Tarot Discussion Group, Card of the Week.

I absolutely love this card. I have since the first day I bought Melanie's deck, it definitely was one of the cards that just jumped out at me and grabbed my attention. So lets take a look at the central image. Mel Presents us with a woman ascending a elegant stair well. The woman is holds herself up tall, elegantly dressed, and self contained. The bob cut of her hair, and the way she holds her hands, both underscore the her self contained nature. The stair case has a iron wrought handrail, on what appears to be a marble staircase. The height of the stair is implied by the tall bushes at the lower part of the frame. To all appearances she is a woman of no little wealth.

Wealth is a source of strength, and our figure simply looks strong. Her position on the stair elevates her. She is a commanding figure, in a commanding position. Her midnight blue gown, echo's the night sky behind her. Tying her to the intuitive and magickal side of life. The lush bushes at the base of the stair tie her to earthy, natural aspect of life. Yet not too closely, she is clearly a step away from the bushes by her position on the stair.

I would like to point out however, their is nothing outwardly threatening about this figure. Her face does not share the mocking aspect of the Robin Wood, nor the Smirking aspect of the Universal Waite. Now why do I say that, well its time to start onto the divination of the card. The V of swords is normally read as conquest, and it is normally read as a negative card. To that end the Robin Wood, and Universal Waite both present main figures that one can easily view negatively. Mel's figure however, I think, is not a negative figure. At the same time, she has been carefully crafted, she is not a figure with long flowing hair, she is distant. We don't see a close up of her face, and her face is not a doe eyed priestess. Melanie has avoided the normal tricks used to make a woman seem attractive in our cultural frame. This has had the double effect of making the figure, distant and strong. She may not appear attractive, according to the cultural norm, She is however clearly a woman you would feel is clearly capable of helping if you where in need of real help.

Conquest is not politically fashionable. We live in the world however where it is sometimes necessary. We live in a world where most of us will experience conflicts from time to time where we need to prevail in life. In my current job, I was blessed, in that I applied for the job, at exactly the moment when my company was searching for someone. In my previous job, I was one of two technicians selected, from a pool of 200 applicants. Not that I'm so great, but the last recession was at its height and a lot of us wanted the job. Now I have no ill will towards the other candidates, and don't want to see them unemployed. Yet at the same time, I also needed a job. I did need to prevail in that competition, I had been unemployed for some time at that point. Conquest meant I acquired a means to make a living, but, it also meant someone else was left searching. I needed to be sufficiently insensitive, to the outcome that I put my hat in the ring. Rather than saying to myself, I don't want to take food off another families table, I'll look somewhere else. The world we live in does require winners and losers. It does not accommodate a noncompetative view point comfortably. If the Antiwar movement, wins, conquers the establishment, then the administration looses. I think its a Conquest alot of us can live with right now.

Mel's figure is one of my favorite's in the whole deck. Ultimately I feel, she represents that strong person we all need to find with-in ourselves sometimes. Life is going throw challenges at us, and sometimes we are going to need to prevail. Obviously my divinations below, are not the norm. And are based on my reading of the Gendron Card Specifically.

Divination: Conquest, Inner Strength is Required, Strength in the face of an Uncertain Outlook.

Reversed: Dishonor, Insensitivity, Indecision, Intrest in Selfish Gain, Seduction.

A more conventional divination would read like this:
Divination: Conquest, Defeat, Insensitivity, Destruction of Another, An Adversary may be revealed, Victory by unfair means.

Reversed: Weakness, Indecision, Confusion, Inner Strength is Required, Seduction.