The third card of the Tarot is associated with the planet Venus.
This is unbounded, rich and fertile growth. It’s automatic proliferation. It’s communicative exchange and creative expression. It represents beauty, pleasure and sensuality. It’s linked with intelligent design, the consciousness and spirit of nature. It’s the power and authority of mother earth. It can suggest
conception, pregnancy, and motherhood- or female energy, literal or figurative. It’s also associated with foraging the fruits of the land. It could be the muse or the artist. The third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Gimel, can mean to gather or carry.
Fennel is a symbol of strength, courage, praise-worthiness, flattery and cleansing. It’s linked with Mercury (dualistic + dry/hands, arms, shoulders, lungs, nervous system, brain). All parts of the plant are rich in antioxidants. Fennel contains fiber, vitamin C, potassium, calcium, potassium and magnesium. It can function as an appetite suppressant, anti-inflammatory, benefit heart health, and may improve mental health and memory. Fennel has properties that act similar to estrogen; its essential oil may alleviate symptoms of menopause, but interfere with pregnancy. It’s best that women who are trying to conceive or are pregnant avoid consuming fennel oil or supplements.
Pamela Colman Smith (February 16, 1878 – September 18, 1951), nicknamed Pixie, was a British artist, illustrator, writer and occultist. She is best known for illustrating the Rider-Waite tarot deck of divinatory tarot cards (also called the Rider-Waite-Smith or Waite-Smith deck) for Arthur Edward Waite. This is the first popularized deck to have pictoral images for the minor arcana as well as major arcana. This tarot deck became the standard among tarot card readers, and remains the most widely used today. Colman also illustrated over 20 books, wrote two collections of Jamaican folklore, edited two magazines, and ran the Green Sheaf Press, a small press focused on women writers. She exhibited work with Alfred Steiglitz and collaborated with W.B. Yeats. Yeats introduced Smith to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which is where she met Waite.
