Well, I guess today is a Court Card kind of day, eh?
My Inner Focus card is the King of Wands. The image on the Decameron King of Wands shows a gray-haired and bearded man dressed in kingly clothes, wearing a crown, holding with his right hand a staff topped by an erect penis (that is also wearing a crown), and taking a naked woman from the rear. He is reaching around her with his left hand to grasp her left breast; his eyes are closed and he appears to be roaring with pleasure. The woman that kneels before him is wearing only a gauzy veil or wimple; her eyes are open and rolled back and her mouth is open, as if she too is experiencing intense pleasure. Her left arm reaches behind her, pinning his left hand against her breast in the process; it appears that she is assisting him to penetrate her. The key phrases for this card are: absolute power without questioning, and the weakest partner must surrender.
My Outer Focus card is the Queen of Wands. The image on this card shows a naked woman wearing only her shoes, on her knees before a naked man man wearing only a barrel; his penis is thrust through a knothole in the barrel and she is pleasuring him. The woman is kneeling on her dress, which has a white ermine collar and appears to be royal in nature, and she has her arms around the barrel for support. The man being pleasured by our Queen of Wands is holding her crown in his right hand; his eyes are slitted and his lips are pursed, as if he was moaning. In the background are stairs going up, and a doorway through which another man wearing a barrel is running or falling; this man wears a head covering and a shirt, but appears to be naked from the waist down. The key phrases for this card are: love dies without initiative, so be aware of your partner's unique needs and know when and how to satisfy them.
These two cards are connected in interesting ways. They both are of the suit of Wands, which in the Decameron Tarot stands for the element of Fire and all of its correspondences, strong passions, and extreme experiences. Most LWBs included with a Tarot deck present the Court Cards in order of rank, either from the lowest to highest, or highest to lowest, and the Decameron LWB is no different. It is interesting that the Queens of the Court are the last meanings presented (the Decameron Court consists of Knave, Knight, King, and Queen). Upon initial review, it appears that both of my cards are about surrendering to authority, but that is not an automatic given.
The king of most cultures is at least the apparent head of the monarchy, so it makes sense that the message of this Inner Focus card is that surrender to stronger forces is the best way to exist. But the King of Wands card is clearly indicating that surrendering to the strength and skills obtained over a lifetime of learning about and experiencing interactions of all kinds does not mean that the person surrendering does not receive any benefit. The same holds true for my Outer Focus card, the Queen of Wands card. In this image, the Queen sheds the outer representations of her rank, even her crown, in order to enthusiastically pleasure the man in the barrel. We don't know much about this man or his rank, but we could wonder who is surrendering here. Both parties in this image are receiving pleasure, no matter who is in control, one by dominating and one by submitting.
One more comparison: the image on the King of Wands grasping his symbol of power as he takes a naked woman from behind is not startling in any way, unless one would be startled by stumbling upon the King having sex. However, the Queen of Wands, the superior Court rank in this deck, is doing something startling. She is naked before a man whose rank we do not know, enthusiastically baring her body and offering him oral sex while he holds her crown. He is naked, but safely covered (as is the King in the image on the King of Wands), while she is wearing only her shoes, perhaps hinting that despite her feet being off the floor, she is still grounded in her actions. Perhaps today I need to think about this. Our culture is such that it is not startling that a man in a position of authority would openly have sex in a dominant way with a beautiful woman whose rank is unknown. It is, however, startling that a woman in a position of authority would willingly and openly offer sexual gratification to a random man whose rank is also unknown. And yet, she appears to be at the very least a willing participant. Perhaps she feels she is able to indulge because of her rank.
We can add a twist to the interpretation of the Queen of Wands: what if the crown being held by the man wearing the barrel and being sexually pleasured by the Queen actually belongs to the man, who is her King? After all, one of the key phrases of this card talks about being aware of and satisfying your partner's needs. We have a bit of kink here, but whose kink is it?
Another unanswered question is, who is the man who appears to be tumbling down into the room presented in the image of the Queen of Wands? He appears to be a bit late and rushed to get into the room, as he is not yet fully naked. His arm is raised and his mouth is opened as if he were crying out. Is he crying out because he is falling? Or because he fears he is missing out? Is he startled because the sex he was coming to join ended up being performed by his Queen, and possibly his King?
This is exactly what I love about the Decameron Tarot. It always makes me think.
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