Six of Wands

 

Meaning: Victory, success.

Depiction: The Pequod successfully outruns the Malay pirates who've been pursuing it. Six harpoons are visible on the ship.

Text: Chapter 87- The Grand Armada
But thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and when, after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the Pequod at last shot by the vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra side, emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond; then, the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained upon the Malays.

Comments: This is another tough one, as Moby Dick contains very few if any victories - but evading the pirates definitely counts.

Five of Wands

 

Meaning: Conflict, disagreement, struggle.

Depiction: The start of Steelkilt's mutiny aboard the Town-Ho, in Moby Dick's story-within-a-story. He's confronted by the officers and harpooners, while two sailors are coming down the ropes behind him to drag Steelkilt away. The four harpooners hold their harpoons; the captain holds his whale-pike to symbolize the five wands of the suit.

Text: Chapter 54- The Town-Ho's Story
“I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly had he done so, when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down the ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle. Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm’s way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck.

Alternate Depiction:   In the forecastle, the sailors are gathered together. The Spanish sailor attempts to pick a fight with Daggoo, and the group gathers eagerly to watch. Five harpoons are propped up in the background.

Text:  Chapter  40 - Midnight, Forecastle.

DAGGOO (springing). Swallow thine, mannikin! White skin, white liver!
SPANISH SAILOR (meeting him). Knife thee heartily! big frame, small spirit!
ALL. A row! a row! a row!

Comments:  I originally chose the Spanish sailor/Daggoo conflict for this - but thought about it and changed to the Steelkilt mutiny, which is a more consequential dispute.

Four of Wands

 

Meaning: Freedom, creativity, and domestic happiness.

Depiction: On a calm day, Queequeg and Ishmael weave a rope sword mat together on the quarterdeck, Ishmael sitting and Queequeg standing beside him. Four harpoons lean against the bulwark behind them.

Text: Chapter 47- The Mat-Maker
It was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-coloured waters. Queequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat, for an additional lashing to our boat. So still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of reverie lurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self.

I was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy at the mat. As I kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp, using my own hand for the shuttle, and as Queequeg, standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword between the threads, and idly looking off upon the water, carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every yarn: I say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates. 

Comments:  Although Ishmael indulges in the grand fantasy that he and Queequeg are weaving fate at the Loom of Time, really they haven't been captains of their own destiny since they boarded the Pequod.  This small moment together is probably the most domestic they get the entire time they're at sea.

The American Renaissance Tarot version of this card is Chapter 94 - A Squeeze of the Hand! An interesting choice and the way it is portrayed is true to the spirit of the card meaning.

Three of Wands

  

Meaning: Action and adventure, traveling.

Depiction: Finally, Moby Dick is spotted. Ahab is at the main mast, Tashtego below him at the top gallant mast, Moby Dick a  pale hump in the water before them. The top of  three harpoons are visible at the bottom of the card.

Text: Chapter 133- The Chase- First Day
Fired by the cry which seemed simultaneously taken up by the three look-outs, the men on deck rushed to the rigging to behold the famous whale they had so long been pursuing. Ahab had now gained his final perch, some feet above the other look-outs, Tashtego standing just beneath him on the cap of the top-gallant-mast, so that the Indian’s head was almost on a level with Ahab’s heel. From this height the whale was now seen some mile or so ahead, at every roll of the sea revealing his high sparkling hump, and regularly jetting his silent spout into the air.

Rockwell Kent, Man at Mast (1929)

Comments: The plans initiated in the Two of Wands are now progressing. The crew pledged to kill Moby Dick in Chapter 36, and the official pursuit of the white whale begins nearly 100 chapters later.

For Three of Wands, American Renaissance Tarot uses this scene from  Ch. 36- The Quarter-Deck, depicting the three mates with their lances as well as Ahab,

Two of Wands

  
Meaning: New plans, partnership and influence.

Depiction: The crew of the Pequod watches on the quarterdeck as Ahab nails the doubloon to the mast. The two representative harpoons are held by Daggoo and Tashtego.

Text: Chapter 36 - The Quarter-Deck
While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its lustre, and without using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his vitality in him.

Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: “Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke—look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!”

“Huzza! huzza!” cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast.

Could it be...Modern Ahab?

