Sagittarius III: Spectrality
Mutable fire: overexposure, doubles, the numinous
Darkness can hide secrets in the shadows, but too much whiteness – as in fog, bright sunlight, or overexposed photographs – hides just as much.
Nine of Wands
Mutable fire: heat, tenderness, the warrior
The Nine of Wands is the red neon light that glows in the distance, keeping you awake, but also reminding you that you aren’t alone.
Sagittarius II: Neon
Mutable fire: luminosity, artificial light, spectacle
Kening Zhu’s illustration is trippy and wild; like the night sky has opened up and turned into a videogame with a psychedelic trail leading into the heavens.
Eight of Wands
Mutable fire: the speed of light, arrows, lightning
The Eight of Wands pierces us, makes us feel the prick of the arrow, the scent of blood, the thrill of the hunt. It is immediate and it is alive.
Sagittarius I: Grail
Mutable fire: wildfire, rainbows, ruby slippers
The search for the grail is a heroic, technicolour adventure filtered through the rose-coloured glasses of fantasy.
Seven of Cups
Fixed water: hopes + fears, unknown pleasures, the void
The holy and haunted passions of Projections are a type of unknown pleasure – a world that is conjured into being through imagining something new.
Television
Fixed water: prayer, holy visions, projections
In Catholicism there is endless creativity in the naming of patron saints. Some of the more obscure ones include St. Julian the patron saint of murderers, and St. Lidwina, the patron saint of ice skaters.
SCORPIO III: Projections
Fixed water: phantasmagoria, dreams, fairy tales
Projections captures the whole spectrum of shadow and light in this decan, from haunted to holy.
Six of Cups
Fixed water: alchemy, memory, distillation
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.’
Scorpio II: The Poison Cure
Fixed water: nostalgia, symbiosis, healing
A little can be enlivening, a spur to creativity, but a lot can be paralysing or dangerous.
Five of Cups
Fixed water: loss, appetites, sacrifice
That reminder of loss can be a sharpener to appetite. Time is short. Do you want to be perfect or do you want to be gluttonous for experience, pleasure, and joy?
Scorpio I: The Feast
Fixed water: hunger, desires, indulgence
There is fun and playfulness and drama in feasting – the Martial double-edged sword of creation and destruction.
The Register of Candied Decay
Fixed water: undead mermaids, undersea salons, slime
‘Goo-Goo Lagoon’ shows XXX in a ‘rococo undersea salon full of kitschy trinkets, her appearance, everything about the scene, should appear excessive and slightly off.’
Where Do You Go When You Write?
Fixed water: underwater caves, stalactites, isolation
There is a bottomless green pool of water that chills the air around it. Once you arrive, there is nowhere else to go. There is nothing to do but contemplate the icy, beautiful surroundings.
Gold in the Dark
Fixed water: the shadow, the void, the deep
Our shadow is the place where we can find answers to these questions. In the dark, abyssal, cosmic place we try to repress, and which drives our behaviour.
Haunted Houses: A Feeling for Space
Fixed water: dreams, Gothic spaces, wells
I told her about a dream about a banquet: the hushed grandeur of the room, gold brocade on the table, rotten fruit drawing flies.
Speculative Fiction and Sudden Moons
Cardinal air: speculation, madness, atmospheric strangeness.
Much of the transformation of the game from mundane to numinous is achieved through the intervention of a sudden moon in cosmic magenta which changes the landscape entirely.
four of swords
Cardinal air: chaos magic, willpower, telepathy
The aerialist reminds us of the possibilities of this card, just as the telepathic lamb controlling the swords above her head: it is possible to wield mass, force, and energies that feel chaotic in the service of a singular goal.