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Nine of Wands

The Lord of Great Strength

Wands, 09

Here we see a old-time, cartoon capitalist looking out from his office window and onto his factories, which he has presumably built out of nothing by his own sheer hard work and willpower. The factory buildings look oddly like fish, and I like to think that this is because with his own vision, the capitalist has "fished" his factory out of the ground.

Amidst all the noise and belched smoke of the factory, the boss' office is like an oasis of green and living things... the wood panelling, the wands themselves and so on. I like the fact that the shade which (he can pull down and shut out the din of the factory) is also green. The implication is that the man's wands have not only helped him create all this, his own personal world, but they can shield him from it as well. (It is interesting to note that the wood panelling in the office was once made of wands too). In other words, the factory, mighty and productive as it is, is only one part of this man's world, he can shut himself off from it whenever he wants. He is not a slave to his own creation, he will always continue to grow. I like to think that the design on the carpet (which did start out as meaningless squiggles, by the way) actually represent the tangled beginnings of the man's life. He has risen above them all and now stands proudly on top of them, a man at ease with his past. At any rate, unlike so many of us, the guy in the card has risen way above the confusion represented in the carpet. the smoke from the factory works as a sort of screen (it blocks out the sky) and the glass in the window protects him from the smoke: he is sheltered from the outside world by two shells.

The wands stand ready in an unobstructive corner of the office. They are still in bloom after all these years, and he could very well build himself a new factory, if he had to. The wands are all in different colours, perhaps implying that they come from different parts of the world: this is a man who has picked up ideas and inspiration from all him, even from far afield. His talents can spread in many directions. He is not one to sit on his laurels either: the fact that there are no chairs near the window imply that this is a small break the man has conceded himself and that his desk is somewhere else. He doesn't waste time in dwelling on past glories. He is taking five minutes to look in his factory, maybe to check that everything is working according to plan, but then he'll go sit down and continue working on new projects and expansions.

In a card where all human effort has been unified and uniformed in one mighty enterprise (the factory) he still stands out against the backdrop. This is a sign of his might and his strength. 

Meaning

Productivity, strength, good health, stability. A secure and invulnerable position. Assured victory against any possible opposition.

Reversed

Unproductive and impractical ideas. An inability to arrive at a compromise, which leads to isolation. Obstinacy, maybe to mask some weakness of character. An inability to change with the times. Security has become stifling and perhaps is being slowly eroded.