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Feedback -- questions and comments are welcome.
This reading gives us insight into specific energies that we can focus on during specific days of the upcoming week as well as throughout the entire week as a whole.
Today’s reading will use the Tarot de St Croix, by Lisa de St Croix.
Here are focal points for our meditation:f
Sunday: How Can I Express Generosity? Seven of WandsI 'Namaste' Tend orchids. Menu.
Monday: How Can I Set the Emotional Tone for My Week? Ten of Pentacles 'Legacy' Estate Planning.
Tuesday: What Do I Want to Manifest? Seven of Pentacles 'Evaluation' Lightning Dream Process graphic.Wednesday: What Wisdom is Coming to Me? Three of Swords 'Peacemaker' Study tournament rules.
Thursday: What do I Want to Develop? Two of Wands 'Commitment' Dream Incubation
Friday: How Can I Connect with Romance, Friends and Nature? Matriarch of Cups 'Inspiration' Gold Set
Shabbat: How Can I Rest? VIII Yachatz 'Breakthrough' Complete Tarot Time Board.
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I will return to the tarot deck of Bologna later on, when I have assembled my mind and my health decently, but just a note to myself here:
Until 1725, Bolognese tarot had two female Popes (no Empress) and two male Popes (no Emperor), and a long succession of Popes had no reason to comment on this stylistic choice, until 1725. The Popesses and the Popes were replaced with four Moors, since exotification of foreigners was apparently all nice and dandy at the time. Bologna, boasting the world's oldest university, was located within the Papal States at the time (long before the unification of Italy), so the Papal administration had a say on what was allowed to be printed.
Another note to myself: Take a closer look at revolutionary French decks without Empress, Emperor, Kings, Queens and Jacks.
Another note to myself: Compare the Paris pattern and the Rouen pattern!!!
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Guided Visualization
Guided visualization is interesting tool. There are seminars people do this with Tarot and it can be very interesting at times. However, there is one more interesting thing that the old Orders used to do some time ago. That is, we "guide" the visualization 40-50% of the way and we let the other 60-50% develop by themselves.
So for example, we decide to walk the path of Severity to Mercy, Gevurah to Chesed that is sometimes shown as Justice(other ways to view it as well). We imagine we step through the card for example and we observe, allowing what we need to change to change. Lets say we end up in a very big courtroom corridor with lawyers and prosecutors rushing in to work on cases in the smaller rooms on the sides, with a marble black and white floors and giant statue in front of us similar to the artwork on the deck we use.
Or maybe in an old kingsroom where the King had to decide a case between his ministers, so a very different setting and one that is solely decided by one, although again based on purely human decision of what is appropriate and what isn't.
If we could allow these setting to show up by itself that is even nicer, but even if we decide to choose it or base it exactly on the cards, after we are there the important factor is to act like in the real world, there is some part of this that comes from us, what we think and see, how we feel etc. and that we can choose, but to be able to let go and not control what happens outside. Someone may come to talk with us, or some event may happen that shows us what we need to know. Some of the rooms may call to us and lead elsewhere etc.
That was called "working with the paths". We can see the Tree of Life as reflecting the processes around us and based on what we have problems with we can walk the paths there to understand it fully, deeply and balance it out. And again, while guided visualization is very interesting, its important to allow big part of what we see to come in spontaneous and not controlled way, as that is a more direct and powerful way of divination.
Similar to I Ching/Yi Jing where we have text for some active lines and the idea if we have more then one active we have to make the text ourselves, one can say we have some Images on the cards as a guide in what direction we may want to start, but the actual images we divine based on can come in a more free and unbiased way.
There are schools relate dto Kabbalah that work a lot with that, there are rules to it. For example if one sees a dark place they don't want to go in, they should go in imagining they are protected. And other stuff like that, more info in some topic somewhere around the forums. But even if one does it without rules in a more free form can still be very beneficial for understanding stuff, in my humble view. : )
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Get The Start Right
Learning the Tarot can be a daunting task, especially in the beginning.
More so, if you want an accurate assessment without paying a competent reader.
A less than ideal situation arises by being in a pinch.
It seems the universe took a liking to such situations, so in the future, if someone asks me what a pinch is, I will state with confidence: "The place where you start to read Tarot".
We have zero experience, want clarity, and are in a pinch.
The question must be "How to get results under these conditions?"
The very first thing we need is an acquaintance with the cards, however small, to create some sort of rapport with the deck (whichever pack it may be).
For that, we skim through the deck and look at each picture for a brief moment.
That finished, put it away for a small time and concentrate on breathing until bored (may happen quickly), then we take to the cards again.
This time, we form three piles: The Good, The Bad, The So-So.
We do this without looking at any meanings.
The important part is to notice how each card hits different when we look at it.
All three piles complete, we equip ourselves with a pencil and grab the booklet attached in order to find something useful.
Take one of either, the "Good" or the "Bad" pile. Leave the "So-So" for last.
Identify each card and find it in the list. There should be a compilation of keywords attached, find and underline the one which makes the most sense for you.
In this step, we get rid of ambiguity - in the beginning, it serves no purpose save making one stumble.
For the cards in the "Good" pile, we choose a positive keyword each, the one which makes the most sense to you when looking at the card's picture.
For the cards in the "Bad" pile, we choose a negative keyword each, also the one which makes the most sense to you when looking at the card's picture.
For the cards in the "So-So" pile, we choose whatever keyword hits home for us when looking at the cards picture.
Now, put the piles together again.
Next, a very important step: We ditch the idea of reversals.
In the very beginning, they often serve no purpose save adding to our confusion.
You need to know how the card hits when its standing before trying to make sense of it upside down.
You also need to know that there are quiet a few readers who do not use reversals at all, to great success.
Tell that to your deck: "I will turn the reversed cards upright."
Now, you do have the basis for a successful communication.
Next, make the first read count by focusing on what it is you want to know.
Boil it down to what it really is, be honest and phrase it into a single, direct question.
Write it on a sheet of paper, large enough to be read easily from a meter away - that is where you place it so you may shuffle while focusing on your question.
Decide on the amount of cards you want to use before actually shuffling the cards, starting from a minimum of three.
If you use some sort of spread, tell it to your deck. If you just want to deal three cards in a row, say that, too.
Vocalisation helps in establishing a clear intent, and we do need that.
Now we may start reading from a somewhat more stable position, and more likely than not, we will be able to get some sense out of our read.
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It's been a while... how y'all doing?
Hello, this is Van.
A lot of things happened in this semester. I got a job as a teacher and I'm having my final exams in college (not the finals of the course just for the semeste). All of this means that I did not have enough time to focus only in the readings, which is kind of sad, but i decided to start over (not all over again, but catching up where I stopped). Even though with all of this I managed to keep doing some reading, I have tried to do some with my significant other and well, just for some of context he's the kind of guy that is skeptical about everything, and even if he made a little fun of me in the beginning I guess right now he respect it.
Well, as being someone so closed about almost everything, it was hard to have some information (this is a belief here, if you don't permit people to see, than no one will ever be able to see it), each time I questioned The Emperor appeared, and I laughed almost every time, because this card is exactly the kind of person he is.
I got more confident, which is great, but I still practice more and learn more so I can get accurate readings. And guys I pretend to bring more stuff, I just don't have that time yet 😅😅😅
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Amor et Psyche: the Oracle that could have happened…
…but didn’t.
This is a bit of a rant, so please bear with me.
At first glance, there’s nothing to dislike about this Oracle, published in 2021 by Lo Scarabeo. It’s based on the illustrations that Georges Barbier did for the 1922 edition of The Songs of Bilitis, a collection of Ancient-Greek-style erotic poems written by Pierre Louÿs and first published in 1894. The poems were so well-crafted and skillfully presented by the author that, for a while, they were taken for original ancient poetry that had miraculously survived for centuries and was recently rediscovered by an archeologist. The illustrations go perfectly with them, and while they bear a definite Art Deco flavor, they convey the particular Ancient Greek lack of embarrassment about depicting the human body and various pleasurable actions humans engage in.
What ruins this harmony is the titles on the cards (and the associated “stories” in the LWB). One of the cards is titled “Body Positive” – a notion much too modern and in all probability incompatible with how Greeks viewed the body. If anything, they were “body negative”, to the point when anything but a young, healthy, athletic, beautiful body was mocked and used as a metaphor for various negative character traits. The card itself depicts two women on what looks like a romantic picnic – they’re both young, beautiful, and quite trim, which makes the title of the card look misplaced. To make it worse, one of the women is a woman of color, which kind of pushes the card’s “body positive” message into some ugly alleys.
There’s a card called “Warrior of Love” – a young man on a horse. I have no idea what it means, aside from the toxic idea that one has to “fight” for one’s love – the idea that, sadly, sprouted quite a few creeps.
