Knight of Swords

Meaning: Blindly charging forth without regard to consequences. (Labyrinthos)

Depiction: Ahab stands in a en garde position, his ivory leg stuck in the auger hole by the bulwarks, whaling lance in his hand. He is facing off with a floating mask of the head of Moby Dick.

Text: Chapter 36- The Quarter-Deck
All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ’tis enough.

Comments: This is one of my favorite passages in Moby Dick. The idea that our perception can mask reality and is not itself actual reality was not a new idea at the time, but showing that Ahab's cause is  to break through this illusion adds significant depth to what was never a simple man vs. whale story.

Eight of Swords

Meaning: Restriction - inability to see beyond your immediate situation.

Depiction: For a final time, Starbuck tries to reason with Ahab to give up the hunt. Ahab is seated in his quarters, his ivory leg reduced to a fragment. Starbuck is standing behind him, his hands in a remonstrating position, Ahab's head is turned away from him, his  arms  stubbornly wrapped around himself like the rope of the figure on the RWS card. Eight lances are piled against the wall in the background.

Text: Chapter 134- The Chase- Second Day

“Great God! but for one single instant show thyself,” cried Starbuck; “never, never wilt thou capture him, old man—In Jesus’ name no more of this, that’s worse than devil’s madness. Two days chased; twice stove to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil shadow gone—all good angels mobbing thee with warnings:—what more wouldst thou have?—Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh, oh,—Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!”

“Starbuck, of late I’ve felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that hour we both saw—thou know’st what, in one another’s eyes. But in this matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this hand—a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act’s immutably decreed. ’Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders."

Walter Crane- The Roll of Fate (1882). This totally reminds me of Ahab and Starbuck in Ch. 134!

Comments:  One of the major themes of Moby Dick is fate and the individual's power to alter it. Paradoxically, Ahab seems to be resigned to his fate and at the same time, is sure he is in complete control of it.

Six of Swords

Meaning: Moving on; the solution of current problems (Wikipedia)

Depiction: Ahab fixes his lightning-damaged compass by replacing the needle. Five lances are lying on the ground before him: the sixth is missing its head as it was used for the needle to rest on as it was hammered.

Text: Chapter 124 - The Needle 
At first, the steel went round and round, quivering and vibrating at either end; but at last it settled to its place, when Ahab, who had been intently watching for this result, stepped frankly back from the binnacle, and pointing his stretched arm towards it, exclaimed,—“Look ye, for yourselves, if Ahab be not lord of the level loadstone! The sun is East, and that compass swears it!”

Comments: This is a good passage for showing just how resourceful Ahab is able to be if it furthers his own ends.

Three of Swords

Meaning: Sorrow, heartbreak, and pain

Depiction: Ahab at home having suffered a fall, lying on the floor, his ivory leg detached and piercing his groin. Three crossed lances are propped against the wall in the background.

Text: Chapter 106 - Ahab's Leg
For it had not been very long prior to the Pequod’s sailing from Nantucket, that he had been found one night lying prone upon the ground, and insensible; by some unknown, and seemingly inexplicable, unimaginable casualty, his ivory limb having been so violently displaced, that it had stake-wise smitten, and all but pierced his groin; nor was it without extreme difficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured.

Comments: The miniseries with William Hurt actually shows this accident happening (minus the dramatic addition of detached leg piercing groin). It reminds us of how his injury physically affects him every day.

Two of Swords

Meaning: Thinking before making a decision

Depiction: Aboard the Samuel Enderby, Ahab crosses his ivory leg with Captain Boomer's ivory arm in greeting.

Text: Chapter 100, Leg and Arm
With his ivory arm frankly thrust forth in welcome, the other captain advanced, and Ahab, putting out his ivory leg, and crossing the ivory arm (like two sword-fish blades) cried out in his walrus way, “Aye, aye, hearty! let us shake bones together!—an arm and a leg!—an arm that never can shrink, d’ye see; and a leg that never can run."

Comments: The crossed arms of the RWS card made me immediately think of the two captains crossing their ivory appendages (like blades, as Melville says). The choice here is either Captain Boomer's decision to move on after his injury, or Ahab's decision to obsessively pursue the cause of his.

