Arieli's Three of Swords

Month: Tishrei (Days of Rain)

Numerology: The number three indicates a flowering, something created from the energy of the suit. It is the synthesis of the one’s thesis and the two’s antithesis. In Pythagorean philosophy, the number three (triad) represents energy and unity restored. According to Joanna Powell Colbert, threes means harmony, flow, and abundance. The third sefirah on the Tree of Life is Binah, Understanding.

Arieli’s Three of Swords: shows a partially constructed sukkah. A table with tools upon it sits in the center of the structure and, oddly, branches already cover the roof of the incomplete sukkah. A man wields a sword, rather than the saw that lies on the table, to remove a branch from a tree. The ground is littered with discarded twigs. Men are required to dwell in a sukkah for all seven days of the Sukkot festival, to recall that the Israelites dwelt in temporary shelters after the exodus from Egypt; both men and women are required to participate in the mitzvah of waving of the lulav during the festival of Sukkot.

Arieli assigns these meanings to the Three of Swords:
Upright: construction, repairs, renovations
Reversed: an incomplete state, not a permanent solution

Arieli’s description of the card: In this card, swords are used as tools to construct a sukkah, a temporary structure with a roof through which stars are visible. Here a Jew finishes building the first two walls of a sukkah and begins to take branches form a tree to build a third wall. The building of a sukkah begins immediately after Yom Kippur. [Arileli cites tractate Sukkah page 4, which includes discussion of the regulations for building a kosher sukkah.]

The RWS Three of Swords: Clouds and rain are the backdrop for a large, red heart pierced by three swords. Pamela Colman Smith adapted this image from a 15th century deck known as the Sola Busca Tarot.

Traditionally, this card signifies: loss, alienation, betrayal, mental anguish, being obsessed with old pain, failure, misfortune, suffering, and “all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration.” Reversed, it may suggest: forgiveness or gaining insights through written or spoken words.

Comparison between the cards: The RWS Three of Swords is straightforward in its symbolism, but the image of a heart pierced by three swords is tired and cliché from overuse. Arieli’s image of an inexperienced builder using the wrong tool to jury rig a temporary dwelling is awkward, but that awkwardness may be part of the card’s significance.

Relationship with Major Arcana: The third sefirah on the Tree of Life is Binah, Understanding. It is the place of receptivity and resistance. Binah is associated with the left temple of the head, which, if balanced with Chokhmah, the right temple, can bring insight. “Understand with wisdom. Be wise with understanding.” (Sefer Yetzirah 1:4)

Arieli’s connects the third sefirah to HaShekhinah, his High Priestess card. The Lurianic partzufim (faces) of the third sefirah are Imma and Tevunah, Mother and Comprehension.

Tarot has a couple of bizarre twists on mathematics. In one system, you add the digits of a card to reduce it to a single number. In the other system, you reduce a card’s number by ten. Each of the following cards has a value of three:

3=3 Arieli’s Shekhinah (RWS Empress)
12=1+2=3 Arieli’s Justice (RWS Hanged Man)
13=13-10=3 Arieli’s Hanged Man (RWS Death)
21=2+1=3 Arieli’s Judgment Day (RWS World)

Visually, there is a resonance between Arieli’s Three of Swords and his High Priestess card, HaShekhinah; a clumsy human attempt to mirror the work of a celestial architect, to make a mishkan (dwelling place) for the Shekhinah. The tree in Hanged Man is also bare and sad looking, like that in the Three of Swords.

The RWS Three of Swords resonates emotionally with The Hanged Man and Death. The Empress and The World seem much more positive.

Magical uses according to Tyson: to cause unhappiness, sorrow, or tears; to make a disruption or separation.

The Mary-El Tarot

Nine years ago, writing in a post called Tarophilia, I focused on two cards in the Mary-El Tarot that I had found particularly fascinating: The Hierophant and the Three of Swords. After all these years, I considered purchasing the deck today, only to discover that those two cards (as well as two others) have been changed!

The Hierophant of the first edition was intriguing because of its cleverly disturbing imagery. Perhaps because it was so unpopular, the artist, Marie White, replaced it with a new card. 

