From Touchstone TarotTM by Kat Black
Nine of Wands
Meanings
Keeping vigil. You have reached the apex you sought – now what? Assaults will come, but you are well defended, you have the strength and weapons you need at your disposal.
Reversed (?)
Resistance. Just when you thought the tower was conquered, you find that there are still defenders hidden within. Perhaps a truce, a more peaceful solution, is the answer?
Description
A woman in a fine red and gold gown stands on top of a castle wall. She holds a wand and eight more lean between the battlements of the castle. She wears many opulent jewels and an ornate peaked cap. Her head is bandaged and she wrings her hands and purses her lips as though concerned.
This is Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, who died shortly after giving him what he most wanted, a son. Historians are divided on the issue of Jane. She was the least educated of Henry's wives and could scarcely write her own name, so there are no letters of her own by which to judge her character and actions. She has been variously pictured as a meek and mousy maid who happened to be in the right place at the right time, to a ruthless schemer who planned the downfall of her mistress so she could take her place at Henry's side.
Artwork
- Wand: TIZIANO, Vecellio (Titian), St Christopher, 1524, Palazzo Ducale, Venice.
- Wand leaves: PONTORMO, Jacopo, Cosimo il Vecchio, c.1520, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
- Sky: BOECKHORST, Jan van, Christ on the Cross, c.1640, private collection.
- Castle, wall: BOUTS, Dieric the Elder, The Execution of the Innocent Count, c.1460, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
- Woman: HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger, Jane Seymour, Queen of England, 1536, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
- Bandage: BABUREN, Dirck van, The Procuress, 1622, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
