The Fire of Creativity: The Margarete Petersen Tarot

From the single spark of the Ace and the individual-yet-unified duality of the Two, today we look at the Three of Flames in the Margarete Petersen Tarot.

Three of Flames (trimmed):
© Margarete Petersen Tarot

Within the ‘fiery’ square there’s what looks like a cave drawing of an animal (deer-like?) connected to what might be a sun, a human face that looks to me as though it’s in pain, and then a very faint outline of possibly a bird… They all appear to be in the sky, above a setting/rising sun on the horizon. 

The LWB relates this card to the fire of creativity, specifically to sound– bringing something from the unknown into the known. A new interpretation, at least to me. So what I thought was a sun might actually be a cartoon-like bubble representing singing, the grimacing man might be expressing his pain, and perhaps it IS a bird… 

If I turn to astrology (as I usually do!) for extra insight, it's the Sun in Aries that's linked to this card.  The Sun wants to shine, to be the best, to initiate adventure (Aries). But the Sun is also about moral integrity, through its rulership of Leo. So in this version of the card, the creatures creating the sounds, the songs, are still enclosed in their fiery boundary but they are following the sun's path and being true to whatever it is they want to express.

I usually see this card as marking the end of an initial phase of planning, ready to set out along an unknown path. So, in haiku form...

From the fire comes sound.
Songs of the unknown emerge -
Something new is born.  
 

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004. www.tarotworld.com

Aries in the Druidcraft Tarot: The Three of Wands

Today we move on to the Three of Wands, linked to the Sun in Aries, as well as the middle ten days of Aries – so from the 30^th March to the 9^th April.  The Sun, fiery in itself, brings the need for recognition to the pioneering spirit of Aries.  The Sun is exalted in Aries – it’s very happy here, although it’s not on its home ground (Leo).  It wants to shine, it wants the spot-light on its individuality. It wants to be the first to set off on the adventure, to break new ground, to explore new territory.

Detail from ‘Three of Wands’

Druidcraft Tarot

©Will Worthington

The Druidcraft’s Three of Wands shows a figure standing under a tree, in the shade, looking out at the road ahead.  As in many versions of this card (at least in the RWS-based decks), there’s the sense of looking off into the distance, the future – not knowing what lies ahead.  That, to me, is Aries wanting to be the initiator of the adventure, the first to step into the great unknown!  Although he’s in the shade, the landscape through which the road winds is bathed in Sun-light.  Cardinal Fire.

The three staves, or wands, are planted firmly in the ground.  We can see buds on all three – again, a reference to Aries, the new growth.  So here he is, still in the early phases of adventure, ready for the next stage!

Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections