Deck of the Week Sign-up Thread: Week 267, August 20 - August 26

[Agnes]

 

This is the frame story for the sprawling Alleyman’s deck (including the reason for source and contact info for every card). This is one of the things that appealed to me the most — it is pretty much exactly not how I approach tarot as you may have noticed. Even a mismatched deck with carefully chosen cards would be much more up my alley  (sorry but I’ll probably use this phrase more than once this week) than one that changes. 
 

 

In the spirit of this second page I am swapping some of the cards into spots where I think they work better, and making a list of ones that just don’t appeal to me.  Not sure if I’ll audition substitutes from my other decks or cast a broader net. 

[Wyrdkiss]

2 hours ago, Bodhiseed said:

This week I'll be using the Russian Lubok Tarot, created and self-published by Eugene Vinitski and Sergey Savchenko. I'll also be drawing from the Marseille Oracle, a deck created and published by Lo Scarabeo with a little booklet written by Isa Donelli. Today's draws are Death and Friendship:

 

   

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink. 

― Shunryu Suzuki.

 

The PDF booklet that came with the Russian Lubok makes an interesting statement about this card: "Death is represented as a time manager." Imagine everyone receiving at birth an hourglass produced to show our allotted time on earth. We might not only learn to become better time managers, but we would likely make sure our time was spent in worthwhile ways. The anchor's meaning of Friendship seems odd at first, yet our meaningful relationships are the ones that keep us anchored when life's waves get choppy. The oracle's booklet states: "It's time to recognize your true friends." How often do we do things for others simply so they will like and accept us? What do we put up with just so we won't lose a relationship with someone? There is no need to be unkind to such folks, but it might be wiser to spend our time with people who accept and care for us unconditionally.

 

 

@Bodhiseed that Death card is uh-mazing.

I am already intrigued to purchase this tarot.  Time in an apt comparison, considering the implications of both its limitations as well as the death of the ego achieved by living in the moment.

In the polyamorous community, Anchor or Anchor Partner is a term used for the individual one relies on most and often shares medical access, finances, etc with.

I think the meaning in that card is quite fitting.

Keep sharing please these are wonderful.

[Bodhiseed]

13 minutes ago, Wyrdkiss said:

@Bodhiseed that Death card is uh-mazing.

I am already intrigued to purchase this tarot.  Time in an apt comparison, considering the implications of both its limitations as well as the death of the ego achieved by living in the moment.

In the polyamorous community, Anchor or Anchor Partner is a term used for the individual one relies on most and often shares medical access, finances, etc with.

I think the meaning in that card is quite fitting.

Keep sharing please these are wonderful.

@Wyrdkiss ❤️

Here's a link that shows some more images. I think I bought mine through Amazon, but I don't think that's a possibility any longer.

https://tarotbg.eu/en/bulgarian-and-eastern-european-tarot/517-lubok-russian-tarot.html

[Wyrdkiss]

Thanks @Bodhiseed.  I may need to move it to my out of print wish list, we'll see.

[Wyrdkiss]

This deck is fascinating. I am not versed well in astrology. Not knowing where else to start, I did one of the spreads, asking a relationship question. With the help of the book I think I realize how this is to work now. 

[Jadis]

1 hour ago, Wyrdkiss said:

This deck is fascinating. I am not versed well in astrology. Not knowing where else to start, I did one of the spreads, asking a relationship question. With the help of the book I think I realize how this is to work now. 

Even without knowing the context of your question, I like how cohesive the terms on the cards are. And without those I'd be lost because I'm not fully versed in astrology either. It's a beautiful deck, I look forward to seeing your next post about it.

[Jadis]

I backed this deck on kickstarter a few years ago because it was really beautiful and was from a local artist, but from the first day I held it I didn't feel a connection. I never really worked with it past that first time so I'm hoping this week will show me if I should rehome it or not.

 

Today's spread:

I like the 2 of Swords here, to me it really empathizes having to think quickly while juggling difficult decisions.

 

For the 6 of Cups I was drawing a huge blank. I couldn't pull much from this image personally so I looked at the booklet and it said this card represents childhood memories and revisiting the past. The booklet is really spare on description and wish it had more insight than that.

 

I found this version of the Hanged Man to be very evocative and striking. I liked the feeling it gave that the Hanged Man could choose to anchor himself more securely  or drop down easily as he is fully in control of his placement.

 

[Agnes]

Day two with the Alleyman’s tarot. Big question for today has been “can I read with it?”  So I’ve just been doing practice readings using spreads in the accompanying book, asking for a coherent story.  It has been working although it’s slow going because I have to look up almost  every card. I may try doing a bunch of three card combos without any follow up. 
 

