The Fool
A traveller, a threshold, an eruption
A bundle and an animal survive the changes. The ground beneath the figure, the direction of movement and the number do not. Begin with those differences before deciding what a beginning means.
Three decks
The same card in Marseille, Waite–Smith and Thoth. See what changes.
Jean Dodal’s Marseille cards, Pamela Colman Smith’s pictures for Waite, and Frieda Harris’s paintings for Crowley. Listed in Thoth order.
Choose a family
Trumps 22 studies
The Magus
What happens to the table?
Follow the tools from the table into the air. The change in their arrangement is easier to see than a general claim about mastery, and gives that claim something concrete to answer to.
The Priestess
A book, a veil, a field of light
Follow what can be read, and what remains covered. These three seated figures give very different forms to the boundary between showing and withholding.
The Empress
Where does abundance appear?
The eagle-bearing shield gives way to a Venus emblem in Smith, while Harris brings several birds into the scene. Look for the different places where authority, shelter and growth become visible.
The Emperor
The ruler’s posture and implements
Look at the legs before the crown. Dodal’s turned figure, Smith’s frontal throne and Harris’s crossed-leg arrangement give authority a different physical stance.
The Hierophant
Who receives the teaching?
Start at the foot of the central figure. Two attendants become a different arrangement of a standing figure, a child and surrounding creatures. The audience helps explain what has changed.
The Lovers
A choice, a garden, a ceremony
Count the people and follow their hands. A central figure between two others, a pair beneath an angel, and a crowded royal ceremony do not tell the same scene.
The Chariot
What is the chariot carrying?
Two horses become two sphinxes, then four composite creatures. Meanwhile, the figure’s hands acquire a different task. Count what is in front of the vehicle, then look at its centre.
Adjustment
What happens to the scales?
The sword and scales remain, but their positions change. Compare a seated holder of two implements with a figure arranged along the axis of a much larger balance.
The Hermit
Where does the light fall?
The lamp survives across the designs, while its surroundings change radically. Follow its position, the figure’s gaze and the space that becomes illuminated.
Fortune
The wheel loses its stand
A wheel on a visible support becomes a wheel suspended among creatures, clouds or lightning. Follow what holds it in place, and what appears to move around it.
Lust
Hands at the jaws, a rider above
The human figure moves from beside a lion to the back of a many-headed beast. Look at contact, posture and direction before naming the relationship control or surrender.
The Hanged Man
Suspension and its disputed meaning
All three figures hang by one leg. Their hands, surroundings and expressions differ. The shared posture does not settle what any author thinks the suspension accomplishes.
Death
A scythe becomes a banner
Dodal and Harris give the skeleton a scythe; Smith puts it on horseback with a banner. Begin with the action pictured, without turning the card into a forecast.
Art
From pouring to transformation
First follow the liquid. Then ask whether the vessels remain separate or feed a shared operation. Temperance and Art retain a relationship while changing the work pictured.
The Devil
How are the smaller figures held?
Look at the connection between the large figure and the smaller ones. Cords, chains and enclosed groups make different kinds of relationship visible.
The Tower
Where does destruction enter?
Follow the force that meets the building. The displaced top remains recognizable, but the ray, lightning, eye and flames organize the scene differently.
The Star
Follow the two streams
Two vessels connect the designs, but the direction of pouring changes. Track each stream from its source to its destination before calling the scene hope or influence.
The Moon
What waits between the towers?
Two towers, animals and a shelled creature survive substantial changes. Compare their positions and the route through the centre, then read the authors’ accounts of darkness.
The Sun
One child, two figures, a wider circle
The Sun remains overhead while the scene below changes. Count the figures, notice the wall and look at what each body is doing.
The Aeon
A summons and a changed theology
The trumpet scene gives way to a different arrangement of divine and human figures. Compare the images first; then ask how each author explains transformation.
The Universe
What does the surrounding ring do?
A central figure and four corner creatures remain recognizable as the World becomes the Universe. Look at how the oval separates a centre from its surroundings.
Wands 14 studies
Ace of Wands
A branch becomes a blaze
Start with the shape of the single wand: cut wood, new growth and flame offer different beginnings.
Two of Wands
Crossing, holding, directing
Two implements can form a pattern, frame a person or concentrate a force.
Three of Wands
What makes energy take form?
A third wand can reinforce a pattern, support a watcher or become a flowering structure.
Four of Wands
A frame with an inside
Look at the space made by four wands before deciding whether it is shelter, ceremony or a limit.
Five of Wands
Conflict without combatants
Smith supplies people to a tangle of staves; Harris gives the implements different forms and positions.
Six of Wands
Order and recognition
Compare an orderly arrangement with a victory that is being publicly acknowledged.
Seven of Wands
One wand against the pattern
Follow the single upright or foreground wand and its relation to the other six.
Eight of Wands
How can a still picture move?
A woven pattern, a downward flight and a field of rays produce different impressions of speed.
Nine of Wands
Holding a line
Compare the relation between eight supporting forms and a ninth that stands apart.
Ten of Wands
When support becomes weight
Look for the change from a structure that carries force to one that obstructs it.
