The Waste Land Cards

“Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man.”

From “The Waste Land,” by T. S. Eliot I. Burial of the Dead (49-54)

The Waste Land Cards

Previously used as an introduction to Roswell and Salem, I did a little digging. The Golden Dawn and their cards were just starting to see popularity around the time the poem was published, and the use of Rider-Waite imagery is most likely. However, in my own way, I took that and translated it to my most-used deck, a set of images that I prefer.

Stick with what one knows?

Images are from a Thoth Deck.

• Queen of Cups, the Lady of the Rocks, or the lady of the situations.
• 3 of Wands, “Virtue.” The more traditional-modern image is a garlanded merchant, looking at new lands to explore.
• Wheel of Fortune. My annotations are elsewhere.

Queen of Cups, “The Lady of the Rocks,” she’s the similar enough, as is the Wheel of Fortune, and the Hanged Man.

3 Staves, 3 of Wands, it’s often called the artist’s card. Invention, inception, a successful venture.

As noted, “the lady of situations?” She is, according to one source, actually perverse, and can easily lead one to self-inflected destruction in the pursuit of pleasure.

“I do not find
The Hanged Man.”

To me, the Hanged Man, #12 of the Major Arcana, precedes the #13 Death Card, and both, as a pair, represent inevitable change. Forced change? End of a life-cycle. The very horns of the dilemma, sacrifice, and little hope for recognition.

In the context though, “I do not find/The Hanged Man,” in that context, although the poem is about how nothing is getting better, here it is, the card that symbolizes no good way out? It’s not there.

Sisyphus or Boethius?

The Lady of the Rocks, in the Thoth? It is a reflection, in the water, what is seen in the air above, it is reflected in the water below. Perfect on the heels of three Mercury Retrograde, the emotional content is reflected in thought. Or is it thought is a reflection of what we feel?