I'd like to see you try and stop me

Do you know the ontological argument for the existence of Superman? It goes like this - you are imperfect (come on, admit it) and you have the quality of existence. Superman is perfect. Since you are imperfect and have the quality of existence, Superman must exist because he is better than you.

Of course Superman does exist in fiction and that's the corollary or rebuttal of the argument - that non-existence is the sine-qua-non of perfection. Nothing is perfect that physically exists. Or, if you like, carried forward - what is real is not what is best.

There you are - the best argument for the life of the mind, the inward looking eye and the contemplative dream. What's best isn't real and what's real isn't best.

This is what the 4 of Pens is all about - retreating from the mundane and becoming absorbed in the beatific and sublime.



Captured - as it were, by the perfection of a fiction, of an idea. Compelling, it's compelling just to think of it - the Deity as a concept is something that has absorbed people since they've been people. To me this relates very closely to the 4 of Cups - a figure immersed in a dream, on the one hand you have a spiritual fulfillment that arises in spite of the world's efforts, in the other you have a person withdrawing from and forgetting the world - which goes on, quite indifferent.



The distinction - between those withdrawing is that the one is ignoring what is good in the world, the other is turning away from what is bad. Simple enough, maybe a fine distinction. But consider - there is perfection in thought that doesn't exist in the material realm. Platonism for you. The world is just shadows of a better idea. It's sensible to be captured by the idea. In the 4 of Cups he's captured by the world, ignoring the spiritual, or fulfilled already, turns to the material.

The 4 of Pens connotes not only an abandonment of earthly cares - but a rejection of the validity of them,



A trance of the nobler world - this situation likewise implies a final sleep - the translation of the mortal to the spiritual through that eventual magician called death. Sure, you're going to get there from here. And when the heart stops and the brain dies the mind goes on. Maybe. In fiction it might and fiction, unlike the mundane world, has the quality of being capable of perfection.

I told you before all about feelings, and then I told you about doing - now it's time to talk about thinking.



Before the totemic symbol for thinking was the sword - it was a symbol for more than thinking but thinking is the elemental essence of what the swords are about. Here's some of what it's all about (and I'm going to get into it, and into some elaborate thinking-type thoughts here as well so get accustomed to it for the next 10 entries) The swords are about division - an in the antique sense they indicate the division between moments - where decisions happen, where thinking occurs. They also have the power of division between sense and nonsense and significantly between things that are and things that are not. Duality is essential in the suit of the swords because they divide the real and the unreal - by thought.

There's a practical element to this as well - the swords divide the physical from the spiritual - in a very pragmatic, murderous way. Everyone's soul is eventually excised, they're made from whole being to a soul and a corpse - the sword is violence as well. Danger and - significantly, professionalism.

That's a weird relationship that's lost now - we live in the world of guns and I've seen Tarot where the sword was substituted with a gun - but the gun... the gun undermines and is plainly in opposition to the principles behind the sword. A sword - you don't just have one and then have the ability to go around killing guys - that's the gun. The sword needs skill, training and a big investment by the society that arms you and then trains you in the first place. The sword requires skill and it requires training - it signifies membership in a professional caste of killers - people for whom killing is part of their professional capacity. It's not done lightly. Well, it wasn't.



Now we have the pens. There still is a professional class, they still have matters of life and death in their oeuvre, they still have to make decisions and they still are symbolized by something that divides the real and the unreal - in this case The Pen.

See, a pen divides the purely mental from the physical - it's the transcendental bridge between what is thought and what actually is. Because you can write down your thoughts - you can make physically manifest your ideas, your thoughts, your grocery list. Things are recorded, memory becomes irrefutable fact - we live and die by things written by professional men who are tasked with making decisions and signing. Sign your name - something ephemeral, meaningful sure, but spoken and heard on the wind, a sound unlike any other - and you sign, your mark, unlike any other. You turn something from being theoretical to actual. A bill becomes a law, a pad of paper becomes a prescription, a semester of work becomes another grade, a strategy becomes an order.

You get the idea - from a martial ruling class to a technocrat ruling class the transition is from the sword to the pen.



