A Game Of Thrones Tarot, Pt. 2

SPOILER ALERT: This article presupposes that you have read A Game Of Thrones/watched through the first season of A Game Of Thrones. I will make efforts not to spoil anything past that. (Though I will likely write a separate article that incorporates the entirety of the story thus far.)

 

Let's do this...

V The Hierophant - The Mormonts

“Hierophant” is an ancient Greek term, “a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy.” Essentially, a High Priest. Other decks refer to the archetype as The Pope. Mystics have assigned this card to the second sign of the zodiac, Taurus, the Bull, which is designated as Fixed Earth.

This is always a trickier card to allocate, because high position in a religious order is not necessarily one of the things that springs to mind with Taurus. It brings to mind large, simple creatures who just want to feel good and continue existing. Being “Fixed Earth” means a pronounced focus on the necessities of life: food, shelter, stability, sex. Taurus is about providing for itself and its family, finding a position where they can stay the course, and maintaining optimal levels of comfort. It’s a cow, an elephant, a field-plowing ox. Not really a priest.

But, if you recall the story of St. Peter, the first Pope, he was told by Christ “You are the rock upon which I will build my church.” A strong institution needs a firm foundation, a resourceful manager who enjoys keeping peace and order. Also, the people need someone that can tell them how it is...not in lofty theory or prosaic ideals. They need a salt-of-the-Earth person who can translate platitudes into utility, someone that can help bridge the gap between knowledge and wisdom. Essentially, the firm, guiding hand of a guru.

In A Game Of Thrones,The Mormonts seem best suited to this function. Jeor Mormont, “The Old Bear,” is something of a Battle Pope. The Night’s Watch is not a religious order, but they do take sacred vows of brotherhood which involve relinquishing the right to marry or own land, and wherein a brother’s previous life - sins included - is washed away, and they begin anew after taking the black.

Jeor is in the business of managing a gigantic chunk of Fixed Earth, the wall that separates the civilized world from the land of Winter, wites, and wildlings. While life at The Wall could hardly be described as “comfortable,” he has worked his way into the most reputable position available, with the most comfortable quarters available. He even keeps a few animal friends around his chambers. He provides a strong foundation for the Night’s Watch, and acts as a guiding force for Jon Snow, a new brother and fellow Northman in whom he sees much promise.

Meanwhile, Jeor’s son, Jorah, exemplifies a few of this archetype’s negative traits. Taurus is ruled by Venus, the planet of love. Just as it operates with material possessions, Taurus seeks out the most valuable “stuff” in love, and Jorah Mormont is always willing to ruin himself for a pretty face. In order to provide a life of finery for his wife, he first nearly bankrupted his family, then turned to crime, selling slaves to the Tyroshi. This was discovered and reported to Eddard Stark, Warden of The North, and Jorah was given the choice of death or taking the black with his father. Instead, he took his wife and fled for warmer climates. He became a sellsword to keep them living well, but she left him anyway. In this case, the Taurean compulsion for love beat out its preference for stability.

However, Jorah has since become “the rock” upon which Daenerys Targaryen will build her Khalasar. He has become a teacher to her regarding the ways of the Dothraki and the world, a much-needed fellow Westerosi in a strange land who was able to translate many of their mysterious customs. He’s also told her much about Westeros, a land she scarcely remembers. The television series plays up this “guru” side of Jorah, as he tries to teach a Dothraki warrior about the value of a knight’s armor and straight, heavy blade. He demonstrates this value later on when Qotho attempts to stop Mirri Maz Duur from bewitching Khal Drogo.

The bear is a big, heavy, solid animal, ferocious when threatened, but mostly concerned with creature comforts. It is a fitting Taurean symbol for House Mormont, whose bodies are hulking and thick, and whose house words are simple: “Here We Stand.”

Though he is not a major character, nor a good fit for the Papal airs of this archetype, I did want to give a quick shout-out to Gendry, Robert’s bastard son, who is so Taurean that he made himself a kick-ass bull helm, which he treasures above all else.

