According to Irish poets, the Silver Branch held nine bells and came from an apple tree that always bore both fruit and flowers. It was a passport into the Celtic otherworld, and if the bells were shaken, the sound soothed the hearts and minds of all who heard it. What would you do if you had such a magical item that would erase bad memories and grant you a lighter heart? I would be tempted to use it on a daily basis. But without my memory, I'd never learn the lessons of unwise choices and would be condemned to repeat them over and over again. In the words of Leonardo da Vinci, "You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment."
I really like this pairing and the questions you posed. What is the old saying from Paradise Lost, "better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven." The Underworld or the Celtic Otherworld, our choices can take us to all kinds of places.
ReplyDeleteAll choices have consequences, don't they? I suppose humans naturally only see the good or bad (depending on who's doing the judging!). :)
Deleteshe looks totally ticked off. I wouldn't want to be the next person who came by, the bells would be useless...
ReplyDeleteShe might use that branch to smite them. :)
DeleteI often have thought the same about this young lady. Perhaps she staged the whole thing just to get rid of her over protective mother and to be able to life with her lover :)
ReplyDeleteThat would make us look at "poor Persephone" in a whole new light! :)
DeleteThese two decks are so compelling together helped along by your musings. This is an interesting take on the Two of Wands and with the obvious Wand imagery in that branch card the relationship between the two is quite accessible.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even make the connection between the Wands and the branch - thanks for that! :)
DeleteBev, I meant to comment about these two decks before. The Transformational is one of the few collage decks I like and that Celtic Book of the Dead is also a collage deck I like and a gem in my collection, I always get something from it.
ReplyDeleteThe model for the original painting on the Two of Wands is Jane Morris, William Morris's wife. Good old Jane and the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a rather intense (perhaps physical) relationship, so every time I see this picture I get bad vibes.
However, it does fit with the story of Persephone, right? It's not just the pomegranate, it's Jane Morris's relationship with her husband and ofttimes disappearing act which echoes Persephone.
I ended up with both these decks after seeing bloggers use them. :) Wow, knowing about Morris and Rossetti does add another layer to this card. I wonder if Ando was aware of the relationship.
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