Phoenix and Ashes

eroticism. They were children. Children without the innocence of the Fool, for they had already learned how to lay blame, to lie, and quarrel.

The Archangel sighed, and shook his head sadly. It was odd; he looked exactly like the Archangel portrayed on the card—which meant, at least to Eleanor's eyes, he didn't look all that much like an angel at all. More like an androgynous man with wings. There was none of the glow, of the majesty, that she would have thought would be the hallmarks of a real angel.

He's an image, a reflection—the symbol for something, rather than the actual thing, she decided. And an image created by someone who hasn't ever seen the real thing, or even taken much thought of what one should look like. It had always seemed to her that there ought to be a reason why the first thing an angel said when it appeared was 'Fear not.' Presumably, the mere sight of one was enough to strike fear into the hearts of those who saw him.

This angel looked as if he was more likely to say 'Welcome to the garden, have a seat' than 'fear not.'

'It wasn't so much that they tasted the fruit,' the Angel said to the empty air, carefully not looking at Eleanor. He sounded exasperated, like a teacher with two dunces for pupils. 'It was that they lied about it, and then tried, and keep trying, to blame each other. He forgives everything, you know, so long as you admit you did it and are properly sorry for it—'

He glanced at Eleanor, and now he looked sorrowful. 'They began with such promise, and yet one small thing has kept them from fulfilling that promise.'

'Responsibility,' Eleanor said, instantly, before the Angel could get in another word. 'They're not taking responsibility for what they did— so that's the reversed position for this card, isn't it? This card represents responsibility. And choices, and temptation, and balance between male and female—' The words kept tumbling out of her, as if she had turned on a spigot. 'You're part of it too, since you—you aren't Michael, are you?'

He shook his head. 'Raphael.'

She nodded. 'Raphael, whose sign is Mercury and whose element is Air; the positive of Air is freedom and an unbounded imagination, and the negative aspect of Air is carelessness and light-mindedness—'

It seemed as if some of the Magician's knowledge was with her now, and couldn't wait to get out. The more she babbled, the more symbols she saw here—temptation, in the form of the Tree and the Serpent, but more knowledge too. There was another tree, without a Serpent twined around it; it balanced the other. What did that tree represent?

If the first one is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, what is the other one? It seemed to be covered with little flames rather than leaves or fruit. Was it a sort of Burning Bush? That was another kind of knowledge—

'And Fire,' the Archangel said, helpfully. 'Don't forget that's there too.' He nodded at the tree.

There was something about that Tree that should be ticking off memories and wasn't. As if the back of her mind recognized the symbolism, but wouldn't talk to the front of her mind about it.

She nodded, fixing her eyes on the Angel's face so she wouldn't have to look at the two naked people sprawled inelegantly beneath the tree. If they weren't physically upside-down, their position was close enough to make them look 'reversed.' 'Of course—passion again, but it has to be passion in balance with everything else. And of course there's the Serpent and the Tree from the Garden—that's Earth—' But she wasn't quite grasping it.

'Ah, but what is the thing that you must take from them? The symbol of the power that's here?' the Archangel asked shrewdly. 'It was the cup from the Magician, the scroll from the High Priestess, the Empress's rose, the Emperor's orb, the Hierophant's crown—'

'Knowledge, wisdom, passion, power, law—' she said aloud, thinking very hard. There was a problem here. The Lovers were both stark naked and had nothing in their hands. Balance, responsibility—what represents that? Choices—making good ones and bad ones— There was no symbol of any of these things anywhere about.

There were still the apples on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but—

But I've already had knowledge, and anyway, I don't think that's the answer.

She looked at the Archangel sharply. 'It's nothing I have,' he replied, with one perfect eyebrow raised at the exact angle required to convey admonition. 'And don't even think about pulling out one of my feathers. Do that, and you'll find me treating you like something other than a lady.'

Well, whatever these Tarot creatures were—one thing that they were not was to actually be what they appeared to be. This one might wear the outer semblance of an angel, but she didn't think even a minor one of the cherubim would talk like that, much less an archangel. Which, she had to admit, was something of a relief. She really didn't want to have anything to do with a real angel.

Adam and Eve were looking bored, and had even given up on their quarrel while they waited for her to come up with the symbol of what she must take from them.