The story of Margaret Clement is the stuff of fiction or a true life crime podcast. Was it an accident? Did she simply fall victim to the murky floodwaters surrounding her derelict homestead and get washed out to sea? Was she murdered? And, if she was murdered, who was the killer?
These questions still haunt the case of the missing Australian Margaret Clement, now know as “the Lady of the Swamp.”
Clement had been the belle of Melbourne society. She held some of the best society parties, travelled the world, was invited to Buckingham Palace and was stinking rich.
And then one day it was all gone.
The Wheel of Fortune is essentially the wheel of life. No matter what happens, the wheel will keep turning, keep throwing life lessons our way and constantly keep us on our toes. We can never truly know what is coming next.
Margaret Clement’s lifestyle of gleaming carriages and fancy garden parties gave way to a life of squalor.
The 17-room Gippsland mansion she shared with her sister fell into disrepair and became increasingly surrounded by swamp waters. Dressed in an old coat with a fur collar, Ms Clement was forced to wade waist-deep through the murky water to the nearest town 11km away for supplies and to send letters to her family begging for money. She finished her days living alone in a swamp in Gippsland in her decaying mansion Tullaree surrounded by waist-deep water.
The Five of Coins, or the Five of Pentacles is a card when upright means to lose all faith, losing resources, losing a lover (mostly shows up when you’ve had a breakup), and losing security whether financially or emotionally (or both).
In 1889, the Illustrated Sydney News published an article about her being left at the altar, leaving her “completely prostrated.”
When Pip meets the jilted Miss Havisham in Great Expectations she is dressed in her decaying wedding attire, presenting a terrifying blend of waxwork figure and living skeleton.
Born in South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1821, Eliza was the youngest child of James Donnithorne, a judge and merchant in the famous East India Company, and grew up in Calcutta. Tragedy struck in 1832, when Eliza’s mother and two teenage sisters died during the city’s cholera epidemic. At age 63, Judge Donnithorne retired to Australia, arriving in Sydney on September 10, 1838.
Donnithorne moved to Australia during the 1840s to be with her father, who had been also been an official of the East India Company. Eliza had formed an attachment to a young man of whom her father disapproved, and after resisting his attempts to split them up, the couple set a date for the wedding. Mr. Donnithorne was such an important official that a great deal of interest was held in the wedding, and crowds are said to have lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the bride. Eliza Donnithorne, dressed in her finery, waited excitedly at the altar for her lover.
He didn’t show.
In 1889, the Illustrated Sydney News published an article about her being left at the altar, leaving her “completely prostrated.”
After waiting hours, it’s said Eliza farewelled her guests and abandoned the wedding breakfast to insects and dust. She kept her bridal gown on and left the front door ajar in case Cuthbertson came at last. Some said Cuthbertson already had a wife in England and feared exposure, but he left not a word of explanation and was never heard from again.
Heartbroken but headstrong, Miss Donnithorne demanded that the banquet and the house remain ready for his arrival. The table stayed set for a party, the door remained opened, and for three decades she waited.
Eliza died in the house on 20 May 1886 and was buried in the same grave as her father at Camperdown cemetery where a headstone was later placed in his memory. Eliza’s estate, including land and houses in Sydney, Melbourne and Britain, was valued at £12,000. The chief beneficiary was her housekeeper, Sarah Ann Bailey.
The images of the Five of Pentacles often shows a person or people who are in an apparent state of crisis. Clothes in rags, out in the cold, overwhelmed or tired out, this is not a happy sight.
While the Five of Pentacles is associated with
Losing income
Falling on hard times
Struggling to make ends meet
Struggling with ill-health
Neglecting your physical needs
Being rejected
Standing alone
Being excluded
Taking an unpopular opinion
it may allude to hard times on a more spiritual and emotional level. This card can have a very real “us against the world” vibe attached to it.
Van Diemen’s Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen’s Land in 1803 before it became a separate colony in 1825. Its penal colonies became notorious destinations for the transportation of convicts due to the harsh environment, isolation and reputation for being inescapable. Macquarie Harbour and Port Arthur are among the most well-known penal settlements on the island.
Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. Transportation as a form of criminal punishment emerged in the British legal system from the early 17th century as an alternative to execution.
Many of the crimes for which they were transported are considered minor offenses by today’s standards. The most common crime by far was stealing—food, clothing, money, household items—mostly items worth no more than £5.
One can only imagine how my great great grandmother, Mary Ann Maule, had been living prior to her sentencing after a series of petty thefts. Clearly Mary was no angel but conditions in Liverpool were particularly harsh. Houses were severely overcrowded and the impact of the Great Famine, known as the Irish Famine was profound.
Friedrich Engels was shocked when he visited Liverpool in the 1840s. “Liverpool, with all its commerce, wealth, and grandeur yet treats its workers with the same barbarity. A full fifth of the population, more than 45,000 human beings, live in narrow, dark, damp, badly ventilated cellar dwellings, of which there are 7,862 in the city.
