Myth of Arrival

The Emperor

… the divine artisan combined … duende personified …

Few people seem to go beyond viewing the Emperor as some sort of Masculine Essence; an overwhelming male ego on two legs, the personification of an angry overlord in their life. Combine this with one view of the Empress as the Female Essence, a divine wet nurse, and conceptual speaking the Tarot seems not only inherently sexist but stuck back somewhere with poor Dr. Freud in the early Twentieth Century as well.

The Emperor is more than your disgruntled father. Like the Empress, at one time the card bore all the symbols of the Holy Roman Empire and thus could be read as the required responsibilities a ruler must have to control the (at least back then) mightest empire on earth. But today, in the Rider-Waite deck at least, we see an aged old man, white of beard and broad of shoulders, sitting on a throne with carved ram heads. One might think of Arthur of Britannia, except this man's crown looks more Byzantine than Celtic and his scepter seems to be on loan from the sun god Ra. Behind him looms a golden mountain range. This might tell us that the Emperor, like icebergs and mountains, is the personification of the rational, ordered, unchangeable earth. War, disagreement, chaos and confusion are what the Emperor must overcome in order to rule justly. Is this not the same for everyone?

What I think we can learn is this: it is from chaos that order must arise; so it is with this card. When the Emperor channels his aggressive anger into creativity energy then he finds he can achieve many amazing things. This is the same sort of state of consciousness that poets call upon the Muses to bring to them; what jazz musicians call "soul;" what Federico Garcia Lorca called "duende," and canto jondo, "black sounds." Garcia Lorca wrote, "all that has black sounds has duende … that mysterious power that everyone senses and no philosopher explains" (Garcia Lorca, 49). To look at the Emperor in this light conjures up not of an angry warlord but an artisan of a particular skill. Once we become master of our own skills and talents we find all the false posturing that the Emperor is traditional bestowed with quickly disappears. Once we have become a master at peace in his or her own element, our own black sounds, we will understand what this card is trying to tell us.

***

The Card

In the heart of a raging storm at sea a colossal figure strides through the waves, bending all the might of the ocean to his purpose. In one hand he carries a trident and on his head rests a nine-pointed crown. He is Poseidon, Zeus' younger brother and ruler of all the oceans. After the overthrow of Kronos, the father of universe, Poseidon, Hades and Zeus drew lots to see where they would rule. Hades was given the underworld, Zeus the heavens and Poseidon the seas. It was there that:

Poseidon built an underwater palace for himself near Aegae, in Euboea. In his stables he kept his white chariot horses with bronze hoofs and golden manes, and a golden chariot. Clad in robes of gold he rode the sea in this equipage, accompanied by sporting dolphins, tritons, and other sea creatures. At his approach storms were dispelled, waves flattened and the sea smiled. (Avery, 457)

Like Zeus, Poseidon had many lovers, both mortals and gods. One legend states that as a youth he fell in love with the goddess Halia, whose name literally translates into, "the sea goddess" (Cameron, 183). Other legends say says his only wife (in the matrimonial sense, at least) was Amphitrite, who he seduced with the help of a dolphin (Avery, 460). What Poseidon should be honored for is not the savage storms he can unleash, but his skills at letting our oceans flow their course. That he shapes and forms the waves and their actions in the same manner as a potter would to clay should not distract us from his accomplishments. The boundless tempest might be unstoppable to us, but it is not uncontrollable by the hands who created it.

***

The Emperor/ Poseidon in a Reading

If you discover you have drawn the Emperor in your reading, ask yourself how you deal with your own creativity? Does it come naturally or do you have to force it even to show up? Do you consider yourself skillful in your art? Federico Garcia Lorca talks of how duende rises up out of a person when they are synchronized with the universe. We can feel that when listening to a piece of music or poem that knocks the top of our heads off. Like a tsunami at sea, Poseidon's skills produce a sense of awe in the beholder.

Many of our frustrations that arise with our own creative process, however, come recognizing our latent talent but not being able to manage it. This in turn creates the rage and need for control the Emperor is traditionally associated with. Instead of fighting the tsunami, see if you can harness it for own ends. As Aphrodite was born from sea foam we too are created out of the very stuff that also fuels in our inspirations. Be ambitious in your creativity but be aware as well that too much ambition and too few skills are an atrocious mixture. The Emperor reversed is the same thing as a tyrant and bully, a soul frustrated at the barriers imposed by themselves and striking out at everything that moves. Instead of allowing frustration to consume you, ask yourself when was the last time you honored your own creativity? When was the last time you paid tribute to the god of the seas, thanking him for his assistance? It is not enough to recognize your own creativity; you must nurish it and keep it alive as well.

