Queen of Wands

 

Meaning: Person of extreme focus and fiery passion.

Depiction: Father Mapple, just having ascended to his ship's bow pulpit and beginning his sermon. He holds a harpoon in one hand.

Text: Chapter 8 - The Pulpit
Yes, it was the famous Father Mapple, so called by the whalemen, among whom he was a very great favourite. He had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his youth, but for many years past had dedicated his life to the ministry. At the time I now write of, Father Mapple was in the hardy winter of a healthy old age; that sort of old age which seems merging into a second flowering youth, for among all the fissures of his wrinkles, there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloom—the spring verdure peeping forth even beneath February’s snow. No one having previously heard his history, could for the first time behold Father Mapple without the utmost interest, because there were certain engrafted clerical peculiarities about him, imputable to that adventurous maritime life he had led.

The Seamen's Bethel in New Bedford, featuring the famous pulpit that was built in 1961.

Comments: This kind of took me by surprise, but Father Mapple is right for this card. He's passionate, intense, tough and independent,  and the congregation hangs on his every word.