The Sleeper

Keywords: Dreams and unrealized potential

The Sleeper is a reclining figure with long dark hair and may be male or female. The Sleeper wears a tunic and loose trews to the ankles, with bare feet. He/she lies beside and under a riot of wild poppies in a cornfield. His/her face is turned away from us into the flowers, which make a loose garland or pillow with corn stalks where they have been tumbled by The Sleeper's head. The right arm is outstretched, with palm and fingers open, but curling slightly down to the ground. The forefinger curves and hints that we should look into the earth. Most of the background is filled with the cornfield and poppies, and a sense of evening light fading softly. The image embodies peace and deep slumber.

The Sleeper is partner Trump to The Choir, and shows our unawakened being at rest. For women this image is usually female, while for men it is usually male, but this is not an inflexible condition or gender stereotyping. Your Sleeper within may be male, female or androgyne, in the Court cards we will find a number of androgynous beings.

The Sleeper is the Trump of dreams, before we are conscious of our own story, before we come into our own power. It is the condition in which we spend much of our lives, even when wide awake and fully active. In a personal reading this card indicates unrealized potential and may also reveal the dream or unrecognized longings of the individual. There is also the theme of the wisdom of the body, the spiritual power inherent within us. The Sleeper is close to the earth, and his or her finger naturally falls into a position that tells us that we may find truth, light, regeneration within the sacred land.

In a deeper sense Sleepers are the individual power and spirit of a place, such as the ancestral guardians of a sacred site or the mythic sleepers such as Merlin, Arthur, Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. While The Choir is often individual and personal, The Sleeper reveals the links between one slumbering soul and others. These links are through the Underworld and sacred land. When the Sleeper awakens we have the Trump of Arousal.

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