***

Homer offered up his boot to the grave
god of the sea. Then he sang a queer tune,
a slave's tune, that I'll sing for you; wave slave
that I am. Here is the air of the Moon
Shaker. The tune for Homer's Great Typhoon
Cleaver. Libations no one will perform
in this modern day. Poseidon, how soon
did your art of crafting wave, thunderstorm
and wind disappear to us? We still swarm
over the waves in sculls and boats, but who
sings your praise? Homer knew you could transform
the waves and rave. So he offered to you,
sea god, all he had; one sodden left boot.
Take my brine-burnt gift, too, my tribute.

***

Works Cited

Avery, Catherine B. (ed) The New Century Handbook of Greek Mythology and Legend. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. (1972)

Cameron, Norman (trans). The Gods of the Greeks. London, New York: Thames, and Hudson. (1951)

Garcia Lorca, Federico. In Search of Duende. Christopher Maurer (ed.) New York: New Directions. (1998)

Hi Gang …

… for about a week my computer system was down¹ which I am sure is sad and whatnot but when I got my blog back I happened to notice that I had not updated my "Contests, Submission, Award & Deadlines" section for about four months … (oops!)

I have now fixed this small problem and I invite everyone to write in if they know of a grand ragmag, 'zine or submission deadline that needs our support.

Of the things I have not fixed is our lack of air-conditioning in this house. Even though the heat and humidity only makes me mumble-headed, I feel sorry for my cat, Jellyroll.

I find little piles of damp hair on the floor everywhere he goes. I suppose being 89% fur has its downsides.

1. Virtual Community my left foot! More like Virtual Gated Community; since you can only be a member if your 'puter is working … [back]

The Empress

… the might of an empire … primal creativity … the combination of divine law and inspiration …

There are several ways of looking at this card. A popular view holds that she is the consort of the Emperor. Here she plays the role of the Other Half of the Male Principal and combined the two of them make up one Whole. Whereas the testosterone-driven Male (think Mars, Odin or Ares) is war-like and aggressive, the peaceful Female (Venus, the May Queen or Aphrodite) is fertile and creative. The downside to this approach is that the Empress cannot stand on her own as an individual. Furthermore she is rendered into some sort of passive über-baby machine, fit only for endless cycles of procreation. The Empress is not, I believe, a sexual workhorse shackled to a patriarchal slave master. We must think outside the box.

A different way of looking is to go back to what she once was before modern scholars and critics began to tinker with the symbolism of the card. Currently, in the Rider-Waite deck, a tall, blond woman sits in a field of grain by a flowing waterfall. In one hand she carries a scepter and the other a shield with the female emblem rooted on its front. On her head is a twelve-pointed crown. Like the High Priestess' slow transformation from a female pope into her current form, the Empress at one time bore the trappings of the head of the Holy Roman Empire and signified the inherent power of Female divine law. That those symbols no longer remain in the card's artwork, replaced instead by defused and obscure imagery (the field of wheat, the waterfall, etcetera, all pregnant depictions), is unfortunate. This simultaneously strips the card of any cultural and religious authority it might have once held and illustrates our petty understanding of what, exactly, is the role of the Mother in this day and age.

There is more to being an Universal Mother than simply bringing forth the next generation. The Empress is the archetype of the Matriarch. Matriarchy, I think, is a concept not fully understood in the West.¹ As the goddess's birthright, the riot grrl's call-to-arms, the Empress comes to eminence not passively but due to her prerogative. Those who tap into this authority must be self-possessed else they become consumed by the dark side of all power; vanity, corruption, greed. When the High Priestess returns with secrets untold, this is what she brings back from the shadow lands. As the once ruler of the mightiest empire on Earth, the Empress can show both savagery or benevolence, bring forth life or destroy it. It is our choice as how we will use that power that is important. That is the role of this card.

