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For my tired old eyes, actual daylight is best. I try to read in a well-lighted, well-organised space, and I like it to smell good. I have diffusers all over the house, and I like to light incense before I read the cards or put up my decan, moon phase or weekly cards, just to show some respect and love to my cards. I have done readings in the most unlikely places, and as long as I'm focused, I feel that the cards themselves create a special space. For anyone interested in the settings of ancient temples, I can recommend Rachel Pollack's book "The Body of the Goddess". It talks about the importance of a spiritual connection between the physical appearance of a place (its similarity to the outlines of a female body) as an ideal place to set up a temple. I remember when I was a student, a professor of ancient and antique art also mentioned that some places have a special aura. That's one of the reasons why later religions built their temples over older temples. Yes, they wanted to show their victory over an old religion, but they also felt the special meaning of a place. I have felt such "places of energy", as we call them in German, at different old temples in Greece and Germany. It's a total sensual experience - you hear, see, feel and even smell it.

Taking off your glasses and obscuring vision... what an interesting approach to a reading! That is akin to how ancient temples were typically designed as a transition from light to shadow as one entered deeper toward the sacred. Kind of like your approach, they were designed to progressively obscure visual acuity and shift rational awareness toward subconscious reactions. Brilliant on you!

I don't think visual staging has much of an impact on me, because I have read in the most unlikely places! Like, zero ambience! THAT SAID… I do think that soft warm light like candle, or the presence of fire (as in a fireplace during winter) can shift my focus and make the reading a more ritualistic and immersive experience, which I really like too. One exercise I have tried is to take off my glasses (I'm short sighted) and try to look at the cards without them… This will sometimes help me notice colour, light and shadow patterns I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

I've moved your post to it's own thread @Marina and out of the suggestions thread 🙂 This is a tricky one for us as it doesn't fit well anywhere easily but it would great to have a collective exercise. Let us discuss it between the forum staff and we will work out the perfect place for you to post it 🥰

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this, I just want an information. I understand the forum is separated by categories of divination method - tarot, oracles, cartomancy and non-card divination. But if I wanted to, say, invite people to join me in a collective exercise that welcomes any kind of divination method the person prefers... where in the forum would be the most appropriate place to open such a thread, without disrespecting too much the organisation we have here? Thank you, and if such thing is not allowed, I understand it perfectly. I just figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

A detail that, for whatever reasons, stand out to me is that the guy at the back, to the right, is holding something that is outside of our view. His arm is very outstretched, and it seems a little awkward when his other hand is trying to maneuver a large wand. So I think he’s doing something we can’t see.. Maybe he’s holding onto something for stability?

Another method is to look intently at the cards for a minute or two, and then close your eyes and see what comes to you. Sometimes a specific symbol will reappear in my mind - perhaps doing something new or different. Yet another method is to scry by looking intently at the cards until your gaze becomes hazy and you enter an altered state of mind. No thinking, just experiencing. Then you can have wild visions based on the imagery in the cards! (Banners becoming snakes, colors pulsating like blood etc. 😊) But to answer the original question- I typically do not set the stage with any particular kind of lighting. The atmosphere and the magic is in my mind, no candle light required!

I've been thinking about this card recently and really see them as building a Pentagram or Pentacle these days. In some decks, it's more visible than others, this is RWS and it's even more obvious in Wiccan / Pagan style decks. A Pentagram has the five elements on the points, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. This looks like they are making an upright symbol, maybe to bring balance in all areas, rather than the conflict of the card? Or maybe it represents a Pentacle, that could represent manifestation and a tangible result? Turning scattered into structure. It's a grounding symbol. It's funny how you still see new things in the cards that give you a new layer to think about 🙂

Feedback -- Questions and comments are welcome. This reading gives us insight into energies that we can focus on during specific days of the upcoming week as well as throughout the entire week as a whole This week's reading will use The Bottanical Deck by Jessica Bott. Here are focal points for our meditation: Sunday: How Can I Express Generosity: Eight of Cups 'Spiritual Retreat' Pray during ceremony. Monday. How Can I Set the Emotional Tone for my Week? Nine of Wands 'Perseverance' Firm up Konekt. Tuesday: What Do I Want to Manifest? Four of Wands Mishkan 'Sacred Space' Clean Krystal drawer. Wednesday: What Wisdom is Coming to Me? XIX Meyeledet 'Growth' Tarot deck shopping. Thursday: What Do I Want to Develop? Five of Swords 'Karmic Lessons' KH prep Friday: Connection with Romance, Friends & Nature? Ten of Pentacles 'Legacy' Death prep lists. Shabbat: How Can I Rest? Five of Pentacles 'Healing' Reading for Jeri & Juna.

