Luathas the Wild. (Photo credit: Brian Froud)
For today’s Faery insight, I want you to take a look at the card that we have today. This is Luathas the Wild. Without any explanation, I want you to just imagine what kind of Faery this is. Just think about it before reading any further. I bet you can use your intuition and creativity to fathom a guess.
First, let’s take a look at his color. The shades of green show just how vibrant and lively this card is. The sharp blue tinting accentuates the card’s vivid nature. This card catches your eye by immediately expressing itself with color and wild creativity. Even the background gives off a sense of action and excitement.
Next, we have Luathas himself. The depiction we get of his wings in the shape of leaves shows that he leads a highly active and seemingly reckless life. If we think back to the other Faeries that we’ve met, their wings have been well-maintained and taken care of. They show us their elegance by their presentation. In Luathas, we see torn wings with bends and cracks in them. I imagine, in comparison, a person with a torn cape, showing that their life and adventures shows in the age of the garment. In the same way, Luathas’s wings exemplify the way he lives his life. Look at Luathas’s pose in the portrait. He’s crouched, wings ready to take to flight again. He’s stopping only long enough for us to get a good look at him before he takes off on another adventure.
My impression of this Faery had been that “wild” doesn’t even begin to describe his personality.
Luathas acts in behalf of action. He is a fiery, take charge kind of person that will either push us out of our comfort zone or inspire us to follow pursuits that we spent time rejecting for one reason or another. Luathas encourages spontaneous behavior and rides on the winds of our increased pace like a jockey urging its horse to go faster, faster, faster.
We must represent the balance in this relationship. Giving the driver seat to Luathas would result in the burning off of our creative energy. Luathas would push us until we had nothing left to give, and this Faery with all his bountiful spirit, would look at us and ask “why’d you stop?” We have to be in control of ourselves and let Luathas know when we need a break. Whether that break is in terms of creative process, having “too much” fun or just not stopping to take breath from our busy lives, it’s up to us to know when we need time to ourselves.
Luathas’s love for impulsive action breeds in us the ability for critical thinking. Given time and practical effort, we try to solve problems in ways that make sense. Luathas doesn’t have a sense for sense and instead wants you to come up with a stupid idea and see how it works. He wants you to throw out the old and try something new. Even if we think we’d look foolish for trying it. Therein lies Luathas’s intention, however. What’s stopping us from taking a risk? Are we just hesitating for hypothetical embarrassment? If so, maybe we should take a page from Luathas’s book and just do it so we can see what happens.
We’re not meant to live a life of hesitation just because we’re embarrassed at the possible outcomes. If we have logical and sound reasons to not take a risk, then we’re showing that balance and self-control that Luathas lacks. If we don’t want to do something because of how it might turn out or because we don’t want to feel a certain way, then it’s time to live our lives the way the Fae want us to: Without regret and to the fullest, not caring who’s watching at the time.