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”– Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Their stories immediately captured my heart when I learned that if you were a working-class girl in London or Dublin in the 1800s you had two choices: enter prostitution, which was not a crime or steal food or clothing to be able to live another day,” Deborah says. “And so I began my six-year journey of researching and getting to know these remarkable female convicts.”
Having survived the long, perilous journey on board the convict ship, there can be no doubt that life would have been no easier when she arrived in the colony. However, the scarcity of women opened up opportunities for convict women as servants and wives. Many, including Mary Ann, successfully merged into colonial society, creating new families, and through good conduct and hard work forged new lives. Convict women, like my great great grandmother, demonstrated a diversity of character, aspirations and behaviour, which contradicted their stereotype as ‘damned whores’.
As a part of a series of past life stories an imagined version of Mary Ann appears in ‘A Letter to A Mother’.
What everyone needs, when traveling around Australia is a copy of Kath Walkers (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) poems and a travel companion like Loving Country, co-authored by Aboriginal Elder Bruce Pascoe and artist Vicky Shukuroglou. At first glance, it is a travel guide to some of Australia’s most beautiful Country but on closer inspection, it reveals honest, riveting yarns about the true stories of Country told by the people who know and love her best: the local Aboriginal people with ancestral connections.
Kath Walker – Aunty Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920 – 1993) was an Aboriginal rights activist, poet, veteran, environmentalist and educator. ‘Oodgeroo’, meaning ‘paperbark tree’ (whose bark is used for drawing), referred to her role as writer and artist. ‘Noonuccal’ is the name of her people, the traditional owners of Minjerribah and adjoining land for more than 20,000 years.
There is no doubt that the Lovers card is all about relationships. However it’s also about so much more than that, because this card represents our choices. It reminds us that we can heal any situation, and free ourselves from suffering whenever we choose to view it through the eyes of authentic love.
Do you have difficulty with truly loving yourself? Are you able to open your heart and be completely honest about who you are, and what you feel? Are you able to look at where you are at in life right now with acceptance and inner-peace? Who are you right now in this very moment, and what do you believe in? What are you aligning yourself and your energy with right now? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to focus your energy on this endeavor?
Through her stories, poetry and activism Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) expresses a great love for her land and the Australian Aboriginal culture to which she belongs. She is completely honest about who she is, her connection with the land and how she feels about the impact of colonialism
Aunty Oodgeroo Noonccal was a member of the stolen generation. Her mother, Lucy, was removed and placed in an institution in Brisbane at the age of ten. At fourteen years of age, without the skills to read or write, she was consigned to work as a housemaid in rural Queensland.
Aunty Oodgeroo Noonuccal grew up on North Stradbroke Island. She left home for Brisbane to work as a domestic for board and lodging, and less pay than white domestics received. However, armed with the ability to read and a talent for writing she would go on to become a leading Australian poet, writer, political activist, artist and educator.
As a poet Noonuccal identified Aboriginal people as the inspiration for her work, seeing herself as expressing the voices of the community she loved. She saw poetry as the most personal form of written expression and as a natural extension of Aboriginal oral traditions of storytelling and song-making.
In recognition of a lifetime commitment to Indigenous peoples and her outstanding contributions to Australian literature Oodgeroo Noonuccal was awarded three honorary doctorates by Universities within Australia.
Existential Choices
The Lovers card may be understood alongside key ideas from the philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813–November 11, 1855). We face an existential choice between two life paths, either one willfully hedonistic or one grounded in our sense of ethical duty.
As Rachael Pollack points out, the 6th Tarot Card was once entitled Choice, suggesting that an individual may have to choose between desires. Equally the choice can refer to a person’s whole life, the decision about where to direct one’s passion.
Imagine Oodgeroo Noonuccal is still alive. You are a journalist who will be given the opportunity to interview this leading activist, poet, environmentalist and educator. You are only allowed to ask her three questions about life choices she made. What will you ask her?
Now change roles. Imagine you are Oodgeroo, and, using the knowledge about her life and personality gleaned from any research you have been inspired to do, write the answers you believe she might have give to the questions you posed.
Finding and Following Your Bliss
The hero’s journey is one of self-discovery, of finding and following your bliss. No one else knows what makes your eyes light up and your heart leap. Take control of your own life. Reach for the stars.
Joseph Campbell was one of the pioneers in the discussion of bliss, suggesting that people “find their bliss.” He said, “The way to find out what makes you the happiest is to focus on being mindful of your happiest moments—not simply excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy.”
To seek your own personal bliss, you might wish to sit quietly and meditate about a time in your life when you were the happiest. Remain with that moment, as well as the feelings stirring inside you. When you think you’ve figured out at least one thing that makes you feel blissful, then stay with it. Write about that state in your journal. Recording your feelings can help you dig deeper into self-discovery and determine the ways in which you can follow your bliss—always keeping in mind that bliss is a calling that’s calling you.
The Hierophant is the card of traditional values and institutions. The Hierophant can represent a counsellor or mentor who will provide you with wisdom and guidance or a spiritual or religious advisor such as a priest, vicar, preacher, imam, rabbi or a monk. However many decks present a very different interpretation of this card that daunts those who have issues with religious dogma and choose to present others as deserving the title.
