Air is masculine, being dry, expansive and active. It is the element that excels in places of learning, and which is at work while we theorize, think and ponder."

- Correspondences

Like an idea brought into consciousness, the child is born, made flesh. His first utterance, is the word made flesh, the logos.

"...the Logos, a philosophical idea and abstraction of the bodily and personal son of God on the one hand, and on the other the dynamic power of thought and words.

Spirit, air, or breath can be seen as the masculine principle of the Father God; the primal waters can be seen as the feminine principle of the Mother Goddess and the conception that takes place can be seen as the human child on one hand and the psychological energy of that child on the other, along with the creation of thought or the birth of the archetype.

In a biological sense, the Spirit of God (the wind) moving over the waters can, in a poetic, esoteric way, symbolize the act of human sexual love, union, and procreation."

- The Genesis Model by Gerry Anne Lenhart

"Civilization is almost exclusively masculine, a civilization of power in which woman has been thrust aside in the shade. Therefore it has lost its balance and is moving by hopping from war to war. Its motive forces are the forces of destruction and its ceremonials are carried through by an appalling number of human sacrifices. This one-sided civilization is crashing along a series of catastrophes at a tremendous speed because of its one-sidedness. And at last the time has arrived when woman must step in and impart her life rhythm to the reckless movement of power."

- Rabindranath Tagore

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The Strength or Fortitude Tarot Card "This Hieroglyph (card) depicts a woman, crowned with the vital lemniscate, who closes, quietly and without effort, the jaws of a raging lion." - Eliphas Lévi Trigram: :II Name: Sun = the Gentle. Image: Wind, Wood. The First Daughter, associated with penetration, following guidelines, work, vehemence, changeability. Description "In an uncultivated field a young woman holds the open jaws of a lion, which sits to her right, but is partly hidden behind a thorny, wild rose bush. We cannot tell whether she is trying to open or close his jaws. Though the lion looks ferocious, the woman has an expression of calm confidence.

verse

"With gentle hand and eye she charms the beast
And teaches him the time to speak. Released
From fear of one another, freedom grows
For each, a bond that blossoms like the rose.
It's love, not force or fear, that tames the beast!"

Interpretation

"In simplest terms this trump represents fortitude, that is, strength, vigor and courage. However, fortitude appears on two levels. The lion represents the strength, vigor and courage of the primitive elements of the psyche, the fiery vitality of one's animal nature. The lion is noble, even regal, but potentially savage, uncontrollable, destructive and devouring.

The young woman, Andreia, represents the anima, which mediates between the ego and the beast. She symbolizes fortitude of a different kind, for she has a magical control over beasts of all kinds, directed not by a wand, but by her eyes and hands. Her power is strong and she has the courage to use it to control animal nature.

You can't reason with a lion, but you can love one, and it can love you. Logos must defer to Eros. For taming lions, the woman's magic hands are more effective than the man's sword or wand, for she brings strength and experience to the taming of beasts. Hers is a diplomatic role, for, as the anima, she must serve as a mediator between the ego and the primitive elements of the psyche. She is a mediator between the external authority represented by the Emperor, which addresses community needs, and the instinctual authority of the beast, which pursues the needs of the individual. Like Artemis she must tame the animal nature and train it, and so channel its vital energy, which is self-fulfilling, pure and uncorrupted, but irrational. She does not dominate the lion in a masculine way, but like a rider well attuned to her horse, she forms a cooperative bond with the beast. The result is liberating and empowering for both: consciousness is no longer driven by unconscious, irrational instincts, and the animal vitality is no longer condemned to inarticulate, instinctive behavior. Both benefit, and neither destroys the other. IX.Fortitude depicts Artemis and the Lion as "a witch and her familiar." (Nichols 202-8; Crowley 95)

- The Pythagorean tarot by John Opsopaus

I Talk to the Wind thus represents the first appearance of the feminine principle (the anima) as mediator between the primitive (unconscious) elements of the psyche (the "cat's foot iron claw" of the Lion made all the more powerful and frightening because it has been repressed) and the ego. The role of the anima in the Fortitude tarot card is also clearly analagous to the function of the mother in calming the infant in the Paranoid-Schizoid position.

"Projective identification can become a form of communication to the (m)other that the infant is experiencing the intense anxiety over the possibility of annihilation, and, thus, it is in the mother's capacity, in a sense, to respond or not to respond to this communication which can shape the infant's experience of her/his world. Like with Klein's theory of a continuous feedback loop of projection and introjection between mother and infant, Bion's infant-subject is shaped by the intersubjective play of emotion between self and other. However, in Bion's conception, the mother is not simply a 'phantom' of the infant's projections, but rather a genuine mother who holds the possibility of making the infant's anxiety more tolerable. If the mother has secure ego boundaries, she will be able to 'contain' the emotions which the infant gives to her, and, consequently, she can give these emotions back to the infant in a more tolerable form. The mother's ability to make the infant's feelings tolerable by 'containment' leads the infant to the experience of "reverie" (Bion, 1962a)."

- The Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions in the Psychogenesis of the Self

The reverie or peace of I Talk to the Wind , coming as it does after the war of 21st Century Schizoid Man , is therefore actually something of a lullaby.

"Rock-a-bye baby,
On the tree top;
When the wind blows,
The cradle will rock.

When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall;
Down will come baby,
Cradle and all."

In a strong wind (when the Thinking function is differentiated, subordinating the Feeling function) the baby (humanity) falls. In a gentle breeze (when "normal" thinking occurs) the cradle is rocked, the infant is soothed and the psychological functions remain relatively united.

"Bion elevated the concept of the death instinct into the infant's fear of dying, which the containing mother must in turn suffer in order to detoxify it in her reverie function (dreamwork alpha). When he described the mother's need to "translate" her infant's dire messages into meaning, he entered the field of epistemology. He described how normal thinking begins as the projective identification by the infant of its "fear of dying" into the mother, whose reverie helps her to bear, absorb, and "translate" her infant's fears into meaning."

- Bion's Transformation in "O" and the Concept of the Transcendent Position

This process continues into adulthood in the work of the poet.

"Bion's views on transformation (1965) and on the relationship of "container and contained" (1962) are useful in grasping the role of the mysterious feminine as a vessel for healing the unintegrated aspects of the poet's self."

- Psychology, Literature, and the Arts Homepage

And the reverie of the poet is expressed in the detachment of I Talk to the Wind .

"The constructive schizoid person stands against the spiritual emptiness of encroaching technology and does not let himself be emptied by it. He lives and works with the machine without becoming a machine. He finds it necessary to remain detached enough to get meaning from the experience, but in doing so, to protect his own inner life from impoverishment."

- Rollo May, Love and Will (1969, p. 32)

And in the Kabbalah . . .