But, briefly, back to duality. Maybe the soul is an archaic idea, maybe it doesn't have a place here - maybe. It doesn't mean that there's not a difference between the substantial, experiential world and the dreamworld of pure consciousness, of reason and dreams. The Pen has the effect of dividing these as well - and combining them. In some respects The Pen is a kind of psychopomp - through physical exertion it generates non-physical ideas. In antiquity it was argued that God must by necessity exist because it was theorized to be perfect, and being perfect it must have the qualities that imperfect things have as well as whatever qualities make it perfect. So since imperfect things exist, the theoretical perfect thing must by needs exist! Since existence is a quality possessed by imperfect things, a perfect thing must have that quality as well. Without getting into too many confusing logical arguments we can extrapolate backward and look at just one confusing logical argument:

So if we consider that we exist and are receptacles for things that do not exist - memories, fantasies, dreams - then it means that the physical by needs contains all perfect iterations of itself. And really - if we conceive of fantasies and dreams as having physical characteristics - and these characteristics are superior to our own then they tell the truth on us - that the physical is the sublime and the imagined is the mundane. Superman. Superman is the manifestation of human wishes and greatness, it is an idea - that became real through the exercise of that noblest of human creations - The Pen.



Anyhow- these sharpies are my favorite pens ever so they will probably figure prominently in the suit.

Who's Calling?  It's me the Phones!  Uh, or something not dumb.



It's weird, you know - that you can get calls - someone might call you.  I think, I wanna say I was about 7?  The first time someone called me?  Back then we had a directory for the school - so kids could just look each other up and call.  Cause, right, who changed phone-numbers?  The 80's...  Anyhow-  I think it was...  Lisa?  A girl Lisa wanted to call and talk to me about stuff.  I guess?  Sometimes girls want to talk on the phone.  For real - that's probably the biggest hole in my abilities re- romance.  I hate calling on the phone, and I don't like being called on the phone- it turns out that way.



I guess in the end I can't stop thinking that I'm just talking to a machine.  I know there's another person and all - not, like - solopsistic - they're all secretly robots and it's a simulation - not like that - more like.  I am here and talking and I am talking into a machine and that is like talking to a dog or the air.  It is a thing of a crazyperson.




Remember those blue-tooth head things?  Sometimes people still have them, I hate those things because they make it harder to distinguish between who is crazy and who is not.  Knowing who is crazy is an important skill in the world and I'm okay at it.  Except that maybe talking on the phone is a thing for crazy people.



So...  With all that said-  I still did make the Phones my symbol - replacing the Rod in the more traditional tarot.  But for real - what is crazier - a dude talking to himself or a dude walking around with some quantity of rods?  I mean, unless you are a rod-deliveryman you basically have no good reason to be carrying around rods.  Maybe a fisherman could get away with it.  Wands are likewise a personal affectation that will not get you many phone numbers if you brandish them in quantities greater than... I dunno, probably zero.  Zero Wands is the optimal number of wands to be carrying around.  And let's not even get into clubs.  You shouldn't be carrying around a club, not even that collapsible kind that sometimes would-be tough guys have.  Really you shouldn't carry things that the police are only going to have to wrestle you for.



I mean, unless you should.  It could be that that is who you are and, I won't say - 'No Judgement' because I will judge you - not in a judgmental way, exactly, but in a discerning way.  In the way that I don't just yell and get upset about the guy doing karate moves on the corner (there is such a guy) but rather-  never speak or look directly at him.  Not that he's got a very nice phone though - he's more of a cups, more of a swords kind of guy.  You know how I know?  Cause the Phones are not just activity, not just doing - they're symbolic of something else.  Something simultaneously miraculous and prosaic.



Rather like the cellular phone.  You see 'em around, heck you might manage their use and function as part of your day to day - because they are part of the day to day - common.  They're a common thing that makes the world turn and bend - they're pretty much miraculous.  A company that makes them is, as of this writing, the biggest corporation in the world.  Who knew right?  They're a non-trivial portion of the wealth of all nations.  Crazy.  Just as I imagine stick-gathering was a fundamental chore for the laboring classes of medieval times.  True story - gather wood or die freezing - that's just the nature of things.



Which is to say that the phones mark a kind of middle-of-the-road.  A kind of baseline human condition, the lowest common denominator.  Kind of.  It's a little trickier than thinking of them like say - opinions and assholes.  It isn't quite something everyone has.  That's not what the Phones/wands/clubs/rods are about.  No - this is more about your assimilation into the broader popular culture.  Being caught up with the phones means you're more in the mode - you know the popular culture, you know the cool bands, the nice clothes, the popular political opinion, the tolerable political ideology.