Comments: This choice of scene makes sense as it's the exact moment when Ahab sells the crew on his quest to kill Moby Dick, crystallizing his plan and the direction of the book.

Ace of Wands

 

Meaning: New ventures.

Depiction: The Pequod sets sail from Nantucket. A single harpoon is visible, propped up against the gunwale.

Text: Chapter 22, Merry Christmas
At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided.

Comments:  I am not going to follow the RWS convention of having a divine hand holding the symbols of the suit on each ace: it's more interesting to have actual images of scenes and characters for the purpose of this deck.

Alternate Depiction: Ishmael and Queequeg's departure from New Bedford could also work for this card.

American Renaissance Tarot's rendition of Ace of Wands. I like the idea of the harpooneers being the aces - the ones who initiate the process of whaling. Ace of Wands is particularly appropriate for Queequeg as he is The Magician.

XXI. The World

 

Meaning: Completion, success, reward and joy.

Depiction: Older Ishmael, after the events of the book, stands on a beach. This is not the Atlantic shore that he departed at the beginning, but a tropical clime, as you can see by palms in the background.  You can tell he is more experienced; his body is more muscular,  his face slightly lined, his stance is confident, and his forearm is tattooed with a whale skeleton. He faces the ocean, but stands in the opposite direction which he stood as The Fool. It's clear he's about to go to sea again, but it's a new journey.

Text: Chapter 102: A Bower in the Arsacides, and other chapters which refer to older Ishmael.

The skeleton dimensions I shall now proceed to set down are copied verbatim from my right arm, where I had them tattooed; as in my wild wanderings at that period, there was no other secure way of preserving such valuable statistics. But as I was crowded for space, and wished the other parts of my body to remain a blank page for a poem I was then composing—at least, what untattooed parts might remain—I did not trouble myself with the odd inches; nor, indeed, should inches at all enter into a congenial admeasurement of the whale.

Comments: When I read Robin Van Glider's The Beige Moth blog that recaps and discusses Moby Dick, I realized that Ishmael is really two characters: the novice whaler who is a character in the narrative, and the older, wiser sailor who writes it. For all the tragedy in the final chapter, Moby Dick's true ending is more bittersweet. From the biographical bits buried in preceding chapters, we see that Ishmael not only survives, but thrives after his rescue. He has known great sorrow, but also experienced passionate joy and requited love. He has travelled all over the world, and delights in recounting his sea tales to new friends. He's now an old hand at whaling, but is still the lovable literary nerd who writes poetry and continues to be obsessed with everything relating to whales. In short, he is a man in full.

NEXT UP: The Minor Arcana, starting with the Ace of Wands.

XX. Judgement

Meaning: Assessment and letting go of the past. Rebirth and karma.

Depiction: That most famous scene in the last chapter where Moby Dick takes out the Pequod with a blow of his forehead, watched by a stunned crew in Ahab's boat and Ishmael swimming alongside it.  The three harpooneers, Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego are at the mastheads, with Tashtego at the top mast, hammer in hand. Everyone still alive at this point knows it's about to be all over.

Text: Chapter 135: The Chase - Third Day
From the ship’s bows, nearly all the seamen now hung inactive; hammers, bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, mechanically retained in their hands, just as they had darted from their various employments; all their enchanted eyes intent upon the whale, which from side to side strangely vibrating his predestinating head, sent a broad band of overspreading semicircular foam before him as he rushed. Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that mortal man could do, the solid white buttress of his forehead smote the ship’s starboard bow, till men and timbers reeled.

Comments: Here, Moby Dick plays the role of the angel of judgment, and the Pequod crew are the souls whom he calls.

XIX. The Sun

 

Meaning: Success, happiness, contentment.

Depiction: Pip, pre-madness, sits in repose on the deck of the Pequod, tambourine in hand but not playing.  He looks content- he is enjoying his life at sea and more freedom than he'd have back on land. The sun shines in the sky above him.

Text: Chapter 93, The Castaway
But Pip loved life, and all life’s peaceable securities...

John William Godward. Repose-The Flower Girl (1899)

Comments: Pip is the youngest crew member and a joyful youth until he falls overboard, so he's a good choice for this card. His age is never stated, but I think of him as about 12 - 14; just old enough so that he wouldn't miss his parents (whom we know nothing about). 

XVIII. The Moon

Meaning: Illusion, dreams, and crisis.

