Royal Mail

Welcome to the Solstice Edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. Our wrangler on this occasion has given us the directive to create a Tarot card from junk mail, in other words, other people’s images.
First, here are the navigation links to help you find your way around:

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So, to elaborate a little further, here is the brief we were given for this Hop:

The theme for this blog hop is “Junk mail Tarot.” This is what I call a “Tarot art project for non-artists.”

The idea is to take some photos and/or artwork that someone else has done, and turn it into a Tarot card. Yes, I am assuming that you get junk mail and/or magazines. If not, there is plenty of random photos on the internet, including stock photo sites. And then, there are the meme making sites.

I had a couple of issues with this. Firstly, I didn’t think that the odd pizza menu, charity begging letter or estate agent flyer were going to provide much suitable material for a card. Secondly, there is the sticky issue of copyright when it comes to appropriating other people’s images. I decided that since, as this is an exercise largely for fun, I would ignore the latter on this occasion. As regards the first, I ended up flicking through my V&A membership magazine and found a rather lovely image of the Queen in an advert for the Fashioning A Reign exhibition at Buckingham Palace. As it’s Her Maj’s 90th birthday, I thought I pay her a small Tarot tribute by featuring her on my card. Well, she is actually a Queen, so who better? 😀

The dilemma, of course, was which Queen should she represent.

Swords? Well, she’s certainly not what you’d call intellectual, so not really an obvious candidate for QofS. That said, you must have a certain kind of discernment and intelligence after 60 years as the monarch.

Pentacles? A better fit here, perhaps. She’s most definitely close to the land, with a love of horses and several large estates in the country. Her love of the land may include blowing away wild animals, but that’s the way of the land in the real world where estates are managed to provide game for that purpose. She did her bit in WWII and clearly isn’t afraid of tackling whatever needs to be done and she will “die with her boots on”.

Wands? She’s certainly active and involved, very much at the centre of things. She has conquered the world with charm and with her very own set of life-sized “toy” soldiers* to play with, she could probably conquer it in reality too!

*See the Trooping on the Colour – the world’s finest 😀

Cups? Again not an obvious candidate, but she can’t really wear her heart on her sleeve and maintain dignity. I do believe that she cares deeply about this country and she has been visibly moved by the love that her subjects* have for her.

*ignoring the po-faced Republican element. 

So, it would seem that she has a little of all of them and should perhaps be the Queen of Queens, or maybe just THE Queen 🙂

Of course, this is a completely invented card, but if I had to pin my colours to the mast of a more traditional card, I think it would have to be Strength. Her family remained in London during the Blitz (the spirit of the Blitz is always something I associate with the Strength card) and she drove trucks in the ATS. She has nothing if not perseverance and stoicism – over 60 years in the job and still going strong with not even a hint of wanting to quit a job she didn’t ask for and wasn’t born into either. (Had Edward VIII not abdicated, she would have almost certainly lived her life in relative obscurity). Monarchist or not, you have to admire that and the sense of duty.

What do you think? Is she your Queen of Queens, or can you see her as Strength.

Before you tootle off to the next blog in the hop using the links below, do take a moment to comment 🙂

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