Page of Wands
This depicts the wolf from the famous tale of red ridding hood. Red ridding hood leaves the path and meets up with the wolf, who then takes advantage of her by eating her grandma and disguising himself as her. Then he goes to eat little red ridding hood. The wolf holds out a wand, so it kind of shows the first steps off the path of innocence. The page is known for bringing news, and as you well know a lot of news is about things you may not really want to know about, but need to in order to navigate the world.
The wolf is wearing red clothing symbolizing the fact that the wolf is also the things that he swallows, or rather than he can dress up in their clothing, and in a sense “become” them. This is a basic children’s understanding of some of the forces at work.
Page of Cups
In the page of cups, we meet an anthropomorphic cat next to a cup. Cats, along with wolves, dragons, and even snakes are common theme in this deck, but basically, children love to dress up cats in things like robes. You can’t see the cats hands because the sleeves cover them, showing that the robe doesn’t really “fit” It is too big for the poor cat, but the cat doesn’t really seem to mind. The cup has swirls in it, concentric circles, as if there are ever increasing layers of meaning here. Also, cats are known to drink out of human cups or whatever they want, even the toilet bowl, but they can also be quite picky about what they drink.
When I first saw the anthropomorphic cat, I was reminded of the fairy tale, puss and boots, where a cat dressed up in clothing makes a man into a marquis by eating an evil sorcerer who got to proud and turned himself into a mouse to show off. This is where the devouring powers can work in your favor, not eating you up, but eating your enemies up. Again this is a very basic kids understand of the whole thing, not like some kind of sophisticated adult understanding.
Page of Swords
Here we meet a “worthless dragon” or rather, a flying dragon with two fingered claws upon each hand. The sword is upon the ground unused. This is the idea that perhaps the intellect and logic is sitting there unused, because one is ill adapted to use it. Also the sword with a dragon who cannot use it conveys the idea of things that don’t necessarily go together. The dragon doesn’t need the sword because a dragon is a flying creature with “claws”, so the fact he can’t use it doesn’t really matter.
Page of Disks
Unlike the page of swords, this dragon has hands. They stick out at rather strange angles, one holds a potion with a crescent stopper, and is pointing up. (this is the right hand) and the other down holding nothing (the left hand) The dragon also has wings, so that means that the dragon can navigate air or land. Also the dragon wears armor, as in ready to deal with things that might attack. The page of disks is really ready for practical work and not just hanging out in the air.
The Knight of Wands
The knight of wands looks like a totem pole, well, vaguely like that. The top demon has wings and the bottom two demons (middle and bottom) are just faces with horns. The top demon holds a wand in each hand, and out of his head comes what looks like a stylized flame consisting of two horns put together. In this sense it echos the two of wands.
When the knight of wands enters a spread, there is the sense of power, but it is organized power like in a hierarchy. The two of wands echoed in this card shows that wands are organized into some sort of manifestation.
The Knight of Cups
The knight of cups looks like a cheeky demon with wings riding upon what looks like a circle, it has a face on it made up of two cups and a zig zag line. For some reason I am reminded of really useless engines.
There is a certain humor in this card, I can’t say what makes it so funny, but it does. Unlike the demon on top, the cups engine on the bottom doesn’t really seem to have much personality, just a machine with a personality tacked unto it.
Knight of Swords
The knight of swords carries two crossed swords as the symbol (yeah, I’m starting to notice a pattern, two cups, two wands, two swords.) and then on the bottom the demon underneath him has two crossed swords and a pyramid coming off her head like a hat. She is Ronove, Belial’s wife.
This card is really about the relationship of someone giving ideas to someone else, but of course all the ideas are logical, and the passion is under control. The pyramid can in some cases represent a social order or even a desire for a group to rise up.
Knight of Disks
The knight of disks seems to break the two pattern by having just one disk with faces upon it. It has two faces on it. The main face is an upside down star. It is awesome, and it also has a cat on it. I’m starting to think the disks, being the earth element are slow getting started, the knights of swords, wands, and cups have the two in them, while the disks only just has one disk.
I think its almost like a repeat of the little cards only, well not exactly. When I look at this card, I get the sense of just finding a small amount of money on the ground, not exactly a lot, but a start. People think of this as the slow card, in a sense the opposite of the eight of wands.
Queen of Wands
The queen of wands shows a bunch of demons in flames, so with birdlike features, so the queen is trying to focus upon them, hence her wand framing some of them, after all she can only deal with so many at one time. The queen’s job is to narrow down the inspiration, make it something that can be worked with, and no merely an overwhelming flood of ideas.
Queen of Cups
The queen of cups features a proud woman on a boat with three cats. The cats may or may not want to be stuck upon the boat with each other and the queen, but they have little choice, because the alternative is to plunge into the ocean, something often times far worse. The cats spiral tails indicate the shifting of dimensions, or portraits, and the cats can also represent the three fates in certain contexts.
Queen of Swords
Other decks have noted that the queen of swords is alone, This deck shows it explicitly, not alone in the hermit sense, or the sense of not having companionship, but more in the intellectual sense, in the more important sense of independent thought, free of being overly influenced, most especially by emotions.
The queen is in the clouds, so she is making her judgments from upon high, not really touching the ground. This gives her an indifferent impartial perspective, and that can be a good or a bad thing depending upon the situation. Sometimes, an impartial third party view is the best thing for a situation, and other times it merely involves the unhelpful meddling in things not really understood, because this queens way of dealing with things is very logical.
Queen of Disks
The queen of disks sits upon her throne in the woods, with faces upon the trees. Upon her throne can be seen a cat as part of the wood. The trees also have pentacles upon them. Her feet are upon the ground, showing that she is grounded and not alone. Her feet are upon a single pentacle, showing her at the beginning of manifestation.
King of Wands
The king of wands has become part of the fire. He isn’t just a king, he is also the flame. Also, the serpent can represent kundalini. The king is not alone. Some of his companions have eyes with the solar cross symbol, something that represents the sun and order.
People used to get this card confused with the emperor, even though they are quite different. This king is powered by the cats, serpent, and spirits. Unlike the king of cups however, he does not become overwhelmed because he takes inspiration from anywhere and everywhere.
King of Cups
The king of cups has too much. Not only is he surrounded by four cups, but he has advisors on both sides who are more or less equal to him. He has a pointed beard, and looks vaguely sinister. The king of cups is a man who might be thought of as a king who is in charge, but he really isn’t because he is weighted down by all the “cups, advisors, and extra heads.
In some decks he has been depicted as drowning, but is more of case of having so much empathy that one takes on the emotions of others.
King of Swords
The king of swords has become the sword. he looks upon things with an as above so below perspective and he can become the sword, that is, he has actually become the logic and intellect that can view things with a decisive air. He has much help in the forum of various stacked heads, so he can see a situation from multiple perspectives. That said, being a sword he is not emotionally involved.
People sometimes thing of air as something in the clouds, as in get your head out of the clouds and put your feet back on the ground. The King of Swords is a very well grounded individual, so much so that he seems to be a plant growing up out of the ground rather than a sword of intellect. He fits in well with the rest of society in the way he uses his intellect.
King of Disks
The king of disks is one with the woods. His horns are almost like the branches of the tree. He has his feet on three pentacles. This king has become one with the earth and nature. He is never alone. The throne he sits upon is made of trees with Y shaped branches reaching for the sky. Behind his throne he has a lion with a crown, a serpent, and a couple more animal demons.
There is a heart with a face on it representing a love of the things of the earth. The lion representing bravely is crowned as is the reverse sort of infinity symbol. This king, in spite of sitting upon a throne, does not feel that he needs to be crowned, so he does not wear one.