These are 3rd estate things.  They're for the people that make the world work - and in our world the best and newest is the way of things.  If I were painting this all in the 60's I'd probably have the wands be cars - in the 90's maybe computers (maybe).  But a tool that's contemporary and that's a statement about personality.  Well - to an extent.  You know there are i-people and android-people and wall-phone people right?  It's this idea that there are these kinds of people - when really, there's an unseen class of people who don't have any of those.  Like the millionaires in the 60's with drivers and the executives in the 80's with receptionists.  They're not of the mode - they're above/beyond.  It's a working-man's tool.  And so-  the phone.




The Phone is also - activity - and that's what I've been having - activity - I'm active!  Doing-Making!  Full activity is the thing of the phones- fire and happening.  So don't imagine for a second that I've been slack.



Nosir.



Really - I should mention it was a long languid summer of breaks before I got the Cups all done - and here I got the first 3 Phones in a weekend.  Maybe have the next three by the end of this weekend!  Maybe.  

And here's the rundown:

The Phones start out - kind of telling a story.





You start with the 2 - you're up and at 'em - you're out the door (or I am) at the crack-of-doomy-dawn you're ready, you're capable. You've got calls coming in already - maybe you even have to check your mail and the weather on your personal phone - you've got things happening. There's a man or a woman that you know who gives out different numbers for different reasons - that's someone who's got Things Going On. That's the 2 of Phones.





Then you're on your way - You're in the world and you're really - in-the-world, in the loop, you can see what it is and where you are going in it. The world is a golden paradise for you - because you're ready, and part of the world - it's a welcoming place that's just waiting for you. So - waiting, and ready-goodness. It's the next stop of the day - the Bus Stop.





And after that? Well you've got things to do, you're the golden one - bright prospects, when you talk - people listen, eyes dilate, blood in the cheeks - you're the golden one- on the shining path - you've heeded the call and now you're encircled by the shekina glory! The magic ring of jesus-fire - if you will. Fire.
It's all to do with fire - movement, and a signal. Like the bars on the phone - you're in a good spot, good reception for the Gnosis - you're on the shining path. In a way. It's still earthly, but it's a rising, transcendent earthliness.

You are, in a word - Effective.

So #15 is traditionally - THE DEVIL! Maybe you're spooked of the Devil? Maybe not, I bet you can tell what kind of a person you are if you are or aren't. That's my opinion. Well, that's an aspect of my opinion, there's actually rather a lot to it. Why not explore? Yes lets!

So in some ancient forms the Devil is representative of temptation, think of Christ being tempted in the wilderness for example - the Devil appears and tries to get Christ to act all wrong and then Christ resists. The Devil also appears and tempts Job - "Curse God and Die!" The Devil tempts. Kind of a weird thing to tempt a person to - hopelessness? I can see that, hopelessness is a real vice.

Over time this figure changes into a manichean opposite of god, goes from the Adversary meant to tempt creation into an enemy, possibly even on equal footing, the Devil, to be opposed, thwarted, tossed in the lake of fire. Now this is probably the more familiar of the Devils you've heard of and the Tarot kind of works from that, and it kind of mentions the older meaning too. The Devil represents Vice and the temptation to vice. And this... This is representative of a worldview that may prevail, but I'd say not by many. The idea here is that there is a force that tempts you to the wicked actions - this force is purely malevolent and wants to doom you. Now - I don't buy that. That there is a dark force that turns your hand and heart to wickedness - well I don't deny that. But we're talking about dualism and soul/mind/body divisions - I'm not exactly going that way. It's not a dark spiritual force that tempts you to wickedness - is what I am saying.

Rather, the Devil represents the dooming component of human existence - which is our frailty. Our physical frailty specifically. The Devil represents a kind of arrogance, in my mind, that there is a special force that rules over evil and compels you to evil action. Vice is maybe its own temptation, but I theorize something else.

