Nine of Swords – The Moss-Green Princess

One of the things I really like about The Fairy Tale Tarot is that I get to read a story every day and many of the ones in this book I haven’t heard before. Today’s story, a South African tale called “The Moss-Green Princess” is one of those. After reading it and relating it to the Nine of Swords, a card that I felt was specifically speaking to me today, I found it to be the perfect analogy for this card.

There is little history available on the story other than it orginates from South Africa and is likely an old folk tale that’s been passed on for many years. It’s a little longer and more involved than some of the others so I’ll summerize as best I can here.

There once was a princess named Kitila. She had a mother sister, Mapindane, who loved her very much. Her father, however, despised Kitila’s mother and treated Kitila badly out of spite and made Mapindane’s mother, his other wife, his favorite. He gave affection to Mapindane while also lavinshing gifts of cloths and jewelry on her while giving Kitila nothing. Despite this, Kitila and Mapindane were as close as could be and spent all their time together.

Kitila grew to be a beautiful young woman and this angered the king. He ordered his men to get for him the skin of a Nya-Nya Bulembu, a fairy beast who name meant “Despised One Covered with Moss”, and had sharp teeth and claws and was covered in moss. Once the skin was acquired the king forced the skin over Kitali and it adhered to her form. Her beauty was lost and she became covered in a shroud of moss. She was no longer the beautiful princess that she once was and was now a hideous monster. Had it not been for the love of her mother and sister she would have been banished from the village.

Once day birds came and carried Mapindane away to a distant village of a great king. She fell in love with the king and they lived happily ever after. Because of how far she was carried her parents did not know what happened to her and did not know if she was alive or dead.

Kitila’s father was heartbroken over the loss of his beloved daughter Mapindane and took his anger out on Kitila. She was forced into hard labor wearing the heavy monster skin which caused her to suffer and cry every day, but her mother assured her that all would be fine.

One day while in the field a fairy disguised as an old man gave Kitila a stick saying “This stick will help you to see your true form whenever you touch water.” She thanked the old man and then went to the lake and with the weight and burden of her monster skin, went into the water. As she did she began to feel light as the mossy, heavy monster skin melted away. With the feel of her human skin again the fairies coaxed Kitila to look at her reflection in the water and she saw herself as she remembered herself, a beautiful princess. She played with the fairies and when it was time for her to leave once she came out of the water to dry land the Bulembu skin returned and she once again was forced to carry the burden of the heavy moss covered skin.

Kitila would return to the water whenever she could and soon children in the village learned her secret and would come to see her transform in the water. One day a prince came to the village looking for a wife and the children told him about Kitila and how she had befriended the faries. They took him to see her at the water and he watched her transform in the water and he fell in love with her. He knew that she must be very special in order to do what she was about to do here. He went right to the king and told him that he wanted to marry his daughter.

The king thought it was a joke but after the prince’s persistance, the king agreed being happy to be rid of Kitila. On the morning of her wedding Kitila bathed in a pool and the Bulembu skin melted away but this time it went away for good. The skin came up from the water into the air and traveled to her mother’s home and landed in front of the door. Her mother knew that her daughter was now happy and free of her burdens and she knew that fairy magic had happened.

Kitila married the prince and lived happily ever after in her new village. Her father died a miserable old man knowing that the daughter he despised lived a happy life and believing that the daughter he loved was dead.

The art on the Nine of Swords is beautiful, showing the magickal transformation and the true image of the princess in the surface of the water. One of the things that I found interesting in seeing the image of the swords in the cards is that two of the swords are shown in the reflection as opposed to being lifted from the water (they may be beneath the water) and they are crossed and in front of her chest. It seems reminiscent of the Two of Swords in a lot of ways except now she is no longer blindfolded and she can see what is before her.

Some of Lisa Hunt’s comments on the symbolism in the art include the green, mossy covering showing Kitila’s connection to nature, the water symbolizing the unconscious and the fairies being divine messangers. The swords represent karma and justice and the flying birds represent the free spirit. The faces in the trees are guiding spirits which carry her between the worlds and the sparkles around her represent her shapeshifting abilities.

Here are some of the themes we see in the Nine of Swords:

Worry: worrying that things will not work out, becoming physically or mentally ill over your problems, hanging on to problems, being anxious and worked up.

Guilt: regretting something you have done, being too hard on yourself, not forgiving yourself for what you have done, not believing that you have done all you could, being focused on wishing you could go back in time and do things over (and in many cases being obsessed with such a notion).

Anguish: being at the end of your rope, great loss of joy, depression, loss of sleep, crying, in some cases thoughts of suicide.

In the story of “The Moss-Green Princess” we see the theme of worry most profoundly and the ideas of guilt and anguish in concert with each other. The worry comes on early when Kitila is learning to get used to her new appearance and she is trying to deal with the burdens. Her mother tries to reassure her that all will be well but she is not very easily consoled. Every time Kitila goes in the water and has her brief moments of release she leaves only to be back where she was and she feels the anguish of having to leave behind the happier image of herself that she wishes to posess again. There are elements of guilt mixed in here and there, but mostly in the form of feeling that she may not have done all she could to have made her father love her so she wouldn’t have found herself in this position to begin with.

Think about this…

When we are dealing with inner conflict and turmoil we also tend to have it reflect on our outer selves as well, even if we don’t realize it. When we are stressed and dealing with depression, anxiety and loss of sleep it almost always shows in our face. You might even notice yourself getting a little “green” as well. How do you deal with your stress, guit or anxiety? Do you allow yourself to pulled into its murky depths or do you work to rise above it? Are you able to see your reflection in the water so that you can recall your true image? Remember that by facing your troubles, whatever they may be, you are able to truly shed them. When you allow them to adhere to your form and weight heavy on you it becomes harder and harder to move.