It seems limiting to present the Hierophant as a robed religious Popish figure and to imply that such an individual is a receptacle for all wisdom and teaching.
The LeGrande Circus Tarot presents the Pope or Hierophant as the entrepreneurial owner of the outfit. Circus owners were such a varied lot that it is doubtful if this title suits them all. Some were born into circus families. Some, like Al G. Barnes, ran away with the circus as youngsters and worked their way up through the ranks of ticket takers and candy butchers. Others were entrepreneurs and businessmen. And still more saw themselves as creative artists, sometimes even serving as headline performers.
A hierophant (Ancient Greek: ἱεροφάντης, romanized: hierophantēs) is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. As such, a hierophant is an interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles.
When I think of a Hierophant I prefer to think of a wise trail blazer, a generous mentor who nurtures, gently guides and encourages others. Read the obituaries for Carolyn Jones, the first Australian female reporter on This Day Tonight and you will be left in no doubt about her stature among female journalists, women who she championed, who acknowledge her amazing contribution to their careers.
This wonderful, gracious, fierce, trail blazing, truth telling woman has left us. She was beyond kind to me and to so many other women in my profession.
In my mind Carolyn, universally loved by all, deserves the title of Hierophant and gets to wear the robs signifying her status.
The Hierophant is the card of traditional values and institutions. The Hierophant can represent a counsellor or mentor who will provide you with wisdom and guidance or a spiritual or religious advisor such as a priest, vicar, preacher, imam, rabbi or a monk.
It seems limiting to present the Hierophant as a robed religious Popish figure and to imply that such an individual is a receptacle for all wisdom and teaching. By contrast, the figure in the rendition presented in the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight, presents us with a less ostentatious figure, more like a wise, shamanic story teller, one of many guardians of cultural knowing.
In the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight the Hierophant appears to be in a subterranean world, with fish shoaling above him. The Hierophant is sitting on a rock, communing with a young lady and her cat who has all the appearance of a character you would find in an Alice in Wonderland production. Untrimmed strands of the Hierophants vast beard float in the water around him and he is dressed in simple apparel. He is not wearing any of the regalia so many Hierophants wear to signify their religious affiliation.
Rarely is the Hierophant depicted as being female and it is undeniable that the devoted work of women in places of education and community support has not had the acknowledgement it deserves.
Saint Mary McKillop was an Australian religious figure, educator, and social reformer. MacKillop was born in Australia to poor Scottish immigrants. Her father, a former seminarian whose ill health had caused him to abandon study for the priesthood, stressed the importance of education and homeschooled his eight children. When she was 14, MacKillop began working, and she was often her family’s main source of support. In 1860 she moved to the small rural town of Penola to serve as governess for the children of her aunt and uncle. There MacKillop provided her cousins with a basic education and soon extended this to the poor children of the town. A young priest, Father Julian Tenison Woods, encouraged her to continue this work, assuring her that educating the poor would be an ideal way to serve God.
In 1866 MacKillop and Woods founded Australia’s first order of nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and also established St. Joseph’s School in a converted stable in Penola, providing a free education to children from the area. In 1867 MacKillop took vows and became the first mother superior of the sisters. The following year the sisters opened schools in other Australian cities, as well as an orphanage and a refuge for women released from prison.
In June 1995 MacKillop was beatified by Pope John Paul II. In February 2010, after evaluating the testimony of an Australian woman who claimed that her terminal cancer had disappeared after she called upon MacKillop in prayer, Pope Benedict XVI recognized MacKillop as a saint. She was canonized that October.
Working with the Hierophant
Seek out the Hierophant in each of the decks you own and compare and contrast the messages that the artists provide in their companion texts.
Prepare some questions! Engage in active imagination and dialogue with your favourite Hierophant. Ask those hard questions!
Many communities had “memorisers” whose role was to memorise history, witness and memorise current events (including what happened, who attended, even what key figures wore), and identify and train up young people to become memoriser. In your journal carefully memorise the events of recent years making sure to include as much detail as possible.
Certain stories, such as Fairy Stories, are much more than mere entertainment – they are used as lessons and provide a moral, through the form of a traditional belief, that will help guide people through their lives. Create a story which you believe needs to be passed on.
The Emperor wants you to know that in order to go out into the big world you need both inner and outer authority. Inner authority allows you to make the best decisions for yourself while outer authority enables you to create your place in the world and be seen and recognized.
The Emperor represents stability, order, and dominion. In the most practical terms, the Emperor Tarot card represents the highest leadership, a head of state, or the most exemplary and powerful person in the realm.When this stern fellow shows up in your reading, issues of power and control may be at play. However the appearance of this card in a spread, given that it alludes to achievement through hard work and discipline, may also provide an opportunity to ask about the qualities which will successfully support a business venture.