VI  The Lovers - Jaime & Cersei Lannister

The Lovers card is traditionally given to Gemini, The Twins. Jaime & Cersei are incestuous twins. Lay-up!

The Lovers card is often misunderstood. One would think that it primarily indicates romance, and in fact, it can sometimes mean hopping into bed with someone. However, if you look at the Rider-Waite Lovers, it seems to be an image of Adam and Eve, freshly created. They seem a little freaked out. They have never encountered anything like one other, though they are carved from the same substance. They are one thing that has become two.

Additionally, we may consult the original title for the card in the 15th Century, which was “Marriage.” It originally featured a man in the center with a woman on either side of him, pulling on either arm. One woman was decked out in sultry colorful elegance, her hair adorned with swollen berries. This woman was meant to represent Earthly pleasures. The other woman was very simply dressed in a pure white robe, and was meant to represent a divine path, and the man was meant to choose between the two. Remember, the Trump cards originally went in  an ascending order that was meant to be a sort of “holiness ranking.” Therefore, this choice was considered higher than the Papacy, as The Pope is still a figure of earthly power. (One need only look at the corrupt history of some of history’s Popes to know that’s true - leading armies and bedding women, and many other things you aren’t supposed to do as a man of the cloth.)

Mawwage.

So ultimately, the card is about moral choices, and about what happens when you run into your dark opposite.

Those of you who have only seen the first season or read the first book may not see how this applies to Jaime and Cersei. They are pretty much the mustache-twirling, irredeemable assholes of the beginning of the series. However, they are together for the first book - they are unified, and have been for a long time. They’ve protected each other, had children together, and have generally been within an arm’s reach of each other for most of their lives. With Jaime now captured by the Starks, they’re separated. Now that they’re apart, they’re going to get a good, hard look at each other, and you may be surprised at how they react.

Future events aside, you do see these themes manifest in their actions a bit already. The pair catches a lot of flack for doing what they consider to be the right thing. For example, Jamie was confronted with a serious moral choice in his duty of a member of the Kingsguard. He was sworn to defend Mad Aerys, but his betrayal of that vow saved countless lives. He will bear the disgrace of the act for his entire life, yet he considers murdering Aerys to be the greatest thing he’s ever done for the world. Similarly, you can hate her all day for what she did to Robert, but Cersei knew that he was a terrible king and an even worse husband. She’s not a complete monster: she offered Eddard the choice to walk away from King’s Landing, and she even made Joffrey agree to spare his life contingent on his confession. If you want a reason to hate her, hate her because she raised such a shit kid. 

Gemini is Mutable Air, “Mutable” meaning that it carries out the end of the process, and “Air” referring to ideas, communications, and skills. While both of these characters have clever minds and silver tongues, I want to focus primarily on the concept of skills and strengths.

Gemini-heavy folks tend to boast a wide (but not deep) skill-set, Jacks-of-All trade who know a little bit about everything. They take a pre-existing idea (Air), and with little effort, wrap their clever little brains around it quite quickly...but in many cases, they do not develop this natural gift into a deeper mastery. We see emanations of this in the Lannister twins. While Jaime is renowned for his swordplay, he’s hardly infallible, and for all of his swagger, I think that few would claim him to be the most skilled swordsman in Westeros. (Lord Eddard fought on completely equal ground with him in the middle of Season One. I don’t believe that fight takes place in the books, but there are other, future instances one could cite.) Similarly, Cersei considers herself a real regent and a political tactician of the highest order. Littlefinger and Varys snicker about this behind her back, moving her about like a pawn.

        Littlefinger is laughing his head off at this. "Oh shit, she just said, 'You win or you die!' She thinks she's a genius!"

Jaime’s now in a place where he’ll have plenty of time to sit still and examine himself. And as we’ve already seen, with Jaime gone, Cersei’s doing the “I’m looking for my missing piece” dance with their cousin, Lancel Lannister. We’ll see how these two Lovers’ relationship mutates now that they’re doing the LDR thing.  

VII The Chariot - Robb Stark

It falls on Robb to be the convergent point to which many different kinds of strength come together...it’s his duty to take these forces, which have given themselves over to him, and hammer the raw material into an armored conveyance to ride toward his goal. Robb is the figure inside of The Chariot, which he intends to be the means of his sisters’ rescue and his father’s vengeance.