For example. I see the people driving their $100,000 cars in my neighborhood and you know, I daydream about robbing them, I totally do. Because I want money. Which is gross! But here's the thing - the wolf is at the door, the menace is in the world, there are menacing forces that would drive me to do such things. Or maybe you've grown too attached to someone, you'd rather they were dead than without you, or you're menaced by another who looks to outcompete you, or you've got a vague anxiety that the person you are with is going to be the last person to love you, the last person to touch you. You can have these fears and they'll tempt, tempt or drive you to vice. I don't suggest that people have any innate wickedness but that their fragility predisposes them to it. Not a fall of man - but the story of the fall of man kind of sums this up. The immortal and invincible person is of course the good guy - there is no danger that he faces.


This of course doesn't allow for mad-dog killers and the sort. Serial murderers and ladies that execute their babies in bathtubs. Genuinely I don't think those people are wicked, I think they are probably very crazy and that is sad.

So the Wolves. The wolf is kind of the same as the person - pack hunters, tribal and so forth. We're similar in our ecological neighborhood. But the wolf, you know, they have a few million years of adaptive advantage over us, they're more capable, dangerous - they're more effective and less fragile. They're a paradigm of human fear, a good marker of human frailty. The wolves at the door, the danger that waits lurking. Man is a wolf to other men - the big bad wolf- it comes up and hasn't faded imagery wise.

The wolf means another thing too though.

The beneficence of human genius. Cause the dog is a wolf and it's our best friend. Not mine you understand, but I get it - a dog, you can get somewhere with a dog, it is the primordial danger and fear turned on its head, made a tool. A useful tool to turn against our other predators, other people included. It's a sign that this fragility, while it tempts us to dark deeds - is also a tendency that can be mastered. The frailty endemic to the human condition, that creates the human condition, it can be snatched away and have its nature changed. Because we're better than the world, we can solve the puzzle of biology and darkness and primordial fear.

In the end I think I'm better at painting that photography, or maybe my camera is poor, or maybe my lighting is crummy, anyway, this one is (and take my word for it) nicer than it looks. But it's also pretty complicated and hard to explain. It was hard to think about too.

Here's the image I was going off of. You notice that it's #11 in the Waite deck - but that's to do with Astrology and I honestly haven't included any astrological themes so far, I don't know if I will. Astrology is cool and all, I won't speak against it exactly - but this is my deck and it's all about the Wasteland and my experience and I don't see a lot of stars in my city. When I do - I don't recognize them, so Astrology is out. But Justice is often enough and traditionally the 8th card. So I started thinking about Justice.

This wasn't awesome for me - it turns out that I don't really value justice as a virtue. True fact, I think of Justice as being fairly regressive as a quality - right up there with Honor. It is altogether worse to have Justice than it is to have something else, that Justice, conceptually, negates. This was just a feeling I had, a sense, but I wanted to understand it so I did a little studying. What is Justice? I looked into it and thought about it a lot. In the end I concluded that Justice is a concept in the West that is based on principles of Natural Law - which I do not condone. Life-Liberty-Property - okay? Sure you have these rights? Except that no. No, that's a purely western and I think, reckless construction. Now in that state where you have those natural rights, then Justice is a significant concept because you're constantly going to be in conflict with other people. Your liberties and properties, maybe even your life is always getting on the toes of everyone else's life liberty and property. So you have to have a system of justice to figure things out within the paradigm. You with me so far? So I thought and thought about what that all means - and I couldn't get anywhere. Locke is, fine I guess, Tabula Rasa.... hey man, if you say so. But people who know me know I tend to hold with Hobbes, a little more. And after looking into Utilitarianism etc... I found that I liked Hobbes a little better in terms of his ideas about Justice.

So this image was very informative for me. The Leviathan, the state, the power of the overwhelming giant-king. See? I put it in there too. Giant menacing kings.

At this point though - the symbolism kind of spoke to me. The sword- my sword is the Sharpie Pen - the pen being the sign of political stakeholders (i.e.: Legislators) and intellectualism (i.e.: Me and you). So a pen, he's got that big pen? Sure, I get it. And the little village, heck I like that little village, that speaks to me.

But what's my idea here? What's my thought? What is the concept I'm trying to convey that will eventually have a mythic and mystic connotation when removed from this (overwrought) context?

So I consult the I-Ching, and it's showing me Hexagram #8 - Holding Together - Union So I had it. The union of people. From there some of the imagery came. Now - I'm kind of happy that I paint these things without a plan or special insight, and maybe I'm doing a lot of after-the fact rationalizing. but look.

