For the Love of Tarot.

I think I bit off more than I could chew here, but oh well, it was fun!

How excited I was to discover that "The Waste Land" included a tarot reading. The footnotes in the book go a little into what these cards could possibly mean, but I was still curious as to why T.S chose these cards and what they mean. Lucky for me I was not the first one to wonder why he included these cards and I was able to find a very helpful article on ebsco by Max Nanny called, "'Cards are Queer' A New Reading of the Tarot in The Waste Land." A couple of the cards had familiar names such as the wheel, man with three staves (three of wands) and the hanged man.

T.S Eliot must have had a pretty decent understanding of Tarot, for he invented two cards, the Phoenician Sailor and Belladonna, the lady of rocks. The things that the Phoenician Sailor and Belladonna represent fit perfectly with T.S's current position when drawn in the Celtic Mode. Celtic mode focuses not just on the card that is drawn but the sequence in which they were drawn. Celtic mode is the way I was taught to read and commonly do read cards. This would mean that the Phoenician Sailor represents Eliot as the questioner and Belladonna represent his ex-wife, Vivien. Although Eliot never comes straight out and says this is a tarot reading about my future, there is an argument that perhaps he is!

So first card one pulls in a reading usually represents the significant. This card is used to place the questioner in his present position. This card is the questioner. So Madam Sosostris pulls the drowned Phoenician Sailor. This is not a card in the deck although the use of it could not only be alluding to the death of the Phelbas the Phoneician in part IV, it may be representing something much bigger, surprise surprise. Death in the tarot is usually a good thing. It means rebirth, new beginnings. I like how Nanny brings up all the times Eliot writes about crying in this poem. At this time in Eliot life's he was having a mental breakdown. He has lost his marriage, his father, a close relationship with his family and was constantly burdened with finical stress. Phelbas when translated to Latin actually means, 'to weep." Perhaps Eliot was in fact Phelbas, drowning not in an ocean but his own tears. This idea fits in with the next line were he write, "Those are the pearls that were his eyes, look!" Perhaps after dosing himself in tears, Eliot is looking forward to a rebirth, where his teary eyes will have dried, not longer resembling pearls.

The second card drawn in the Celtic mode crosses the questioner. This card is laid directly on top of the questioner. This card is weighing on the questioner. This card is Belladonna, Lady of the Rocks. The contradictions several of these things represent, could be suggesting the love/hate relationship of Eliot and his wife. Belladonna means a lovely lady, but it is also the name of a poisonous plant. Rocks can cause shipwrecks but also can be a solid stable thing. Also if the following lines read with situations meaning being sickly, this could also help support the idea that Belladonna is Vivien, for Vivien had many health problems. Why though is she the Lady of Rocks? Perhaps Eliot is referring to the Vivien from Arthurian romances who was the Lady of the Lake. Eliot seems to want to write about himself a lot during this tarot reading, but chooses to hide it from the reader. The placement of Lady of Rocks on the Phoenician Sailor along with the card drawn next could suggest that Eliot's artistic spirit is being smothered by his wife.

Next she draws the man with three staves or the three of wands. Nanny places this card as another crossing card, where I usually would place the third card above the questioner, but I think our celtic crosses differ. For the purpose of this blog I will subscribed to Nanny's way of doing things. The three of wands drawn as a crossing card can suggest that Eliot wants to explore and have foresight, but he isn't able to achieve it, just yet. I like when Nanny talks about how perhaps the three of wands represents and artist who wishes to turn his dreams into reality. That's how I read it. Perhaps this card was picked by Eliot because he struggled so to get The Love Song of J Alfred Purdock published so. This card could represent his constant desire to break out of his shell and experience new things when it comes to his artistic talents.

The wheel is drawn next and placed above the questioner. This card represent the best that can be achieved with the present circumstances. This card is crowning the questioner. This card is nothing but good stuff! Fortune, luck, destiny. These things seem to come to Eliot in his life time, even is he is not aware of it. I mean he must have been destined to greatness considering I am spending the majority of my day analyzing like ten lines of one of his poems.

The "one eyed-merchant" can be interpreted as the six of pentacles. This card is positioned behind the questioner this is distant past, things the questioner has already made his own. In Eliot's case the six of pentacles could potentially represent Eliot's past with money. Perhaps it is not having money and relying on the kindness of others. Or perhaps Eliot is almost calling himself the Symran "one-eyed-merchant" of the "The Fire Sermon" it could be alluding to not making smart finical decisions and being too focused on material possessions. Money troubles had followed Eliot throughout his whole life. It is arguable that the six of pentacles represents the things in the past he has lacked.

The next card is "blank, is something he carries on his back, which I am forbidden to see." This card is the questioners recent past, like things that are just ending and coming into fruition. and in Eliot's case it is blank. Perhaps this represent Eliot's repression of the past. Choosing to forget at that moment, rather then remember.

The last card that she draws that would be put in front of the questioner is not named. However we do know that it is not the hanged man. This card seems to say that Eliot is going to get no rest from his struggles, despite how desperately his self conscious might want it, as suggested by the wheel. Nanny writes of how perhaps this is why Madame Sosostris chooses to end her reading there, instead of continuing with the nest three cards needed to complete the cross.

I am not a hudred percent sure if this tarot reading sort of predicts the rest of the poem. There are lots of references back to it such as, in line 125 when Eliot writes, "Those are pearls that were his eyes" around line 300 Eliot speaks of new starts, a common theme in his reading and there is also part IV Death By Water in which Eliot easily could be addressing the Phoenician Sailor. Eliot also references two other tarot cards in his poem, he talks about the falling towers in 373. The tower is part of the major arcana and is pictured in the card as falling. This card brings upon sudden change which again fits in well with rebirth.