This card illustrates the myth of the “self-made man.” While there is a princely figure steering the chariot, it has been constructed from an array of differing elements. In many decks, there are lunar themes and symbols present, such as the crescent moon pauldrons that the central figure wears in the Rider-Waite deck...this is indicative of family and foundation. Robb owes just about everything to being born scion to the most powerful Northern family. He relies on his ties to them for strength, but as the eldest son, also pledges himself to marshall, control, and direct this strength as his father would want him to do. The Chariot is given to Cancer, the most familial and nurturing sign of the zodiac, and this is reason. Cancer stays close to the emotional source, the thing it wants to guard the most. Although Robb has left Winterfell, he has remained at the core of the Northern army’s strength. (He also seems to take his mother everywhere that he goes, and Cancer is the biggest Momma's Boy of the 12 signs.) 

Cancer is also somewhat fickle and impulsive, however, and may find new emotional involvements out of habit and need for comfort. These new loves have to be incorporated into the main chassis of the vehicle somehow, or it’ll be like trying to drive two cars at once. This will come up for Robb soon...and although this card is all about “full speed ahead,” a juggernaut aimed at an obstacle, it also speaks toward a lot of internal conflict, a lot of checking and balancing among the disparate pieces of the vehicle that one has to attend to even while speeding along. We get a glimpse of this in the first season when Robb has to put the Greatjon Umber in his place.

 

Ultimately, the Chariot is not Robb himself, it’s the entire enterprise of the King of The North and His Army. Robb just happens to be in the driver’s seat, which doesn’t mean he won’t have backseat drivers yelling in his ear as he marches on the South.

VIII Strength - Renly & Loras

The Strength card is one of four cards that was originally associated with the four Cardinal Virtues of Christianity. In this case, Courage or Fortitude, referring to the ability to endure and face down the pressures of fear and uncertainty. Its zodiacal association is Leo, the lion, placing focus on egocentricity and sustained charisma. We also see a lion in the card’s traditional imagery...but what is truly strong in the card is not the lion itself, but the woman, a personification of reason, who seems to have tamed the lion and bent it to her will.

And that’s sort of Renly’s story. The youngest of the three Baratheon brothers, his claim to the Iron Throne is kind of bullshit when compared to Robert’s son, Joffrey, and as compared to their brother Stannis. In many ways, it’s a selfish vie for the throne, propelled only by his popularity and personal magnetism. Apparently though, that can lend you a lot of support, as Renly wrangles up quite a number of illustrious banners.

In the HBO series, it’s Loras Tyrell, his best friend and lover, who plays the role of Reason (while grooming Renly’s mane, no less,) and convinces him to take this raw chunk of amiability and use it to accomplish something. He inspires Renly to be brave in the face of adversity, and in fact, out of the two of them, he is literally stronger. As The Knight of Flowers, Loras is the pride of Highgarden, and one of the most skilled knights in Westeros. He takes the attitude of charismatic swagger into the arena, adorning his armor with floral patterns, handing out roses to admiring maidens, and just being an all-around cooch tease.

I should point out that this is a little different from Robb’s role as the head of The Chariot. Although Renly, like most of the significant characters in the series, owes much to his high birthing, he did not fall back on the support of his family when making a play for what he wanted. In fact, that would have been impossible for him, given that Robert’s dead, and that Stannis and his nephew are his enemies. We can also see a difference in the conduct of these armies that speaks to a critical difference in their make-up. Robb and the Northmen hit the ground running. Their steely determination saw them slamming right into the Lannisters once they’d gathered up, without much fanfare or pretense. Renly’s encampment, as we’ll see in the next installment, is a big ol’ army party. His bannerman spend a lot of time drinking, celebrating their new glorious endeavor, and competing to be among Renly’s personal escorts, his “Rainbow Guard.” This is the difference between a force built from familial tragedy and cultural grudge, and one built from an affable man’s ambition.