Eight of Cups

Meaning: time for change or transition, by means of walking away from something (Labyrinthos)
Depiction:  Rear view of Ahab, sitting on his ivory stool, tossing his pipe into the evening sea. Eight  cups are balanced on the quarterdeck behind him.

Text: Chapter 30 - The Pipe

He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.

Comments:  Ahab realizes a change has come over him as the pipe's smoke "no longer soothes." He has to walk away from everything that might detract from his monomaniacal quest.

Six of Cups

:

Meaning: Happy memories and a time to recall nostalgia.

Depiction:  A close-up of Starbuck''s eye; we see Ahab reflected with his wife and child.  The six cups of the suit are lined up at the bottom of the card.

Text: Chapter 132: The Symphony
Close! stand close to me, Starbuck; let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God. By the green land; by the bright hearth-stone! this is the magic glass, man; I see my wife and my child in thine eye. 

Comments: This is the chapter in which we find out that Ahab, "the old man," is only 58. Until then I had imagined he was well into his 70's.

King of Wands

 

Meaning: Leadership, vision, taking control (Labyrinthos); as well as fireproof (The Ultimate Guide to Tarot).

Depiction: Ahab brandishing his flaming lightning-struck harpoon on a stormy night, reaffirming his vow to hunt Moby Dick.

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: Like many of the Minor Arcana, this card tends to have some differing meanings depending on source. The booklet that came with my RWS deck says, "Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious." But I prefer the Labyrinthos meaning of taking control, as well as the aspect of  being fireproof symbolized by the salamanders (real and textile) on the original card, since this captures the image of Ahab's fiery oath.

That's a wrap for Wands... now on to Cups!

Nine of Wands

 

Meaning: Weary from battle, but prepared to fight on. (Wikipedia)

Depiction: Ahab  seated in his cabin, being fitted  by the carpenter for a new whalebone leg after damaging it in the process of returning from the Samuel Enderby. Eight harpoons are propped against the wall behind him: he holds one for support.

Text: Chapter 108- Ahab and the Carpenter

Yes, I have heard something curious on that score, sir; how that a dismasted man never entirely loses the feeling of his old spar, but it will be still pricking him at times. May I humbly ask if it be really so, sir?

It is, man. Look, put thy live leg here in the place where mine once was; so, now, here is only one distinct leg to the eye, yet two to the soul. Where thou feelest tingling life; there, exactly there, there to a hair, do I. Is’t a riddle?

Comments: Ahab persists like the man shown on the RWS card. He doesn't let a fractured leg hold him back from the relentless quest for the white whale.

Note: With this entry I have started to cite other sources for tarot meanings apart from The Ultimate Guide to Tarot, to get a more rounded perspective on the cards. I have noted my sources above.

Eight of Wands

Meaning: Speed, progress, sudden changes; news swiftly traveling.

Depiction: The Pequod swiftly passes the first ship it encounters (the Albatross), a rusted ship with tattered sails. The Albatross' captain is seen on its deck  shouting as his speaking trumpet falls into the sea. Ahab calls to him as the Pequod flies by. The eight harpoons of the suit are protruding from the ship's prow.

Text: Chapter 52- The Albatross
But taking advantage of his windward position, he again seized his trumpet, and knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a Nantucketer and shortly bound home, he loudly hailed—“Ahoy there! This is the Pequod, bound round the world! Tell them to address all future letters to the Pacific ocean! and this time three years, if I am not at home, tell them to address them to ——”
***
Round the world! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that we left behind secure, were all the time before us.

Comments: It would be so easy to cheat with this one and just show eight harpoons over the ocean! But why do that when there's a 500+ page book to draw from? Perhaps I will think of a more apt scene later, but I like the faith and optimism of "Round the world," even if Ishmael isn't persuaded by it.

Seven of Wands

 

Meaning: The inner struggle to defend your position.

Depiction: Ahab, sitting in a chair on the deck, stomps on his quadrant with foot and ivory leg. The seven harpoons of the suit rest near him.

