Depiction: Instead of one hand holding the cup, we see a number of hands reaching into the cup and two in the center (from Queequeg and Ishmael) grasping each other. The hands are a variety of skin tones representing the ethnic diversity of the Pequod crew. As with the RWS card, there are five streams of liquid pouring out of the sides of the cup. These are said to represent the five senses. (Wikipedia)
Text: Chapter 94 - A Squeeze of the Hand
Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,—Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.
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| Another take on this scene, from the American Renaissance Tarot. |
Comments: This scene was an obvious choice for this card, given the feeling of universal love that envelops Ishmael when engaged in this task. In the unlikely event that anyone who is reading this hasn't read Moby Dick, the "sperm" referred to here is spermaceti from the head of the sperm whale, though no doubt Melville intended the double meaning.
Video: A Squeeze of the Hand by Dave Malloy from the play Moby Dick: A Musical Reckoning
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