Within the Tarot community the Emperor is generally believed to represent dealings with male authority figures. However there are many women who have the same qualities. So, be you male or female, when you see this card in a reading it is an opportunity to take a moment and acknowledge your potential for mastery of your personal realm. It is a time to reinforce a sense of sovereignty within yourself, despite any self-limiting beliefs, habits, or appearances to the contrary.
Elizabeth Macarthur (1766-1850), was born on 14 August 1766 in Devon, England, daughter of Richard Veale, farmer, and his wife Grace, who were apparently of some education and affluence. Elizabeth received an education which allowed her to write letters of eighteenth-century style and grace and which equipped her to manage the complicated affairs of her husband’s business in later life. She married John Macarthur in October 1788. In June 1789 he joined the New South Wales Corps and Elizabeth accompanied him when he sailed to take up his position in the colony.
By 1794, the Macarthurs had built Elizabeth Farm, a brick house at Parramatta. They had a beautiful garden and the children received an excellent education. In 1809, her husband was forced to leave the colony and return to England. Business partners administered his mercantile affairs but Elizabeth was responsible for the care of their valuable merino flocks, the Camden Park estate and their convict labourers. She did so successfully for eight years, visiting their estate regularly despite the danger of venturing into the bush.
If the Emperor appears in a Tarot spread as a woman, that means that this person is a figure of authority, control, and discipline. This is someone who exudes an air of command, evident in her carriage, her gaze, and even the space she occupies. You can sense her influence and leadership capabilities, leaving little room for doubt that she’s a person of significant power.
Michelle Scott Tucker lives on a small farm in regional Victoria with her husband and children. Her first book was Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World
Michelle Scott Tucker wrote a biography of Elizabeth Macarthur, highlighting that it was her who established the Australian wool industry (although her husband received all the credit).
In the words of historian Clare Wright, Tucker’s bio brings Elizabeth Macarthur out from the long shadow of her infamous, entrepreneurial husband.
The truth is that Elizabeth oversaw every aspect of the management of their flocks and communicated with her husband while he was in England. As a result of their joint interest they were able to sell their wool competitively in the British market and effectively established the reputation of the colony as a centre for this industry. It was Elizabeth’s critical contribution to the establishment of a local fine wool industry that helped set the course of Australian prosperity, and gave the wool trade’s its long-held significance to the national economy.
More Emperors
This card is suggestive of stability and security in life. You are on top of things and everything in under your control. It is your hard work, discipline and self control that have bought you this far. It means that you are in charge of your life now setting up your own rules and boundaries.
The Magician shows us that you are able to master any desired skill through practice, sacrifice and a determined focus on your outcome. He encourages you to invest the time to cultivate your potential abilities. Patrick Valenza – Deviant Moon Tarot.
When she was just a five year old kid, Cath Jamison got a magic kit, loved it and started putting on magic shows for her family. She used to try to make the dog disappear and she confesses that she had a crack at making a pier vanish as well. But she is not about to divulge any of her secrets. This award winning Australian entertainer has no hesitation in saying that she was a quirky kid and that she still is a quirky person.
Pulling the Magician in a reading is a reminder that you have the necessary tools to manifest your dreams. Just as the man depicted in the Magician card has learned to wield the unseen forces of the universe, so, too, can we learn to master our own skills to get the outcomes we desire.
Today Cath’s mind-blowing and frequently uproarious shows have earned her a reputation as a leader in her field and she’s known as one of Australia’s most unusual women entertainers, wielding her trademark sass and mind illusion. Jamison is an impressive entertainer who delivers a masterful blend of magic, mentalism, and enjoyable audience engagement.
In 1993, Margaret Rossiter coined the phrase The Matilda Effect to describe systematic bias whereby a woman is ignored, denied credit or dropped from sight by a man who takes credit for scientific advances. As this short video highlights, the Matilda Effect is still alive and well in Australian Curriculum.
The Matilda Effect does not only apply to women in Science. This needs to change!History must tell the whole story. For girls, knowing women’s achievements expands their sense of what is possible, offers ideas about what legacies they may leave for those who follow. This site is dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in all fields.
This Eight of Pentacles indicates a time when you have to work hard and hone you skills. It demands focusing entirely on your tasks. The task that you need to accomplish can be personal or professional.
From Murder of Crows Tarot
The Raven Scribe seen here is focused. She is busily working at her desk, documenting stories of the trials, challenges and celebrations of the flock who call her world of Crows home.
Her interest was piqued when she heard about Waltzes with Matildas and suggested that there could be a whole section featuring the stories of women who are actively contributing to the Tarot community in a myriad of fascinating ways.
A deck creator may well choose the Eight of Pentacles to write about the labour and devotion demanded. Another woman might choose the Four of Wands to help her talk about milestones she is celebrating and to spread the word of work she is doing.
Really the possibilities are endless. I wonder if anyone will come and play and exchange a story? There are no hidden costs and nothing to lose. Everyone who engages, no matter their nation, will potentially be a winner as they extend their reach.
Hit the contact section if you want to come and play!