All in all I've spent so much time looking into this reading that I am not even sure I know exactly what The Waste Land is about. But if it is anything like his tarot reading than I am guessing Eliot is trying to say that rebirth can be found anywhere. And even though a lot of cards have negative feelings right away it doesn't mean that they aren't all in all positive or part of a bigger struggle that is necessary. And perhaps big bad things need to happen, like a tower toppling, for lesson to be learned and growth to occur.

The End.

Dennis and Whitney. Faulkner and Hemingway.

I always enjoy reading Dennis's and Whitney's blog. I feel like both of them offer completely new fresh perspectives. I really liked Dennis's last point in his blog this week, "Another main point of irony in the story is that the only person who really shows any amount of being a good person throughout the story is left alone in the woods and feeling alone and sad at the end." This is a curious ending. I guess it goes to show something about bravery. Being brave and doing the right thing may not always make you the most friends. I think back to playground arguments and if you are the one to tattle, even if you have a really good reason for tattling, you will most likely be shunned. It would be interesting to see what would happen if Sarty's warning of the barn burning did not result in the death of Abner. I wonder what consequences Sarty would have faced had Abner lived.

My first time through reading "Big Two Hearted River" was quite different from Whitney's. I just thought, "Oh what a nice story about being at peace." I failed to look between the lines for what Hemingway was actually getting at. Of course after class discussion I realized that this is not just the tale of a solitary man living the dream, but that of a veteran confronting his inner struggle to make sense of what he has seen and lived. I really appreciate how Whitney picked up on this small detail, "Nick's heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling." That does present a very significant question, "What old feeling?" I definitely think this story is about more than going fishing, and as Whitney's blog post continues, she does too.

Not a boy, not yet a man.

Unprepared boys with weapons acting like men are a reoccurring theme in stories this semester. We most likely remember the small boy leading a platoon of brutally injured soldiers through the woods, disillusioned with the grandeur created by a wooden sword in Ambrose Bierce’s “Chickamauga.” Twain wrote of a Champaign of young men during the Civil War who were untrained to hold up their end in battle. They spent most of the story retreating and fleeing from any form of danger. These men adorned soldier suits to hide the fact that they were just sons, or brothers, fighting for what society thought they should do. This week reading of “Almos’ a Man” by Richard Wright and “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner feature lead characters who like the “soldiers” mentioned before hand are far to young to take on the burdens they cast upon them by others or themselves.

In “Almos’ a Man” it is easy to spot this connection right away. David buys a gun. His mother only gives him the money because she thinks David will purchase the gun and then give it to his father. David, however, is to in love with the idea of being able to “Kill anybody, black er white.” Instead of surrendering the gun to his father David sneaks off with it in the morning and goes to the Hawkin’s planation where he hitches a mule to a plow and rides to a far away field where he figures he can play with his gun and feel like a man all day long. David as never shot a gun before and apparently had no idea about kick back (despite the fact that I am certified to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Oregon, I know little to nothing about gun terms) and with the first shot found himself laying on the ground. David’s fall however, was the least of his worries, because he totally shot the mule! And it died! David is in a real pickle because now everybody will know he was playing with a gun in a field.

After returning home muleless his parents and the owner of the mule, Mr. Hawkins wish to know where Jenny, the mule is. In a round about way David finally admits to killing Jenny with this statement, “Ah swear to Gawd, Ah didn’t go t kill the mule, Mistah Hawkins!” He only says he never meant to do it. Not that he did it. Anyways the whole time Mister Hawkins is pressing David about the dead mule a crowd is gathered. The crowd, presumably all white, are laughing at David squirm and cry. This makes David mad.

I have to admit I feel sorry for David in this scene, he is after all a boy, albeit it almost a man, and he is probably really freaked out. I doubt that a boy in another other class or race would have acted differently under these circumstances.

So back to the people laughing, David’s blood is boiling. If there is one thing that doesn’t make a boy feel like a man it is getting mocked by a crowd of people for the misfortune you caused when you were trying to act like a man. Later that night David, enraged with visions of the spectators laughing faces and the debt he must pay to Mr. Hawkins, decided to play with his gun again but David as far more to loose this time. I am a little unclear on what exactly happens at the end of the story but I got the impression that David was going to go try and scare Mr. Hawkins in an attempt to win back some of his integrity and get out of paying the mule killing fine.

The gun gave David a false sense of manhood. He was completely unprepared for the reality of a gun. He probably had an idea of how glamorous it would be to have a gun, to be tough, to be powerful, to be everything a young black boy was considered not. However, at the end of the day David was still a child for not realizing that actions have consequence. Much like the young boy in Chickamauga, who finds his mother dead after gleefully playing war sergeant to a bunch of faceless men.

Sarty is armed with a different type of weapon highly burdensome for a boy of his age and that is the truth. Sarty knows the truth about his fire, that he is a bad man, that he is an arsonist. This is a complicated place to be for in telling the truth he risks hurting his Father and by not telling on his Father he risks other people getting hurt. Sarty behaves as his Father instructs him to behave, like a man, who is loyal to his family, with a head slap. Sarty has, “the terrible handicap of being young, the light weight of a few years, just heavy enough to prevent his soaring free of the world as it seemed to be ordered but not too heavy to keep him footed solid in it, to resist it and try to change the course of events.”

Much like the other boys discussed today, they lie in this weird in between stage where pressures may be getting put on them to act wiser than their years. This forcing boys into the role of manhood by means of power, usually created with a form of violence, never results in good things.