Knight of Wands
The rider and the rush
Three mounted figures provide a useful visual pairing, while their authors give the movement different explanations.
Queen of Wands
Authority beside an animal
The held wand remains recognizable while the animals and surroundings alter the scene.
Prince of Wands
A throne becomes a chariot
Compare two seated Kings with Thoth’s moving Prince, using the stated title-based court pairing.
Princess of Wands
Standing with a staff, leaping with fire
The Page-to-Princess pairing makes a change of posture particularly clear.
Cups 14 studies
Ace of Cups
What can a vessel receive?
The single cup changes from an architectural object to a source of flowing water.
Two of Cups
A pair and the space between
Two cups can suggest a relationship without showing two people.
Three of Cups
Shared plenty
Look at whether abundance is arranged, flowing or celebrated.
Four of Cups
When enough stops satisfying
An ordered group of four can look settled while its accompanying account introduces unease.
Five of Cups
Spilled or never filled?
Loss looks different when cups have fallen over and when their supply has stopped.
Six of Cups
Giving and replenishing
Flowers connect all three pictures, but their relation to the cups changes.
Seven of Cups
What changes the quality of plenty?
Count the vessels, then look at what fills them and how the picture asks you to regard it.
Eight of Cups
Leaving and dwindling
A departing figure and a failing supply can suggest change through very different scenes.
Nine of Cups
A display of satisfaction
Compare what an orderly group of nine cups does with and without a person before it.
Ten of Cups
A full arrangement, an unsettled ending
The tenth cup changes both the pattern and the kind of completion being pictured.
Knight of Cups
Carrying a cup through a landscape
The horse and raised vessel give the three riders a shared starting point.
Queen of Cups
A vessel and its reflection
Look at what can be seen directly and what becomes difficult to distinguish in water.
Prince of Cups
From a seat to an eagle-drawn vehicle
Compare the Kings’ held cups with the Prince’s cup in motion.
Princess of Cups
A figure beside an unexpected companion
The held cup survives while posture, clothing and the accompanying creatures change.
Swords 14 studies
Ace of Swords
The blade and the crown
A single upright sword survives the redesigns, while the hand, crown and surrounding light change.
Two of Swords
Where is the balance held?
Compare balance maintained by a person with balance built into a pattern.
Three of Swords
What is pierced?
Look at the central object before treating every three-sword design as a broken heart.
Four of Swords
Rest or an arrangement to stop fighting?
A resting effigy and swords meeting in a flower make different kinds of pause visible.
Five of Swords
The aftermath and the broken pattern
One picture shows people after a conflict; another shows disruption through the weapons themselves.
Six of Swords
A passage or a convergence
Six swords can travel with people or gather around a single centre.
Seven of Swords
One blade and several competing directions
The relation between one prominent sword and the others changes across the designs.
Eight of Swords
Who or what is constrained?
An enclosure of blades becomes a different image when someone stands inside it.
Nine of Swords
A person in distress, blades without a person
Separate the scene’s visible subject from the emotional or moral judgment attached to it.
Ten of Swords
Where does the structure break?
The last numbered Sword card can put the damage in a body or in the arrangement of blades.
Knight of Swords
Speed given a body
Compare the angle of rider, horse and weapon before assigning a character to the rider.
Queen of Swords
What does the free hand hold?
An upright sword remains recognizable while the other hand changes the scene substantially.
Prince of Swords
A mind pulled in several directions
The Prince’s chariot adds a problem of direction to the two Kings’ seated authority.
Princess of Swords
A raised blade becomes a downward stroke
The standing court figure changes from holding a weapon to a more visibly forceful action.
Coins / Pentacles / Disks 14 studies
Ace of Disks
Coin, pentacle, moving disk
The suit’s changing name matters: look at what is drawn inside and around its single round object.
Two of Disks
Two circles in one loop
A linking band survives while a maker’s inscription, a performer and a serpent change its character.
Three of Disks
Building a form
Three round objects become part of a plant pattern, a worked building and a geometric construction.
Four of Disks
What does a boundary protect?
A central shield, a person’s grip and a fortress offer different pictures of holding something secure.
Five of Disks
Strain in the arrangement
A picture of people in hardship and a strained geometry put difficulty in different places.
Six of Disks
How does plenty circulate?
Compare an ordered distribution of disks with the visible act of giving.
Seven of Disks
Waiting beside what has grown
A pause in cultivation is not automatically the same thing as a failed harvest.
Eight of Disks
Care repeated
Repeated objects become workmanship in one image and cultivation in another.
Nine of Disks
The result and the conditions around it
Look beyond the number of coins to the enclosure, plants and arrangement that accompany them.
Ten of Disks
Accumulation and what comes next
The fullest arrangement raises a question about what wealth can do beyond remaining in place.
Knight of Disks
A horse that waits
Compare the riders’ relation to their held or nearby disks and to the ground beneath them.
Queen of Disks
Holding a coin, surveying a landscape
The Queen’s relation to the surrounding land becomes more prominent in the Thoth design.
Prince of Disks
What carries material power?
Compare the Kings’ seats with the Prince’s animal-drawn vehicle.
Princess of Disks
A held disk and the ground below
Look at the relation between a standing figure, a round object and the earth.