Here's the little village in the valley with the wall of bricks in a ring. The Bricks. Unity - apart, alone? What's a brick? Together they make the strong wall that holds the predatory giant king at bay. More than that they're a ring, it's a ring - the union of lovers, the sanctioned, unbreakable union. Together - together and united the little village in the valley is not menaced by the king, he may prey upon them, but together they resist his overwhelming strength, force him to reconcile, to wait. His pen, the law, his official strength, it looms over the village but the walls are strong. The roads - the roads join together, all unity of the hill. There are the terraced little farms on the hillsides
in the image of hexagram #8 - they're common, together, the road leads to the safety of the village where they are joined together into the one road.

But what about this guy?

This shirtless little weirdo? Well, this came about. Honestly this was a hard painting to paint. I had ideas, but couldn't make them come together, I actually erased and repainted it a few times. But I kept having this other hill. And I thought - it's got to mean something, and the menacing king. Look - Justice, conceptually - is delivered by an overwhelming power - in our society justice is handed down from the court, it is decided by the bureaucracy. There is an element of inequality inherent in systems of justice - of all vs. all within the concept of Natural Law. So this shirtless little madman represents that - the idea of the individual claiming his rights, challenging the power of the king. He stands atop the other peak and is not effectual, not against the power of the giants. He carries his own pen, trying to go to the battle, thinking that it is a swordfight. See, he's undone already, he has contended according to a lopsided system that automatically doesn't favor him. He is aggrieved and considers Justice to be something he deserves, but that he must fight for. Because Justice has within it that quality of inequity. So there is the little village, that is untroubled by the predation of the great, because in communion the many have the power to resist. So... Commonwealth.

I suppose I should note that these cards, these ideas flow out of one another, into one another - there's an organism being made. $6 Satisfaction leads to a journey - the journey requires the #7 Infrastructure, which suggests the unity of action, but is also a destination for the querent - #8 the Commonwealth.

I know what you're thinking. Look what you've painted Kingtycoon! Look at that. How the heck does this relate to This

I have answers for you. A few.

First of all - look at that image. The Lovers. I love the period at the end - The Lovers -Period. Obviously though, I think there's more to say. Look at Adam and Eve and their bellybuttons. Look at them. Stupid. There they are in the Eden, in paradise. They're about to go the wrong way. But look - look at the magic figure connecting them. You see these lovers -but the figure putting them together is central to the whole image. That's the figure I connect with in this image, and that's who I kind of focused on.

The Lovers has some traditional meanings involving a few conditions. First of all - Choice. So my figure, and I say MY kind of insistently - if you didn't know or can't tell - this is pretty much a self portrait - you can tell because of the green kitchen table. Just like mine. So this figure is presented with choices - there are choices - right there on the table. Do I eat? Smoke? Drink the Coffee? Paint? Write? Read? Write? Do I look at the empty chair and feel... Something? Want? Need? Loneliness? And then you look at the card and see it's called Satisfaction. So are you happy because you have choices? Or are you happy that you've made the choice that you've made?

YES.

And really, just look. Peanut Butter & Jelly. Coffee & Cigarettes. They go together don't they? They're more identifiable, comfortable pairs than Adam and Eve any day. Paint and brush? These things are on teams, together. Paper and ink, books and more books. There are pairings, combinations - you put things together- you create. You choose a thing to make. That, the fruition of your combinatory exercise - you're GENERATIVE CAPACITY - that's satisfying as hell.

It's also a choice. The choice of human things, of material, creative endeavors, which to pursue? Creation? Art? Learning? Chemical dependency? Or... Look at that Empty Chair. There's room isn't there? You can collaborate, there could be a collaboration... Why isn't there?


See this is the Eden. This is the paradise that you can be tempted away from. Hell, as you know, is other people. Here is the suggestion of peace, of heavenly paradise, and there's that empty chair. There's that temptation to seek out the other. A girl, a lady - someone else. That's the temptation - to abandon paradise for something else. Or - or to invite someone else to the paradise. Empty chair after all. Available space.

So I've accommodated the concept of choice, of desire, of pleasure, humanism, personal values (I missed you Wikipedia! I missed you so bad.) But where is the Sexyness? Where's the beauty? The Physical Attraction?

