MAPS: Chapter XI
The Fortuneteller | The Myth of Red Lion | The Red Cape
Freya, The Fortuneteller, came into this story much as Charlotte and Alicia did—a thin wisp of character whose voice and story grew more insistent until I had to make the space they demanded. I didn’t know when Ben and Billy dreamed of the women who captivated their hearts and souls that what I was seeing were two of the four tarot princesses. While not one of the four, Freya draws a line into the North Sands of Africa that I have barely explored. These are a few of the images that call me to her story.
I do a lot of research for The Ash Girl, but it will never be enough. I have not been to the countries or been amongst the people I write about. I trust my creative source—this story that chose me to tell it—and your freedom to choose as readers what you want to take in. But I would like to acknowledge my limitations to present anything close to historically accurate and only hope not to offend or harm anyone in the process of my own learning and artistic journey back to my own African deep ancestry.
Without recommending or advocating for any positions or political views I feel its right however to offer you the names of the sources of images along with artists’ names of course — they can be found in the image descriptions if you click on the photo.
The myth of Red Lion is grounded in ‘place’ to a certain extent . . . look on this map where the orange arrow points out of Africa at the strait of Bab al Mandab, the very place at the southernmost tip of Eritrea where the National Geographic genome project hypothesizes humans left Africa and populated the world. Our lion is a metaphor for that Great Migration and the gathering of every fairytale, story, legend and myth into the collective—Jung’s river of the collective unconscious—and also for that human lust to peer across the dark sea and need to know what that other land holds.
The Princess of Disks strode over, stripped off her crown, her cloak, her gown, and climbed naked onto the back of the lion.
This tarot map launches Asmeret into the telling of the myth of Red Lion. The Princess of Disks (Asmeret) transforms herself into ATU XI, Lust(re), the queen | goddess who is one with the king | Red Lion. I promised a bit more on the red cape, without getting into the deep alchemic waters just yet.
Perhaps because as a reader you first see Asmeret walking into woods with a red cape given to protect her by her mother, accompanied by a little dog on her way to . . . she doesn’t know where . . . but ends up at an old lady’s house. Your brain most likely filled in “Little Red Riding Hood”—that iconic Eurocentric fairy tale. And while that story is in my subconscious as well and I am sure there are many parallels, I am most intrigued by the amalgamation of cards that showed up as I wrote Asmeret in that fortuneteller’s tent . . . this red cape (as cape and as lion) appears in several places on these four cards, all adding up to the power, both spiritual and physical, that Asmeret is destined to have.
THE LOVERS VI: Asmeret’s Hermit aspect (the one that leaves the Primary World to seek answers to questions about one’s deepest inner nature) presides over the unifying rituals of birth, adolescence, marriage, death, and alchemic transmutation (the red lion and white eagle) wearing a red cloak. The lion is a divine masculine character AND has become the red color of the queen’s cloak so represents that potential reunion. He steps off of this card into the card “covered with spinning stars” . . .
THE STAR XVII: now this is circular—you are about to hear the origin story of the Red Lion as an integral part of the whole cosmos (“Galaxies rose up over the lion’s head) and ATU XVII represents the universal principle of Awakening and Presence to the phrase “we are all stardust”—which is ultimately the perspective The Princess of Disks can attain when she ‘leaps into the abyss’.
THE KNIGHT OF DISKS joins the lion. We already know that a Knight of Disks is Anbessa, Asmeret’s father. Remember that his name means lion in the Common Language and that his tribal name is Red Lion (now you know why). Him turning toward the sun brings in the divine masculine again (a nod to Apollo, God of the Sun whose twin is Artemis . . . Mother of Mothers of Asmeret). Now hang with me, I want to also point out something important on the Wheel of Wholeness happening here . . . Go back and notice how the suit of Fire/Wands/East/King descends (from Ace through Princess of Fire: Frieda) into its opposite suit—crossing the center/abyss—up the Water/Cups/West/Queens and culminates in the major arcana card (on the rim) as . . .
ATU XI LUST(re). So this is the Divine Feminine fully infused with the Divine Masculine. It is the soul marriage of the King and Queen (the higher bond promised in the ritual shown in ATU VI Lovers has been achieved). Or, Asmeret is about to learn how she is a legacy keeper of her birth father (Red Lion, storyteller) and begin to FEEL how she is an agent of the (re)union of the Divine Feminine (the Great Mother/High Priestess pictured in THE STAR) and the Divine Masculine (Red Lion) on a much bigger cosmic field.
That’s a LOT to process at thirteen. And at some level, if you look very closely at yourself at that age, perhaps this is a bit of your story too.
View the CHAPTER XI Character MAP
Place yourself on the READER MAP . . .
where in the world is the Ash Girl on its quest?
WHAT’S NEXT?
For your personal quest, book club, or gathering of friends, QUEST(ions) are offered here.
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