Text: Chapter 118 - The Quadrant
Then gazing at his quadrant, and handling, one after the other, its numerous cabalistical contrivances, he pondered again, and muttered: “Foolish toy! babies’ plaything of haughty Admirals, and Commodores, and Captains; the world brags of thee, of thy cunning and might; but what after all canst thou do, but tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou thyself happenest to be on this wide planet, and the hand that holds thee: no! not one jot more! Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thou insultest the sun! Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man’s eyes aloft to that heaven, whose live vividness but scorches him, as these old eyes are even now scorched with thy light, O sun! Level by nature to this earth’s horizon are the glances of man’s eyes; not shot from the crown of his head, as if God had meant him to gaze on his firmament. Curse thee, thou quadrant!” dashing it to the deck, “no longer will I guide my earthly way by thee; the level ship’s compass, and the level dead-reckoning, by log and by line; these shall conduct me, and show me my place on the sea. Aye,” lighting from the boat to the deck, “thus I trample on thee, thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high; thus I split and destroy thee!”

Moby Dick, or, the card game/King Post (2013)

Comments:  I needed a little more elaboration on meaning for this card, so I turned to this site, where the author points out that in the RWS version the subject is wearing two different shoes, which suggests he lacks a stable footing in life. Well, we all know who lacks a stable footing on the Pequod, both mentally and physically. This card is meant for Ahab. He is struggling between reason (quadrant) and intuition (ship's compass and dead reckoning by log and line).  Using the quadrant to navigate is reasonable, but to find Moby Dick he chooses to rely on instinct instead.

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.

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.

IX.The Hermit

Meaning: Healing and self-exploration.

Depiction: Ahab poring over his nautical charts, "in the solitude of his cabin," the "heavy pewter lamp" swinging over his head, illuminating the creases of his maps and the scars on his forehead.

My spouse, being a wonderful person and a talented artist in his own right, created original art for this card! Here it is.

Text: Chapter 44 - The Chart

While thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his head, continually rocked with the motion of the ship, and for ever threw shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow, till it almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and courses on the wrinkled charts, some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead.

But it was not this night in particular that, in the solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts. Almost every night they were brought out; almost every night some pencil marks were effaced, and others were substituted. For with the charts of all four oceans before him, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies, with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul.

Alternate Depiction: Elijah, relaying his prophecies (Chapter 19-The Prophet). Technically very hermit-like in appearance .... but his character doesn't correspond to the actual meaning of this card. Sorry, Elijah! Maybe you'll find a place in the Minor Arcana.

Edward Wright, 1655/maps.bpl.org

II.The High Priestess

Meaning: Secrets, intuition and learning.

Depiction: Ahab's harpooneer Fedallah, about to reveal his prophecy. He's crouched on the bow of the Pequod at night. In the waves before him, we see the top of a dead whale, pole stuck in its blowhole topped by a lit lantern, encircled by sharks.

Text: Chapter 117- The Whale Watch

The waif-pole was thrust upright into the dead whale’s spout-hole; and the lantern hanging from its top, cast a troubled flickering glare upon the black, glossy back, and far out upon the midnight waves, which gently chafed the whale’s broad flank, like soft surf upon a beach.

Ahab and all his boat’s crew seemed asleep but the Parsee; who crouching in the bow, sat watching the sharks, that spectrally played round the whale, and tapped the light cedar planks with their tails.

Comments: Although Melville was notably progressive for his time in some respects, Moby Dick contains some historically typical racist language and stereotypes. Fedallah, the second prophet in the book, doesn't get to be much more than a phantasmic caricature of mystical, inscrutable Orientalism, his single conversation limited to sharing his prophetic dream of doom.  His connection to the subconscious makes him an appropriate figure for this card.

Alternate Depiction: Ahab, in his quarters, seated, eyes closed, rapt in thought.  He is constantly pondering metaphysics and questioning the nature of reality: he demands to "strike through the mask" of human perception (Chapter 36- The Quarter-Deck).  Also, though he initially relies on charts and navigational equipment like the quadrant to track his prey, ultimately Ahab relies on his own instinct. See below for an image from the 2011 television miniseries (which obviously would NOT be copied for a tarot deck!) that is quite evocative of the High Priestess.

William Hurt as Ahab in the 2011 miniseries of Moby Dick/Starz Encore