Seriously? You're asking? Look at this motherfucker



So there it is. #6 - Satisfaction.

True story - the name was the hardest part. rejected ideas:

#6 - Kingtycoon
#6 - The Lover
#6 - Bachelor
#6 - Loner
#6 - Paradise

On today of all days I painted the Senator.

This is my version of Tarot #4 - the Emperor. Sure, sure, the Emperor. You know what? I prefer the imperial system, over the nation state? I say Empire. It's a better, maybe even more robust and correct version of organizing people. More humane. That's my position. Now. I grew up with Star Wars, a little movie you might have seen. The Emperor - he's the bad guy, and Senators are kind of good. Kind of. See this is America. Now I have to get upset and say some political things - for a minute-I just have to. Listen.

So you have representatives, and they're supposed to represent you! It's a whole thing, the Republic. But the thing is - I've noticed that politicians keep deferring to ideologies. Now - I hate ideologies, and by god you should too. You know why the person who represents you wants to talk up ideologies? Because they don't care about you at all, and by talking about pie-in-the-sky notions, they can trick you into thinking that they do. True Fact - if I were the representative for my congressional district - I would hold out, and hold out and hold out and cast tie-breaking, filibuster defeating votes for any bullshit that came across - anything at all - as long as thy would concede that my constituency was granted a $100,000 tax credit. There, job over, represented your interests. Gamed the stupid system and won - for you. Your representatives don't do this -because they do not have your interests at heart - at all. They will tell you some kind of libertarian claptrap about ideals - and that's because they won't do anything for you - at all. Ever. Anger over.


So aside from being kind of angry about politics - today of all days! I painted the Senator. Here's your guide to the iconography. The Emperor is Card 4 in the traditional tarot and it's the Emperor -the universal and maybe sublime father. As I've said - Emperor as a title sits uneasily - what with the nurturing ministrations of star wars. But Father, older, elder, system of governance, the world. Senator is a Roman way of saying 'old man' true fact- the Senex, from the latin for codger. Senators are supposed to be old men who are staid and steady, pillars of the status quo. So - since I like these things: Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood (ya heard!) I went with a democratic symbol of terrestrial dominion and antiquary patriarchy - the Senator. Senators are old men (overwhelmingly) - and they govern, they choose the world you live in. Heck, even if you aren't an american (on today of all days) the old Senate will govern your life in a meaningful way. These are the old guard. I... I'm not trying to make my Senator card a villain. I'm not, just today - it wants to be. I live in Ohio and we haven't had a decent Senator since Glenn returned to the stars. True fact.

So a symbol of terrestrial dominion, masterful excercise over the system of the earth and a patriarch- which, if you value Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood - you don't value or respect all that much - but the Old Guard. The Ancien Regime. The Senator fits the bill.

Now - old timey tarot will put the Emperor as a domnitor, a substitute for the All-Father. Now, this I get. I have a love of the WOTAN of the they Sky Father, the embodiment of childish desiring. Of a want for comfort. I'm a father in fact,and I tell you true- I give some thought to my activities and say: "What would Odin do?" Because Odin plucked out his own eye to see the motherfucking future. You can talk about divine sacrifices, but I am here to tell you that making your hand take out your own motherfucking eye is pretty much the winningest style. So... Okay a door slammed, and I'm... okay I was here. There is a power in the FATHER of all things - and that is something I want to touch and know and care about - not because I want that comfort - but because I want to emulate that strength and goodness. This is lost. There is a lot of talk about the villainy of patriarchy, and I feel - that this talk is fair, it's totally fair. But I also feel that there is a place a vital needful place for the potent, correct and Good Father. So there is that. I abided by convention and gave my Senator a little Col. Sanders Beard. Greying at the temples. And throw in a cane - to complete the iconography.

Or anyway approach completion. I painted the Senator's Cane and kept thinking of Preston Brooks (wikipedia is protesting, google for yourself - unless you're wise). Senators should all have canes, and maybe pistols. There's a strength in the world and in Democracy and maybe the best version of that is the Senator. It's only that when it all goes bad, when it's the worst that it can be -the Senator, the Emperor, the Father - he's the villain, he's Darth Vader, he's the bad-bad-man. Which is a turn. But interesting. First in greatness, least in deficiency. That's my Senator.