The imagery in the second edition Hierophant does not make you draw back in shock. It may even draw you in. Nice touches are the two tablets and bronze serpents. The single key is more prominent in this edition (which key is it?) and I wonder if that's a bee hive on top of it. Once again the figure is female and I wonder why. Those would be some of the questions to explore if I purchase the second edition.

The new card is more accessible and should allow for positive as well as negative interpretations. I can reluctantly accept the revised Hierophant since it would allow the reader to explore more than just the shadow side of religious tradition. This card could grow on me.

The new Three of Swords, however, is deeply disappointing. In the first edition, the card was an original piece of art showing a bird's flight hampered by the three swords (wounds) he clings to-- or perhaps showing a bird that has caught the swords before they could pierce him. 

None of the Minor Arcana cards in the first edition are RWS clones, but in the new edition, the Three of Swords has reverted to the usual, silly imagery of a heart pierced by three swords. Boring and cliché! (Tarot creators, please note: it only worked for Pamela Colman Smith.) Red roses have been thrown into the mix as well, with a rose bud growing from the left auricle.

Two other cards have been changed. They are Judgment and The High Priestess. Judgment is now a more fiery Phoenix. It may be an improvement, but not an essential one. On the other hand, the new High Priestess is amazing! She may even compensate for the desecration of the original Three of Swords. 

The original High Priestess was odd, its disparate bits of symbolism never really forming a single, coherent image. The first edition High Prietsess was too slender to be a Willendorf Venus as obviously intended, her fingers were like tree branches growing downward (but not from heaven), her headdress exploded into stars, the sefirot drawn in their original circular form on her broad, flat, naked belly made her look like a wheel of fortune, and there was all sorts of oddness just above the sea at her feet. (Maybe the guidebook would have helped me understand and bond with the card.)

 

Overall, the first edition High Priestess was jarring without adding depth to the meaning of the card. This card was one of the reasons that I did not purchase the deck.

The new High Priestess card is brilliant nod to the RWS, but takes the imagery in a more powerful direction. 

As in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, there are the two pillars of the Temple on either side of her, drawn in greater detail than in the RWS. A pomegranate curtain hangs between them behind her (screening a burning sun in a black sky). Her flowing robe, which begins as a veil over her head, merges into the reflective waters at her feet. 

What makes the image so much more powerful than the RWS, is that her hands caress and support Torah, the fire that burns within her. (Lo b'shamayim, it is not in the heavens.) The image connects the ancient tradition of Torah (black fire on white fire) with the more primal imagery of welcoming flames inside a sheltering cave.

This deck will remain on my wish list. Eventually, I may be extravagant and order a copy from the U.S. Before I decide, I'll have to review the images of the the Minor Arcana on her website and come to terms with the Aces and some of the courts. (Check out the sevens! And the decaying Queen of Pentacles!) 

I like that the Major Arcana cards seem to blend two concepts that have never been clear to me: "The Masculine" and "The Feminine."

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Tarophilia

All tarot enthusiasts are inclined to collect. I love my Gaian Tarot and Robin Wood Tarot decks, and yet I still surf the net looking at other tarot decks. 

I haven't purchased a new deck since the Gaian Tarot arrived on my doorstep three years ago. However, I am intrigued by a relatively new deck called the Mary-El Tarot by Marie White. Sometimes I wonder if this deck is more art than tarot. At other times, I see amazing ideas in the images the artist has created.

The Hierophant card shows malnourished children nursing from aged breasts. My first reaction was, "Gross! Who'd buy an ugly deck like that?" Moments later, I realized how brilliantly this image interprets The Hierophant or Pope card.

It reminds me of the title of an old, New England primer: Milk for Babes Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments and of a saying attributed to the Jesuits, "Give me the child until he is seven and I care not who has him thereafter." Brainwashed with their mother's milk! And yet un-loved and un-nurtured. What kind of world will these babies know? This is a very clever visual interpretation, especially because it makes me uneasy.

The Mary-El deck has pretty cards, too. (Pretty is good!) In the Three of Swords, a sweet bird caught the swords instead of letting them pierce her fair breast. Now she just has to be careful where she drops them.

What decks call to you? What card images do you find particularly compelling?