***

The Card

Far below the surface of a raging ocean, in the land of Adlivun where the drowned go, a shaman is combing the long hair of a terribly scarred woman. From the continual blood flowing from her severed hands all manner of sea creatures billow forth. Similar to Odin's role as the All-Father, this is Sedna, the Inuit All-Mother; the supreme deity.

Sedna is the goddess of all the oceans and the creatures in it. As the controller of destinies, she can curse her people with "sickness, bad weather and starvation if taboos are broken. If observed, animals are plentiful. As the ruler of Adlivum … she is [also] called Idliragijenget" (Leach, 394); as well as, "Ai-willi-ay-o, Arnaknagsak, Arnarquagssaq, Avilayog, Nerivik, Nerrivik" (Coulter, 417). There are two different stories as to how Sedna came to be. One depicts her as a ghoulish titan, gnawing on her parent's legs. They throw her into the ocean where she becomes the ill-tempered personification of winter storms. In another:

Sedna was a beautiful young girl who refused all suitors until Seabird came along. She went to live with him in his nest, but when her father came to visit he was horrified at the filth and took Sedna away. The bird people followed them and the sea began to rise and a storm overtook them. To calm the water, Sedna's father threw his daughter out of the kayak. She clung to the boat. Three times he chopped at his daughter's hands until she finally let go and sank to the ocean's bottom. The pieces of her hands became sea animals. (Ann, 386)

Within this particular motif there are many versions and departures. Some focus on Sedna's father. In one version it is the fear of drowning that prompts the sacrifice of his daughter. "And so terror made the father do what he thought he never could … She belonged to the sea — why would she not surrender? … Why, thought the father, couldn't she just go ahead and drown?" (Ferguson, 87 - 89). Other versions focus on the jilted Seabird Husband; he is Arctic Loon (Yolen, 106), Petrel (Ferguson, 87) Raven (Andrews, 175). Sometimes Sedna's husband calls on other gods for aide. Even though he keeps her with him against her will, the sea gods summon up a wild storm because "[they] were angry that Sedna had betrayed her husband" (Yolen, 106). Whatever the case, Sedna is cast into the ocean and her fingers cut from her. It is from her severed fingers we get seals, whales, sharks; in short, all marine life is attributed to her.

It is the role of the Inuit Shaman, or "angakok, to visit the Mother of the Sea Beasts … Only his spirit makes the journey; his physical body remains behind, bound with ropes to prevent it from disappearing, too … In her anguish over the wrongdoings of people, the Sea Mother has become dirty and unkempt and she has penned up the sea mammals … [the] angakok's task is to comb her hair while trying to persuade her to release the imprisoned creatures. When he succeeds, the spectators back on earth hear the animals moving out into the water and see the shaman 'surface' from the sea, gasping for breath" (Ferguson, 88).

***

The Empress/ Sedna in a Reading

If Sedna honors your reading, be aware of how you cultivate, nurture, attend to your world. "To mother" something or someone has taken on more than one meaning; however, we must move on beyond modern, dark cynicism and examine what it means to employ our endless ecstasy, joie de vivre, inspirations. It is not enough to be fertile, the Empress must know how to engage her divinity for her own uses and for others. All creativity is a form of power. How do you use yours? Regardless of your gender, what do you do with your riot grrl muscle? Stage a revolution? The Empress is both laureate and judge, mother superior and sovereign of her empire. What will you allow in yours? Whose energies are you willing to deal with? It is no small thing to find other people using your creativity for their own ends. However, when the Empress is reversed we find just that; a frivolous use of your power. Is someone playing on your self-serving interests? Are you indeed a passive baby-machine, expending power without thinking why or to what end? Do not use the verb "to mother" in its dark form; to extinguish, to silence, to smother. As Sedna has the responsibilities to care for all the sea creatures in her realm, be kind but but know your own soul. In other words, do no harm with your prerogative.

***

– Little man, work that comb. This lice shall vex
me. — My! Great Mother, your sea flows darkly
tonight. All I see are millions of specks
of far-flung suns, shimmering like algae
in your hair. — No, little man, my bloody
stumps flow and what you mistake as dark suns
are my seals, my sharks. I bleed up the sea!
I bleed eels and red kelp. I bleed dolphins
and, ouch! — O! Forgive me! You have dozens
of snags, Great Mother. — Sad, little man, did
you come to vex me or beg the ocean's
body made flesh? You know I forbid
you from my green darkness? — Mother, I know,
it is the source of our people's sorrow.

