Given the option to learn how to collage digital images in Photoshop, I chose the tarot card from the previous post as my starting point. I wanted to work with 3 specific aspects of the card: the shift in original meaning when an upright card is placed in a reversed position in a tarot spread (literally upside down), the gender shift of lion to lioness, and the shift from strength to woundedness .
The practice of reading a “reversed” card can be treated a few ways. One way is to read the positive aspects of the card in a way that contemplates a person’s life with the absence of those qualities. Another way is to see the meanings of the card manifesting strictly in the interior life of a person as opposed to the concrete ways in which a person interacts with the world around them.
It is through this “reversed” lens that I chose my images of a woman exhibiting compassion in relation to the animal rather that the original woman exhibiting control over the animal and the lioness wounded in battle as opposed to the original idealized strength of a lion.
The idea is to give the viewer a way to contemplate the interior mental/emotional state that occurs after strength has been lost. The original card focuses on strength that is fueled by animal instinct that appears effortless and at a moment’s command. My reversed card focuses more on the strength it takes to honestly look back at mistakes, at past wounds, and to decide how to heal (if at all).
The woman’s actions in the reversed card also are meant to give consideration to what is seen to be “strong” behavior by ourselves and our society. The place that compassion or mourning is given in much of our modern life continues to be downgraded or shied away from.
I also decided to obscure the text in the image compared to the original to parallel the search it takes to find strength, especially after a humbling experience like the one shown.
digital studio 