Five of Swords
Fixed air: self-determination, excommunication, liberation
The Five of Swords asks us to distinguish between the battle and the war – is a minor victory worth it or does it provide an obstacle to your vision?
Aquarius I: Black Sheep
Fixed air: exile, iconoclasm, rebellion
The black sheep remains uniquely itself. It is a symbol of self-determination.
Uncanny Ecology
Fixed air: exile, un-home, paradoxes
To write the ecological uncanny, then, is to spend time in these ‘generic out-houses’, and to lie squat beneath the heavy architecture of habit and belief.
The Necropastoral
Fixed air: occult systems, leaky borders, containers
The necropastoral offers a key to looking at obscured but visible worlds that exist in the interstices of the media, the spectacle, the haunting.
Four of Pentacles
Cardinal earth: sovereignty, cushioning, crowns
What it might mean to land on the ‘cushioned’ throne – a place where you are living in comfort, but perhaps glossing over what it has taken to get here.
Capricorn III: Vault
cardinal earth: keys, secrets, compartments
Capricorn III is the place where the building work of Capricorn II comes to fruition. Where the vault is filled with treasure, and the ruler carries a ring of heavy keys.
Three of Pentacles
Cardinal earth: history, practicalities, foundations
Pentacles don’t ask for deep emotional dredging like the cups do, but there is a sense in this card that part of the practical is a connection to history, dreams, and simple pleasures.
Capricorn II: Cathedral
cardinal earth: relics, centuries, buildings
The person under this decan know that they may not see the work completed in their lifetime, but that doesn’t stop them taking care with every piece of stone, nor will they rush and compromise on quality just to get to the end.
Capricorn I: Diamond Rain
cardinal earth: mysticism, affect, visions
On earth, diamond rain would be a frightening phenomenon; a dangerous weather event. But on Saturn and Jupiter, the two planets that co-rule this decan, it is not uncommon for diamond rain to fall.
Ten of Wands
Mutable fire: low sun, bleached trees, the flicker.
The Ten of Wands takes you deep into the woods, and lets you get lost.
There are tall trees in white sunlight, bleached animal skulls, and flickering light.
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.