IX Hermits - Varys The Spider and Ser Barristan Selmy

I know that it’s weird to put these two on the same card. I don’t see them hanging out and sharing a bottle of Dornish wine anytime soon, do you? Even still, they’re both important figures that jibe with this card in their own way. 

While the Neoplatonic idea behind The Chariot and Strength were, respectively, the construction of a godly philosophy (see writings on Merkabah) and the courage to be certain of oneself, The Hermit asks you to take that self-assurance and ditch the rest of society. The Hermit lives alone in a cave for the same reason most mythical hermits and sages did so - they needed to get away from society and ponder the infinite in order to know it better. (There is a character, not introduced until DwD, who pretty much epitomizes this thought...)

Other influences and ideas behind this card: The Hermit is given to Virgo, and as such, represents ideas of purity, order, and perfectionism. Under this thought process, The Hermit also functions as a valuable handyman, an aged sage who shines his light of Reason (Neoplatonists loved some capital R Reason, as you can see) onto the cracks within the structure in order to make proper repairs. He is somewhat put-upon, as he is the only one that knows how to do this, and he may be the only one who realizes the importance of his work.

Lil' Miss Wisdom

Varys and Littlefinger play the same game, but they seem to play it for very different reasons. While Littlefinger’s motivations seem to be one part ambition and two parts twisted obsession, Varys really believes that he does his dirty deeds in service to the peace of the realm.

It’s easy to dismiss him as a two-dimensional baddie at first...he is a hairless eunuch (Virgo’s virginal purity) who reeks of conspiracy. And while this ends up being true, it also belies and distracts from a) his motivations, and b) his skill, as he seems to have a talent for stealth and disguise that would impress Sherlock Holmes, and a network of child spies that would not only put his to shame, but would probably murder them with crossbows. Varys’ “little birds” are reminiscent of both Virgo’s connection to Mercury, the messenger god and planet of information.

Thank you, Google Image Search.

Ser Selmy, meanwhile, speaks more to the initial idea of seeking godliness...or, in this case, kingliness. He also evokes the Virgo purity themes, which his all-white Kingsguard armor matching his clean-cut features, and his sense of a knight’s proper conduct standing in for all aspects of personality. However, when his new king, Joffrey, “retires him,” it goes against his lifetime of programming. Rather than do as he’s commanded, Barristan The Bold decides that the thing to do is to find the real rulers of this land and work in their service. Saying much more would be a spoiler...all I’ll let slip is that the image of The Hermit from the Rider-Waite reminds me a lot of Selmy the next time we see him.

What Varys does for the order of the realm, Barristan does for the ideals of knighthood and for the vows of the Kingsguard.

X The Wheel of Fortune - Robert Baratheon, Viserys Targaryen, Maester Aemon

Showcasing the caprice of fate, The Wheel of Fortune is derived from the medieval concept of the Rota Fortunae, wherein the goddess of fate randomly hands out greatness or failure with a spin of the wheel. These three men personify a dictum often associated with this concept.

The Wheel is traditionally depicted with three men positioned at different places...one ascending, one at the top of the wheel, and one descending. The caption: "Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno, Regnabo," or “I reign, My reign is finished, I shall reign.” All of these men received their good or ill fortune at the whim of fortune, as do we all. But the circumstances in which they met their ends are particularly illustrative of the way that this concept functions. (Aemon’s not dead, of course, but he’s more or less at the end of his life.)

The Rota Fortunae, from the Burana Codex

The card is traditionally given to the planet Jupiter, the planet of talent, expansion, innate gifts, and identity within the collective. Jupiter is what you’re known for, what you’re great at, something that you can teach. As such, at its best, it indicates characters that are tribal leaders and gurus. It can also indicate characters who love excess, and are prone to rowdy, rambunctious waste, and maybe even to sudden fits of anger. Think of the difference between a Buddha-like figure versus a Zeus or Thor-type. 


At its best, it is your favorite uncle who gives you the best presents every year and lets you misbehave when your parents aren’t around. At its worst, it’s the guy at the bar who spills his beer on you, punches you in the eye when you say something about it, and then tells you, “Shit happens,” as you look up at him from the ground.

