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Personally, I don't bother much with the insets anymore, unless I'm checking for multiples in a box or line, or more rarely, when checking the relationships between the suits if I need more nuance (which is rarely, if ever, needed). OR when I'm trying to understand something about specific people based on the court cards; e.g. Queen of Diamonds is a relative through marriage, King of Clubs is a man you hate dealing with (or just a man with salt and pepper hair), etc. The thing to note here is that Caitlin gives English associations when it comes to the part on numerology in her book, and (if I'm not mistaken) French associations for the multiples. She adapts the suit meanings to the German tradition (where Lenormand cards originated from, and which essentially means that Clubs are viewed negatively instead of the usual Spades), but black=bad, red=good is an English thing, which Caitlin uses too in answering yes/no questions. (For yes/no questions, I pull three cards and look whether they are positive/negative/neutral, and after that read the cards themselves for more detail regarding my question). Andy Boroveshengra, on the other hand, explains the German tradition in his book briefly, and associates specific suits with specific seasons, and later suggests some additional timing techniques using them. Lenormand is essentially a reduced deck of playing cards. So, reading the Ring as contract/bond/marriage/something that loops isn't much different than if you read the inset (Ace of Clubs) as: "a surprise that would be pleasant if with Hearts and Spades, but not so with another Club, a malefic suit." as Andy teaches. A surprise is a dichotomy, you'd either like it or you won't, and so it rhymes with the idea of something looping. A bond- such as a satisfying marriage- would be fulfilling, but it could also become a shackle that pulls one down. It's a brilliant idea to learn the insets- I think anyone learning Lenormand MUST- because they should add to the understanding you already have of the cards and solidify them in your brain; but your practice shouldn't reach a place where you find yourself reading Lenormand and the insets separately. That will often lead to contradictory readings (and hard ones too! Imagine trying to interpret the suits, colors, numerology and whatnot all at once- in other words, doing everything except reading the actual Lenormand). At least, that's what I've come to understand after almost five-six years of using the cards. So, yes. I use Andy's logic (and near-far meanings) AND his multiple associations next to Caitlin's multiple associations. In some places they are contradictory, but since I use them rarely I pay attention to my context when I'm indeed using them. And timing... well, that's a whole other topic entirely, but suffice it to say that Caitlin's timing table method is the most accurate one I've ever used. That's all I had to say. I hope it helps, if you're still interested in Lenormand cards 🙂 I agree. Even though cartomancy systems overlap in more than one place, the methods are best used separately. I do Lenormand readings like what I outlined above, but when I'm really compelled to use the playing cards solely, I use another method.

Now, if those similarities are tied together, universality is revealed: That would be the next similarity: that inside-outside silence feels like the bridge for the respirational phenomenon. Amongst the inter-religious mystic practices there is the cultivation of silence. It is a branch so prominent that I wonder if it wouldn't be more ample to see it as part of the trunk. If we now fill in "Tarot Cards" for temple sites and add a dose of the below: ...then this one is very easily understood: It's like wine. It has to breathe.

@Rose Lalonde Your divination circle was one of my faves, I think I might try to revive it. Let me know what I need to do. Maybe need to wait until next month. And @DanielJUK maybe I should do something about that old thread too. It kind of dwindled away a bit.... I need pressure to perform 😄

Welcome back @Bodhiseed, @Rachelcat, and @Mi-Shell 😀

I forgot to say that we often have suggested exercises for exchanges, to you could turn divination circle into that if you wanted. Or just start from scratch with your own separate thing to make it clear it's not the same.

Hi @JoyousGirl and @Marina. I started the Divination Circle and only had time to host it quarterly. And then I dropped the ball on it. Just wanted too say, it's absolutely fine by me if you want to pick it up and post it. You're welcome to use my sign up copy and guidelines or to write something totally new instead if you decide to go with that. Nothing you decide to do with it would upset me. I'd love to see it as an option here again. 🙂

Brilliant! That’s exactly what I was looking for, @DanielJUK. Thank you!!!

Week 2 with my new Oriens Animal Tarot So far readings are personal , clear and to the point. 🙂

I only saw your thread today @Tanga and loved your ideas ❤️ David Attenborough was born on the 8th of May and I looked up the cards which have astrology correspondences to him. V. The Hierophant this represents Taurus season (also my birth major as his birthday is very close to mine). I see this as him a bit, it fits. He is a teacher of nature and science and an institution and tradition in himself. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, so there is also III. The Empress The card for his Decan of birthday is the Six of Pentacles (Second decan of Taurus ruled by the Moon). I can see that as well in him. He gives and receives information that he presents to us. I thought it was interesting how Earthy the cards around his birth are.