One of the worst cards in the deck is probably this one:
The associated story in the LWB mentions Cupid and “a vision of the ideal romance”. What the author of the deck, unfortunately, didn’t seem to realize is that the winged youth with two downward-facing, extinguished torches isn’t Cupid – it’s Thanatos, the god of death (at which point the title of the card – “Ideal Romance” – looks like dark sarcasm). Ironically, Thanatos makes his appearance not in person, but in the title of a different card – “Eros and Thanatos”, another anachronistic title with its Freudian innuendo.
What is particularly distressing is that none of this has to happen. Both the poems and the illustrations provide enough of various situations, ideas, and moods to make an adequate psychological tool for analyzing relationships. For example, the card titled “The Charm of Simplicity” is reduced to basically enjoying simple pleasures of life (and love). However, the image (censored 😛) and the story behind it tell something much more interesting.
Here, young Bilitis is in love with a young shepherd – she doesn’t know yet that he will first sexually assault her and then become her abusive husband. But in the image, look how differently they’re positioned. She’s standing up, and doves circle around her, landing on her open palm. Doves were associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, – and love is what’s on the girl’s mind here, in its most pure and sweet form. The young man is lying down – his legs are spread, and he’s playing an aulos, a Greek double flute that was connected with satyrs and the cult of Dionysus. He obviously isn’t thinking about love – all he cares about is sex. Some charm can (probably) be found in such simplicity – but the way these two lovers’ hopes clash is much more useful in an actual reading.
What seems to have ruined the potential of this deck is the unfortunate mix-up that exists in the very broad category of Oracle decks – the mix-up between true Oracles (divination decks) and all kinds of inspirational/meditation/affirmation cards (decks that advise and inspire, rather than analyze and predict). In an attempt to make the latter out of this particular deck, I think the author missed a good opportunity to make the former. To be fair, as an affirmation deck, it does work pretty decently – it’s just that it could have been so much more.
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Hi everyone - this isn't really a review, but just some thoughts after receiving the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot Deck. It's a very personal view, and I appreciate not everyone will agree. It's also not an attempt to criticise or blame. Please take it in the spirit of positive critique of two very beautiful contemporary RWS-family decks. 🙂
So, it's been a little less than a week since I received my copy of the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot deck, an impulse buy having seen its gorgeous art online. I almost never buy tarot decks; the Golden Art Nouveau deck is my seventh deck ever, in more than forty years of reading and studying tarot. My working deck for the past 3 years has been the beautiful Radiant Wise Spirit, which I'm still a great fan of, despite certain shortcomings (see below). Before that, I used mostly the Sacred Rose Tarot, with an occasional foray (and back!) into the Thoth.
My first impressions on receiving the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot were unfortunately a bit disappointing. The artwork is indeed spectacular, gorgeous, very original. It's also a very faithful (to 95%+ fidelity) representation of Pamela's original RWS illustrations in a more three-dimensional, art nouveau style. There's a lot of gold leaf, some beautiful illustration, and the artwork is highly attractive.
At the same time, I felt the deck was inferior to the Radiant Wise Spirit. My reasons for thinking that shed light on just how well crafted the original RWS is, probably why it's survived so long as the world's favourite tarot deck, and why the modern clones (including the Radiant Wise Spirit) are standing on the shoulders of a real giant.
But to get into more detail...
My first negative impression with the Golden Art Nouveau was the physical flimsiness of the cards. They're thin. They feel very much like a standard deck of playing cards you might find in a bar or a dime store. The beautiful artwork already has a border of art nouveau tracery (think Moët et Chandon), but the cards have an additional white border around that. This serves to make the actual artwork on the cards smaller. This is a shame, because the GANT deck cards are already quite small in width; they're about the same height as the Radiant Wise Spirit, but about 80% of the width, a good 10% of which is the two borders. My guestimate is therefore that the GANT artwork is about 75% of the size of the Radiant Wise Spirit artwork. As they're trying to fit in the same detail, it feels a little crammed in. The Radiant Wise Spirit is already borderless, and has a larger, heavier, more rigid cardstock, so the whole thing feels bigger and more substantial in comparison.
The second negative impression was that the GANT cards look pretty similar. There are some attempts to put highlights in the borders to differentiate between the suits in the minor arcana, but by and large all the cards use broadly the same narrow palette; golden hues, whites, browns, yellows, with occasional other colours. It gives the deck an artistic unity, but at the same time actually makes it quite difficult to differentiate between the cards at a glance. With the RWS, and the Radiant Wise Spirit, each card is remarkably distinctive; you can tell at a glance, and at a distance, what card you're looking at, which you can't with the GANT. This makes the Radiant Wise Spirit much easier to read and interpret; I found myself having to really "look at" a GANT card to figure out what it was. For me, it simply wasn't as user-friendly.
There were other minor quibbles in the illustrations. The GANT has chosen (I assume deliberately) to leave out certain details that are present in the RWS. I found this a little annoying, as for me the RWS decks are all about visual cues, mnemonics, esoteric details, what-have-you, and not to see them in an RWS clone was disconcerting. Here are a few examples:
- in the 10 of Swords, the Lord of Ruin, the prone figure is no longer making the hierophantic gesture with his right hand.
- in the 4 of Swords, the Lord of Rest From Strife, the three swords on the wall are no longer positioned over the supine figure's chakras, and the word PAX is no longer visible in the stained glass window.
- in VI The Lovers, the man is no longer looking at the woman, and the Archangel Raphael now appears female.
- in the 4 of Wands, the Lord of Perfected Work, all symmetry of the four wands structure is gone, and indeed the art nouveau border is actually covering most of one of the wands, so that only three of them are easily visible.
- in the 6 of Pentacles, the Lord of Material Success, the bandages on the head of one of the beggars are gone.
- in the High Priestess, the Priestess's neutral, almost trance-like expression is gone, replaced by something that appears quite like haughty disdain, even condescension. There's also no longer the tiny glimpse of what lies beyond the veil between the two pillars. The High Priestess has always been my favourite card, but here I found it quite cold and unsympathetic.
- in the Knight of Pentacles, the Knight's horse is no longer stationary, but indeed appears to be in mid-gallop (or at least mid-trot), which runs counter to the general concept of the Knight of Pentacles being the most immobile of the knights.
The GANT isn't all bad, of course! As well as being artistically gorgeous, I very much appreciate there being no text on the court cards, making it easy to apply one's own titles. I did, however, found the undeniable male-ness of the Pages to be a bit of an untimely decision; it's very hard to imagine those blokes as "princesses". They also don't look terribly youthful; the Page of Wands, indeed, looks downright rough (and a bit dodgy).
On the whole, I appreciated the artwork in the GANT much more as artwork than as tarot card illustrations. Some of the symbolism choices seemed odd, and didn't give me a whole lot of confidence that the designs were done with a keen occult eye. Finally, I found the card backs a little underwhelming, and surprisingly unsymmetrical; for me, that's not a thing, but I know people for whom it is. It would have taken little to make the card backs indistinguishable for reversals.
Finally, for balance, I feel I should call out some of the negative things about the Radiant Wise Spirit. For me, it's currently my go-to deck, and the best I've found for my purposes. I love the heavier cardstock, and the fact that it's borderless, as well as its beautiful colours. But there are weaknesses. Here are some of them.
- first, sometimes the line work is frankly sloppy. In the worst cases, it looks like the originals have been traced over with a way-too-thick felt tip pen, and that obscures Pamela's fine linework and elegant illustrations. A particularly egregious example is the Eight of Cups, Abandoned Success, whose linework should never have made it through proofing. I would happily buy a new version of the Radiant Wise Spirit where this particular deficiency is fixed; it shouldn't be that hard to correct. Another example is the Queen of Cups, who frankly now looks just a bit pissed off.
- second, some of the colour choices appear to have been made without consideration of esoteric significance. A glaring example is that the "white hands" on the Aces have all gone, and have been replaced by flesh-coloured hands, despite Book T giving clear indications to the contrary. Likewise, all trace of haloes around those hands are gone; given that the actual number of rays in the hand haloes has esoteric significance, I consider this an omission.
On the whole, though, my quibbles with the Radiant Wise Spirit are minor for me personally, and don't impact the deck's great effectiveness and usability. In contrast, my issues with the Golden Art Nouveau are more significant, and, at this moment, I don't think I'll be using it for readings. However, I must admit I'm considering whether it might be a good deck for pathworking, at least with certain cards (maybe I'll steer clear of the High Priestess...); their three dimensional nature may make them very effective for creative visualisation as long as you can deal with the occasional missing details and idiosyncratic vibes in certain cases. And, the cards really are very pretty, my above comments notwithstanding, and if you want some serious RWS-related eye-candy, I'd still recommend taking a look. For me, though, I would pay good money for a larger, borderless version of the Golden Art Nouveau deck, on heavier cardstock and perhaps (ideally) with a little attention and tweaking to the colour palette. That could well be a game-changer.
