2. The Traveller card : The journey of Gu

Mawu and Lisa are said to be married conjoined twins and are the perfect complementary pair. Mawu is the female goddess of the moon that symbolises passion, gentleness, forgiveness, motherhood and fertility. All characteristics that one perceives as feminine. Lisa is the male god of the sun and is connected with the day, heat, power, strength and toughness. All typical qualities that are seen as masculine. Mawu-Lisa also known as the moon and sun deities created Gu; a divine tool of the gods, in the form of a mighty sword.
Gu was known as the heavenly blacksmith and the inventor of all iron crafts. Mawu-Lisa sent Gu to Earth to do odd jobs and to teach humanity how to craft with iron. Gu filled unsightly craters, fixed leaky oceans and taught humanity how to blacksmith and create their tools to make Earth more habitable. The humans were very grateful and he was soon promoted to God of Smiths, Weapons and War.
For the second tarot card, I wanted to show Gu's journey from the heavenly realm to the earthly plane. To depict this journey, I thought I would use the fool and world card as both symbolise a journey. This would be fitting as Gu also seen as "the fool" is travelling down to the world. For the background, I used the same cosmos background as the first one as he is still travelling to earth. I had painted over, changed and manipulated the vintage world map to indicate the oldness in the tale and to represent the world card. For the webs, I got that inspiration from a tale of Ogun and how he descended to earth on the webs of spiders. I also liked the idea of webs connecting the heavens to the earth showing the human connection to belief or religion. I had put a chain around the world as this is one of many symbols for Gu.
I had Gu dressed in clothing inspired by the Dahomey military attire and Dahomey warrior statues. In my research, it stated that Gu was a headless being. So, I decided to use this opportunity to represent Gu with a golden helmet or mask as this indicates armory and would be fitting as he is not only the god of blacksmithing but the god of war as well. For the colour of his clothing, I got some inspiration from Ogun as he is represented in green, black and red reflecting nature, war and creativity.