-
Welcome to Tarot, Tea, & Me - The Tarot Forum!
TT&M is currently the largest active Tarot Forum on the web, and we are so happy you are here!
Come join us in learning card meanings, browse our growing tarot library, or participate in reading exchanges with other members.
We invite you become a part of our family and read with us!
Little Fang
Forum Owner
-
Deck to Check
-
Blogs
-
- 151
entries - 36
comments - 21211
views
Recent Entries
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 Oriens Tarot Deck by Ambisun.
Here are focal points for our meditation:
Sunday: How Can I Express Generosity: Six of Wands Netzach 'Victory' Continue to practice Mahjong -- 2 tournaments this week.
Monday. How Can I Set the Emotional Tone for my Week? Two of Wands 'Commitment' Pray about what commitment means.Tuesday: What Do I Want to Manifest? Mother of Swords 'Organization' Schedule TN newsletters for China vacation.
Wednesday: What Wisdom is Coming to Me? Hero of Cups 'Visionary' Do a reading from El Goliath deck.
Thursday: What Do I Want to Develop? Matriarch of Swords 'Wisdom' Get up to date with Active Dreaming training.
Friday: How Can I Connect with Romance, Friends and Nature? Eight of Cups Shmita 'Spiritual Retreat' Calendar for this lunar year.
Shabbat: How Can I Rest? Three of Cups 'Peacemaker' Join Muslim online forum.- Read more...
- 0 comments
- 151
-
- 4
entries - 15
comments - 2579
views
Recent Entries
Latest Entry
The cradle of tarot (So many decks 2)
By the time playing card decks had become prevalent in Europe, the Kingdom of Sicily was the Korea of its time: There were two political entities claiming to be the real Kingdom of Sicily. This reminds us, that there was no unified Italy at the time. The old kingdom of Sicily split in 1282, and it wasn't until 1816 the two claimants reunited into one kingdom, the strangely named Kingdom of the two Sicilies.
North of these two rivalling southern countries, the Papal States (Holy See) were located. Today, the Holy See oversees the world's smallest country, the principality of Vatican City, consisting of a few city blocks in the middle of the city of Rome, Italy, but in the Middle Ages, the land-claims of the Papal States were quite substantial, running from the west coast (Tyrrhenian Sea) to the east coast (Adriatic Sea). The bishop of Rome had become a head of state in 756, after a Frankish army defeated the Lombards, but the 14th and 15th centuries eroded some of the Pope's secular political power. From 1305 to 1378, popes resided in the Avignon enclave surrounded by Provence, and, in his absence, local aristocracy strengthened their secular power over city states such as Ferrara, Modena and Reggio (House of Este) and Rimini (House of Malatesta). Another semi-autonomous city-republic formally under papal rule was Bologna, significant for its old university, founded in 1088 AD. The ecumenical council of Basel had begun its first session in 1431, but moved to Ferrara in 1438. Its purpose was to mend the schism between the Eastern Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church.
Tuscany, north of the Papal States, had fallen apart in 1115, at the death of Matilda, Margravine of Tuscany, and was replaced by several long-lasting city-republics, the most important of which were Florence, Lucca and Siena. The Republic of Pisa was absorbed by the Republic of Florence in 1405. The House of Albizzi and the House of Medici were influential in Florence. Cosimo de' Medici, who was an aristocratic banker, returned in 1434 to Florence from exile in Venice and expelled the Albizzis. The ecumenical council of Ferrara moved to Florence in 1439, in order to avoid bubonic plague, and lated until 1445. The presence of learned Greeks in Florence made Greek literary works available, such as Corpus Hermeticum, the dialogues of Plato and the works of Plotinus and Proclus. Cosimo de' Medici attended lectures by the Byzantine neopagan philosopher Gemistos Plethon (1360-1454). After decades of intermittent war with Milan, Florence entered a period of peace when its neighbours, Milan and Venice, signed a peace treaty in 1454. From 1462, Medici sponsored the Florentine philosopher and translator Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), who gathered a circle of thinkers, the Florentine Academy, around himself. One of the members was Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), one of the first Christian Kabbalists and a cousin of the poet Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441-1494), the latter famous for his chivalric epic Orlando Innamorato. Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence in 1445. Leonardo da Vinci was born in the Republic of Florence in 1452. Michelangelo was born in the Republic of Florence in 1475.
Milan had been a city-republic, governed by several wealthy families, among them the House of Visconti and the House of Sforza, but became a duchy in 1349. A republic was proclaimed at the death of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti in 1447, but in 1450, Francesco Sforza (married to Bianca Maria Visconti) dropped all pretense of governing a republic, and proclaimed himself Duke of Milan. He defeated Milan's eastern neighbour Venice in the following years.
The Most Serene Republic of Venice was a very old country, founded in 697. Yes, 697 CE! Padoa and Verona became close allies after 1405. Trade with the East Roman (Byzantine) empire had favoured the economy of Venice for ages, but, when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Venetian economy took a hit. Intermittent naval war lasted from 1423 to 1571.
West of the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Genoa (lasted 1005-1797) was located. It controlled Corsica 1284-1755.
