Fear of the dark? Margarete Petersen’s Nine of Feathers

Margarete Petersen’s Nine of Feathers has a slightly terrifying, or terrified, feel about it, I think – the eyes alone seem full of fear.  The blood-red and deep blues and indigo colour scheme carries on from the Eight, giving this a very different feel from the first seven Feathers/Swords cards, which have tended to be pale blue-white-mauve – much lighter and ‘airier’.    

Nine of Feathers (trimmed):
©Margarete Petersen Tarot

Have the fears and anxieties been building since we started this journey through the Feathers/Swords with the Ace? Not to say that the nightmares and cruelty of the Nine are necessarily ‘worse’ that the grief and loss of the Three, but the images are certainly darker.  To me, the pain and grief of the Three are ‘real’ – related to external sources, whereas the nightmares of the Nine are more often ‘in the mind’ (which isn’t to say that they aren’t real, more than it’s something we’ve created – more internal).  

Or perhaps the loss and pain of the Three have been multiplied by three, creating a situation of (to quote Margarete Petersen) “killing by not acknowledging”.  That seems to sums up the idea of being cruel to yourself not doing any good. She also writes: “Walk towards that which you reject and fear.”  

Nightmares terrify

Yet fears faced starve the demons,

Freeing us from fright.

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-Urania, 2004