Deck Interview with the Elemental

I’ve been dithering as to which deck to choose for the PDR project: Norse or Elemental. I love them both, and choosing one feels like rejecting the other. To help hasten the decision-making process, I decided to do a pair of Deck Interviews, beginning with the Elemental. I had read this post by souljourney, a fellow PDR participant, and was eager to try the spread. (I don’t know if this is a “public domain” spread, or something of her own creation, but either way I want to thank souljourney for it.)

Q1. What is your most important characteristic?
2 The Virgin (Receptivity)
Isn’t this a beautiful card? It would be the High Priestess in a conventional deck. A naked girl lies on the forest floor, trees arched protectively above her, full moon imbuing her skin with an otherworldly glow. An open book lies within her reach, but she’s asleep, the most vulnerable state, and totally relaxed, seeking nothing. There’s one vivid spot of color in the scene: the red rosebud beneath her hand. No, there’s a second spot of red: a drop of blood fallen from her finger where it brushed the rose’s thorn. Yet she sleeps on, oblivious of blood, rose, book, moon, wilderness, solitude, waking reality.

She’s only ever one moment away from waking up and becoming aware of her surroundings, of taking up the rose or putting it aside, of consulting the book’s wisdom, of being fully conscious and engaged with the external world.

So how does this card answer the question? This deck’s most important characteristic is... how it facilitates straddling that line between the conscious and the subconscious, the awake and the dreaming. I’ve felt it before in working with the Elemental: nothing as drastic as an altered state of consciousness, but nevertheless a sinking into the images, relaxing, experiencing an unfolding of meaning and associations and resonance. Receptivity.

Q2. What are your strengths as a deck?
Mother of Earth
This would be the Queen of Pentacles in a conventional deck. I associate her with groundedness, practicality, a kindly pragmatism. Down-to-earth. In strong contrast to Card #1, she is firmly rooted in the here and now. Look at how rays emanate from her womb (which is itself the flower of a stalk of grain growing from the field in which she stands). I see that as implying real, tangible, substantive results...

It’s as if she’s here to balance the otherworldliness of the Virgin. I’d like go deeper with the card, so I pull out the book to see if it has anything to add. It says those rays are a symbol of receptivity... thus reinforcing the message of the Virgin.

The otherworldly and the tangible brought together... a paradox? Only if the sacred and the mundane are seen as two separate realms. In fact, they are one.

Q3. What are your limits as a deck?
9 Shaman (Will)
One of my favorite cards from the deck, this is a re-interpretation of The Hermit. A robed figure stands stands atop a (double-breasted) hill, arms open to the storm clouds above. I can’t claim any familiarity with shamans, but I imagine them to be those who go between the “real” world and the spirit/divine/sacred world. Once again, the sacred and the mundane: the two realms that are one.

The keyword here is “Will,” and my immediate thought is, “Not my will be done, but thine.” How might this relate to the deck's limitations? That I might impose my own will inappropriately, as in being too “out there” with my interpretations?

It doesn't show in the images I’ve posted, but there is text around the perimeter of each of the Major Arcana. Now, the question this card is answering is, “What are my limits as a deck?”, and the text begins, “In my weakness do not forsake me...” Oh! That brings tears to my eyes. What I hear is, “I’m not perfect, but don’t reject me on that account.” I don’t know why that touches me, but it does.

Continuing on with the text: “Do not be afraid of my power.” What more might this imply about limitations? I'm certainly not afraid of working with the deck. Its power is quite invigorating, actually. Hmm.

Q4. What are you here to teach me?
4 of Water (Moat)
This would be the 4 of Cups in a conventional deck. One of the challenges of working with the Elemental is that I bring to it meanings derived from RWS -- but I also freely interpret the wildly idiosyncratic images and associations that are all its own. I don’t see that as a problem -- but as an opportunity. It’s like a fertile cross-pollination (as Mother of Earth signifies above, as the deck’s strength?).

At any rate, what this card brings up for me is: Hanging out with What Is. Afloat upon the waters -- in the in-between world of a moat -- is this serene and composed entity, third eye highlighted. Contained within her, a part of her in fact, is the anger and loss of control represented by the contorted face at her throat. (Is there some chakra-related significance to this card? I’m not smart enough about chakras to say.) Distress and serenity are both here, but the serenity prevails. It prevails by accepting the unpleasant, not fighting it or trying to oust it. This is how it is. Things are not perfect (echoing the Shaman card), but that’s fine. Maybe there’s a message here about my struggle to choose a deck: if I’m holding out for the perfect choice, I’m never going to find it. Things are as they are. And that’s good enough.

Comments are welcome.