I have been trying to understand 7 of Swords in different contexts and this makes sense to me in certain situations. Thanks!

@Marina if you are going to do an exercise on a Moon cycle, you can easily post a collective exercise in this section.... https://www.thetarotforum.com/forums/forum/59-lunar-amp-sabbat-group-readings/ That's for Lunar Cycle and Sabbat readings with any form of divination. That makes it easier to find a place for it 😃 You are welcome to post a thread there with ideas and see if people want to be part of it. I am not sure if it would have take up or not. This was @JoyousGirl's past suggestion....

Thanks for the support as well. Im looking forward to studying again

I've been thinning down my collection, and I'll never give away the Fey. It's a treasure! I’m going to continue with my Golden Dawn and RWS series, so this week will be Hanson-Roberts Tarot paired with Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition Deck, part of the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set from US Games 2009, which includes a copy of Waite’s The Pictorial Key to the Tarot and The Artwork & Times of Pamela Colman Smith, Artist of the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck by Stuart R. Kaplan and some art cards. It’s still in print, but it was more affordable back in 2009! (I also have the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck Centennial Edition in a Tin version, which I used as a deck of the week back in 2021 paired with Pixie’s Amazing Lenormand.) Hanson-Roberts was one of my first decks, which I picked as a “traditional” deck while I picked the Motherpeace as a nontraditional. (I was thinking in categories even back then!) I don’t think I’ve ever done a card-to-card comparison between Hanson-Roberts and RWS, so I think that’s how I’ll work it this week. I’ll shuffle and deal Hanson-Roberts and match it with the Smith-Waite. Interview! What is your most important characteristic? The Hermit It goes its own way but always in search of the truth. Or always with the goal of imparting the truth. What is your strength? Queen of Rods It’s comfortable but strong. Your weakness? The Fool It goes off on its own tangent sometimes. He’s looking up, not where he’s going, and the Hermit is looking down, and he’s not going anywhere. What can you teach me? Two of Swords The deck can teach me how to make good decisions by looking within. How can I learn it? King of Cups Contrapositive of the Queen of Rods: By not being comfortable but strong, but instead being strong and active but comfortable. What will be the outcome of our work together this week? Eight of Cups Maybe this is the before scene of the Hermit at the beginning of his quest for truth. I will feel all the feelings of connecting with my old deck, and then move on. Ok! Let’s give all that a try!

Thank you, Fire cat! I'm in with the Fey Tarot paired with the I Misteri Della Sibilla. Compassion manifests in us as the offering of kindness rather than withdrawal. —Sharon Salzberg The drops emerging upward from the Queen's cup are her version of texts, calls, and letters to see how people are doing. She is a listener, one who can empathize with kindness without self-identifying and drowning in the feelings of others. Compassion isn't trying to fix someone - which is often just a reaction to our being uncomfortable. While we may offer advice if asked for, it's more about bearing witness to someone's pain so they don't feel alone and disconnected. The Five of Clubs suggests good fortune that is created by our own actions. As St. Basil said, "They who sow courtesy reap friendship, and they who plant kindness gather love."

A unique version of Reading Circle for those who would like to work through their collection of decks, participants choose decks from their collections to work with for the week. Some use one deck, others use two or more. Some combine methods: Tarot, non-tarot (e.g. oracle), playing cards, or any other divinatory method is welcome. All we ask is that you use at least one tarot or oracle deck. No collection is too large or too small. The only rules we have are the Tarot, Tea & Me Rules; Be respectful of one other. Please join us! Please post with your choice of deck(s) for the week Chat away about your deck, how you're finding it (or not), etc., it's all up to you Participants may either choose to share their readings here in this discussion thread or opt to have their own journal in the Journals Forum and link it here Yet others may even have an offline journal in paper & pencil/pen form Share as often, as much, or as little as you like. You can drop in and out at any time—reality and life permitting. New to tarot? Long time reader? Come on in! Participants fire cat pickles: Tarot de la Rea Bodhiseed: Fey Tarot paired with the I Misteri Della Sibilla Rachelcat: Hanson-Roberts Tarot paired with Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition Deck Mi-Shell: Oriens Animal Tarot Click here for DOTW 464 (5/25-5/31)

The 5 of Wands in the Robin Wood deck is pretty obvious as a pentacle that hasn't got its act together yet.

