Time(Stopped)

UPRIGHT: desire to preserve happiness, escapism

REVERSED: selfishness

THE STORY: Several Romanian stories deal with the act of stopping time, represented by the three ever-running brothers, Dusk, Midnight and Dawn. The hero, who usually has to meet an urgent deadline, ties each of them to a tree, fulfills his task, and then comes back to release time. The suspension in time is also one of the meaning of The Hanged Man card in traditional Tarot, which served as the visual reference for the illustration. In the context of the Timemongers deck, the act of stopping time signifies the moment in which the child fulfils her wish, and mistakes this for the ending of her story. She stops time in order to protect her happiness – but soon learns that while time may have stopped for her, this does not prevent the world from burning. It’s also a reference to the forest of eternal youth, from which the hero re-emerges after three hundred years, only to find his parents dead and the palace in ruin.