The dance of life. 

This week’s Harrow card, The Dance, is a whirl of movement and color. The card features a brightly-clad dancer in mid-spin, her hair and scarves twirling with her. She holds an elaborate staff in one hand, while the other makes a gesture that could be a mystic symbol. Surrounding her are three glowing spheres that follow her movements.

The Dance is a card of movement that is directed and purposeful. It belongs to the suit of Keys, which corresponds with Dexterity, the ability that governs agility, flexibility, and our ability to react. This is tempered by the fact that the card is aligned Lawful Good, the alignment of community and harmony, where the needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few. In this light, we can see The Dance as a card of universal harmony in movement. For The Dance to succeed, every individual dancer must do their part and step their steps.

[Read more…]

Fee-fi-fo-fum. 

This week’s Harrow card, The Mountain Man, is a very big deal. Literally. The card itself features a hulking giant — the Man himself — with a recently dead giant lizard slung over his shoulder. At his feet is a small cottage, which the giant seems oblivious of.

As might be inferred by the image on the card, when The Mountain Man is in your path, you’d best step out of the way. The giant is symbolic of any force that we cannot control, and that can mean anything from a higher authority to a natural disaster. The card is aligned Chaotic Neutral, meaning that it sweeps through our lives with no regard to the damage it may cause. This isn’t out of maliciousness, necessarily, instead being born out of a simple disproportion of power.

[Read more…]

And sometimes the bear gets you. 

This week’s Harrow card, The Bear, is a balancing act of sorts. On the card itself we see a bear pedaling a unicycle. It seems that it may have escaped from a circus, as it wears a frilled pink collar around its neck and a conical hat on its head. It holds an elaborate staff in one of its paws. While the bear appears to be smiling, that smile is offset by the skull and bones littering the ground under its feet.

Like last week’s card, The Foreign Trader, this is a True Neutral card, and like all True Neutral cards, it symbolizes the most elemental form of its associated ability. In this case, The Bear represents the ability of Strength, as it is from the suit of Hammers. The bear is an archetypal symbol of pure strength and physical power, so it’s no coincidence that is shows up on this card.

[Read more…]