***

Works Cited

Andrews, Tamra. A Dictionary of Nature Myths. New York: Oxford University Press. (1998)

Ann, Martha and Dorothy Myers Imel. Goddesses in World Mythology. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. (1993)

Coulter, Charles Russell and Patricia Turner. Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. (2000)

Ferguson, Diana. Native American Myths. Consultant: Colin Taylor. London: Collins & Brown. (2001)

Leach, Marjorie. Guide to the Gods. Edited by Michael Owen Jones, Frances Cattermole-Tally. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. (1992)

Norman, Howard (ed.) Northern Tales: traditional stories of Eskimo and Indian peoples. New York: Pantheon Books. (1990)

Yolen, Jane (ed.) Favorite Folktales from Around the World. New York: Pantheon Books. (1988)

1. Matriarchy, like patriarchy, is simply a system and like all systems they have flaws and errors. If we all have the divine Fe/male inside ourselves, why is it in the West we do not respect both? Why is it that only one side is roughly honored while the other vilified? If you do believe in duality, then the Empress is our Female Principal, separated from the Whole forever. Really, who would want that? I find it one of the main problems with duality. [back]

The High Priestess

… the embodiment of gnosis … the combination of the human and divine … our own powers of intuition …

I agree with many critics of the Tarot who tend to attribute to this card in the Rider-Waite deck the concept that the High Priestess represents the extremity of human knowledge. In other words, if the Magician has the tools to connect with Spirit but not the experience, knowledge or discipline, then the High Priestess not only has gone through the shadow worlds to seek out that knowledge, but she has returned to tell us what she witnessed.

Depending on the deck and the reader of the Tarot, the High Priestess is either a hand maiden to the Goddess, or some sort of avatar to help guide human learning. Before she was changed into the current spectacle we know her as today, the card was called, "La Papesse," the Female Pope. Perhaps this was a more direct concept; she was not just a priestess among many, she was the ultimate source of spirituality, authority and knowledge among her people. In many ways, it is too bad we do not go back to the older version.

No matter. The current card shows a woman sitting passively in the temple of Solomon between two pillars of polar opposites. On her head she wears a diadem, a Christian cross rests upon her breast and in her lap she carries a scroll with the Judea word "Tora" written on it and at her feet lies a crescent half moon, symbol of Diana and Pagan religions. The diadem is an ancient crown signifying the supreme right of kings and popes. The Tora contains sacred Hebrew laws. Combine all of this with the Pagan moon and the Christian cross and the High Priestess represents all that is spiritual and occult. No longer the novice, she serves the divine and keeps its laws.

***

The Card

On a calm, deep night a dark haired woman stands off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, waves lapping at her chest. In back of her a crescent moon hints at esoteric mysteries. On her naked flesh a large, tribal tattoo depicting a shark is just visible. Behind her, on the shore, she is flanked by the silhouettes of two ancient totem poles, each representing her house's spirituality and wisdom. This is Qqaaxhadajaat, the Dogfish Woman. Having returned to the human world from under the sea all forms of knowledge, both studious and native, are open to her.

The Haida are a people inhabiting the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia, Canada, as well as Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. "K'aaxada awga" is the Haida word for the dogfish (Squalus acanthias), a small variety of shark that inhabits the waters of the Pacific North Coast. The dogfish, as well as a variety of other mythical sea creatures, appears in a variety Haida art¹ especially as a figurehead in totem pole carvings. This particular crest is recognized by its half-moon gill slits, its crescent shaped mouth turned down at corners and filled with pointy teeth (Keithahn, 723) The folklore around Dogfish Woman tells that, having insulted the gods, Qqaaxhadajaat finds herself transformed from a mortal woman into one of them:

A woman went traveling with her husband. She used to make fun of the dogfish. They went to visit a small rock in the sea. When they were out there, the dogfish, whose home it was, came and took the woman down into the sea. There she discovered that the dogfish were really people. They had taken off their dogfish blankets. After she had stayed in the house for some time, fins began to grow upon her arms, her legs and her back. Her husband was searching for her everywhere … After a number of years he found her … Ever since that time her family have used the dogfish crest and their house is called Dogfish House. (Bringhurst, 139 - 141)