Lay down a whole deck of cards and you can be sure that many cards could be used to write about Ellen Miles, or for that matter, any woman featured here – any of us. Her story matters to us today because hers is a rare and unmediated voice from the criminal underclass of women and children who were transported to Australia.
child convict, goldfields pickpocket and vagrant
“—Me name’s Miles; Ellen Miles, remarked an old woman at the City Court yesterday.
—And you are charged with vagrancy, stated Sergeant Eason. Can you show the Bench that you have means of support?
—‘How can I support myself when I’m continually in gaol and not a shilling coming into the house? What is it at all? What are us old people to do? There is no institution in the country,’ replied Mrs Miles“
Ellen (Buzzwinkle) Miles was a child of the 1830s and lived until 1916. How aware she ever was of the Great World outside her tiny one of back lanes, brothels and bars, we have no idea, but her life spanned the history of Victoria from the discovery of gold to Gallipoli.
She did register to vote in 1903, but hers was an underlife as she waddled around Canvas Town, Romeo Lane, the gold fields, Collingwood – and for one mad adventure, to Adelaide, her copious skirts concealing her latest stolen goods. Wherever there was a lurk to exploit and a lark to celebrate, Ellen was there.
The Two of Cups is a very positive card. While it normally relates to unity and love in romantic relationships it can signify harmony and mutual respect and appreciation in friendships and partnerships.
A strong pair is indicated here, the joy of two becoming one.
The Two of Cups is an exchange. You offer your cup – a container for all the love and pain and mystery in your heart – to someone, to something. In return, you receive their cup. There is so much trust here, so much willingness to be naked in this way.
If the Ace of Cups represents the flow of love from within, the Two of Cups is the flow of love between two people. With this card, you are creating deep connections and partnerships, based on shared values, compassion, and unconditional love.
So, when professional surfer Caroline Marks held up her cheque for winning the first competition of the 2019 WSL’s Championship Tour, and it displayed the same amount as on the cheque in the men’s competition, it was a watershed moment.
For many of the women who had pioneered women’s rights in the sport in years past, it marked an incredibly special moment in history.
Jodie Cooper, Pauline Menczer, Jolene and Jorja Smith, Wendy Botha, Alisa Schwarzstein, Rochelle Ballard, Layne Beachley, Pam Burridge, Frieda Zamba, and Lisa Anderson are some of the pioneers of women’s surfing who preserved for years on end without equality in the sport.
When you pull this card in a reading, it stands for harmony, togetherness, and working as a team to build a strong partnership.
Jodie and Pauline established a close bond. They both trained in Bondi and travelled to competitions together, meeting regularly in the water.
The Two of Cups is a very positive card. While it normally relates to unity and love in romantic relationships it can signify harmony and mutual respect and appreciation in friendships and partnerships.
A strong pair is indicated here, the joy of two becoming one.
The Two of Cups is an exchange. You offer your cup – a container for all the love and pain and mystery in your heart – to someone, to something. In return, you receive their cup. There is so much trust here, so much willingness to be naked in this way.
If the Ace of Cups represents the flow of love from within, the Two of Cups is the flow of love between two people. With this card, you are creating deep connections and partnerships, based on shared values, compassion, and unconditional love.
When the cameras started rolling on Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis in October 1970, both their lives and Australia would never be the same.
“The early 1970s were very, very conservative … Gay women were invisible, because people didn’t think lesbians existed,” said Ms Papps.
The Tarot Card Two of Cups as a person is someone who is very well-balanced and content with their life. They have a strong sense of inner peace and harmony and can bring that positivity to their relationships. They are devoted to their emotions and can express them clearly and openly to those around them.
The Chariot is the card of triumph, success, determination, and action. The Chariot usually shows a brave warrior standing tall in his chariot. He is all about taking charge and moving forward. He is not about thinking or feeling, but about doing.
The Charioteer knows what she wants and how to get it. Although the two sphinxes in the front of the carriage are pulling in different directions, the Charioteer has a strength of steel. She pushes them to go her way and to follow her will.
Fanny Finch was born Frances Combe in London, 1815. Her parents were believed to be of African descent, At eight weeks of age she was orphaned by her mother after a tryst with a footman ended in a pregnancy and no marriage proposal. She grew up in the St Pancreas Fledgling Home which protected her from slavery and provided her with an education.
Much has been made of the fact that Fanny was the first woman in Australia to defy the establishment and vote in an election, but her life was more than that moment in 1856 when she wrote her name at the bottom of a ballot paper. Fanny overcame incredible challenges and actively took control of her life.
The Chariot tarot card is all about overcoming challenges and gaining victory through maintaining control of your surroundings. This perfect control and confidence allows the charioteer to emerge victorious in any situation. The use of strength and willpower are critical in ensuring that you overcome the obstacles that lie in your path.
In 1836 at the age of 21, Fanny was granted free passage to the new colony of South Australia as a servant of the well regarded surgeon William Wyatt. There she married a sailor and had four children. Finding herself with an abusive husband she left with her four children to pave her own way. They walked from South Australia to Melbourne and then, after arriving in Melbourne, she pushed a wheelbarrow from Melbourne to the Forest Creek goldfields, where she settled.
