Daily Draw (Joie de Vivre Tarot), 10/21/12

Five of Wands

Description: A walking tree crosses wands with an androgynous human figure (my first impression was that it was male, but upon looking closer I really can’t tell). Amid the tree’s branches are three more wands in a pattern that is clearly missing two pieces – the wands the two figures spar with are actually FROM the tree, and it’s an open question how they came off. A bird with a flower in its beak perches on the tree; a small argumentative creature is leashed to the human figure.Interpretation: I am not planning to go out today, so I suspect this battle is between me and myself, not me and another person. (The human figure, in high-heeled boots, certainly has my fashion sense.) The tree represents nature, that which grows organically, with the bird (inspiration?) offering a gift that is being ignored due to the struggle. The human figure may represent how I’m perceived or how I perceive myself – in fancy clothes, with those sharp boots – dressed up and no place to go? The small creature leashed to the human looks like it wants to bite, unlike the close-mouthed, flower-offering bird on the tree. I think my energy/creativity, represented by the wands (which COME from the tree) is going to have to fight my self-consciousness, the part of me that nips at my own heels and uses my creativity against me. I’ve been feeling like I want to start a new creative project and I haven’t been able to make myself do it; so who’s going to win today, the tree or the human? Can I accept the bird’s beautiful gift or will the toothy creature bite me back again?

Follow-up: This turned out to be very apropos! I was revisted by inspiration for my Avian Tarot work-in-progress (the bird is especially symbolic this way), had to beat back my self-doubts about my drawing skills, which card to start with, where the heck my reference images had gone and what to do when I couldn’t find them…the heck with that, though, I picked a new card to work on, found new reference photos, and got to work. Thank goodness, the tree did win today.