This is my fourth time working through The Waste Land, and as a result, I was particularly eager to pick out something that I hadn't paid much attention to in previous readings. The most significant thing that has changed since my last reading is my sudden interest in tarot cards (for the most academic of reasons). In the past few months I've become familiar with all the Major Arcana, so when reading through again, I was intrigued by the fact that only two of Madame Sosostris' cards are actual tarot cards (the Hanged Man and the Wheel). Eliot seems to have invented cards to suit his intentions and meanings, which strikes me as rather odd considering his detailed use of historical and literary references. One would think he might be more able to use existing cards if he wanted to, so there must be a good reason that he added in some of his own.

I did a bit of research, and while the Fisher King has a corresponding card acknowledged by Eliot himself (the three of Wands), and Belladonna and the One-Eyed Merchant have been postulated to be the Queen of Cups and the Six of Pentacles, the Drowned Phoenician Sailor really has no reliable corresponding card. The card is a jarring removal from the cosmic cycle symbolized by the Major Arcana, suggesting that the cycle has been broken, that the damage may have been irreversible. Where accepted tarot cards might have suggested that society is merely at a low point of the cycle, the introduction of new cards, especially that of the Phoenician Sailor, who is dead even in the midst of the ocean and its symbolism of life and renewal, and who shows no potential of transitioning into another card.

Interestingly enough, however, the trend I have seen in other writings on The Waste Land with respect to tarot cards seems to lean towards the tarot cards as an indication of hope and the possibility of renewal. I'm quite interested in addressing this in class and seeing what everyone thinks!

A couple of articles on The Waste Land and tarot: http://www.jstor.org/stable/view/30053210 and http://crossroadstarot.com/thewastelandandtarot.htm.