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A New Deck: The Alchemical Tarot
I bought a new tarot deck, and it was well overdue. I was feeling burnt out on the jumble of symbolic systems found in The Hermetic Tarot, and the imagery of the Rider-Waite-Smith decks and their numerous copies had become stale. On the other hand, I encountered many decks online that didn't resonate with me at all; their symbolism was minimal, and the distinctions between the cards were vague. This left me feeling disheartened, but I must admit that I hadn’t been searching thoroughly enough.
I have two main criteria for a tarot deck, and it must meet at least one of them:
- 1. The visual language must appeal to me aesthetically.
- 2. The meaning system must be structured and intellectually stimulating.
Therefore, it was a breath of fresh air to discover that Robert M. Place's The Alchemical Tarot meets both of these criteria: it is both beautiful and complex. Additionally, it features a theme that has captivated me for years and that I regularly explore: alchemy. I find the idea that material 'reality' can be equated with—or at least serve as a metaphor for—a spiritual truth absolutely fascinating. This aligns with the Hermetic principle "as above, so below," a concept I hold dear.
The deck showcases artwork that appears quite old-fashioned, as if it belongs to a bygone era. The color palette is calm and harmonious; all the cards are similar enough to blend seamlessly together, yet they possess distinct differences that make them easy to distinguish. However, I don’t want this to read as a promotional piece, nor do I intend to write a formal review.
I prefer to delve into the alchemical principles embodied in this deck. First, there are the four suits: Coins, Vessels, Swords, and Staffs, which represent the alchemical elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, and also correspond to Jung's proposed psychological functions. The Vessels represent intuition, emphasizing possibilities and deeper meanings. The Coins are associated with feeling, focusing on values and emotions in relationships. The Swords align with thinking, prioritizing logic and analysis in decision-making. Finally, the Staffs relate to sensation, grounding individuals in the present and emphasizing tangible experiences. Together, these suits provide a holistic approach to tarot readings, facilitating self-discovery and personal growth by integrating various aspects of the psyche. This deck thus combines medieval alchemical views with modern psychological insights.
The major arcana beautifully reflect the alchemist's Magnum Opus, or the search for the Philosopher's Stone. It's not a gradual, perfect progression but a journey filled with ups and downs, illustrating that some experiments may fail, falter, or get abandoned—and that’s perfectly okay; that’s life. Concepts like Nigredo (the stage of blackening or decomposition), Albedo (the stage of whitening or purification), Citrinization (the stage of yellowing or enlightenment), and Rubedo (the stage of reddening or completion) are present, along with the underlying processes of distillation and purification. In some cases, these are represented by glyphs, but there are also more metaphorical images such as the Green Lion (Strength) and the Grey Wolf (Nine of Staffs).
The Green Lion symbolizes the raw, untamed forces of transformation, representing the initial breakdown of materials in the alchemical process. In contrast, the Grey Wolf embodies loyalty and instinct, signifying the journey through the darker aspects of the self. Together, they reflect the balance between primal potential and intuitive guidance in the alchemical journey.
The deck also features the colors red and white quite prominently in many cards. White is associated with mercury, symbolizing the fluid, receptive aspects of transformation and the unifying force of intellect. Conversely, red represents sulfur, which embodies the active, fiery principle of transformation and the spirit's passion. This interplay between red sulfur and white mercury illustrates the dynamic balance needed for true alchemical transformation, merging spirit and matter on the path to enlightenment.
In summary, The Alchemical Tarot connects alchemical concepts with psychological insights, offering a unique lens through which to explore personal transformation. Its rich imagery and symbolism encourage reflection on the processes of change and self-discovery. Engaging with this deck allows individuals to navigate their journeys, blending ancient wisdom with contemporary understanding as they seek to harmonize the various aspects of their lives. Having already begun to work with it, I am curious to see what this deck will reveal to me as I continue my exploration.
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~Ginger and lemon herbal tea.~
Aaaah, lemon and ginger herbal tea... who has never heard of it? In this issue we will explain how to prepare it, everyone don't worry!
But first of all, why these two ingredients, exactly?? Because this herbal tea promotes digestion, controls bad cholesterol, is very useful against nausea and many other properties. Today we will find out how to cook it at home.---I N G R E D I E N T S---
You will need:
-1 fresh ginger (about 50 g); -600 g of water; -Zest of 1 UNTREATED lemon, clean; - Cinnamon to taste, one stick.
---P R E P A R A T I O N---
First clean the lemon (wash it) and remove the zest without the white part. Also peel the ginger and cut it into sticks. Pour the water into a saucepan and add the lemon peels, then add the ginger and cinnamon. Boil for 10/15 minutes, then filter the infusion and enjoy it.
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The Dandiest Devil.
From Dark Wood Tarot, by Sasha Graham, illustrated by Abigail Larson.
So far in my tarot study, this is the Best Devil Ever. Why? I can hardly wait to tell you!
The Page of Swords was having a quiet, contemplative moment in the woods, sitting solo by his sparkling fire. He is a thoughtful lad, the Page of Swords. But there he was, minding his own business when out of the gloom tromps this large and imposing Devil. Unsure of what's about to happen next the Page rises, his sword at the ready but not yet raised to strike a blow. The Page is guarded, wary, attentive, braced to react as required. His feet are firmly planted, his shoulders squared, he displays no fear or hesitation.
Likewise, the Devil is armed with a barbed club but his weapon is not raised to strike. He carries a chain. His eyes almost seem to not even be looking at the Page, but like they are aimed beyond. If he was looking down at the Page his chin would be tipped to view his puny prey. But it's not. It seems to me that the Devil is very aware of being in the presence of the Page, but not entirely focused on him. Having found a sitting duck that is surprisingly ready to strike in his own defense, the Devil quickly looks ahead to his next target. Someone who has a sword that is perhaps a little more dull and slow. The Devil is, after all, atrociously lazy. The easy way out is his motto and what he's selling.
The Devil does not leap out from behind bushes and ensnare you, like a cowboy roping a calf. Instead the Devil lumbers into your campsite and offers you the chain. Here you go, an easy way out, a quick solution to a thorny problem, a way to avoid the difficult and painful things. An excuse. Poor you. You were the victim of the Devil. But let's be clear, the chain is always an offer, a gift, a quick fix and we, you, us .... we put that chain on ourselves. We take that short cut, that easy out. We believe or tell a lie for convenience. We give in to temptation all the while we bloody well know better. There is no truth in 'the Devil made me do it !" No. He didn't. He merely showed up when you seemed like a target and offered you enough chain to choke yourself. And you, with your own two hands, slipped that link around your own neck.
The Devil card in a reading tells me that the person sitting across from me, wrestling with a thorny dilemma most likely got there through bad decision after bad decision. Short cut after short cut. Responsibility avoidance. Difficult truth avoidance. These are all links in the Devil's chain. What a wonderful, magical chain where the hard parts of life can be skirted, avoided, left to others to solve or blamed on others. This is the Devil's business and people buy it like hotcakes!
The Devil leaves and the Page of Swords is unharmed. Why? Because he recognized that chain for the trap it is. He didn't even have to wave his sword. All he had to do was stand up and think, "Not today, Buddy, I'm not falling for your temptations." And the Devil moves to greener pastures. The Page, intellectually his own master, is not about to be dictated to by what is easy and immediately rewarding. He is immune to the Devil. The Devil knows it.
Yes, there is evil in the world, truly harmful people. But by far the worst damage done to us is often by our own hand and our own bad choices made for bad reasons. I love this card because it so clearly depicts that the Devil is an oaf that stumbles into our happy camping and without anyone getting dirty, sweaty or injured, we have the power to move him along. To stand our ground. No chains for me today, thank you very much. This Devil card is all the things I see the Devil as and so far no other card has come close. -
Latest Entry
introducing
I joined this forum today because I wanted to feel a part of a community with similar interest and passions. I'm in a stormy time of life and seek places that give a still, mindful, sacred vibe to help quiet my spirit and mind.
In perusing some of the topics put forth on the forum I was excited to find that other hobbyist writers (fiction, poetry, RPG) have joined and like I do - use their Tarot for inspiration. It also brought to mind how I've been regularly blogging lately on my other social media and what if I were to combine blogging with a Card a Day?
I've been reading for myself and some friends since 2006, however, I still feel like I have so much to learn. Despite my love of Tarot I do not feel gifted with it. I'd also like to become more confident in reading intuitively now. I've relied on consulting others and reading from books and leaning on traditional interpretations all these years. So, transitioning from that to more intuitive and creative approaches to Tarot will be this blog's direction.
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Two Excellent Books I Highly, Highly Recommend
There are two authors I've recommended in various places before that I definitely respect and appreciate. I recently bought two of their most recent books and I'm very, very pleased with what I've learned and what they've proven by years of scientific research. Yep, I said "scientific" as in double blind studies and all that true scientific proof requires. We're legit, folks. Let me tell you about the authors and these books and why I'm so thrilled to bring this to you all.
