wood. His crown is vines and leaves. In one hand he holds a staff, in the other a flower.

Meaning:
The melding of culture and nature; rationality, but also too much rationality, to the exclusion of mystery; the triumph of reason; necessity of order, but also, ordering without imagination or flexibility.

12. THE PRISONER

Letter:
S

Element:
Air

Direction:
Underworld

Rank:
King

Animal:
Raven

Plant:
Rue

Picture:
A man in ragged clothing sits slumped in a cell. He is chained to a large block of stone, a tiny, barred window above him.

Meaning:
Imprisonment; being caught in a closed place, idea, goal; being chained to a person, place, concept; prejudice; bias to a view that lacks perspective.

13. THE BEGGAR

Letter:

Element:
Air

Direction:
North

Rank:
King

Animal:
Owl

Plant:
Thistle

Picture:
A thin, old man sits beneath a leafless tree, an empty bowl at his right knee, a lit lantern hung on the branches above him.

Meaning:
Freedom from material burdens; wisdom brought by self-imposed isolation; self-knowledge, enlightenment, asceticism; without either home or possessions, a state either blessed or damned.

14: THE HUNTER

Letter:
W

Element:
Air

Direction:
West

Rank:
King

Animal:
Kite

Plant:
Mistletoe

Picture:
Through late-summer woods runs a loinclothed hunter with a spear, dogs at his heels. What he pursues cannot be seen.

Meaning:
Death, cruelty, fixed purpose without reason; when you are marked by the Hunter there is no recourse—unlike the Archer, he is not motivated by revenge or justice, but is rather on the blind scent of blood—no emotion is linked with the hunt except that it is inevitable and unstoppable.

15. THE PAGE

Letter:
AE

Element:
Water

Direction:
East

Rank:
Knight

Animal:
Salmon

Plant:
Daisy

Picture:
In a room a boy is being fitted in new armor. Behind him the door opens to reveal a landscape beyond.

Meaning:
Beginning of knowledge of the world, of life outside of oneself; beginning of independence; exploring, curiosity, initiative.

16: THE CRUSADER

Letter:
D

Element:
Water

Direction:
South

Rank:
Knight

Animal:
Porpoise(s)

Plant:
Laurel

Picture:
A young man, mounted and in armor, armed with a lance, sword and shield hung from his saddle, leads the charge at an unseen target. Others follow him.

Meaning:
Being on “crusade”: some larger purpose, outside of oneself, directing and informing one’s actions—often with a group; can lead to prejudice; lending oneself as a participant in another’s goals, ideas; being controlled by someone else’s goals, opinions, or biases.

17: THE PALADIN

Letter:
M

Element:
Water

Direction:
Heaven

Rank:
Knight

Animal:
Newt

Plant:
Olive branch

Picture:
Through a wasteland a young man rides, armed, his eyes uplifted to the sky in which shines a single, brilliant star.

Meaning:
The noble quest; purpose—to aid others and deny oneself, usually undertaken as a solitary task; purity of purpose.

18: THE MASTER OF WATERS

Letter:

Element:
Water

Direction:
Center

Rank:
Knight

Animal:
Sea-serpent

Plant:
Vine

Picture:
A naked man rises from the waves, in one hand a trident, in the other a twining snake. He is crowned by seaweed.

Meaning:
Mutability; can change to fit any space, container; ability to adapt; master of the ever-changing processes of life.

19: THE MADMAN

Letter:
G

Element:
Water

Direction:
Underworld.

Rank:
Knight

Animal:
Frog

Plant:
Henbane

Picture:
In an ominous forest, a man clothed only in tattered rags roams, obviously mad.

Meaning:
Insanity; twisting of purpose; lack of control; madness.

20: THE WANDERER

Letter:
N

Element:
Water

Direction:
North

Rank:
Knight

Animal:
Seal

Plant:
Columbine

Picture:
On a field of ice and snow, a hooded man lies half frozen, obscured by drifting snow.

Meaning:
Lost purpose; wandering in circles; life’s goals, purpose, frozen in indecision or from lack of goals; to try one thing after another with no set purpose.

21: THE DROWNED MAN

Letter:
I