Explore The Fox’s Wedding.
Learn more about the story behind The Fox’s Wedding, dive into card interpretations, and
discover the meanings behind the art.
The Suit of Wands
I’m going to take a pause on the major arcana cards here and talk about the design and thought behind the lower arcana or “pip” cards.
In the Tarot De Marseille tradition these cards are not individually illustrated as they are in later Rider Waite Smith versions of the Tarot. This older style of depicting the suits goes back at least to the 14th century and is the basis of Tarocchi Cards which predate Tarot (maybe). Just as with a deck of modern playing cards, the pips for a tempo or rhythm that builds and subsides from Ace - X. Each suit can be appreciated as an interwoven fugue of symbols that ebb and flow to form a way of thought, a way of seeing vs a singular idea or destination.
V The Hierophant
Michelangelo’s stoic portrayal of the prophet Moses looks out over a landscape of workers bent to their work, toiling beneath his gaze and under his staff. Suspended just above the horizon line is a fragment of Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam”, the two hands reach for each other, but never touch—alluding to our desire to know the source from which we came and the mystery that exists in the space between.
IV The Emperor
Egon Schiele’s portrait of Eduard Kosmack rests on the muscular legs of Alexander the Great, making for an imposing figure of influence and creativity. Mars floats in the background as a reminder of all things material and expansive. Towers of commerce rise up around him like a forest born from the Emperor’s toil. The napoleonic bees scurry upwards to manifest their master’s blueprints. The Emperor’s face appears resolute, but is also shadowed by a portrait of Schiele himself, alluding to an inner turmoil as he attempts to turn emotion and inspiration into a sturdy foundation for the world he’s intent on inhabiting.
III The Empress
Sargent’s Madame X looks resolutely over her right shoulder, brandishing a sword in her left hand, poised to protect more than strike. She is both delicate and a force to be reckoned with, anchored in the physical world by strong limbs of stone. The feminine planet Venus is suspended behind her and a feathered ally rests atop the silhouette of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
II The Priestess
Michelangelo’s Lybian Sybil is seated at the border of this world and the next. She reaches for an open book containing both past and present. Behind her are the mysterious cliffs of Eleusis, a temple dedicated to the free passage between the physical and non-physical realm.
I The Magician
Egon Schiele and Mars stand before the sun, encircled by its blaze. The young hero folds in on himself as if to shield his body from the heat of the sun’s rays…
