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Little Fang
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We entered the astrological month of Capricorn on December 22 of this week.
The bottom row, representing the Jewish calendar according to the Tarot Netivot system has already been featuring Major Arcana card XI Doreshet ‘The Seeker’ since December 21; and the Matriarch of Wands for the beginning of the week of the Full Moon December 31.
The Major Arcana card XV Babylon ‘The Devil’ represented the December Solstice in the Tarot Netivot system. It now continues as the card that represents the entire month of Capricorn. Cards which represented animal, plant, gemstone/metal correspondences for the Solstice — Dog and Birch; and Dolphin and Willow remain on the board.
The top line features Tarot cards as they relate to today’s Western Hermetic Astrology using primarily the Tabula Mundi Tarot Silver Edition by M.M. Melleen. This works with the Solar Calendar. These are the correspondences that Benebell uses when working with the SKT and astrology.
The bottom line features Tarot cards as they relate to the Hebrew calendar according to Tarot Netivot. I am using the Lurianic Tarot by Basilikon — one of the few truly Jewish Tarot decks out there and certainly one of the most beautiful; and the hand painted Illuminated Tarot Starlight Rainbows edition by Carol Herzer. These work with the Lunar Calendar.
The middle cards are animal, crystal, and plant correspondences according to T. Susan Chang in the book ‘Tarot Correspondences’. These are tied to the Major Arcana cards as they appear in Tarot Netivot representing each Jewish month, Jewish holidays, and major lunar and solar events as well as to the Western Hermetic Major Arcana in the top rows. These are taken from various decks in my collection. New additions: Elephant, Mountain Goat, Scorpion, Eagle, Snake and Dolphin. We have black Onyx, Turquoise, Obsidian, Silver, Pear, Aquamarine, and Peridot. Plant representatives are Poppy, Thistle, Water Hibiscus, and Lotus.
We have two cards that overlap the two systems here: Dolphin and Willow.
Benebell Wen, in the Book of Maps notes that in Biblical symbolism, the willow tree represents a perpetual source of nourishment and resource. She writes, ‘Willows are also sacred in Tibetan mysticism, believed to hold powerfully magical properties and can be used in divination.’ Dowsing rods — used to locate water sources, are commonly made from willow branches. The willow is also paired with Kuan Yin as a symbol of truth.
Existing cards will be exchanged with new incoming cards as the wheel of the year turns. Lunar phases change every 3 - 4 days; decans change every 10 days. Months change every 28 - 31 days. Note: I am working with 2 different systems to mark the months, one solar and the other lunar.
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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.
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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.
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Recent Forum Activity
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8Spirit Guides in Tarot & Beyond--Your Thoughts and Experiences?
I certainly believe in guidance from 'out there,' although I have no idea if these are guides, or what they might be. I can't conjure them up at will. BUT when they do approach me, and give me the kind of strong 'hunch' I know is right—even if it makes no sense at the time—you can believe I pay attention! I remember one instance, where I was walking down a calm street in my old home town (I was there on a brief visit), when suddenly I knew I had to cross the street and walk along the other side. I remember feeling a bit miffed, as there was a place on the side I'd already chosen that I'd planned to walk past. But I crossed the street anyway. After a couple of blocks, I looked across the street, and there was a person walking in the opposite direction whom I'd not seen in nearly 30 years, and would DEFINITELY not have wanted to run into at random! If I had stayed on the side I'd been on originally, we would have met face to face. I was a bit shaken, but so glad that guidance had been there. (Not a dangerous situation at all, I hasten to add, but would have been a very upsetting one for both of us.) There have been many other instances of this kind of thing in my life. The urge to do whatever the guidance suggests is so strong I don't argue with it ...just do it. And it always pays off. I hasten to add, these guidances are not 'logical.' They are sometimes so illogical that they seem amusing. But I follow them. And I'm always glad I did. These spirits—or whatever they are—obviously know things I don't. And they are trying to help me.0- Chariot replied to Misterei's topic in Spirituality -
8Spirit Guides in Tarot & Beyond--Your Thoughts and Experiences?
Yes I have spirit guides. I think everyone does, but most people are not aware of them and are not actively communicating with them. First, some cultural context: I was born and raised a Norse heathen, so angels are not part of my cultural vocabulary. We have other concepts for various types of spirit guides, but I will stick to just saying 'spirit guides' as to make it easier for everyone to follow along. Ancestral worship is a very big thing here. However, it is not just regular people that can be seen as ancestors. Certain Norse deities are tied to specific bloodlines from the various Scandinavian countries. They are considered the founders of those bloodlines and those people. Therefore, such deities can sometimes be venerated as ancestors and they can also act as ancestral spirit guides. Here, bloodlines do matter. In my beliefs, these deities would not be spirit guides for non-native Scandinavian people. I have personally never had a guide that was of another culture, all of my guides are tied to culture, bloodline and/or place. I have a main guide that has been with me since birth. She is a very old ancestor and is tied to my maternal bloodline. I became more aware of her 10-15 years ago. She took the initiative and started showing up whenever I was in an altered state of mind. I have always have a knack for entering trance or an altered state of mind. It has come naturally to me, and I had a lot of out-of-body experiences in my childhood. (Plus a near-death experience as well). I have never had to be in a full trance to communicate with ancestors, a lightly altered state of mind does the trick. That is when I am able to ask questions and have them answered, be shown visions or even work magic with ancestors. I also do trance work, but not specifically for spirit guide communication. I have multiple guides that I work with, and some would best be classified as 'more than human spirits'. I also have spirit guides in the shape of animals (who can shape shift and are not truly animals at their core), plus some 'regular' animal guides (aka guides that actually are/were animals). I have not found that it has been hard to meet my spirit guides. It has not required guided meditations, human teachers or magical/psychedelic tools. I think that to some extent, the process will depend on your beliefs and your culture. However, to get to know and work with them has taken many years. And I have allowed them to guide me through that process. Yes. I will either shape shift or hitch a ride with a guide. During journey work I can turn into a bird form, so I can fly or swim to different places. I think it is common to either shape shift or hitch a ride during astral/journey work.0- Raggydoll replied to Misterei's topic in Spirituality -
8Spirit Guides in Tarot & Beyond--Your Thoughts and Experiences?
Indeed. Sometimes people I know or have met as humans appear to me as angels [in times of anguish or distress]. Moxa is magic 💫 I had a psychic experience during shirodhara [ayurveda treatment where they pour a continuous stream of warm oil on your forehead right in front of ajna chakra.] I saw many of my past lives and deaths. So, relating to your experience--how do you know this is a spirit guide rather than seeing yourself in a past life? To me it seems possible the medium lady drew this image based on seeing your past life [i.e. something within you vs. a guide separate, distinct, and outside you]. But i am somewhat playing devil's advocate so forgive me. It's entirely possible it is a spirit guide. Interesting that we both experienced an angel who came to us and stayed. Ah! Great symmetry there. I love this idea even if I've not experienced it. OMG! I totally get this. My cat Ragnar [RIP] used to sit on me while I was meditating. I would push him off so i could focus on the meditation but he would come back. So I gave up and meditated with him sitting on me. I then had astral travel visions where I was riding him flying along together through the cosmos. Sometimes doing battle. Fierce fun. Sometimes just flying together exploring. This doesn't happen with my cat Zoe. She doesn't appear in my meditations. Of course this doesn't happen at all now that he's gone--so I suppose it's different than your situation. I will keep a lookout for a wiccan on a bearded vulture when I'm out and about 😉0- Misterei replied to Misterei's topic in Spirituality
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