First of all, Larry Dossey, MD is the author of a book called One Mind. Quoting what's written on the back cover of the book:
"In the 20th century, we were introduced ro several subdivisions of the mind: the conscious, subconscious, preconscious and so on. But what we didn't know was that there was another level of consciousness, an all-encompassing, infinite dimension of shared intelligence: the One Mind. This universal consciousness connects all of us through space and time.
Emerging studies have shown that the One Mind isn't just an idea; it's a reality. In this book, Larry Dossey shares compelling experiences and research that supports the One Mind concept, such as:
Shared thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations wirh a distant individual
Communication between humans and sentient nonhumans, such as pets
Acquisition of previously unknown knowledge from a person who has died
Hidden or lost objects found through mental means alone
Direct contact with a transcendent domain through near-death experiences
Rev. Wayne Muller, who I'm not familiar with, wrote this on the back of the book, too, but I want to include his comments as well:
"The Buddha said: Isolation is the world's great misery. In an increasingly complex world , we feel overwhelmed, discouraged, and more and more alone. Dr. Larry Dossey, a gifted physician of the soul , relieves the agony of modern isolation. He reveals our deep connections to everything around us, to reassert our belonging with everything everywhere."
This book is absolutely awesome. Worth every penny you pay for it and then some, in my opinion. I can't recommend it highly enough and I'm going to read it again----and probably again and again. I hope many of you will, too. I got mine on Amazon.
The second book is by Dean Radin, PhD. It's titled Real Magic and from the back of the book:
"The chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences turns a critical eye toward such practices as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. Are such powers really possible? Science says yes."
To quote just a little from his first page, he says "this is about REAL magic" and he says "Real magic falls into three categories......" The first category he calls "force of will"and he says it's associated with spell-casting and other techniques meant to intentionally influence events or actions.
The second one he calls "divination" and it's associated with Tarot reading mirror-gazing and other practices.
The third one he calls "theurgy" and it involves evoking and communicating with spirits.
a
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first post
Hi all, I'm new. I found this forum looking for an alternative to a forum where I used to study.
I learned from learntarot.com at first, with a random crappy Lo Scarabeo deck from a mall. I made my first informed choice of deck, Clive Barret's Ancient Egyptian, from Aeclectic Tarot reviews & studied with the posters there. This is what I typically use to read for others. I like my Ancient Egyptian for combining and playing with both RWS and Thoth traditions. I'm not much fond of RWS itself but I can appreciate its influences in other decks and its clones too; I just don't think the og RWS inspires me.
I have also enjoyed Hermetic Tarot and Robin Wood which I gave to a friend (but I wouldn't mind acquiring it again sometime). Ultimately I got into Thoth. My best unexpectedly good deck is the Game of Thrones Tarot. I have also enjoyed using cards virtually with Orphalese where my favorite deck to use is Neon Moon.This is a pretty consumerist entry. I have a personal relationship with the cards but I'm not great at writing it. I'm not much a neo-pagan at my roots. But thru my study of Tarot and it's connected materials, numerology, astrology, etc, I have appreciated and appropriated some neo-pagan practices. These communities have welcomed me (mostly 😉 ) I would usually describe myself as an atheist but at my most mystical I might try to describe as a kind of psychedelic Jungian techno-animist.
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Oh.
Silly me forgot to cancel my RWS deck order since I ordered a different deck (White Numen) that wasn't on my wish-list at all (the card that made me gravitate towards the purchase option was my birth card, The Hierophant.)
But, in getting this deck, I figured I'd interview it anyway and see what its strengths and weakness' were since I needed to practice for the next deck coming in.
Questions I asked for the interview spread:
1. What will our relationship be like?
2. What are your strengths as a deck that'll help me move forward?
3. What are you not happy to be working with?
4. What type of messages can I expect to receive while working with you?
Well...the first card I pulled for the first question I asked, I feel like I might have misspoke and said out-loud that I needed to practice for the new deck arriving in a few days and may not be using this deck as much anyway. I could just be overthinking it, but I felt like this deck feels as thought it's going to be competing or that it might be argumentative were I to use this for anything else.
Despite the other responses being alright, I feel like it's not too happy with me!
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Coloring the RWS
I've started coloring the RWS, for fun and study purposes. I know I am prone to abandoning my projects so I thought blogging about it might keep me on track better. 😸
The PDFs I'm working with have two cards to a page, so they're about 7 and a half inches tall (19 centimeters). I might switch to four to a page instead, as there would be much less sky to fill in that way. I only printed out the Cups suit so far, so if I switch I won't have wasted much paper. But I'm going to do a few more before I decide.
I'm starting with the Minors because I'm not sure if I want to do the traditional, "official" Major colors, or strike off on my own. There was a thread on AT where Richard was coloring the BOTA tarot and following Paul Foster Case's color directions, and it was so cool kind of watching the process unfold, I'm leaning that way currently. Here's a link to the thread if anyone is interested. Honestly that thread was a big inspiration for me doing this (the other was seeing someone's self-colored RWS on YouTube).
I'm using colored pencil and slightly regretting it already, but my pencils are ancient and come to find out, they can "go bad". As in the pigments can fade, and/or the wax binder can get absorbed into the wood, if they're stored somewhere too warm. I had to do So. Many. Layers to get any coverage at all. I think I have newer pencils somewhere around here, if not I'll get some new ones. I tried using alcohol as a blending solvent but it hardly made a difference. I do want to experiment with solvents for blending though (odorless mineral spirits seem to be what most people use).
Anyway here's the first one, the Ace of Cups. Not following the original coloring, but not too far off. I'm regretting that pink cloud but oh well. And I meant to leave a white "glow" around the hand but I was on the phone while coloring and got distracted. But I decided I'm not going to re-do any until I at least finish a full suit. My printer didn't do a great job. Uneven coverage, and you can see where it smeared a bit on the borders, but honestly? I am okay with that. It means they started out flawed to begin with, so I'm less critical of my own mistakes.
Also can we talk about how PCS drew that hand? The weirdly long fingers and the bizarre thumb? I will never feel bad about not being good at hands again!
More to come!
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Latest Entry
Moonlit Boons
For the 24, 25;; and 26th of January 2024:
From 9PM to Midnight, take the time to settle down somewhere calm, relax, breathe deeply; and visualise the Full Moon. Beautiful sceneries, beautiful animals... And let the energies they carry flow through you. Those energies of beauty, tenderness, and Love. Be sure to record and remember everything you will feel, see and hear. Let that magical moment imprint itself in you. And if you wish to talk about what you experienced; do not hesitate to let me know. Changes are coming fast, and we must move akingside them.
I will be with you.
With Love and Light.🌜 Mitou 🌛
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We don't need any more decks!
Except, of course, if it is a well made cat deck. Or something with dragons. Or... no, really, i don't need any more decks.
My inventory of both tarot and oracle decks has grown immensely. Initially, we stopped buying decks about 10 years ago due to house hunting (less stuff to transport) and general lack of space. After moving, we bought decks worth about $700 from LoScarabeo, then a few from elsewhere and we thought we were done for at least 10 more years.
Then there were the after-corona spoils where you could bulk buy decks from ebay and elsewhere, as people who took up reading dropped it again after isolation was over. Also, books and other hobby stuff but I didn't go over board with those.
So we ended up with lots of new decks (some duplicates), some of which I had never heard about and would probably not have bought otherwise. Some of them are unusable for my housemate, but I haven't yet found anything I could not ever use. It is a challenge to use some of them. And they made me curious what else is out there I have not encountered yet and - wow. I would be interested in some of them but I have made the decision not to get anymore decks unless we need to fill up an Amazon buy.
I am not sure what to think about the masses of decks out there anymore. If we get more decks we will have to be a lot more critical. No more bulk buys for us I think because we are both really bad at passing decks on as long as we might eventually use them for something. The only one we could part with easily is the Deviant Moon, it gives us both the creeps.
My housemate built 3 colorful shelves for the walls in our inside temple room, but they are almost full and the larger decks fill up the space under the Bast+Sekhmet altar. No, we really don't need any more decks. Chances are, we will still get a few more. I'm just being realistic.
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I wanted to start my first post with bringing awareness to the tarot community about something that has genuinely transformed my spiritual journey and deepened my connection with the cards.
And that is - Notion, a remarkable digital tool, that has not only redefined the way I engage with the tarot but has the potential to ignite a newfound passion and inspiration within the hearts of fellow tarot enthusiasts. Its impact on my practice has been profound, and I believe it has the power to unlock a world of possibilities for anyone who embraces it.
I must confess, I've always been a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my tarot readings. The mere idea of keeping a tarot journal, meticulously noting down each card drawn, the positions, and my interpretations, always fascinated me.
For years, I used a traditional written journal to record my readings, but it always felt like something was missing. That was until I discovered the powerful world of digital tarot journaling.
In my quest to find the perfect phone application that could efficiently record and organize my tarot readings, I embarked on a journey of app downloads that left me wanting more. I craved a tool that would not only store my readings but also provide the freedom to customize, search, and visualize the magic of my tarot journey. That's when I stumbled upon the game-changer – an application called Notion.