Here’s a three cards as “current event”; I read it as “Wearing masks out of habit but things are changing and you are destructively clinging to something that died long ago.”

 

Then the Fork in the Road elaboration on that situation. Central situation is the performer's mask — being the King of Pentacles, the provider while ignoring distress for fear of being overwhelmed. Two paths: the first is to stay in this role that is killing you to provide for the next generation. This appeals to you because you recognize the story, this is how things go.  But you aren’t participating, you’re just reading the story. 
 

Choice two : leave this role that has taken over everything. It has changed since you started but you feel obligated to continue. You aren’t!  This pulls you because you are so lonely behind the mask. But you are afraid to throw it away. 

• Quote

[Bodhiseed]

From the Russian Lubok Tarot, Temperance; from the Marseille Oracle, Wisdom:

   

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

~Bruce Lee

The shoulder yoke on this lass implies that we must constantly adjust our stance and behavior based on each situation rather than having a fixed position. If my neighbor's dog runs loose and digs up my yard, I might speak to her about keeping her dog on a leash or in a fenced area. If that same dog is hit and killed by a car, she does not need my input on leashes or fences, she only needs my compassion. Wisdom suggests something more than the facts and figures of knowledge, which can be gathered simply through education and learning. Wisdom includes knowledge as well as other traits: a wide perspective, experience, and discernment - all of which form sound judgment. 

 

[Mi-Shell]

Monday:

Black Vulture!!!!!!!

Exactly!

How come the Bird calendar “knows” that is going on here??!!

 

 

 

Why you ask?

Spoiler

The one minister of one of the churches is adamant that rather than focusing on understanding Native American Nations and their world view and foster cross-cultural understanding I should explain

Quote:

“We have apologized, what more is there to do?

Look at the money we spend on ‘them’ and ‘they’ don’t improve themselves.

Ban alcohol on the Reserves. That will fix their problems

For the money we pay you you better tell my people why all the Indians are still dissatisfied with the visit of our revered infallible Holy Father and his words, why they think the discipline and order in the residential schools were so bad and why they are not just shutting up and get on with working and earning a living like everyone else”

 

Black Vulture is not a popular Bird.

But where he is, there is carrion to find......

[Agnes]

@Mi-Shell your interactions with this calendar are so interesting!  

Edited August 22, 2022 by Agnes
Grammar!

[Wyrdkiss]

On 8/21/2022 at 10:45 AM, Jadis said:

Even without knowing the context of your question, I like how cohesive the terms on the cards are. And without those I'd be lost because I'm not fully versed in astrology either. It's a beautiful deck, I look forward to seeing your next post about it.

Thank you @Jadis.  Astrology is a knowledge base I only pick up on the fly, especially when reading Crowley material on the Thoth. He infused so much astrology significance into the deck, made even more impacting by Lady Frieda Harris, and I feel compelled to expand my understanding in some possible manner. 

 

There's so much to learn from here. cards span not only main signs, but also planets, Houses, Yod on the Tree of Life and something called, "Grand Trine".  The cardstock is also nicely laminate and durable, good for outdoors and on the go.   Not sure how much more I'm going to post, as time is crunched this week, but I hope this gives all of you an idea as to if you like this pack or not.  I'm keen on it, totally won over.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Wyrdkiss

[Bodhiseed]

@Wyrdkiss, those cards really are lovely. And while I'm usually not keen on keywords on cards, this would actually be helpful for me (as I know so little about astrology).

[Mi-Shell]

Bird calendar divinations for Tuesday August 23

Florida Scrub- Jay

 

 

 

Words fall into my head – a poem forms....

 

Dressed in blue and white

I observe from a height

Black is my beak

poke holes into critique

The light will reveal

what you try to conceal

a vast desert below

new pathways to show.....

 

Blue and white are the main colors for the outfits of many Siberian and Mongolian shamans.

The silk scarf that holds my traditional Toly (shaman's mirror) is black white and deep blue.

I wear that, when teaching, to signal, where I am from....

neutral ground in a sea of grievances

 

Young leaves on the desert plant symbolize the sprouting new concepts for conflict resolution.

All members of the Jay family are seen as noisy messengers from the Spirit World, that can not be ignored.......

 

[Agnes]

Alleyman's tarot, day 5.

 

I've been splitting this deck up into parts to study in different ways -- the majors, the minors, the additional minors, the "other arcana", reading the handbook and comparing it to some of my favorite authors, etc, etc.  I do feel like I'm getting more of a grasp of what the creator was trying to do, and how the deck might work for me or others.  But I'm still wondering whether I actually want that.  This deck veers very far away from the idea of 78 cards that emcompass all of human experience.  Many cards split off aspects of one card -- say, taking the 6 of cups and adding a card that's all & only about nostalgia for the past and how it can be good or crippling, instead of leaving that as an aspect of a card that could deal with the past & childhood in different ways.  Others split off aspects of the court cards into separate personalities.  I am not sure this specificity is really helpful but also I find reading the handbook thought provoking.  