Mrs. Finch’s Board and Lodging House became a “respectable” place of accommodations for the 25,000 gold mining men and women in the town of Forest Creek. Finch eventually moved to Castlemaine in 1854 and ran a restaurant, becoming an admired and successful businesswoman in the community. Not surprisingly, evidence points to Finch also being a sex worker while raising her four children as a single parent. But as historian and PhD candidate Kacey Sinclair remarked, “She was a single mother of four and there was no other way to send her kids to school, feed them, and keep a roof over their heads.”
Finch’s establishment was often the target of police injustice, including a conviction of illegal alcohol-selling, which motivated her to vote.
“I am a woman of but few words and plainly spoken…whatever my position may be, I have worked hard to keep my daughters in a good school and give them an education as I myself have not got…”
Finch died in 1863 and was laid to rest in an unmarked grave. Kacey Sinclair and Finch’s great-great-great granddaughter Alice Garner, an actress and author, worked together to bring recognition to Finch’s life and important place in history. Finch’s new memorial, funded by a grant from the government, reads that she was “brave and outspoken, unfailingly supportive of those in need.”
Facts and Fiction
A Letter to Mother is a fictional Aussie yarn about another woman whose life journey bought her to Castlemaine
Being outed, quitting your job, getting fired, getting dumped. Getting totally called out (and being able to learn from it). These are all examples of Tower moments. Shock events that feel incredibly painful, but that ultimately move us forwards, to a point of no return.
In this Pro Talk by Rachel Pollack, for the Arts University of Plymouth, Pollack provides rich insight into how liberating the destruction of the tower can be for transgender people who finally come out and claim their true identity.
Perhaps best known as the star performer at Capriccios, the first gay club to open in Oxford St, Sydney, in the early 1970s, Rose Jackson’s career as both a costumier and entertainer boasted many highlights.
Born Barry Jackson on September 11 1935 at Paddington Women’s Hospital, Rose said she knew “from the minute she was born” that a male body was not right for her. An athletic young man, Barry loved to swim and for a short period was even a Bondi lifesaver. But it was ‘too butch’. Instead, gay men introduced Barry to a secret Sydney world of parties, fine dining and fashion; and when he began going out in public as a woman. He took the name Rose, after Marilyn Monroe’s character in Niagara, Rose Loomis.
The thing that has always distressed me – and it has taken me years and years to get over it – is the fact that one does have to lie. … It came to the point where I had to say: ‘This is the way I want to be’. But not without thirty years of the most dreadful traumatic pressure. When you consider that you have to live a lie for your parents, to the public, to your friends and your work, the problem seems insurmountable. It takes a long, long time to be able to say: ‘I don’t care about the rest of the world: this is my life and I cannot cheat myself by not living it’. All those things need to said. It takes great strength. From a monologue by Rose Jackson
By the age of 18, Barry was working as a window dresser at David Jones. His design talent was noticed and he soon accepted a position as display manager for Curzons, where he coordinated around 300 fashion parades as well as designing and supervising the seasonal window displays. At 24, Barry went to Europe and, after time in London and Paris, worked as a display manager for a leading chain of department stores in Sweden.
By the time Barry returned to Sydney five years later, in 1964, his home city had changed. Walking home one night to his apartment in Kings Cross, he discovered a club called the Jewel Box, where not only were there drag performances but some of the boys were taking hormone therapy.
By the late 1960s, Barry was living fully as a woman in Paddington. Making costumes for Sydney’s leading theatre company, the Old Tote, by day, he performed at the Purple Onion club at night. It is the Purple Onion — on the site of the current Kens at Kensington — that can claim to have pushed Rose’s costume design skills to the fore, as well as introducing her to regular performing. Rose and the other cast members lived above the premises in what she described as “a drag kibbutz”.
In 1969, Dawn O’Donnell opened Capriccios, to offer drinks, a dancefloor, and a fully costumed drag show. It wasn’t long before Rose was the undisputed star, with a persona that highlighted an elegant femininity.
In 1983 David Mitchell and David Penfold created a show for Rose based on her life and career called Rose’s Turn. It played at Kinselas and was a huge success. She then opened her own club, Rose’s, on Goulburn St.
There Rose performed with stars including Judi Connelli and Tony Sheldon. Sheldon has said his interpretation of Bernadette in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, currently playing in New York, is based on Rose Jackson.
Diverse Tower Moments
“The dust will settle. And you will be standing in the rubble, watching the air clear. There may be some mourning to be done, some goodbyes to say or loose ends to tie up. People, including you, may be scared or lost. But. The tower that was dominating the landscape is now gone, and there is space for something new”. Sourced from Little Red Tarot
The Eight of Swords can represent feeling trapped, confined, restricted or backed into a corner or having your hands tied. It signifies fear, terror, anxiety and psychological issues. It is a Minor Arcana card of hopelessness, helplessness, powerlessness, slavery, persecution and being silenced or censored.
