Description: The Wise Women:
A women sits looking upwards with a open book on her lap. She wears a red dress with a blue cape flowing around her which also forms the image of the opening to the vagina. Throughout the card are creasent moon shapes and the suggestion of flowing water. The overall color is blue with the red in the middle and some yellow and green in the lower corners.

The Wise Women's skin, face and hands, is very white as if covered by clowns makeup. Above her eyes are gray triangles (denoting divine knowledge as explained in the Lovers card). What we can see of her hair is black and tightly braided into two braids. Her lips are a bright red with a red line from the lower lip going straight down till is disappears behind the clothing. The clothes are the red dress, and blue cape which flows like water, a gloden crown, and two cresent moons behind her head and neck. The crown is gold with two horns pointing outward to each side with an egg shape in the middle. Attacked to the crown is some gray material that falls down behind here apparently reaching to the floor. This material has an interesting texture which reminds me of exposed tree roots on the ground. The cresent moons behind her head are a faint purple color and open upward. The cape is held together below her neck by a gold pin in the shape of the sign of Venus. The book appears to have been written by hand rather than printed. It is a large book support on her right leg.

The lower right corner of the card has three cresent moons opening towards her. Due to the color they remind me of bananas. The lower left corner has green and yellow design that appear like flowing water. Behind the Wise Women are three large creasent moon shapes, blue in color with some bands visable on them. They all fit together and open upwards. Their top ends can't be seen but seem to need above the top of the card. The space in the middle of these moons is an open circle, completly black.

Quoting from the LWB by Birgit Boline Erfurt:
"The Wise Women is a composite of many women I have known, women who are intelligent, adaptable and independent. The Wise Women holds great occult powers. The Gossamer web of her garment both reveals and conceals mysteries of the esoteric, instinctive forces of the anima, the feminine aspect of each of us. Her passive, contemplative position enhances mental expansion. The creative (red) vagina is enclosed by passive blue, which is the dominant color of the card. The horn, symbolic of the moon - her domain and the planet that rules this card - points outward, denoting her facility of pentrating realization. The open book on her knees offers knowledge of her neighbor, the Juggler, but he looks away, preferring to gain his knowledge from the outer world rather than the inner psyche."

"Interpretations: Instinctive, subliminal forces. Intutive insight shows new ways to solve problems. Inspriation. Adaptability. Receptivity. Creative imagination."

"Reversed Meanings: Emotional instability. Melancholy. Mistrust. Lack of forsight. Psychic excess and laziness."

My thoughts:
The triangles above the Wise Women's eyes give a look of sadness to her, as if she knows of the troubles and problems that will face other people. Her mouth is closed as she will not offer knowledge usless asked. The red line from her mouth going down show that her knowledge, which is expressed by the mouth, comes from an hidden place inside, inner knowledge. While she is still, the water flows around her like the events of the world flow, and like how her thought can flow into many places.

For some reason the the Wise Women's book, reminds me of a book in one of the Wizard of Oz stories. The Good Witch of the south has a book that records everything in Oz as it is happening. She needs only to look at the current page to know if her help is needed.

Tom Granvold