The Tarot's Hanged Man: More than Meets the Eye by Alayna Williams

I use Tarot cards a good deal in my writing, to give me ideas about creating characters and develop plot points. Sometimes, I pick cards on purpose that catch my eye, but more often, I deal them out at random. I let my imagination roam over the pictures to generate situations and connections. It's a fun way to work...sometimes the images touch upon an archetype that I can pull into my work.

One of the cards that captures my imagination is the Hanged Man. This card usually depicts a man hanging by a gallows or tree from his foot. He holds his hands behind his back and wears a serene expression. I've heard various explanations of this over the years, from the idea that the pose was intentional to a misprint or artist's mistake with a reversed printing plate. In our modern decks, he looks back at us, often haloed, seemingly at ease with his suspension.

The traditional meaning of this card has to do with sacrifice, spiritual transformation, suspension, and a calm before the storm. By dangling from his foot, we can see that the man could easily reach up and free himself from the one rope holding a foot, but he chooses not to. He chooses to stay in this uncomfortable position in the pursuit of enlightenment or a new perspective. From his vantage point, he sees things that we can't. He is literally suspended, in limbo, and seeing things as we do not.

The Hanged Man has its roots in an old myth about the Norse god Odin. Odin brought knowledge of the magic of rune divination to the world, but he sacrificed a great deal in order to do so. He stabbed himself with his own spear and hung himself from the world tree Yggdrasil, in order to absorb the gallow's tree's power. He hung for nine days and nights, in a twilight state between life and death, his blood nourishing the tree. He drew into himself the power of the underworld, through the tree's roots, and the power of the heavens, scraped by the tree's branches. The knowledge of the runes seeped into him and he fell to the ground on the ninth day, stunned by what he had learned.

The underlying message of the card is that progress and knowledge require sacrifice and a surrender of control. In a Tarot reading, this can be a very uncomfortable place to be in. In transition. Becoming. But it can be worth it.

~Author Laura Bickle writes the Delphi Oracle Series as Alayna Williams.

The Queen of Swords: The Snow Queen of the Tarot by Alayna Williams

The Queen of Swords: The Snow Queen of the Tarot
by Alayna Williams

One of my favorite cards in the Tarot is the Queen of Swords. She's depicted as a woman seated on a throne decorated with winged creatures. Her cloak is decorated in clouds, mirroring the storm clouds on the horizon She holds a sword in her had, uplifted, almost as if she's cut herself with it. She's the queen of the domain of air, over the intellect and powers of the mind. A single bird flies in the distance, and we can't really tell if the bird is approaching her or flying away. Her expression is touched by sadness.

The traditional interpretation of the card involves an independent woman of strength. She's a courageous woman, self-reliant. But she is also the queen of sorrow. This card is often associated with loneliness and disappointment. Sometimes, she symbolizes a widow. But she bears her burdens with pride, looking to the horizon where the storm grows. 

She always reminds me of the story of the Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Anderson. The Snow Queen is a sad, ethereal beauty wrapped in white fur, accompanied by "snow bees" - other creatures of air. Forever alone in her palace at the North Pole, she steals away a little boy, Kay, from his home. Kay has been poisoned by a shard of evil mirror, and goes with her willingly. The Queen kisses him once on each cheek: once to keep him warm, and the other to make him forget his life. If she kissed him a third time, she knows that he would die. 

Gerta, Kay's little friend, searches high and low to find him. Gerta is assisted in her quest by a pair of ravens, also denizens of air. She meets many people and creatures on her way: a robber girl, a reindeer, and a woman from Lapland. She searches endlessly for Kay. Gerta had many adventures before she reaches the North Pole. 

The Snow Queen's castle is beautiful, but it's bereft of life. Within, she finds her little friend, Kay, playing on a frozen lake. She frees Kay with kisses - not the Snow Queen's magic kisses, but the real kisses of a flesh and blood girl. She awakens Kay from his trance and takes him home. And the Snow Queen is left alone again with her snow bees. 

The Snow Queen is a tragic figure. It's not difficult to imagine that she's lonely in her ice palace, perhaps wanting a child or someone to talk to. She's the villain of the story, of course, causing Kay to forget his happy life playing in the streets with Gerta. But she's also sympathetic. One can imagine the sorrow that the years of ice and solitude have worn on her, like the track of a glacier. But she is important to the natural order of things. She brings snow, and is the force of winter itself. She's not heartless - she did care for the little boy. But there's something wistful about her...as if she sees the world through a window and cannot connect with the world quite in the way she wants.