North of Genoa, in a mountainous region, there were the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Aosta, the Principality of Piedmont and the County of Nice; all of them ruled by the House of Savoy (much later kings of Italy).
Sardinia was under the Crown of Aragon (one of the Spanish kingdoms) for many centuries.
There were also a few dozen other small political entities, but, of those, only The County of Monaco (since 1612 The Principality of Monaco) and the Republic of San Marino (independent 301 CE) ought to be mentioned, because they are still independent sovereign countries, but, as far as I know, none of them never developed any separate card deck or tarot deck of its own.
- 4
-
- 12
entries - 89
comments - 7240
views
Recent Entries
Latest Entry
More Gold Foil
I've been browsing the gold foil decks on Amazon. To my surprise I found that there are lots of them but they're all called Gold Foil so I just figured they were all the same. I was wrong. I've now ordered three more decks, all different patterns and trimmed with all different borders and backs. These are spectacular decks so of course I'm collecting them now. I can't help myself. They're so mesmerizing that it's almost like they're alive.
The cards are very slippery so you have to develop your workable shuffling tactics but once you get the hang of it they're nice to shuffle. If you drop cards during a shuffle, you can just scoop them up any old which way and you'll have reversals.
Speaking of reversals---I don't like just turning a section of cards upside down for reversals. Then you always have the same cards reversed. I've decided to have the sitter draw
cards from a fan, keeping all the cards face down. Once they've drawn their cards, then I'll have them draw X number more from the first cards they've drawn, keeping the cards face down and those will be the reversals for that spread . Once the reading is finished, I'll put all the cards all upright again and shuffle a couple times and then put the cards away till the next reading.
- 12
-
-
Recent Forum Activity
-
0
Tarot Netivot Star of the Week Reading Sunday December 28, 2025 - Shabbat January 3, 2026
- Natural Mystic Guide posted a blog entry in Natural Mystic Guide -
1
My Website
Okay, the move to the new place is pretty much done, but we're very slow at getting everything unpacked and put away. I wanted to do Christmas first. I still haven't gotten anything done on the website. They've updated their website builder and I haven't tried to use it since then.- Grizabella replied to Grizabella's topic in Promote Yourself -
719Unboxings and First Impressions
Yesterday I opened the present my friend sent me and it was a tarot deck. I haven’t had a new tarot deck in three years so it was exciting. It’s the Find Your Magic deck. I went through the cards one by one and it was interesting. It’s a sort of modern and magical deck with witches and wizards and other magic users using smartphones and tablets and there are fairies and spells and potions. It’s diverse and features disabled people, people of different races, queer people, and people of different ages though it’s mostly young folk. There’s only one card with nudity and it’s the lovers which has two female people in a sensual embrace on a bed. The box is great. It comes in a sturdy slide out box and the deck is then also in a tuck box within the case. The lwb is a full color booklet with full page illustrations for the majors with a full page of text on the opposite side, and for the minors the images are smaller and placed above the descriptions and have a page each. (edit: the box looks big in the pic but it’s just a bit bigger than the actual deck. It’s not one of those huge bulky boxes). I don’t think I would’ve bought this deck for myself because I have some issues with it at first blush but it fits my friend’s personality so I feel like it’s nice having a piece of them with me. 🙂 I haven’t tried a reading with it yet since I’m reading the guidebook and I’ve only gotten to Justice so far. My impression is the guidebook explains the card meaning but not really the illustration chosen for the card too much and that’s a little annoying because I'm confused by some of the choices. I’ll see by the end of it if I still feel that way. Also some descriptions are a little off the beaten path. My friend said it seemed like an art deck that I might appreciate in my collection even if I didn’t enjoy reading with it. There were two things I found interesting. One that I already mentioned was the modernity, because I think aside from maybe the Next World Tarot, I don’t have decks that feature modern technology much. So it’s cool to see that reflection of modern life with smartphones and tablets and stuff. The other thing is there are four medical related cards. The high priestess is a surgeon I think, the strength card has a person being spoonfed medicine by a fairy with a creature holding a thermometer above them, the star card has a patient in a hospital bed opening the window to a starry sky, and the 6 of pentacles has a doctor weighing out coins on a scale. I think the Next World Tarot might feature a first aid kit or something, but otherwise this is the only deck I have that has medical imagery. So that’s neat. So far, to sum it up, it’s a cute and diverse modern deck with some perplexing choices. I’ll report back when I’ve read the full booklet and done a reading with it. edit: also I got my friend the herbcrafter’s tarot and got to hear him open it last night over the phone. He likes it, he’s also confused by some choices but those might be cleared up by the guidebook. So that was nice.0- zurgles replied to Raggydoll's topic in Tarot Decks
-
-
Available Subscriptions
-
-
Current Donation Goals
-
Forum Hosting Fees (Resets 4/28/26)Raised $85.00 of $199.00 target
-
-
TT&M Deck Creations
Collaborative Deck Projects
We Are One
Purchase Deck | LWB | Guidebook -
Staff Online
No members to show
-
Who's Online (See full list)
- zurgles
-
Links Directory
-
.png.7a937377d26b65d465a78762c7389153.png)