Robert’s obviously the “I reign” in this equation, and is easily the most fleshed-out of the three. As such, we can see both sides of this archetype manifest in his actions. Ultimately, we’re on his side because Ned’s on his side...he had the good fortune of making friends with the most loyal, honorable guy in Westeros. But as much as he might be fun, Robert does a lot of irresponsible shit. He’s pretty much cleaned out the kingdom’s treasury, forcing reliance on The Lannisters’ gold, he’s littered the countryside with his bastards (expansion and excess), and he’s unwilling to show mercy to Daenerys, even when Ned objects whole-heartedly. He can’t even be bothered to save Sansa’s direwolf, mostly because it’d mean getting more contentious than usual with Cersei. He’s given to those aforementioned fits of sudden anger and he’s grown quite fat due to decades of partying hard...but like most Jupiterian archetypes, he does possess a likability that still shines through, the qualities that allowed him to whip up a rebellious army around himself in the first place.

Speaking of that, Fortune’s hand can clearly be seen in both Robert’s rise and fall. The Rebellion in particular is a whole series of “What If...” comics waiting to happen. “What if Lyanna hadn’t been spirited away by Rhaegar?” “What if they’d lost the Battle of The Bells?” “What if Robert hadn’t finished Rhaegar at The Trident?” “What if Jaime hadn’t killed Mad Aerys,” or “What if The Lannisters hadn’t switched sides?” Any one of these things shifts the story tremendously, and completely changes Robert’s fate in a situation where the odds were stacked heavily against him - The Targaryens had ruled Westeros for hundreds of years, and still had quite a lot of weight behind them. 

Damn you, Google Image Search.

To a lesser extent, we can say the same about Robert’s death...how many times had The Lannisters spiked his wine on similar hunting trips? What would have happened if he’d noticed? What if Ned had been willing to bend his honor in service of his friend and king? These are all pretty major gambles, and although it was an arranged ending, it still looks like a strange twist of fate to the smallfolk. “Battle King Robert Baratheon...killed by a pig.”

Viserys is “I will reign.” Except that he won’t be doing that anytime soon, will he?

Viserys exemplifies many of the negative qualities of this archetype. He has an expectation for luxurious living without the compulsion to work for it. Stingy, cowardly, and spoiled, Viserys is still the product of misfortune. He was born into a line of continent-ruling dragonmasters, only to be born at a time when there were no more dragons and the family was being overrun, deposed and assassinated. If he were the type to count blessings, he’d be thankful that he and his sister escaped to safety. Instead, he expected to be handed a kingdom, unaware that fortune does not have to work that way. Rather than learning arms or strategy or politics, Viserys committed himself to selling off family in order to buy an army. For his sniveling attitude and obsessive conduct, Viserys was killed by Drogo. His death reminds one of another mythical wheel, the Buddhist Wheel of Cyclic Existence, which keeps one in a loop of suffering as a result of bad karma. Viserys was all sorts of bad karma.

Maester Aemon’s sort of a stand-in for all the Targaryens who bought it when Robert’s people kicked the doors in, thus “I have reigned.” As far as he knows, and as far as most people know, the history books have closed on the Targaryen line, and he helped to close them. Much earlier in his long life, after forging his maester’s chain, Aemon was offered the Iron Throne after his father’s death. However, rather than make a grab for glory and power, Aemon refused the throne, as he’d already pledged his life to service as a maester. This showcases the generous and enlightened nature of this archetype, as well as a misfortune in disguise - after his little brother Aegon (“Egg”) took the throne, Aemon was wise enough to know that family enemies would try to use him against his brother. To prevent this, he accepted a life amongst the members of the Night’s Watch.

Maester Aemon is a guru, a constant source of help and inspiration for a group of very troubled men. While the Lord Commander would truly be the “chief” position in the Night’s Watch, Maester Aemon is afforded nearly the same amount of reverence and respect, if not more. He is their teacher and spiritual leader, and is a good example of fortune putting someone where they are needed most.  

TO BE CONTINUED...


And incidentally, the rest of these comics are total gold.

Re-postin'. For Winterfell!