A little like the Devil, the Eight of Swords gives us a picture of bondage. It presents a figure with their hands tied, blindfolded, surrounded by sharp swords. This can be a difficult card to see emerge in a spread for it is a card that demands you investigate your status as a victim and acknowledge your own role in any possible downfalls that may be occurring around you.
To gain more understanding of how we might see this energetic play out it helps to see through the eyes of an Australian women who felt trapped and bound by the imprisonment and public judgements.
On August 17, 1980, at a campsite near Australia’s famous Ayer’s Rock, a mother’s cry came out of the dark: “My God, my God, the dingo’s got my baby!” Soon the people of an entire continent would be choosing sides in a debate over whether the cry heard that night marked an astonishing and rare human fatality caused by Australia’s wild dogs or was, rather, in the words of the man who would eventually prosecute her for murder, “a calculated, fanciful lie.” A jury of nine men and three women came to believe the latter story and convicted Lindy Chamberlain for the murder of her ten-week-old daughter, Azaria.
The Chamberlains fought to prove their innocence, until they reached the end of all legal means available to them. But suddenly, bowing to multiple pressures, the Northern Territory released Lindy and established a Royal Commission to review all the evidence. Ultimately, the Chamberlain’s convictions were quashed and they were exonerated. Four years later they received some compensation.
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the Chamberlain case is that it helps us address both the upright and reversed interpretations of this card.
On the Labyrinthos site it states that “getting the reversed Eight of Swords is a good sign, since it shows maturity and self-acceptance, and a recognition of one’s own power and responsibility – especially after a long struggle of doubt. It means that one is capable of making conscious decisions because they are confident in who they are, and their power to affect change in both themselves and the world. It’s time to free ones self from the past and proverbially clear out their closet, creating room for new things and experiences”.
For some the weighty Judgement card is the penultimate card of accountability. Some interpret it as offering an opportunity to pull off the masks we have been wearing and be accountable to ourselves, be honest about our choices.
Holding up a mirror on our life and the lives of our ancestors takes courage. It is not easy to hear the accusing voices and own up to it all, to acknowledge the successes and failures, to feel. regret about choices made, opportunities lost, moral infringements. But the self acceptance that comes with doing a reckoning is liberating. It sets us free when we dispassionately see the pattern of our lives.
Magda Szubanski is indisputably one of Australia’s most loved comic actors. However her true identity has been hidden within the characters she has played, like Sharon, the unlucky in love netball player, who shot to fame in the comic series Kath and Kim.
When Szubanski took up the challenge of writing her memoir, entitled ‘Reckoning’, she peeled back protective coatings and unflinchingly exposed old emotional wounds. Like a forensic scientist she explores wounds passed from one generation to another.
Are you up for this kind of introspection and reckoning?
The word Judgement is loaded. In the Judgement Card in the Rider Waite deck we see an angel, with a huge horn, beckoning the dead to rise from their graves and, presumably, face judgement. It certainly invokes ideas expressed in the New Testament where the primary idea of redemption is the deliverance from bondage, specifically the bondage of sin.
However many readers do not subscribe to the idea that there is a judgement, ransom or reckoning taking place and this view is supported by artists like Rachel Pollack’s who replaces the word Judgement with ‘Awakening’ in her ‘Shining Tribe Tarot‘. The idea is that the Angel is calling upon the dry bones to awaken and reincarnate into a fresh new life.
It would be easy to think of this kind of awakening or transition as some kind of rebirth, but really, as Lisa Freinkel Tishman points out in her book ‘Mindful Tarot’ it is more about simply responding to a divine calling, responding to the trumpeter and accepting the intervention of a higher power. It implies that the time is right for the querent to move into a brand new phase. The querent can look forward to dynamic new beginnings.
Sandra’s personal life is an incredible tale of trauma, transition, transformation, and survival.
Sandra Anne Pankhurst’s early experience was horrendous. It was not a good beginning. At the age of seven, when she still identified as a boy, Sandra’s given name was ‘Peter’. As Peter he was told by his adoptive family that he was “no longer wanted”. After that, he survived 10 years of severe physical and psychological abuse before running away from home.
At 18, Peter married and soon after had the first of two boys with his then-wife. At 23, when Peter’s wife discovered that he had been visiting gay bars, Peter went through a major transition. He moved out of the family home, separated from his wife, and embraced his emerging identity as a woman, as Sandra.
For many trans people, transitioning is a process of becoming the gender identity they always wanted to be. But for Sandra, it wasn’t like that – she didn’t always want to be a woman. In Sandra’s experience, she decided to transition when she learned that it was possible.
Read the Trauma Cleaner and marvel at how Sandra Anne Pankhurst, an individual, who had faced a lifetime of hostility and transphobic abuse eventually responded to a calling and became dedicated to cleaning up the messes left behind after the trauma of suicide, meth labs, and hoarding. The idea for her trauma cleaning business emerged when she was a funeral director, as there were no death/crime scene specialist cleaners.