 

If I continue to work with this deck, I'll want to retitle a bunch of cards and replace others whose images I just don't like.  I might also just remove some of the cards but I think I'd be a little slower with that before deciding to throw out concepts the author wanted to include.

 

This is definitely a deck with a bias against authority.  The handbook really rips up kings, generally painting them as despots reveling in unearned authority.  Sometimes the reversed definitions are the more standard ones; sometimes they become even more perverse characters.  But then of course there's a hole in the deck : how do you represent someone who embodies the traditional King of Swords if your definition is this? Here it's pretty much the reverse of the King, but elsewhere the traditional concept has just been removed entirely. I'm trying to find these holes and see if they're represented elsewhere in the deck. (I call this card : "if Elrond was a serial killer")

 

  

 

My feeling right now is that this deck might be great for pulling a card or two at a time, to shed some light on a situation or to give you something to think about, but I'm not sure about larger, more nuanced readings.  I guess there's an obvious way to explore that!

 

 

 

Here are three cards of the cards I'd like to retitle.  I'd appreciate suggestions for ways to do so without just crossing out one title with a sharpie and writing in the other.  The card on the left has no title, so I can just remember the one I'm calling it (and alter it in the documentation).  But for the two with titles on the cards, I'd appreciate suggestions for ways to cover over the existing titles or cross them out in a more decorative way.  (I want to use that Fool as the Performer, and the Queen of Wands as my Knight of Wands. There's another fool and another queen of wands in the deck, and I don't want to confuse myself when these turn up.)

[Mi-Shell]

Bird calendar divinations for Wednesday: August 24

The clear blue sky is full of Brown-headed gulls.

 

A noisy and busy day on the Farmer's Market.

All the Gulls are getting ready to fly south.

Summer is over!

Just quickly some shopping – and a little gossip.....

 

[Mi-Shell]

Bird calendar divinations for Thursday, August 25

Great Egret:

 

motionless

perfect reflection

in still water

 

waiting

patience

 

Patience is not my strong point.

Meditation however is.

The grasses in the shallow waters and their reflections remind me of

As above,

so below

As in the physical world

so in the emotional realm

[DesertRat]

 

I'm loving seeing everybody working with their decks. 

 

My cards are warning me not to throw out old tried and true teachings when making important life choices.

 

[Agnes]

Those colors, @DesertRat!!

[Agnes]

Alleyman's Tarot, day 6

 

I've been doing longer readings, to see if this deck is coherent for me.  I know that some people have chosen to pull a 78 card standard deck out of it and just use that, but I don't really see the point; a lot of the most interesting concepts are in the Other Arcana and the extra suit, etc.  So if I want to keep working with it, I have to figure out how to work with the whole deck.

 

The problem with longer readings is that then I end up doing readings on things I don't really want to talk about in public.  But maybe I can find useful examples that I am willing to share.

 

 

This is a spread from the handbook -- 7DA calls it "highs and lows."  It's Past, Present, Future, but with two cards in each section -- the high point and low point of each time slot.  What I think is interesting is that both Magicians showed up, a reversed on in the Present Low and and upright one in the Future Highs.  That seems like an interesting way for this deck to talk about getting control of personal power, and a benefit to having two versions of the same Major.

 

 

Here's one that at first glance looked quite unreadable to me.  But when I sat down with the handbook and worked through it, it really came out quite cohesively and coherently.  I've been reading this book a lot over the last week and so it makes sense to me that my sub/unconscious has incorporated the meanings more than my conscious intellect has.

Despite this reading giving me a pretty clear answer, I asked for an advice card because I didn't really like the answer I was seeing.  My request was something along the lines of "should I really leave my family and [go do this thing I don't really want to do]" and the response was the Queen of Bombs reversed.

 

 

The Queen of Bombs is a very interesting concept to me -- the mother of the 1950s nuclear family who is devoted to her family but maybe not in a healthy way, who protects them from harm and from the knowledge of the harm that's out there (which means they won't take any steps to deal with it), and who will attack anything she sees as a threat to this family (including perhaps the ways in which the individuals in her family deviate from the image she has of the Perfect Family).  This sort of concept is one of the things I really like about this deck -- how would you come up with this in a standard 78 card deck? Would you just have this as a possible interpretation of one of the queens, perhaps reversed and in conjunction with other cards?