Yes, this is what I thought too. My idea was not exactly a reading exchange, but more like an exercise, like doing Full Moon or New Moon readings and sharing, so we can explore diferences and similarities. Things like that. But I agree, it’s tricky to place something like that. And I’m not even sure anyone else would be interested 😅

Part of my perspective comes from personal site visits to oracular temples in the Mediterranean region (42 so far). Since all are in various states of ruination, some quite severe, visiting ancient temples today will never match the experience of original societies, but still there is something to be said for direct contact with temple sites and the intuitive understanding that can emanate from those experiences. But that's just perspective development, not academic reference. If you're interested in more illuminating (sorry for the pun) scholary research on the play of light and shadow within temple interiors, I'd start you with the sources below. While these are good starting points, there are plenty of writings for anyone who wants to take a deeper dive, especially since the psychology of visualization has been a growing field of interest for archaeologists and the like. Criado-Boado, Martinez, Blanco, Alonso-Pablos, Verdonkschot: Archaeologiques of Sight (Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2024) Religion in Ancient Egypt (Edited by Byron E. Shafer; 1991) Sight and the Ancient Senses (Edited by Michael Squire; Routledge, 2016) Christopher Tilley: A Phenomenology of Landscape (Oxford University Press, 1994) Jasper Zwarts: Light, Darkness, and Revelation (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2020)

5 of Wands in Arcus Arcanum has aspects of this - as if you're drawing the pentagram with your hand. But this card shows more bare-naked viciousness in the competition. I think it shows the interplay of individual forces as you say. But maybe the balance of them (or not) too. This is a 5 card - so if we consider the elements interacting that you talk about in the pentagram - in nature, that can bring a lovely status quo - but here they are in an unstable transitional 'storm building' phase where something is being built - and the pentagram can turn upside down. Or it actually is already, perspective matters. Where you are in the game? There's someone at the front foot of each card indicating the focal point of the upright star turned the other way. How are the elements or forces interacting for you personally within a group situation? The RWS seems to show things aligning. I'm looking at who has 2 hands on the wand, one hand on the wand, and facial expressions. The guy on the far left of the RWS card looks very happy. And as you're talking about pentagrams - if we think about the 5 of Pentacles, where you are in the game - hierarchy is clearly shown. This is Wands (work, creation, inspiration) and Pentacles (money/material resources and health). Putting both RWS and Arcus together - it really makes me think of situations like a work environment (or a course environment where people are learning a skill and there's some form of comparison). There's people working at cross purposes or despite all the niceties, with an ego agenda 'to win' of sorts. In the RWS we might have read somewhere that it can be a game or friendly competition, maybe even practice and skills building - certainly building resilience. But is competition ever really friendly? Someone's always hoping to win and it feeds an ego. Some sucker is the brunt of any competition 'the loser'. Surface niceties and "showing face" are part of a dog-eat-dog world - anyone who has worked in an office can tell you that. Pythagoras is coming to mind - not that I can remember anything I read from 30 years ago about his shapes - but this 5 of Wands IS a pentacle/pentagram as you say - because the number 5 itself indicates a number of points in the divine shapes that make up the universe (I can't remember any of his concepts and could be talking out of my behind). Any 5 card is a pentacle/Pentagram. Perhaps we should take a closer look at such numerical concepts? I just went and got a link which is gibberish to me 😄 https://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/physical/equations/lesson2/equations2d.html

Yup. Absolutely. Each individual has a plan - perhaps arguments about how to do the build - but the pentagram (pentacle is as star enclosed in a circle) is drawing their staffs together like it's magnetised. It has a life of it's own.

"The crystal sphere of silence... is surcharged with DEITY - go out beneath the naked night, and get religion there!" (~ Sam Walter Foss). There is a quality of SILENCE that listens...

Nope. Unless I'm reading cards for myself in a ritualistic way, where candle style lighting, projections of the moon or stars on the ceiling (I have a gadget), ritual tools, essential oils/incense, and maybe (sometimes) music all lend a hand in me reaching an altered state. For the client - I like to look like the professional therapist that has just pulled a little magic out of her hat, within her setting. A professional looking Tarot cloth is all I'll have - and I may or may not have some of my favourite "witchy" pieces of jewellery on. @Nemia - aparently alot of old Temple sites are all built on Ley Lines.

Divination exchange circle? I was going to ask what happened to that. Do you need a host? Maybe me and Marina can host?

Here we have a shamanic practice which is a form of alternative seeing. It allows you to see the inner/true form of something. It can be used to increase your knowledge about anything, including tarot cards. I can imagine your method working in a similar way.