Notion, to put it simply, is like spreadsheets on steroids. It's a digital workspace that allows users to create and customize databases, task lists, notes, and more. When it comes to tarot journaling, it's a dream come true for the modern practitioner.
Here's why:
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Customization Beyond Imagination: Notion's greatest strength lies in its ability to adapt to your needs. You can create your very own digital tarot journal from scratch, tailoring it to your style and preferences. Add tables, tags, links, and images as you see fit, making it a truly personalized experience. Say goodbye to the limitations of physical notebooks and hello to a world of limitless customization.
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Searchability for Insight: One of the most frustrating aspects of traditional tarot journaling is flipping through countless pages to find a specific reading or insight. With Notion's powerful search feature, you can instantly locate any reading, card, or keyword you desire. It empowers you to connect the dots between past and present readings, enhancing your understanding of the cards and their messages.
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Real-Time Visualization: Digital tarot journaling brings your readings to life in ways that pen and paper never could. You can instantly see your readings unfold, complete with card images. This visual aspect adds a new layer to your understanding of the tarot, allowing you to absorb the energy and symbolism of the cards as they appeared in your spread.
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Insights Through Graphs and Stats: With Notion, you can also track which cards you pull most frequently, as well as which suits or themes dominate your readings. The app offers the ability to create graphs and statistics that give you a deeper insight into your tarot practice, helping you identify patterns and trends in your readings.
If building your own tarot journal seems daunting, fear not! There's a vibrant community of creators on platforms like Etsy who sell beautifully designed tarot journal templates for Notion.
Notion has completely changed the way I read and journal the tarot personally. This application has become a trusted companion on my journey, allowing me to explore the cards and their messages with unprecedented depth and clarity. I highly recommend you check out the app Notion. It's more than a tool; it's an enabler of your tarot magic. With its boundless customization, searchability, real-time visualization, and insightful statistics, you won't regret making the switch to a digital tarot journal.
Your tarot practice will flourish in ways you never thought possible, and the magic of the cards will come alive like never before.If you're curious to witness the true capabilities of Notion and how it can elevate your tarot practice, I invite you to take a look at my own digital tarot journal...
Which You Can Check Out Here:
Ultimately, whether you choose a written or digital journal, the act of maintaining a journal is profoundly beneficial for your soul, and it has the potential to enhance your skills and overall well-being. It's a valuable exercise that should be incorporated into your daily routine. The simple act of reflection, whether through words or digital records, not only strengthens your connection with your chosen practice, be it tarot or any other discipline, but it also nurtures personal growth and self-awareness. Daily journaling offers you a space for introspection and the opportunity to refine your skills while promoting a sense of balance in your life.
But this is a journey I'm excited to share with you, and I hope it inspires you to embark on your own path of discovery with this or some other remarkable digital tool to enhance your own tarot experience!
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observations on the suit of swords
Continuing on from my exercise observing each suit as a whole, separately, here are my observations for the suit of wands:
Swords - Air - Thoughts, Conflict, Challenges
- If the suit of swords, laid from Ace to King, represented your emotional forecast for the next two weeks, what would it be saying?
Ace, showing new conquest with great potential, indicated by the crown. However the card's foundation is rocky - it is still merely potential at this point.
Two shows a feminine figure, blindfolded, crossing two swords across her chest. A deep body of water and the moon is behind them, indicating deep intuition/emotion, but they connot see what lies before them, which is why they remain guarded.
Three indicates terrible sorrow and heartbreak. Three swords, plunging through a heart; the heavy rain pouring down behind a further reflection of the situation at hand.
Four shows a potential result of 3's heartbreak. He appears to be made of stone and are lying in quiet contemplation and hands as if praying. The swords surrounding him represent his current situation; in his detached state, he is also failing to see what is being shown to him in the stained glass window - someone recieving aid after having called for it.
Five reminds me of betrayal, or deceit. One main, all swords in his posession, carries a smug expression and looks back at two figures, each cast off separately - alone, devastated.
Six shows a family unit - husband, wife and child. They are turning their backs on the hardships/strife they have been experiencing. There is a deep body of water that must be crossed before reaching solid ground, indicating an emotional journey.
Seven is most definitely up to something; he appears to be sneaking away from a fair, circus or marketplace (or similar) with swords in his posession. Something I find quite interesting is that he is the only figure amongst all the sword cards who is holding their sword by the blade and not the hilt. A forewarning, for sure!
Eight shows someone blindfolded and tied up with rope, representing a situation that is likely consuming them. They fail to see the sources of aid around them - civilization in the distance, many swords surrounding them. Some creative thinking could likely help remove their bindings.Nine shows someone lying in bed, grief-ridden. It's interesting to note the star signs on the bedspread, the situation could be out of their control.
Ten indicates terrible hardship - a red blanket covering up spilt blood. Oddly though, the body of water is completely still, indicating a degree of acceptance despite the overwhelming sorrow.
Court Cards
The Page holds a sword in front of them, but looks behind at what they have just faced. They have seemingly let go of what once burdened them, but the fact that they are looking back at the previous cards of the suit means they may still be a little weary, or hesitant.
The Knight is ready to face strife and hardship head on - charging towards the number cards to face those challenges directly, becase he now has the resources and allies to help solve them.
The Queen reveals only a part of herself - she is reserved. However her throne is adornes with butterflies and a cherub. There is much more to what's on on the surface with this queen, she posesses a gentle kindness within. The direction she faces indicates that she is focused on what is coming ahead.
The King holds a stern expression, ready to face the challenges before him. Similar to the queen, butterflies adorn his throne as well. Despite his stony exterior, he strives to protect beauty and grace.
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Deeper Connection with Intuition? 4/21/2023
Decks Used
- Trash Panda Tarot by Jennifer Starling Dukehart
- Maybe Lenormand by Ryan Edwards
Question
For my one pull tarot card I set the intention of, "What do I need to know for today?"
For my lenormand spread I set the intention of, "What will happen/play out today?"
I pulled The High Priestess (2),
Book (26), Hands (39), and Eye (46)
Off the bat I can tell today will be focused on my growth spiritually or at least growing my knowledge whether it be tarot, intuition or spirituality in general. The High Priestess lets me know that I can learn more (wisdom) if I so wish to do so, which is interesting because I planned to do some readings for others later on reddit. I also feel like it will be a still day today so probably not going out or anything (typical). I only say this for The High Priestess given the lenormand spread as it focuses on knowledge and learning, the eye reminds me of the third eye, the unseen the unknown and spirituality just like The High Priestess. The hand reminds me of helping or giving a helping hand so perhaps helping others will grow my knowledge spiritually.
Now this could have a totally different meaning it could mean watching (Eye) someone closely that I will meet (Hand) today that will unfold unknown secrets/knowledge (Book) and The High Priestess could add upon that of being still, calm and collected while gathering information and using intuition or my gut feeling and trusting it.
Let me know what you guys think as I believe it could be a fun practice, I will admit I'm not sure if this blog posts is against the rules I mostly want to use my blog to track readings and see what occurs to learn more about divination.
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I'm not a Business Owner
Hello, friends it is crucial to clarify that I do not have an establishment or corporation and therefore does not make me a business owner or own any business. However, from experience I do operate with a business plan and foundation. The full intention behind the use of the word "business" was meant to go into detail about structure and process earnings from tarot associating to a business. I'm sorry for any misinformation or misguidance this may have caused you. Thank you for your support thus far! 😟
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March (15–31) 2023 — Bi-Weekly Tarot “Money”
Pick a card. :D
For this reading, you will pick a card (choose a jewelry item) and that will be your message on today’s topic. Now let’s begin to reading. ❤
What did you pick? :D
What do you need to know in regards to money/financial concerns for the next 2 weeks?
Moon Earring — Strength, tells me that this month will be an important time for you. I see new career opportunities and more money coming your way. You’ve been working really hard, applying to jobs and doing what you have to do to grab life by the balls and make things happen. I’m sense very strong baddie boss energy and I feel like soon there will be a positive twist and new beginning for you in the career place where you succeed in significant way.
Rose Earring — Ace of wands, shows me that movement is happening and soon. Within 1 week from now, I get things will be improving for you. You may be offered a promotional opportunity or get a pay raise. For some its a new job offer. For others, new clients. Either way, new doors will open and new avenues for money will arise this month.
Wolf Ring — The Hierophant, is a powerful message when it comes to money. This card tells me that you are wise, educate and prepared. I feel like you know what to do in order to thrive in any work environment. You are confident, you are strong, and you are capable. Above all else, I feel like right now you need to believe in yourself because there is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.
Thank you for your time, I’ll see you again in 2 weeks! :D
~Tolkien
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In the Creative Circle, we are slowly working our way through the major arcana via The Fool's Journey. I wanted to document my own journey in its fullness here. This blog post will be updated each time I post a project to the Creative Circle so do check back regularly if you're interested.
