As I have said recently, I’ve been interested in the war-related individuals, and the symbols operating behind them. This Tarot reading is about Richard E. Winters, commander of Easy Company in World War II, and has a very clear objective. To understand who he was in the real context of war, as a man commanding other men, and not only as a character from the extraordinary TV series Band of Brothers.
Ascendant/East – 10 of Wands
In the Ascendant, the question is: what was Richard Winters like in the context of Easy Company? The card that came out was the Ten of Wands. Here we are clearly in the plane of Will, in the element of Fire, but already in a conclusive stage. Ten is the number of full manifestation, the final step before returning to 1. This shows Winters as a man already formed in this plane of Will, far from a beginner, but someone who already carried the full weight of the function.
The decan of this card is Saturn in the mutable fire of Sagittarius, which adds a decisive layer to the interpretation. We have here two opposing principles. Sagittarius is mutable Fire, idealistic, Jupiterian, turned towards meaning, towards the horizon and expansion. Saturn is the significator of cold, limit, melancholy, time, responsibility and death. This describes Winters’ condition very well. He felt the weight of the mission, the weight of commanding men, of dealing with limits, with the death of others and with the possibility of his own premature death. He also felt the freezing of ideals and of a more Jupiterian life, more open and freer, when the world demanded much more Saturn than anything else.
Even so, Saturn has triplicity in Fire in Sagittarius, which shows that this hardness does not destroy the Fire, but disciplines it and makes it functional, albeit with difficulty.
Imum Coeli/North – 2 of Cups
In the Imum Coeli, I wanted to know who was Winters in the moments when he withdrew alone, after battles or intense meetings at headquarters. What was his inner ground, what supported him in those moments of solitude? The card that came out was the Two of Cups. Here we completely change element and enter Water, the emotional plane. The Two of Cups speaks of Venus, the principle of love and desire, in Cancer, the sign mostly tied to idea of home and nest. The fact that this card came out in the Imum Coeli, associated precisley with the symbol of household and roots, is telling.
Unlike Saturn in Sagittarius, Venus in Cancer are two naturally harmonious principles. This suggests that, in those lonely moments, Winters withdrew inwardly to home, to thoughts of his companion, to the possibility of building a nest when all this was over, to the idea of becoming two again. It is the card of Venusian love, the love that builds something, that constructs a place to rest. In those moments, Winters’ inner home was that home of the Two of Cups.
Descendant/West – The Moon (XVIII)
In the Descendant, the question is: how did he see others, especially the men of his Company? Curiously, the Moon came out, Major Arcana XVIII, associated with the Hebrew letter Qoph and the sign of Pisces. This is an arcana tied to what is diffuse, nebulous, with unclear boundaries, to the mystical and to the primary forces of the unconscious. The Moon is the luminary of the night, when shadows grow larger and clarity of vision decreases.
This suggests that, for Winters, others were not lived in a fully clear and stable way. Despite his profile as a leader, his mental sharpness, his ability to command and the deep comradeship, the context of war made everything more blurred. The constant risk of forming bonds only to lose them under enemy fire, of seeing companions wounded or killed, inevitably creates a nocturnal, heavy, emotionally unstable atmosphere. He led men, yes, he knew them, yes, but he did so in a dark world, marked by the primary forces of war and by real tides of violence. The others lived under the uncertain and flickering light of the Moon.
Medium Coeli/South – Queen of Cups
In the Medium Coeli: who was Winters at the moment when the Second World War ended, in front of himself and in front of others? When the conflict was declared finished and the certainty of returning home alive finally appeared? The card was the Queen of Cups.
Here we see a total transformation in relation to the Ten of Wands in the Ascendant. There is no trace of Fire, of tense Will, of Saturnian weight and cold. What we have is the most emotional, most welcoming and most maternal court card of all. The Queen of Cups is Water of Water, the most passive, sensitive and nurturing. This shows Winters finishing the war with a feeling of peace and, above all, with the certainty that he would never want to repeat that scenario, nor give much continuity to a military career. There is no sign of Fire in this conclusion, which is the element most associated with war and combat.
On the contrary, this is a card of an inner white flag, of definitive truces in relation to death and destruction, and of the possibility of finally returning to the nest of the Two of Cups that supported him in the nights of solitude.
Kύριε ελέησον