Pankhurst was also an active advocate for aged care rights, disability, mental health and ethics. She was extremely passionate about making a positive impact on the welfare of people of all lifestyles in the aged care and mental health sector.
The word judgement usually implies that one is going to evaluate evidence before making a decision. However in the case of Tarot the Judgement card is often said to signal a time of resurrection and awakening, a time when a period of our life comes to an absolute end one must make way for a new dynamic beginning.
Both the Amenti Oracle and the After Tarot bring to mind our so called ‘Day of Judgment’, the time when an individual has to account for their lives before resurrection. The Guardian Tarot which depicts figures rising from what appears to be an urban area gives some weight to the idea that historywill be the judge of our actions (finally determining what is the good and the true).
The Judgement card is a call to face yourself, completely. To hold up a mirror to your entire life, to see it all. To own it all. Your successes and your failures. The good times and the bad. Everything you’re proud of, and all that you wish you’d done differently. It’s yours – and you must own it all, you must accept it all.
The problem with the idea of a day of judgement, that somewhere in the future there will be a commuppance for those who sinned, is that modern society is strewn with harmful acts that were justified as serving some higher purpose. We all bear the rippled impact of such heinous acts.
Rather than orientate towards the shortcomings of moral recklessness it is, perhaps, more helpful to talk about the actions of those whose contributions provide an example for others to follow.
Mary Bennett was the daughter of a successful squatter. Although she wrote with love and admiration about her father in her book Christison of Lammermoor, by the end of her life she would describe Western Australian squatters as the “enemy” of Aboriginal people. In 1927 she referred to the 1891 striking shearers as “a cruel and cowardly lot,” but three decades later she worked with their union, the Australian Workers’ Union, to gain wage justice for Indigenous workers.
Although she has been described as a feminist, she fell out with Perth feminists in the 1930s when they failed to oppose the removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers. She never went to school herself, but she became a gifted and progressive educator on Mount Margaret Mission. Her thinking about Indigenous Australians and their place in Australian society displayed great intelligence, a strong moral compass and a palpable love for the first peoples of this land.
On her death in 1961, a large crowd of Wongatha, the Aboriginal people from the Kalgoorlie region, gathered in the heat on the red earth of the area’s main cemetery to mourn the loss of their friend and patron. There were elderly folk, weather-beaten pastoral workers and family groups carrying their young children. The mourners’ lives would become more difficult with the loss of their friend and advocate.
As Australians collectively recover from the fallout of the Voice Referendum it is worth looking to figures like Bennet for guidance about how to ensure we are accountable to our descendants and don’t leave a legacy of guilt. Far better to show we have contributed to the well being of all people in a positive way.
The Devil holds number 15, and it is the sixteenth tarot card of the Major Arcana cards. At its core, it usually represents being tied up to something or someone, to the point of unhealthy addiction.
Jenny Valentish, a British journalist who now calls Australia home published ‘Woman of Substances’.
In Woman of Substances Valentish investigates the female experience of drugs and alcohol, using her own story to light the way. Her travels around Australia take her to treatment facilities and AA groups. Mining the expertise of leading researchers, she explores the early predictors of addiction, such as childhood trauma and temperament, and teenage impulsivity.
Drawing on neuroscience, she explains why other self-destructive behaviours – such as eating disorders, compulsive buying and high-risk sex – are interchangeable with problematic substance use. Her work helps us understand how the Devil chains us.
From the Mythic Tarot
On an inner level the Devil is an image of bondage to the crudest, most instinctual aspect of human nature. His image arouses fear within us, fear that he is holding a mirror and exposing our most base self. The Devil is associated with uncivilised sexual impulses and Dionysian behaviours. Unfortunately, while society may compel us to relegate him to the shadows, his presence is very real, manifesting itself in all sorts of nefarious ways. The challenge is to free oneself by gaining knowledge and establishing an honest relationship with this aspect of self. In doing so one releases the chains and lessens the Devil’s control.
Releasing the Devil’s Hold
Forced to accept an unwanted situation
Being under someone’s control
Dealing with addiction and obsession
Being codependent
Being tied down against your own will
Being materialistic
Over-indulging
Being caught up in physical appearances
Being ignorant of the truth
Facing limitations
Fearing the unknown
Lack of faith
Giving to despair
Tarot as a Tool to Confront the Devil
I use tarot through a lens of self-care, choosing to find usefulness in the cards, and ultimately supporting myself by engaging with the challenges in my life rather than hiding from them.
Working with tarot can help to shift the understanding of our life experiences from an entirely subjective inner mind monologue to something with a shade more objectivity, simply by grounding our ideas in a physical object that we can actually hold and examine.
It is well worth watching these videos by Katey Flowers and seeing how she reads the cards in the spreads she presents. Katey no longer presents in this forum but her vault of videos is well worth checking out.
Spread 1 courtesy of Katey Flowers
Why do I do it?
What does it take from me?
What is a small thing I can do today?
How can I stay on track?
Spread 2 courtesy of Katey Flowers
Why did I fall off the wagon?
How can I learn and forgive myself for this happening?
Waltzing With Matilda's 