0 The Fool
For the Fool, I represented the fresh start and taking a step of faith into the unknown by making some moccasin shoes.
1 The Magician
I decided to represent the Magician by knitting something to protect my hands. I'd noticed that in a number of the Magician cards, the hands were often being used to channel his creative energies to combine the elements in some way so this seemed a good idea!
2 The High Priestess
For the High Priestess, I used inspiration from some of my animal decks to connect the High Priestess with a cat and created this cute crochet cat, called Mysti, in the colours of the High Priestess's cloths from the RWS and The Herbal Tarot decks. (For more information on why this photo is staged this way please head to the Creative Circle for March 2023...)
3 The Empress
For the Empress, I was inspired to create something using ingredients from nature, so I made Nettle Leaf Syrup!
4 The Emperor
The Emperor inspired me to create databases for various things:
- my book collection
- my knitting needle and crochet hook collection
- my classical piano pieces so I can find different versions more easily in my books
5 The Hierophant
6 The Lovers
7 The Chariot
8 Strength
9 The Hermit
10 Wheel of Fortune
11 Justice
12 The Hanged Man
13 Death
14 Temperance
15 The Devil
16 The Tower
17 The Star
18 The Moon
19 The Sun
20 Judgement
21 The World
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Are They Really So Bad? – The Cards You Fear
Originally published on Little Fang Tarot with some minor edits.
Many people dread getting a reading done and having Death appear.
“Does it mean I’m going to die?” No!
What I’m here to explain is that often times these cards don’t hold any literal meaning behind them!
Death, The Devil, The Tower, the Three of Swords, and the Ten of Swords, are all some of the most feared cards that could come into a tarot reading. Just look at the pictures at the left, don’t these look ominous?
What if I told you that these cards can be used as a warning and a chance to grow instead?
I want to break these cards down and show you that there is nothing to fear and there is everything to learn!
Death
Consider the phoenix of myth. It has lived its life and is now worn and tired. What is there left? The great bird has reached the end of its long life, once majestic and bright, now shattered and dull. In a burst of flame and ash, the phoenix sheds its older shell and returns renewed and majestic once again!
Something is coming to an end. It’s time to Transform.
You are burning something that is no longer needed in your life and coming back better and stronger for having gotten rid of it. It can be scary, and it can be hard, but you’ll be way better off for having gotten rid of the burden that you carried.
The Devil
This card can be a warning against temptation and addiction. You may be being led down the wrong path, but knowing is half the battle! Consider the actions you are currently taking in life and determine the reasons behind the choices you have made. Do you have everyone’s best intentions at heart?
It’s time to slay the demons within yourself and find the light of the matter.
Don’t let fear be your enemy, face it head-on! This feeling of powerlessness is under your control, and you can choose to break the chains that bind you and free yourself.
The Tower
The changes that Death brings may be more gradual, much like the flow of life itself. However, the Tower is a sudden and abrupt change that may shake the very foundations of your life as you know it. The best part about this crumbling tower?
Once it comes down, you can build something BETTER in its place!
It’s hard to deal with a big change, but it’s inevitable. When this card comes up you can be better prepared to face it head-on and then start planning what you want to put in its place. This card gives you more power than you realize!
Three of Swords
Ah, the card with the swords that spear the heart. The typical sign of heartbreak and despair. Pain is a sad part of life, and it’s not something you can always avoid. Pain is a challenge that allows you to grow and expand! The Swords represent the logic and thought and the heart is emotion, therefore…
Your emotions may be holding you back. Release the grasp they have over this situation!
The Three falls under the Empress’s domain, so it’s important to nurture and be kind to yourself. Don’t allow the pain or grief to overcome you, you are strong and you can grow.
Ten of Swords
Great, the card where something or somebody is being impaled by a bunch of swords. How can THIS be any good? It’s not the best card or the nicest looking, no, but it also signifies an end to something with a chance to bounce back from it.
Once you have hit rock bottom, there is nowhere else left to go but UP!
You have reached the end already and you are feeling the pain of all those swords upon you. Just because it’s the end of one story doesn’t mean you can’t start writing another!
Don’t be afraid. Knowledge is Power!
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On the Use of White and Pink/Flesh Colors in the Tarot de Marseille
This is a long post. Here is the TLDR version: The use of white and pink in the Tarot de Marseille, especially the Conver deck, is kind of a big deal.
I have been noodling with these ideas for a while. I am presenting them here in draft form and invite feedback.
The numbers in parentheses are footnotes. There are notes at the very bottom of the post.
I have also posted the essay in my nascent blog, Dispatches from the Cosmic Command Post.
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A great many Tarot de Marseilles (TdM) decks produced in the mid-18th century depict the “protagonist” figure of the cards from the major arcana and the court cards with purely white faces. Many depict the same figures with pink or flesh tones for the hands and other parts of the body, indicating that use of white for the face is a conscious choice on the part of the card maker, and not the result of some limitation in printing technology.
Furthermore — across multiple decks — there is a consistent pattern(1) of where the pink or flesh tone appears in other parts of card, either in pieces or areas of clothing, or in symbols of authority or other implements used by or associated with the protagonist figure.
These observations are not original. The purpose of this essay is to present a two-faceted discussion that may make original points: 1) The patterns of use of “white face” in the Tarot de Marseilles suggest we should consider protagonist characters as wearing a mask, in the manner of theatre across the ages as well as dances and ceremonies important to indigenous peoples since time immemorial, and 2) the location, the “attribution,” of the pink color in other parts of the card is significant: the attribution of this color indicates a meaningful aspect of the protagonist figure, and what is most important to him or her. And if 1 and 2 have any validity, we can explore the idea that these features offer a layer of meaning in the cards that can usefully be explored when using the tarot for divination or self-discovery.
To provide context for our discussion — before investigating ideas of masks and performance, and of white and pink as signifying elements — I will provide some rather bald data: a listing of significant, extant historical decks, and an indication of the color used for the majority of faces in the major arcana and court cards, as well as the color used for hands and other body parts. The listing is not exhaustive, and there are, within decks, exceptions in each case. The listing also includes decks from outside the period with which we opened this discussion (the mid-18th century), as well as some decks that purists would not label as Tarot de Marseille. Finally, the listing only includes “mass market” (for the times) decks produced with wood blocks: it does not include one-off hand-painted decks.
Madenié 1709: White faces, white hands
Heri 1718: White faces, white hands
Heri 1730: White faces, white hands
Payan 1713: White faces, pink hands
Laurent 1735: White faces, pink hands
Cheminade 1742: White faces, white hands
Burdel 1751: White faces, white hands
Rochias 1754 (Swiss): White faces, pink hands
Conver 1760: White faces, pink hands
Feautrier 1762: White faces, pink hands
Jerjer 1801: Pink faces, pink hands
Arnoux & Ae Amphoux 1801/1802: White faces, pink hands
Gassmann 1840: Pink faces, pink hands
Also: In the late 20th and early 21st century, two thoughtful recreations of the Conver 1760 deck achieved what might be called “critical mass” in terms of acceptance and interest, and played a great role in bringing the Tarot de Marseille to the attention of readers outside of France and environs who had previously dealt only with decks from the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) tradition. In both decks, the pink flesh tone is replaced by a tan color, and in both, the attribution of the “hand color” (here, a tan) in other parts of the cards remains consistent with that of the historical decks in general, and the Conver 1760 deck in particular.(2)
Camion-Jodorowsky 1997: Tan faces, tan hands
Conver Ben-Dove 2016: Tan faces, tan hands
Considering the above, we may paint some broad strokes. In the earliest decks, areas of flesh were often not colored at all, regardless of position or body part. By the mid-1700s, white faces on characters that are otherwise rendered with flesh tones becomes a norm. In the 19th and 20th century, the white faces have largely disappeared, with flesh tone used for the faces as well as other body parts.
White Face as Mask
My tone so far may suggest I consider myself a scholar of the tarot, competent to make historical arguments. I am not. This essay is not a reasoned argument for a way of reading the cards, but simply an exploration.
I primarily use the Conver 1760 deck, and as I interact with it, both the white faces, considered as masks, and the use of the pink flesh tone elsewhere in the cards present as signifying elements.
A scholarly exploration of the use of masks in theatre and ceremonial dances and rites is well beyond the scope of the essay. Instead I will simply offer some thoughts.
In this Conver deck, the hands and other body parts of major figures (such as the legs of the male figure in The Lover) are consistently rendered in a somewhat realistic pinkish flesh tone. This makes it clear that the use of white for the faces was a conscious decision on Conver’s part when applying color(3).
The white faces can (I believe should) be considered as masks.
In theatre, since at least the time of the ancient Greeks, the use of masks offers an obvious practical benefit: they allow an actor to play multiple roles.