Certainly, quiet extremely so, even. Intentionally setting the lightings is something I do not, precisely because of the impact. Not on me, on the sitter. It would require a predetermined focal point, an emphasis you did decide on before doing your read, which is not in the best interest of the one you're reading for. The focal point of each read should develop naturally. Of course, that is only possible within limitations, such as a spread. However, I do avoid reading in dark places if there are light places available. Now, imagine the following situation: You read on a cloudy day out in the open. The sun is hidden behind the clouds. Now, a question has been posed and as you are a reader, you'll be shuffling already. You place the second card, and the clouds burst open, there is light and warmth, you place the third and it is dim again, the weather stays the same on the fourth and fifth. Whatever the question, whatever the cards, that second one where the light came out will draw special attention - if not yours, then your sitters. I am sure that setting the lighting belongs more in the sphere of ritualistic magic in the context of a freemasons, druids or reikian initiation and the like, less in the sphere of everyday reads, where you encounter the hues of life, not neccessarily in a harmonious assembly. Long story short, setting the lights also requires to prep the expectation of the audience. During a standart read, that expectation is to get an answer, plain and simple. And so, the setup should be plain and simple, too. According to my idealism, that is.

@Croat Where does that sign stand?

If someone can explain this please do... but it seems thematically in the ballpark(?).

I personally haven't tried this but I read once that some people have candles or change the lighting, so maybe only some symbols or parts of the card are seen. Ohh that could be a good exercise to only show some part. I think there was an exercise in ISG a while ago where only part of the card was shown. I can't quite remember but it was a very interesting experience. I might try reading with just candlelight, because I scry that way and it brings fascinating symbols to me. Some decks make new landscapes when you put the cards together. That's in the deck design, like the Majors or Suits can make a bigger picture together. I think the idea of manipulating is maybe to get a better intuitive, more personalised message perhaps? Like this part or symbol (s) are the most important here. Not sure but that is what I would take from it.

A question for y'all based on what we know about ancient temples... For context, almost all ancient temples were built with paramount importance placed on the optical play of light and shadow. This was particularly true when aligned with the movement of sun and/or stars, but regardless temples were almost never oriented arbitrarily or constructed without intentional visual manipulation of pilgrims' subconscious experience. In short, visual staging was a key part of religious experience vis-à-vis ancient temples. Fast forward to today and how you interact with Tarot. Beyond just ritual, do you intentionally manipulate light and shadow when doing a reading? Set the visual stage, so to speak? If so, why? What is your purpose in creating a particular visual experience coupled with your reading? And perhaps a more weighty question: do you think visual staging can have an impact on how you read the cards?

Same here. It is two negatives after all. Plus, especially when using Lenormands to predict, they tend to hit hard. Andy is very fine-tuned with his cards, however he stays thoroughly true to his "grammar": What comes first gives the vibe, what comes next gives details. It is done by using what he calls essence of a card, you can also say "theme". This theme is the main focus of consideration, the dynamics of the pictures follow thereafter. He's got a penchant for the snake, one I do not share, but that is for each reader to find for themselves. There is a huge difference between a snake read as purely negative and one read as neutral-negative (like the book).

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, @Mister! I didn’t know that the convention is most common in the Benelux-region, so that was very interesting to learn about. Your explanation makes perfect sense… in fact now I remember this part I’d read in Andy Boroveshengra’s book describing the Snake: “Careful attention should be paid when this card is with the Fox. When the Snake precedes the Fox it shows an intelligent woman, one you may not like, but who is, fortunately, trustworthy. If the Snake follows the Fox then the reverse is true.” Here it’s describing a person, but it could apply to situations as well, as far as I can understand; then Fox + Snake would be nastier than the other way around, which also corresponds with the insets, i.e. clubs being troublesome. The deck I most frequently use is the Dondorf Lenormand, so that order would make sense to me, as both animals are facing each other. Your explanation helped put things in order in my mind! My first guess was that since the Snake is biting the Fox’s tail, then someone or a situation that is troubling you would be backfired/ destroyed. That’s because I see the Snake as more malicious than the Fox. In other words, the Fox gets a taste of its own medicine, or maybe something worse…. But as you said, I doubt I’d read the combo like this all the time. To me, when both these cards are together it signals a red flag, not in the querent’s favor, if they were asking something about or relating to themselves.

