Once again, the card is depicted in browns and parchment yellows. Everything is aged, including the HP herself. In this deck, she is the Crone. From her face is leathered, her nose large and protruding, one eye hiddened behind a stringed headwrapping that reaches up past her forehead, the other eye looks not at us, but just past us, to the side from out of a patch of red. Around her are pieces of trash, old cancelled envelopes, covering her so that all we see is her face. There are two small sticks, discarded windshield wiper blades, on either side of her head, representing the columns between which the HP often sits, and a torn paper bag is the canopy suspended over her head.

Rachel Pollack reveals this woman to be "Mad Hettie" from the illustrated novel Death: The High Cost of Living. Mad Hettie, to quote Rachel, possess all the knowledge of a priestess, but she lives the life of a bag lady. Unlike the traditional HP who remains silent in her mysteries, Mad Hettie babbles like a crazy woman we might encounter on the street in any big city. "And yet, in a world that does not recognize mystery, her muttering will guard the secrets as well as any ancient temple." It is the Crone, and not the Maiden, who will have access to the mysteries, as it is she who has had the time to meditate upon them and experience them. She has been able to assimilate them into herself.

Bonne'
LaSenyera@aol.com