Unlike her counterpart in the Rider-Waite deck, the High Priestess Qqaaxhadajaat is devoid of any Western trappings usually associated with "the pursuit of wisdom." Gone are the robes, the crown, the cross. Whereas the seated female in the Rider-Waite deck holds a scroll with certain holy texts written down on it, Haida wisdom and knowledge is all recounted orally, passed down through the generations. Only the large, complex tattoo that symbolizes her abilities to move between worlds proclaims her as a laureate of secrets. Qqaaxhadajaat is not only a divine being but she is also the repository of all her people's traditions, mythologies, customs. In other words, she is what an avatar should be; the female divine, the intrinsic guise of Spirit made flesh, the union of the mortal and immortal.

***

The High Priestess/ Qqaaxhadajaat in a Reading

When the High Priestess calls your name, attend to what she has to say. She calls on you to trust your suspicions, intuitions, hunches. We live in a highly categorical society, everything must have its place. But suspicions and intuitions are still a tool at our disposal. What is stopping you from using them? What is preventing you from connecting yourself with Spirit? If you are not gathering knowledge to help understand your dreams and desires better, what are you gathering knowledge for? But know that the pursuit of wisdom comes at a price. Will you be like Qqaaxhadajaat and arrive through the darkness of the ocean transformed and wiser? Or will you be the mother in this little poem?

Mother in the ocean
did not see the big wave.
Now she is lost in the kelp. (Swann, 33)

Blinded by her own pursuits she could not see the dangers right in front of her. A word of caution if the High Priestess is reversed in the spread. A search for other people's wisdom can create vanity, conceit, bluster in a person. What are you searching? What are your goals? Beware of the person with only surface knowledge and no life experience to back it up.

***

Note: Most of my poetry I have been writing for this Tarot deck needs little or no introduction. I try to reflect the elements of a particular card in the sonnet with greater or lesser success. However, I use two Haida words in this poem. I start out the poem with 'wáayaat, which translates simply as, "now;" a way of getting the listener's attention. The poem ends with háw'aa, which is a form of "thank you." The Haida language is a highly fascinating one; however, since there are only a couple of dozen people who fluently speak it anymore and of those the average age is 70, it is a language that is also on the verge of becoming extinct. If you have the time the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, Alaska, is offering language courses. I highly suggest you attend.

Wáayaat. First it was dark. Cold
I can deal with. But dark? They took my face,
my name, my mink skinned gloves, all that I hold
dear, they took. My husband searched for a trace
of me. The Dogfish are a secret race,
good at hiding; so my husband never
found me. Now I accept so much. Embrace
it all, I say. Every truth about water
is mine. I'll tell you the ocean's pleasure
and the sea's whimsy. Now that I've returned
to you with my new name, my new fur
gloves, my new body. All that I have learned
I will tell you. The Whale Law, the Seal Law,
the Dogfish Law, I will say. Háw'aa.

***

Works Cited:

Bierhorst, John. The Sacred Path: spells, prayers, & power songs of the American Indians. New York: Morrow (1983)

Bringhurst, Robert. A Story As Sharp As a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre (1999)

Keithahn, Edward L. Monuments in Cedar. Seattle, Washington: Superior Publishing Co. (1963)

Swann, Brian. Wearing the Morning Star: Native American song-poems. New York: Random House (1996)

Swanton, John R. Haida texts and myths, Skidegate dialect. Washington, Govt. print. off (1905)

1. Haida folklore is full of stories, legends, motifs connecting its people to the ocean. There is the story of Wa'sg.o, the water monster with the head and body of a wolf and the fins of a killer whale (Swanton, 193, 207 n. 13); one myth concerning Sea Otter Woman (ibid., 236) and another of how a man became the first seagull (ibid. 264 - 68). The Haida shamans were said to be able to talk to sea lions (ibid., 282 - 85) and furthermore there are many myths relating how humans and spirit sea creatures often married each other. Two such noted stories worth research are The Man Who Married a Killer Whale Woman (ibid., 286 - 287) and He Who Married the Daughter of the Devilfish Chief (ibid., 292 - 93). J.R. Swanson recorded a shaman's song placating a god in charge of storms at sea with the following chant:

   Ocean Spirit
   calm the waves for me
   get close to me, my power
   my heart is tired
   make the sea like milk for me
   yeho
   yeholo (Bierhorst, 99) [back]