16/12 Passion #8
On the 3rd day…Three Blind Mice…
T-t-t-tarot!
TEMPLE artefact #24
#8 PASSION final version, art by Rian Hughes 2023
XIII. PASSION
KEY WORDS – DETERMINATION, INNER MASTERY, PASSION
Trump 8 of the Major Arcana, Strength, is the card of determination, self-assurance, and the mastery of emotions among other things. This card encourages us to control our wayward feelings and develop confidence and courage.
This card traditionally shows a woman taming a lion. Here the calm and loving energies of female principle and the wild passions and raw energy of the masculine are brought into harmony by the power of desire that makes the beast kneel – two opposing forces compelled to merger by the power of love.
The Woman can be seen to represent spirituality and the enlightened mind, the Lion is animal passions and appetites.
Crowley interpreted the woman and lion as the Apocalyptic Whore and Beast combo from the Biblical Revelations and renamed the card ‘Lust’.
We’re renaming it ‘Passion’ here and offering a different approach to the customary image.
Here, rather than use the familiar Crowleyan Beast and Babalon duo, I’d like to root this card in the Scottish border ballad Tam Lin (incidentally, Tam Lin also provided the mythic underpinning for Alan Garner’s Red Shift, my favourite book as an adolescent). In the ballad, Tam is a mortal man in thrall to the Queen of the Fairies. Every seven years the Fairies give tithe of one of their own to Hell and Tam fears he’s up next. He begs a young mortal woman, Janet, to rescue him by pulling him from his horse, and holding him tight. Tam warns Janet that the Fairies will try to cause her to let go by transforming him into all manner of savage beasts.
The story has a fantastic climax when Tam begins to transform into various hideous, bestial forms. If Janet can hold onto him, without letting go, no matter how horrendous his shape becomes, then the Fairy Queen will release him.
She succeeds in holding onto him even when he becomes a ferocious beast but it’s a terrifying struggle. Finally, he’s remade as a lump of burning coal which Janet quenches in a well, whereupon Tam regains his mortal human form and is released from the clutches of the Fairy Monarch!
Our version of the Strength card is rooted in the imagery of Tam Lin.
We’ll go in tighter on the two figures than most cards, to give a sense that we’re in the thick of the tussle. She cannot defeat the Beast by force or compulsion and instead must subtly direct and channel his ferocity.
Woman and Beast wrestle here – it’s hard to tell if it’s passion or violence, ecstasy, or intoxication – she grips his mane and pulls his head back to stare with challenging confidence and love into his rolling, wild eyes. She knows she’s winning. His mouth yawns wide, fanged, and hot, as if to tear her throat and shoulder off raw, but he restrains himself, even as she grips his mane. His paw clings to her back for support as the effort drains him. There is also a strong sexual element – we can imagine this as a precursor to getting it on.
The Woman wears a white robe and on her head a tiara of wildflowers twisted into a lemniscate infinity sign.
The background has a bright yellow sun with TEN concentric circles emanating from the centre – each circle of an increasingly paler blue until it’s all but transparent at the outer edge.
The Hebrew letter attributed to this card is TETH – a serpent. The astrological attribution is Leo. And the Sun rules over the card.
Beyond that, the card encodes a supremely powerful, energetic, and wordless passion.
weve enjoyed the images of all of these so far for so so many reasons- but THIS one takes the cake for meaningful intention. beautiful choice of changing the title from strength to passion. every time we pull strength (which is all too often...) it feels like a spit in the face a bit- to continue to persevere despite the challenges or wanting to give it all rest. passion really gives it a new meaning- pursuing out of love or desire rather than out of necessity or force. many cards from the multiple decks we have lack the gentler feminine aspects in both their images and self-interpretations. this is beautiful! thank you GM and RH!