It's about cancelling each other out when it comes to negatives - example: instead of having a real bad encounter with an authoritarian person, leading to complications along whatever it is you inquired about, like being double-crossed by your boss, some may indeed read it as good advice from a witty one knowing the field. Taken from the idea that the fox gets done in by the snake and the snake is thereby already occupied/exhausted, so she can't do the querent any harm. It appears mostly with older readers who grew up with/alongside it and those who ingrained their playing-card meanings on spades as the troublesuit, making the clubs more positive. If you go by the theme of the original Game of Hope, clubs represent the acorns, thereby having scarcity as a general theme - people ate those in times of need, so it is little surprise that they foreshadow exactly that - times of need. To my knowledge, this "negatives cancelling each other out" is most alive in the Benelux-region and in connection with self-help incorporating cards.

My Bohemian Cats Theater Tarot arrived just a few hours ago, and I'm raring to play with it Patience is a virtue though, and since I only plan to unseal it this coming solstice, I decided to gambol with the Baroque Bohemian Cats in the meantime. From what I can see, they are two entirely different decks - exactly as advertised. I can't compare the cards themselves yet, but from the illustrations in their respective books, one can see that the Theater is in no way a derivative of the Baroque. Speaking of the companion books, I compared the texts of a few cards and I was pleasantly surprised. The explications of each card - the keywords, detailed meanings, supplementary information, etc - between the two books are manifestly distinct. But then again, considering Baba Studio's reputation for sterling quality, I should have expected that they would not resort to rehashed writings. Here are some literal texts fur the Six of Wands. The one on top is from the Baroque while the other is from the Theater. I preserved the original resolution so that one can peruse them easily. The Baroque book is more detailed so I prefer it. But it's apples and orangs, really. One last thing. I am admittedly more of a dog person. What truly endeared this deck to me is the fact that there's a cunning canine that has deceptively ensconced himself in one of the cards. Can you guess which one it is?

Mine as well! 💓

Hi everyone, I hope everything is well with all of you! 🩷🌸✨ I had a small question regarding a reading convention in Lenormand on which I couldn't find sufficient information. What does the Snake biting the Fox's tail mean when they end up side by side like that in a reading? (I first came across this when reading through Katrinka's amazing blog, in a post where she reviews the Black Hand Lenormand deck. I'm not sure whether tagging her here would be okay or not... Here is her blog address: https://fennario.wordpress.com) I would appreciate any information anyone could share regarding this. Thank you. And if Katrinka reads this by any chance, I wish to thank her too. I've learned a lot from you!

I've owned a copy of The Tarot of the 78 Doors for quite some time, but never used it. However, I do take it out every so often and look through it. I find it intriguing. After puzzling over my original horrible cheapo copy of the deck for several years (which I bought before I was aware of counterfeit decks), I have finally acquired a genuine Lo Scarabeo deck. Unlike the counterfeit, which had atrociously bad (unusably rough and sticky) card stock, this one is made to a high standard and can be shuffled and dealt without trouble. So I'm ready to start. However, I don't have a booklet with the deck ...I don't know if that would be a good thing or bad thing. Or even if there is one available. I just found this excellent review of the deck. https://tarotfans.com/tarot-of-the-78-doors-review/ The review has already given me ideas. I know the images in The Tarot of the 78 Doors often differ a LOT from the Rider/Waite/Smith system, but certainly seem to be based on it. The deck seems to focus on situations that are new to the querent, pathways on offer, or involve decisions the querent must make. (What if I go through that particular door?) Just wondering if any of you out there use this deck, and, if so, what initial advice can you give a 'this deck' newbie?

This is an excellent forum. It thoroughly covers all aspects of tarot and other similar practices, without allowing unpleasantness to develop or giving internet trolls any kind of platform. I am really glad that you're finding your way back to tarot and that your spouse is so supportive. Well done.

15 years is amazing! Big congrats on that. If you ever need and ear or just someone to talk to about struggles, my inbox is always open

Congratulations! Stay strong and enjoy life without it. It's been 15 years for me, so you are not alone here! I'm sure getting back into tarot will give you more insights into yourself that will guide you along your journey!

Also you might like to browse these two older discussions about the Gilded.... Ciro replies to someone on that last discussion about the Royale. It was originally a self-published limited edition but it was published mass-market after that by Llewellyn