Welcome to the Mabon 2015 Blog Hop! Please use the links at the bottom or top of this post to navigate to the other wonderful blogs in this circle of divination thinkers, writers, and creators.
For this second-harvest festival hop, our wrangler, Maureen Aisling Duffy-Boose, asked us to think of a Tarot card that embodies this time of year for us, and then to create our own card using whatever materials suited our fancy. I am a drawer and painter primarily, so my first thought was to head for the canvas and acrylics. But then I thought about trying out a new (to me) medium - digital/photographic art! So here goes.....
When asked to consider a card that highlights the harvest season, autumn, most completely, I immediately thought of the Princess of Cups from the DruidCraft deck. In fact I will never forget how I felt the first time I laid eyes on it after having purchased it several years ago...the colors in rich, deep reds, the orange leaves preparing to fall into the brisk breeze...the golden fields in the background, and the cool calmness of the water. I love autumn, I'll just clear that up right now. It's my favorite season, and one of the more difficult adjustments I've had to make with living in the near-tropical south has been losing the earthy charm of this time of year. I have rediscovered it to some extent in the Florida winter, which is quite like autumn in the north, complete even with certain trees that change color and lose their foliage (usually in mid-December).
Still, the apple-cinnamon-orchard-pumpkin-chill-campfiresmoke-mystery is a little bit harder to find.
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| DruidCraft Tarot/W. Worthington |
That said, the minute September 1st rolls around I start to feel an undercurrent of excitement - the thrill of the impending change in season. It's subtler down here, but it's still noticeable if you pay attention. Even in the at-times-oppressive 90-degree heat, I am thinking of baking, cider, and pumpkin pie.
So I knew that I wanted to recreate the Princess of Cups in honor of this second harvest festival of Mabon. Interestingly as I went a-researching I found (thanks to my trusty
Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, by DuQuette, 2003) that the season of the Princess of Cups begins at the Fall Equinox and rules Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius! Coincidence? Synchronicity? Perhaps!
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| Princess of Cups/O. Destrades |
I chose my daughter, Lourdes, to be my Princess, and I used my iPad and an art app to create the effects over the photo. While her Sun sign is Taurus, pretty much everything else in her chart is water, and she is certainly the most sensitive of my three kids. In this image the core color scheme highlights autumn: oranges, reds, browns and black. Representing the pure essence of water, streams of the element shoot from her finger and hand, arcing up into the sky and then down and around her body. She is young, and carries the innocence of this Court, but her expression is calm and knowing.
Inspired by the process of working on the Princess of Cups,
I also created the Princess of Disks using the image of my oldest daughter, Isabella, who is a triple Earth (Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus)!
May your creativity always flow! Happy Mabon!