We often hear (and talk) about the cards in a tarot spread as telling a story. We could just as easily think of it as the cards as staging a play. I am going to put my cards on the table here (as it were): I conceive of my deck (this particular deck) as a living entity, with a name and a personality. (Call that quirky or worse if you wish, but it is working for me.) I find it helpful to contextualize a spread as her staging a play for me. To do so, she has to adopt different characters, different personae, at different places in the spread. She uses masks to do this. That is, the use of color in the deck (here, white) emphasizes the idea that each card is a role, an instantiation. It is not the whole; it is the whole presenting in a particular aspect.
The play has an audience: me, and whoever I am reading for. The idea of masks signifying identity is relevant on this side as well. We go to tarot — we ask the deck to stage a play for us — for many reasons, including advice and insight. And, bless them, the cards answer. The cards give us advice that often takes forms like, “Now is not a time for action. It is a time to retreat and reflect. So, be like The Hermit. Put on your Hermit mask. For now, be that character in the play that is your life.” Or, “Yes, you’re a sweet guy, but right now you need to man up and show leadership and decision. Your family needs this. So pull out your Emperor mask and be the Emperor. Take on that role.”
The cards both acknowledge and depict something central to the human condition: at different times, in different situations (so many times and situations in the course of a life), we have to assume different roles.
To put it simply, you are you, and you are also always someone to someone, and the someone changes (and the someone is often you).
To navigate this, you will constantly need to don different masks. The cards acknowledge this. They endorse it. And they provide guidance for which masks you need to take out and don at given moments in your life.
Some final notes on this: There are only five cards in the Conver deck where the protagonist figure appears without white face: The Hanged Man (12), Card XIII (“Death”), The Devil (15), The Star (17), and The World (21)
Of these, I consider only The Hanged Man to depict a truly human figure. The others are either depictions of an idea or, in the case of The Star, a human-appearing figure who clearly exists in a dream world, and therefore is more emblematic than human. (And the name of the card is The Star. Perhaps the woman is not the protagonist, but rather the large star at the top of the image.)
Again, only one clearly human figure appears without a white-face mask: The Hanged Man. This reinforces the idea of The Hanged Man being a card about meditation and self-sacrifice as a path to self-awareness, rather than delay, paralysis, or torture. The Hanged Man has put himself in this position to see who he really is, without masks.
This notion of tarot figures wearing masks can be considered when working with any deck. At the simplest level, my point is that — through their use of white and pink — many TdM decks foreground this idea and encourage us to think about masks and roles as we interact with the cards.
The Pink/Flesh Color as a Signifier
The Conver deck not only uses a semi-realistic pink color as a flesh tone in the major arcana and court cards, but also repeats this color in other areas of the cards. Other TdM decks do not present the color outside of area of flesh as frequently as in the Conver, but when they do, they almost always present it in the same positions. So, the placement of this color is not a unique quirk of the Conver deck, and it is not random, but rather a widely used feature that is emphasized more in the Conver than in other surviving historical decks.
My belief is that these “attributions” of the color in other areas of the card were an intentional choice on Conver’s part(3), and that they bear exploration.
Of everything discussed so far, this idea — how the color pink “attributes” in the cards — is the most difficult to express. Clearly it is highly subjective. But:
Let us consider the placement of this color as an indicator of what is most significant to or valued by the protagonist figures.
Or, let us consider the placement of this color as an index, a pointer, to what we should pay attention to… in the cards, in ourselves, or for the querent.
(Alejandro Jodorowsky — a controversial but indisputably learned commentator on the tarot — takes up colors in the cards, and, in a chart, puts this beside the flesh color: “Human realm, conscious life.” Let us keep that idea in mind: the color can be an indicator of what the protagonist (the “human”) is aware of (“conscious”) as important and self-defining.)
I am at a loss to better explain my sense that there is meaning here, in this layer of the card imagery, so let us simply look at the cards.
The Magician, Le Bateleur (1): We see the pink color in two places: a scarf-like garment around the Magician’s throat, and his table along with the tools laid out upon it.
In several cards, the use of pink around the neck is ambiguous: it could be a scarf-like garment, or it could simply be the flesh of the protagonist’s neck. Here, because of its width, it seems clearly to be a scarf or collar. This attribution indicates the importance of his voice, his words. Le Bateleur is a street performer: his patter, his schtick, is how he makes his living. In the broad, popular idea of magicians, what do they do? They use words to cast spells.
The largest area of the signifying color in this card is on the table and tools. This man is all about his craft. He uses tools to bring about his will. Among other things, he is a technician. The Magician uses tools and and tricks to get what he wants. The RWS Magician is a more positive and exalted figure, but the same holds: he uses a wand and the implements on the table before him to manifest his will.
The Popess, La Pappesse (2): Here the signifying color appears all around the protagonist’s head, and in a band across her heart.
La Papesse, the High Priestess… this is a complex figure, but however we approach or depict her, there is always a strong link with knowledge. This woman knows things (head), but its source is more intuitive (heart) than reasoned.
The Empress, L'Imperatrice (3): The RWS tradition foregrounds the feminine aspects of The Empress, and identifies her most strongly with ideas such as motherhood, fertility, and nurturing (which are all to the good). In contrast (but not in contradiction), the TdM tradition foregrounds the actual card/woman as named: she is The Empress. She is a leader. She is a head of state.
The color pink appears here at the neck, and in this case, it really is a bare neck, rather than a garment around her throat. And this lets us see an intriguing detail, communicated through a very short and simple line in the art: she has an Adam’s apple, which is usually considered a male feature. The Empress is a woman, she is very female, but she is in a role traditionally reserved for men. In order to play her role, in order to succeed as an Empress, she must evince masculine qualities alongside her strong feminine nature. The Empress is arguably the epitome of the feminine in the tarot, but there is also an element of androgyny here: her role requires her to take on male aspects.
The only place in the card where the signifying color pink unambiguously attributes is in her scepter, the symbol of her authority as a leader and head of state.
The Emperor, L'Empereur (4): This is not a nuanced card: authority, leadership, stability… rationality and strategy, defending boundaries… also the father role.
The signifying color attributes here in only one place: The Emperor’s throne, the seat and symbol of his authority. The man has become the role, the position.
The Pope, Le Pape (5): We will consider The Pope below, alongside The Hermit and Justice.
The Lover, L'Amoureux (6): By the terms of my thesis (the TdM uses the pink color in the human protagonists’ garments or implements as a layer of meaning), this is a problematic card. The color is present in the whole body of the Cupid figure and in the lower male figure’s legs, but never in a garment or object.
A possibility: I see a pattern in the use of the color with protagonist figures, but it is not clear that this card has a protagonist. The card is called “The Lover,” and Cupid’s arrow is pointing towards the male, but he is not graphically privileged like the other figures we have and will look at. He is not larger than the others. He does not fill the frame. He seems to have little agency. Rather, he is a one actor in a multi-part scene.
The Chariot, Le Chariot (7): The name of this card is “The Chariot,” not “The Charioteer.” So, is the man in the chariot truly the protagonist? Is he the star player at this moment in the play, or is he — like The Lover — a character in a scene?
Here the signifying color attributes to the chariot itself and to the scepter held by the charioteer. The horses are not controlled by reins: both visually and by established traditions of the card’s meaning, they are controlled by the charioteer’s will, represented by his scepter. This is a card about willpower and motion, as shown with the color. The human aspect is secondary.
Justice, La Justice (8): Justice will be considered below, alongside The Pope and The Hermit.
The Hermit, L'Hermite (9), The Pope (5), and Justice (8): For each of these figures, the pink color attributes to the inside, the inner lining, of the protagonist’s robes.
For an idea of how the color may signify in these cards, consider Alec Guiness’s portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobe in the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope. Obi-Wan abides in the desert, and Luke’s uncle calls him “a strange old hermit.” As a quick internet search for “hermit desert” will show, the connection between hermits and the desert is long and deep.
Obi-Wan never makes outward displays of emotion, beyond, perhaps, gentle amusement. But we never feel that he lacks emotion: he seems to have a very rich inner life and genuine humanity. His inner life and emotions are rich, but they are not for public display.
I believe Obi-Wan is an exemplar of the kind of emotional restraint and privacy signaled by the attribution of pink in these three cards. The Hermit in the tarot is, well, very much like Obi-Wan: a figure who has retreated from the world, and through a meditative discipline has gained wisdom and even power.
The Pope is very much a public figure, but if he is a good spiritual leader, he will have risen to this high position at least in part because of his spiritual gifts and strengths. Like The Hermit, he will have wisdom and a rich inner life. When performing his role, his actions are public and ritualistic, but he is not an automaton or functionary. There is a depth to the man.
Justice too is a very public figure. In this card, the pink color attributes around her brow: she must make reasoned judgments. It also attributes around her throat: the most powerful aspect of her role is to pronounce sentence. Her words determine the fate of those who come before her.
And if she is a good judge, her determinations will be guided and tempered by an inner wisdom. She will embody not only law and order, but justice tempered with mercy.
