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Tarot Card DiscussionThe Magician - Left Hand / Right Hand (cont.)Without Tarot, the Celts continued the left-right line of reasoning. Right indicated the good omen, the lucky find, right is might, while the left was evil and often fatal. In most human relationships protocol and precedence is governed by right-left. The right hand is offered in either a salute or a handshake. In supplication the right hand is raised. In the Christian tradition the right denotes the future, the left the past. The right hand is beneficent, the left maleficent. In mediaeval Christian thought the left hand was associated with feminine traits and qualities; the right with male. The left, being female was nocturnal, dark, dank, and ultimately evil: the right symbolic of male, diurnal and divine. The Sign of the cross was made with the right hand in Christian worship, with the left at Black Masses. The Devil marked those who were consecrated to him on the left eyelid. This has not really translated to Tarot though. |