This week I'll be using the Tarot of the Masters (redrawn classic paintings) created and published by James Ricklef. I'll also be using a transformation deck called the Key to the Kingdom created by Tony Meeuwissen and published by Running Press. Today's draws are the Queen of Swords and the Four of Hearts:
The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.
― Marianne Williamson
This Queen of Swords is based on the painting Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sargent. As Ricklef explains, sometimes there can be a "fine line between ambition and obsession, brilliance and madness." People with great intelligence generally tend to have a way with words, using them as a tool to get what they want. Lady Macbeth knew that as a woman, she could only rise in power through her husband, so she used manipulation and emasculation to motivate him to murder. Shakespeare's play ends with the Lady killing herself and Macbeth (who became something of a tyrant) beheaded. Intelligence needs ethical boundaries. The Four of Hearts is paired with this verse:
A man in the wilderness asked of me,
How many strawberries grow in the sea.
I answered him, as I thought good,
As many red herrings swim in the wood.
Motives, when under the influence of greed or anger, have a way of dismantling common sense.