She is, in some ways, like other winter spirits in the world. The Yuki-onna of Japanese myth is a pale woman with black hair who drifts over the snow without leaving footprints. She is said to be the spirit of a woman who perished in snow. She is often seen carrying a child. In some versions of the tales, the Yuki-onna grants safe passage or mercy, leading unwary travelers away into blizzards or saving their lives. She is an elemental force to be reckoned with, but can melt if the man she loves discovers her for what she truly is. 

The lesson of the Queen of Swords card is that sorrow and disappointment pass. They may weigh heavily upon us, but like the storm clouds and the snow, they give way to the kiss of spring. 

~Author Laura Bickle writes the Delphi Oracle Series as Alayna Williams.

Tarot in Fiction- The Queen of Cups: The Goddess of Love by Alayna Williams

The Queen of Cups: The Goddess of Love

by Alayna Williams

I use Tarot cards a good deal in my writing, to give me ideas about creating characters and develop plot points. Sometimes, I pick cards on purpose that catch my eye, but more often, I deal them out at random. I let my imagination roam over the pictures to generate situations and connections among characters.

One of my perennial favorites is the Queen of Cups. She's usually depicted as a fair-haired woman gazing contemplatively into a chalice. She's cloaked in artifacts of the sea: her garments resemble fish scales, and her throne has the shape of a shell. In the background, we can see the ocean waves. She's the ruler of water, the element of emotions. And she's lovely.

Is it any wonder that she's often associated with Aphrodite, goddess of love?

Aphrodite was born of sea foam, arriving upon the shores of Cyprus in a sea shell. Her beauty inflamed the passions of gods and men alike; though she was married Hephaestus, her affairs with Ares are legendary. Hephaestus adored her. As god of forges, he made her jewelry, girdles, and crowns...but still, she wandered. Often, she wandered into the arms of Ares, the god of war, and even bore one of his children, Eros.

She is like the sea. She can be tempestuous, cruel. One myth tells of how she jealously interfered with her son's love of the beautiful Psyche. She thwarted her son's love at every turn, jealous of Psyche's beauty..even to the extent that she sent Psyche to the Underworld.

But she can also be kind. Tender, and full of mercy. She took pity upon Pygmalion, who had never found a woman worthy of love. She whispered to him to fashion a statue of ivory, which he fell in love with. He named his statue Galatea. Aphrodite brought Galatea to life, to be a wife for Pygmalion.

Aphrodite is ruled by passion, by the storms of her emotions. And that's part of the lesson of the Queen of Cups. The Queen of Cups, read upright, can be about empathy, nurturing, and devotion. She can be the best of love and beauty, showing the compassion that Aphrodite showed Pygmalion.

Reversed, though, she can be a jealous force to be reckoned with. She can absorb the negativity of others, becoming the sea that reflects a storm in the sky. She can be capricious and meddlesome, as shown by Aphrodite's affairs and interference with her son's relationship.

The Queen of Cups, like Aphrodite, is an eternal archetype. She gives us the positive, passionate face of love...and the dark, negative side. Like love itself, she's a complicated elemental force. She's a woman to be reckoned with.

~Author Laura Bickle writes the Delphi Oracle Series as Alayna Williams.

Dark Oracle
Delphic Oracle
Book 1
Alayna Williams

TARA SHERIDAN HAS A GIFT . . . AND IT ALMOST KILLED HER.

As a criminal profiler, Tara used science and her intuitive skill at Tarot card divination to track down the dangerous and depraved, including the serial killer who left her scarred from head to toe. Since that savage attack, Tara has been a recluse. But now an ancient secret society known as Delphi’s Daughters has asked for her help in locating missing scientist Lowell Magnusson. And Tara, armed with her Tarot deck, her .38, and a stack of misgivings, agrees to try.

Tara immediately senses there is far more at stake than one man’s life. At his government lab in the New Mexico desert, Magnusson had developed groundbreaking technology with terrifying potential. Working alongside the brusque but charismatic agent Harry Li, Tara discovers that Magnusson’s daughter, Cassie, has knowledge that makes her a target too. The more Tara sees into the future, the more there is to fear. She knows she has to protect Cassie. But there may be no way to protect herself—from the enemies circling around her, or from the long-buried powers stirring to life within. 

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Rogue Oracle
Delphic Oracle
Book 2
Alayna Williams

The more you know about the future, the more there may be to fear.

Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around - and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn't need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.

Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards - and Tara's increasingly ominous dreams - suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationships with the mysterious order known as Delphi's Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen…

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