The Wheel of Fortune, La Rove de Fortune (10): There is no human protagonist figure in this card. I will simply note that the pink color appears in the beams supporting the wheel and inside the controlling imp’s cloak.
Strength, La Force (11): I believe the previous cards show a pattern emerging, where the parts of the card shaded in pink indicate what is most important to the figures. They show where or in what the protagonists invest their life energy.
(An irreverent aside: Who else uses La Force, The Force? Jedi! I bet her robe is pink inside, just like Obi-Wan's and The Hermit's.)
Many, probably most, tarot readers see the lion in the Strength card as a representation of powerful inner drives. It is life energy writ large.
This woman has pink around her throat and down the front of her dress, The area covers her heart and descends down across her abdomen. It is a triangular shape that tapers downward, but the lower portion is obscured by her arm. If the triangular shape were extended to the point where the two long sides meet, it would terminate at her groin.
This woman controls inner drives — the powerful life energy that for some people becomes destructive — with a strength that comes from her heart, and from her very core. When she speaks, her words will be powerfully expressive and persuasive.
The Hanged Man, Le Pendu (12): As we saw earlier, The Hanged Man is the only human protagonist figure in the deck who presents without a mask. He is also the only one where there the pink color does not appear anywhere other than his flesh.
Earlier I suggested his lack of a mask reinforces the interpretation of the card as a meditative effort to find the true self, without the masks we put on in our social roles. Perhaps identifying the true self also involves divesting from garments, tools, and symbols.
Card XIII: I don’t believe we can apply the same emerging rules to this figure as with the human protagonists. I will note though that Conver makes dramatic use of the pink color here. I find this rendition of the death figure in Card XIII to be one of the most powerful, even disturbing, of any of the decks I have viewed. In many decks, it seems essentially a skeleton figure. This figure seems to have been entirely flayed. Rather than bones, it is nothing but flesh, flesh stripped of even the protective covering of a skin.
Temperance, Temperance (14): The protagonist here is an angel, not a human. It is not clear to me that the attribution of pink signifies in the same way for human and non-human figures. I will note, though, that the pattern here is essentially identical with that in the Strength card: pink around the throat, and in a downward-tapering triangle over her heart and upper abdomen. Like the woman in Strength, she displays effortless control, here used to move water between two vessels. We cannot really say she pours water from one vessel to the other: water in the real world does not pour at a forty-five degree angle; it pours straight down. Like The Star discussed above, Temperance here is not a person but an emblematic figure existing in a realm controlled by dream physics.
The Devil, Le Diable (15): Another non-human figure. Another special case. The Devil card is most frequently identified with manipulation and with sexuality. For a figure invested in these, arms and genitals would be quite important. They are pink here.
The Tower, La Maison Dieu (16): Non-human. Conventionally associated with great, even disastrous, change and the unmaking of stable structures, The Tower is often discussed as a phallic symbol as well, with the action at the top of the card considered as an orgasm or ejaculation. I will simply note that in the Conver deck, this phallic symbol is flesh colored.
The Star, Le Toile (17): We have touched on The Star previously. I would argue that the female figure here is not, strictly speaking, a human. She is an emblem of [choose your interpretation] appearing in a dream-like landscape governed by a dream physics. She is able to remain supported by the surface of water. (In most decks, one knee of the figure rests on the land, but her other foot does rest on top of — not in — the water.) The bird on the tree is never drawn to scale. While the image is static, it communicates no sense that she needs to repeatedly dip the vessels in the water to refill them, but rather they seem to endlessly pour. Her flesh is, of course, flesh-colored.
The Moon, La Lune (18): One of only two cards outside of the pips in which no human-like figure appears (the other being The Wheel of Fortune). (With Card XIII, we at least see parts of human figures.)
The most common color pattern is for one canine (the one on the right) to be rendered in the pink/flesh color we have been considering and the other in a relatively light blue color. I cannot help but wonder if this pairing or opposition signifies: that is, if the pink or flesh color means something about life energy and consciously-identified tokens of identity, does the light blue color carry similar (but likely opposite) freight? A topic for a different essay.
The Sun, Le Soleil (19): No human protagonist. The near-nude young male figures are, naturally, rendered in flesh tone.
Judgment, Le Jugement (20): No human protagonist. Two of the nude human figures below are rendered in flesh tone, with the third in the same light blue we saw in the left-hand canine in The Moon. It may or may not signify that pink appears in the angel’s wings, on the flag, around the throat, and the whole of the sounding horn.
The World, Le Monde (21): Non-human. Pink appears in the lowest, most animal-identified figure (the bovine on the lower left) and the highest, most celestial figure (the angel on the upper left).
The Fool, Le Mat (0): We close the majors with one last human protagonist. The legs of his trousers, the sleeve on the arm holding his walking stick, and the bag holding his possessions are all pink. The Fool is most consistently discussed as going on a journey, and of course “The Fool’s Journey” is a widespread trope for the tarot as a whole. Each area rendered in pink here attaches to something that enables journeying through the world.
The use of pink in the court cards is similarly suggestive, but I will not go through each card individually. Instead, some patterns:
Pink appears in the throne of each of the kings, strongly recalling The Emperor.
It would be tidy and symmetrical if we could say that, in contrast, pink appears in none of the queens’ thrones, but the tarot — a tissue of patterns — always inserts an exception to its emerging rules. Pink does appear on the throne of the Queen of Coins.
Pink appears on all of the knights’ horses, which fits with their traditional interpretations around movement and action, as well as the name of the cards and the title: “cavalier” (Type II) and “chevalier” (Type I) both derive from the vulgar Latin word for horse, “caballas,” which displaced “equus” of classical Latin.
In three of the knights (Coins, Wands, Cups) pink attributes only on the horse. It attributes on the right shoulder of the Knight of Swords, as well as on the shoulders of the King of Swords. What do you do with a sword? You swing it. With your shoulder.
Twice now, we have seen an all-but-one or a three-but-not-the-fourth pattern in the courts. Here are some others:
One of the queens (coins) has a bare neck.
The pink scarf around the throat, which can be associated with voice or expression, appears on only one of the kings (wands).
Three of the pages (coins, wands, cups) have a pink scarf around the throat, but not the fourth (swords); three of the knights have a light blue color around the throat (wands, swords, cups), but not the fourth (coins). The colors of the canines in The Moon are echoing here.
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To summarize:
A white face on a human figure that is otherwise presented with natural flesh tones strongly suggests the idea that the figures are wearing masks. The figures literally look like they are wearing masks, which brings into consideration associated ideas such as roles, personae, and spread-as-story, spread-as-play.
Whatever decks we are using, ideas of masks, roles, personae, and plays provide a useful vocabulary for reading and discussing the cards in a spread.
In the Conver 1760 deck, the pink color appears outside of uncovered flesh in garments or items that resonate with with the human protagonists’ defining characteristics or the aspect of character where they invest most of their life energy.
The Conver deck uses the pink color in this way more than other Tarot de Marseilles decks, but not differently: other decks often omit this feature, but virtually never use it in different parts of the cards.
_________
(1) It is not a perfectly consistent pattern, of course. This is the tarot. The tarot is a tapestry of patterns (progressions, cycles, matrices), but the pattern is never perfectly regular. Within decks and across decks, there are always aberrations, always exceptions that prove the rule. Which is to say, the tarot is organic, not mechanistic. (Many find the expression “The exception that proves the rule” to be odd or even non-sensical. It is not. The expression does not mean “The exception that proves the rule to be true.” Rather, the word “proves” should be read as “tests”… as in the sense of “a proving ground”. The expression means, “The exception that tests how far we can take the rule, and locates the point where the rule breaks down.”)
(2) Both the Camion-Jodorowsky and Ben-Dove decks use the Conver 1760 deck as their reference point for recreating the Tarot de Marseille. And, this may the point where I should make a disclosure: I too consider the Conver 1760 deck, not as in any way authoritative (that idea does not work with something as fluid and organic as the tarot), but as the deck that best represents the Tarot de Marseille in its full maturity, and the tarot as best rendered before later, individualistic esoteric elements entered the picture. To borrow from an oath, I consider it “All the tarot, and nothing but the tarot.” Call this a judgment or a bias: either way I am aware of it, and have made my best effort to take it into account in the ensuing discussions.
(3) We do not know who created the wooden molds used for this deck, but — assuming the 1760 date means anything — we do know one thing: it wasn’t Nicholas Conver. Conver’s father, Mathieu, a card maker, did not settle in Marseille until 1766, and Nicholas Conver did not become a card maker until 1801. During this period, ownership of the molds used to make cards was often transferred, either because of bankruptcy or death, or in a simple sale. It was also a common practice to carve out elements of the mold — such as the trademark-like information usually placed on the Two of Coins — and replace it with something more current. So, Nicholas Conver did not design the cards. But, as a working card maker between 1801 and 1829, he would have overseen production of the cards coming from his shop, and this includes the selection and application of color, presumably through a stencil process.