Depiction: Daggoo, from the main-mast, spies what he believes to be a whale, but turns out to be a giant squid. We see the squid  swim on one side of the boat, and the tail of a whale on the other side (where Daggoo isn't looking). The moon is visible in the sky.

Text: Chapter 59 - The Squid
It seemed not a whale; and yet is this Moby Dick? thought Daggoo. Again the phantom went down, but on re-appearing once more, with a stiletto-like cry that startled every man from his nod, the negro yelled out- “There! there again! there she breaches! right ahead! The White Whale, the White Whale!”

Comments: A little different from the book in that no actual whale appears in this scene, just the squid, and it takes place in morning, not evening. I included the whale as I wanted to parallel the two animals on the RWS card. No lobster, though.

XVII. The Star

Meaning: Hope, guidance, inspiration and creativity.

Depiction: Queequeg sits in a whaling boat,  holding a pole with a lit lantern on the end. He is drenched, surrounded by equally soaked crewmates including Starbuck and Ishmael, hoping to be spotted and rescued by the ship. The boat is half filled with water; one of Queequeg's feet is on the floor of the boat, the other leg is bent with his foot on the board that he sits on (replicating the in-and-out of water stance of the RWS figure). A yellow star is in the sky.

Text: Chapter 48: The First Lowering

There, then he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in the  heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then  he sat,  the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.

Comments: I had so much trouble with this one! What was really tough was to find a single scene in Moby Dick that represented hope, as it's not a very hopeful book.

XVI. The Tower

 

Meaning: Destruction and enlightenment.

Depiction: Anonymous sailor falling off the mast-head of the Pequod into the sea, in the early hours of the morning.

Text: Chapter 126 - The Life-Buoy

But the bodings of the crew were destined to receive a most plausible confirmation in the fate of one of their number that morning. At sun-rise this man went from his hammock to his mast-head at the fore; and whether it was that he was not yet half waked from his sleep (for sailors sometimes go aloft in a transition state), whether it was thus with the man, there is now no telling; but, be that as it may, he had not been long at his perch, when a cry was heard—a cry and a rushing—and looking up, they saw a falling phantom in the air; and looking down, a little tossed heap of white bubbles in the blue of the sea.

Comments: This was another very easy card to think of, since it almost matches a scene in the book (minus the lightning). The meaning of destruction is (naturally) the sailor's  fall and disappearance in the waves; enlightenment comes from the fact that the crew realizes a new lifebuoy must be created as the old one simply sunk.

XV. The Devil

 

.

Meaning: Enslavement, temptation. And from A.E. Waite: fatality, that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil.

Depiction: The Devil figure here is Ahab. One hand brandishes his flaming lightning-struck harpoon; the other holds a length of rope which is tied loosely around the necks of the crew of the Pequod, like the chains in the RWS card.  We can distinctly see Queequeg and Ishmael in the front, mirroring the couple on the original card (who are also meant to represent The Lovers).

Text: Chapter 119- The Candles

But dashing the rattling lightning links to the deck, and snatching the burning harpoon, Ahab waved it like a torch among them; swearing to transfix with it the first sailor that but cast loose a rope’s end. Petrified by his aspect, and still more shrinking from the fiery dart that he held, the men fell back in dismay, and Ahab again spoke:—

“All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and heart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound. And that ye may know to what tune this heart beats; look ye here; thus I blow out the last fear!” And with one blast of his breath he extinguished the flame.

Comments: Another card that fits Moby Dick so well. Ahab has the fate of the entire crew in his hands, and he has persuasively bound them to his monomaniacal quest to avenge himself against Moby Dick. The sailors are fatalistic; Ishmael writes his will, Starbuck cannot stir himself to active resistance.

XIV. Temperance

 

Meaning: Balance, peace, patience and moderation.

Depiction: Captain Boomer,  the British captain who lost his hand to Moby Dick and now wants nothing more to do with him. This card shows Boomer on the deck of the Samuel Enderby, looking content, his whalebone mallet hand clearly visible, as Moby Dick's white tail retreats.

Text:  Chapter 100, Leg and Arm

“No, thank ye, Bunger,” said the English Captain, “he’s welcome to the arm he has, since I can’t help it, and didn’t know him then; but not to another one. No more White Whales for me; I’ve lowered for him once, and that has satisfied me. There would be great glory in killing him, I know that; and there is a ship-load of precious sperm in him, but, hark ye, he’s best let alone; don’t you think so, Captain?”—glancing at the ivory leg.