I topped it, you know, with the goat-head. Capricorn you know - pretty satanic right? I didn't mean for the excess of Satanism. True story though - I think this is one of the better paintings I've painted. I thought hard about casting the whole thing in the shadow of the Goat-Head- but resolved instead to replace the anthropomorphization of democratic ideals with a terrible goat head. Because it's relevant to the esoteric symbolism - but also Creepy As Hell. So while you contemplate sinister goat-heads - look at this:

That's right! While you slept and watched football and did whatever else it is that people do - I continued painting. Here's my second Tarot image. #2 The Girlfriend. Now this one was a little simpler - there's not a lot of complicated metaphorical imagery in the old version. Evidently in ancient and continental versions of the deck this was the Popette. Lady Popes are sure interesting sure, but who even knows what it would mean that there's a Popette? I'm not catholic or even religious. If the Pope was a lady? It doesn't mean anything to me - he might even be a lady or be smooth down in his genitals - doesn't matter a bit to me, the Pope is the King of a bunch of people that I don't know or deal with too much. Like the King of England or Siam - I never held too much with Kings. Gods either - so the Popess doesn't pop for me, it's untranslatable.

Now - those tatty victorians they took the idea of the Popette and turned it to their purposes - and made her the High Priestess. Priestesses smoke a lot of grass yo. All day long, high as hell. Hah, but I kid. Really the High Priestess is about sexual license. She's a pagan! She's with all those Pomegranates! The Moon! There's gross victorian metaphor all throughout the Rider-Waite that suggests the high priestess is a lady who will do sex with you! Before you are married to her even! So... abandoning the clumsy-ugly suggestions of Victoriana (I'm looking at your creepy ass Brahm Stoker) - you end up with a nice girl, who embodies compassion, kindness, thoughtfulness and the beginning of an adventure - so I make this, in my life, and in the world of today - to mean The Girlfriend.

Hey! Yeah, check her out, but not too close, I'm only just learning how to paint people - this is only the 2nd or 3rd person I've ever painted in fact. Not too shabby. Protip - Couches are way harder to paint than a lady. So here she is. She's got her nice blue dress on, her hair all done up, she's compassionate and thoughtful, she's sitting there saying- "well, hey, if you want to go out we should go out and do something, but if you want to stay here and make out on this couch and eat pomegranates - that's cool baby." Because the Girlfriend Rules. She's up for adventure but nice times too. I kept the pomegranates - not to suggest the lady-genitals (as filthy Rider-Waite does) but because I know a lot of girls that like Pomegranates. She's got that one, she'll share it with you. Or is it a weird-gross intimation on my part that the Girlfriend wants you to do oral on her? Nah - these are current times - if the Girlfriend wants you to do oral to her she will say so. Probably in a nice way. But hey, while you think about it - have a pomegranate.

She's got her pocketbook too (not too hard to paint at all) and sticking out of it is the Opera playbill. Are you at the Opera? Did you go there together? Did you meet there and she just keeps it as a memento? See the old timey Tarot wants the High Priestess to carry a scroll that says TORA on it - but if it comes to magic words - there's one I like best and that's the Alchemist's term for the unity of all arts - OPERA. So there.

On the Pillars it says B&J which I always find to be kind of comical - the High Priestess is stoned as fuck and offers Blowjobs. Nice work Rider-Waite! Nice work. Really the B&J has a masonic/kabalistic element to it - something to do with Solomon's Temple. Fine. I'll keep the B&J but just because it's also a joke - one the Girlfriend laughs at as well. She's pretty cool about stuff.

And just check out those Pomegranates will you? Perfect, I know, I can barely contain my constant success and correctness. I started adding in the I-Ching Hexagrams because of how I do what I want. It's interesting that the first hexagram is all boy and the second is all girl - and the first of the Tarot is the idiomatic Masculine and the second is the Hyperreal feminine. Not that either of these or the Hexagrams really reflect my experience of Man/Woman - but making the distinction - as in- that's the obvious and first distinction people make - Mom v. Dad - who is who? Maybe going forward I'll mess around with these roles and stuff - to be true to the times I live in - but for the first two - I'm content with the time-honored baseline. I also wanted to show the ancient symbol being overgrown - as in - it's old and why are you looking at that anyway? You're girlfriend is right there! You guys should go someplace together. Take her someplace nice.