So finally we get to the Sun card - the most clearly, unquestionably positive card in the Major Arcana. Its hard not to like this card, seeing as how in readings it pops up to tell us good things - reassurance, success and the like...
I find that there is a nice variation in how the card is presented in various decks, particularly since - unlike some of the other majors - there is a significant difference in how it is represented in the 'big three' - TdM, RWS and Thoth. Subsequent decks tend to do their own take derivative of one of those takes and...yeah, lots to choose from, among my decks. My final selections, as we can see, are a bit more on the 'out there' and of the spectrum.
XIX. Sun
Favorite:
I've written about this card before, and yeah, it is most definitely my favorite Sun card. I love the Magical Forest deck in general; it is a lovely, quirky, endearing take on the traditional RWS imagery. I think that having kangaroos represent the figures in the Sun card is brilliant. Having a joey in a pouch as the traditional child, with the flag of victory and everything, really works here and leaves lots of room for reading, as I kind of went into in more detail in the previous post on this card. I love the coloring - very sunny and yellow, but not in an overwhelming way, with just a bit of a suggestion of too hot, too much of a good thing, for that kind of potential reading into it too. Love the way the field of sunflowers is drawn. Everything, basically, about this card very much appeals.
Runner Up:
So it's a bit funny that this is my second choice because, as a rule, I tend to very much dislike the TdM tradition's take on the Sun...the whole children frolicking under the sun image doesn't really evoke for me the kind of happy success meaning this card is supposed to express, particularly when combined with the art style of most TdM decks. However, in the de la Rea, this image is abstracted to the point where I do not see children in the figures, rather just the concept of individuals - ageless, genderless - celebrating or enjoying themselves. In some ways - that ribbon - they are tied to each other, and in other ways they are distanced, disjointed, masked, apart: that great gap that always, even in the best of times, separates each one of us from everyone else. The deck also abstracts the actual sun in the image, makes that a mask too, which I appreciate on an aesthetic level - the gentle gold and silver paint on the cards in real life really makes this just lovely to look at. Love the colors on this card in general actually, the balancing of red, gold, blue, and the hint of minimalism - that broad swath of white background - really brings this together for me. I find it reads awesomely.
I find that there is a nice variation in how the card is presented in various decks, particularly since - unlike some of the other majors - there is a significant difference in how it is represented in the 'big three' - TdM, RWS and Thoth. Subsequent decks tend to do their own take derivative of one of those takes and...yeah, lots to choose from, among my decks. My final selections, as we can see, are a bit more on the 'out there' and of the spectrum.
XIX. Sun
Favorite:
I've written about this card before, and yeah, it is most definitely my favorite Sun card. I love the Magical Forest deck in general; it is a lovely, quirky, endearing take on the traditional RWS imagery. I think that having kangaroos represent the figures in the Sun card is brilliant. Having a joey in a pouch as the traditional child, with the flag of victory and everything, really works here and leaves lots of room for reading, as I kind of went into in more detail in the previous post on this card. I love the coloring - very sunny and yellow, but not in an overwhelming way, with just a bit of a suggestion of too hot, too much of a good thing, for that kind of potential reading into it too. Love the way the field of sunflowers is drawn. Everything, basically, about this card very much appeals.
Runner Up:
So it's a bit funny that this is my second choice because, as a rule, I tend to very much dislike the TdM tradition's take on the Sun...the whole children frolicking under the sun image doesn't really evoke for me the kind of happy success meaning this card is supposed to express, particularly when combined with the art style of most TdM decks. However, in the de la Rea, this image is abstracted to the point where I do not see children in the figures, rather just the concept of individuals - ageless, genderless - celebrating or enjoying themselves. In some ways - that ribbon - they are tied to each other, and in other ways they are distanced, disjointed, masked, apart: that great gap that always, even in the best of times, separates each one of us from everyone else. The deck also abstracts the actual sun in the image, makes that a mask too, which I appreciate on an aesthetic level - the gentle gold and silver paint on the cards in real life really makes this just lovely to look at. Love the colors on this card in general actually, the balancing of red, gold, blue, and the hint of minimalism - that broad swath of white background - really brings this together for me. I find it reads awesomely.
1 comments:
Wow, those are two totally different cards! The one with the kangaroos makes me laugh. :)
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