Tarot-inspired season 6 artwork

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Titles: Five of Cups, Queen of Wands
Creator: thenewbuzwuzz
Worksafe? - Probably.
Notes: I did a Tarot reading based on Buffy's questions to Tara at the end of "Dead Things" (Why do I let Spike do those things to me? etc.), and the plan was I'd then make a Spuffy version of each card in the spread. I only managed to make two pieces of artwork,

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Thank you for commenting! You are very kind. <3 "Simple" is one way to put it -- I had such vivid mental images of all five "cards" and struggled to execute the ideas; I may have lost the struggle. :D

Here's the Five of Cups from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck:


Dude has, presumably, left that castle on the other side of the river (maybe he had to, maybe he chose to), crossed the bridge, and walked all the way up to the foreground, but he's looking back and doesn't look happy (maybe he's wishing he could have stayed, maybe he's still bitter over whatever happened there). The way he's facing, he can see his empty cups but not his full ones. Basically, I believe it's the card of brooding ;) or any lingering trauma/resentment/ whatever causes someone to be stuck in unhappy feelings about past events.

Interpretation of the Five of Cups from goldentarot.com:
"To have tasted from many cups, and forgotten the sweet wine - recalling only a bitter aftertaste. Jaded cynicism and disillusionment. Regret, anger and bitterness. The ending of a relationship. Loss, sorrow and grief. Depression. This card warns of a tendancy to focus on negative memories."
ETA: the person on goldentarot.com also speaks of "gifts foolishly discarded", which colored my interpretation although I wouldn't go as far as calling Buffy foolish.

I associated this card with Buffy's emotional problems following her resurrection. Of course, she had massive reasons to be upset and traumatized; I don't want to sound like I think Buffy should have just cheered up and gotten over it instantly. But it's a factor that influences all of her relationships that season, including, of course, her relationship with Spike. So it made sense to me when it turned up in the position that's supposed to suggest how past events influence the current situation. :)

The death's heads may have been a mistake, but (1) they looked pretty, and I think Spike would appreciate the decor; (2) I was vaguely thinking about how Buffy may feel like she's not really alive, since her old life doesn't feel hers anymore and she's hanging out in the cemetery with a dead guy; and the light was supposed to be nostalgic heaven-light.

[double_dutchess]

Thank you for the extensive explanation! Very interesting So where I interpreted Buffy as turning her back on the dark, what she's really doing is looking back at the (heavenly) light. But the dark actually is where the --more or less-- full cups are for her. By the way, don't you think that the man on the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot card looks a lot like Spike?

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yes. :) I suppose it would have been easier to see it that way if I'd used a Buffy cap where only her head is turned instead of her whole body.

"By the way, don't you think that the man on the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot card looks a lot like Spike?"
OMG, you're absolutely right. I don't know how I didn't notice it! :))