Comments: This is a challenging one. But I think Captain Boomer's wise forbearance from joining in Ahab's monomaniacal style of vengeance best embodies the spirit of the card.

Alternate Depiction: Aunt Charity, Bildad's sister, seems like a good choice because she is literally all about temperance, doing everything she can to prevent alcohol consumption aboard ship.

XIII. Death

Meaning: Mortality, transformation, and change.

Depiction: Queequeg's coffin, empty and open, sits on the deck of the Pequod.  In the foreground, we see anonymous sailors engaged in work, oblivious to the fate that awaits them all.

Text: Chapter 110- Queequeg In His Coffin
Now, when this strange circumstance was made known aft, the carpenter was at once commanded to do Queequeg’s bidding, whatever it might include. There was some heathenish, coffin-coloured old lumber aboard, which, upon a long previous voyage, had been cut from the aboriginal groves of the Lackaday islands, and from these dark planks the coffin was recommended to be made.



Alternate Depiction: Whale skeleton lying in a glen of tropical palm trees. Smoke emits from its spout from the "unextinguished aromatic flame" tended by local priests (Chapter  102 - A Bower in the Arsacides). I loved the idea of this image, but it really isn't as salient and memorable as Queequeg's coffin (which ends up being Ishmael's salvation). And it doesn't really make you think of death - it's more like a religious relic.

XII. The Hanged Man

Meaning: Waiting, sacrifice, and enlightenment.

Depiction: Ishmael playfully hanging in the rigging on a slow day, showing off his balancing skills.

Text:  Chapter 35- The Mast Head. Ishmael admits that he "kept a sorry guard" and spent his  much of his watch time dreaming atop the mast.

For one, I used to lounge up the rigging very leisurely, resting in the top to have a chat with Queequeg, or anyone else off duty who I might find there; then ascending a little way further, and throwing a lazy leg over the topsail yard, take a preliminary view of the watery pastures, and so at last mount to my ultimate destination.

Comments: Waiting is also a good way to describe Ishmael. He takes a very passive role of chronicler; nothing he does influences the fate of the Pequod.

Ishmael and Queequeg hanging out in the rigging, posted by madebyken on Tumblr, 2013. Unclear if "Ken" is the original artist- if not, I will credit here once known.

XI. Justice

 

Meaning: Decisions, balance, legal affairs.

Depiction: The Pequod, balanced by the head of a right whale on the starboard side and that of a sperm whale on the port or larboard side.

Text: Chapter 73-  Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale, and Then Have a Talk Over Him (also several ensuing chapters all about the two whales' heads!)

“Didn’t I tell you so?” said Flask; “yes, you’ll soon see this right whale’s head hoisted up opposite that parmacetti’s.”

In good time, Flask’s saying proved true. As before, the Pequod steeply leaned over towards the sperm whale’s head, now, by the counterpoise of both heads, she regained her even keel; though sorely strained, you may well believe. So, when on one side you hoist in Locke’s head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant’s and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard, and then you will float light and right.

Comments: I am not 100% sure about the choice of this image. Yes, the whales' heads serve to balance the ship, but Ishmael observes that the burdened craft would float even better if both heads were simply thrown overboard.

Sperm whale head and spinal column/Wikimedia Commons

X. Wheel of Fortune

Meaning: Fate, change, intuition.

Depiction: The tiller of the Pequod, made from a whale jawbone.

Text: Chapter 16- The Ship
Scorning a turnstile wheel at her reverend helm, she sported there a tiller; and that tiller was in one mass, curiously carved from the long narrow lower jaw of her hereditary foe.

Comments: Yes, a ship's wheel would have been a much better image for this, but the Pequod didn't have a wheel. This is one of those things you just have to go with.



Alternate Depiction:  Queequeg and Ishmael weaving a sword mat together (Chapter  47- The Mat Maker).  The problem with this image is that you would have no way of reading this card by image alone. But it makes so much sense in the context of the book.  As they weave, Ishmael imagines that he's a shuttle weaving fate at the "Loom of Time," and that the movement of Queequeg's sword  shaping the mat fabric is a combination of chance,  free will, and necessity "all interweavingly working together."