 

The Queen of Bombs is of course not in Renee's book on using tarot for practical advice, but in general she advocates seeing court cards as a way to be/act, and reversals of them as a suggestion to not act that way.  So to me this says, don't be this controlling obsessive mother who makes things worse because she has to Make Things Perfect -- and don't use my family as my excuse.

 

Here she is right side up, because I like this card. 

 

 

So tomorrow is Conclusion Day but I am definitely getting readable spreads out of this deck.

 

 

[DesertRat]

I've been getting a lot of Majors lately.

 

[fire cat pickles]

I promise I've been doing draws, just haven't had time to write anything up... 7 of Swords, 6 of Pentacles, Knight of Swords., Hermit, 8 of Pentacles, and today Queen of Cups. I started back to school full time this week and it's been hectic! I really like this deck! Last week I didn't gel at all with the Visconti Gold, and this week it's the complete opposite. I was going to go with the Thoth but the Thoth isn't really a deck you use for a week, so I think I will stick with the Davis/Patterson for another week! I like it a lot!

 

Here is next week's thread:

 

[Agnes]

2 hours ago, fire cat pickles said:

I really like this deck!

I’m glad you’re enjoying this deck. I looked up some of the images and it’s gorgeous. 
 

I hope the new school year is off to a good start!

[Mi-Shell]

Bird Calendar divinations for Friday, August 26

 

Dear Mister Quetzal!

You are truly a rare and Magical Being!

Much revered by all the First Nations in both Americas.

Your feathers were highly prized and widely traded.

Your nests were watched and protected.

Dearest Quetzal,

Please help me today, when I have to go out and meat with the representatives of the 5 churches and present to them, what the government asked me to teach to their congregations.

Most of them will not like it, because it is an uncomfortable and well hidden truth.

[Rachelcat]

Wow, such insightful and beautiful readings this week!  I enjoyed going through them just now.  I’ve been missing this past week, a combination of family emergency and crazy work.  I’ll be back for next week with an easy-to-use deck.  In the meantime, I’ll finish up with Tarot of Japanese Poetry.

 

Let’s see how it works with the old-fashioned first part of the Celtic cross.  No question or topic, covering card will be the issue.

 

 

Winter turning to spring!  With two majors.

 

This is me:  Ace of Winter

     Through the cracks in the door

     The winter whirlwind whistled

     Sharp as a spear

Very wintery and swordsy, as it should be.  And the illustration shows papers on a desk being blown around, so airy, too.  I’m someone who’s most happy when I’m learning something, so I can easily identify with the winter of this deck.  But the ace makes me think I’m also looking around for, or am about to find, a new understanding.

 

This covers me:  4 of Winter

     Oh goddess Medusa

     Give me a look

     So I can enter an eternal sleep

     Until his return

This is the issue.  Yes, even though I’m usually a learning machine, I’ve been intellectually stuck for a while now.  I don’t want to sleep much longer.

 

This crosses me:  Emperor

This poem is too long, so only a few lines here:

     The country of Yamato that the gods saw from heaven

     I rule and I dominate

     I am the king and everything is subject to me

I’m depending too much on authority in my learning.  I need to free my mind a bit and understand things in my own way.

 

This crowns me:  Princess of Spring

     Pears in bloom

     Under the moonlight

     A girl reads a letter

Winter turns to spring, but still includes reading.  But I have a feeling this reading is more personal than intellectual!  My goal is to enjoy and be at peace with I learn, not that it makes me upset or confrontational.

 

This is beneath me:  Justice

     I am exhausted with resentment

     I am not afraid that my sleeves

     Decay with tears

     I am sorry for my good name

     Rumors will destroy

Well, that’s kind of dark for Justice!  The poor woman is a victim of a whispered slander campaign, and wants only for people to know the truth.  I’m able to determine the difference between truth and lies.  And fantasy.

 

This is behind me:  Day Before Spring

     A hut door in the mountains

     Overshadowed by branches of pine trees

     Those that do not know spring.

     An intermittent chain or drops

     The melted snow is dripping away

I’ve already experienced the end of winter.  Now it’s time to turn to full spring.  From intellectual understanding to emotional understanding.

 

This is before me:  6 of Spring

     Cherries, cherry blossoms are blooming

     And about these old trees

     People sang once

There are two poems for this card, both about nostalgia.  I will soon totally come out of winter into a spring of enjoyment and beauty and also understanding.  The things that I’ve learned that upset me will be change into understanding that calms me.

 

Ok, a little nebulous.  Well, not really.  I understand the reading pretty well, it’s just hard to explain in words!  Plus I enjoyed the poems! 

 

See you tomorrow for a brand new week!