Category Archives: Major Arcana

Watching the fool

It’s always special when The Fool shows up. It’s an amazing card and he is an amazing character/archetype. He represents all the potential of the Universe. He is all-knowing, yet he knows nothing. He is everything, yet he is nothing. He holds infinite possibility and at the same time he is focused right where he is; he notices all that is good, yet sees nothing that could harm him.

The Fool knows that he is part of the cycle of the Universe, yet his only task is to be present in this moment. Armed with this knowledge, he treads lightly on his journey. He is always safe, ready to take a risk because there is nothing to lose.

Get up close and personal with The Fool — he’d love to meet you too.

The Hierophant

A short morning walk with Voyager tarot

Holy moly, all the old decks are making a comeback in my world lately. Today it’s Voyager’s turn to get an airing. It needs to stretch its legs, take a turn round the block and show me what it can do.

I yearned for this deck many years ago, it seemed to have so much going for it. I loved the complexity of the images. I also had the large softback book that accompanies it. The book’s gone now and I only have the smaller one that is included with the deck. As with so many decks, it didn’t click with me and it lives with its unloved friends on the bookshelf. Buut… you never know when an old lover might reignite a spark of passion (good grief, I am writing in romance novel cliche-script this morning!).

Quick interruption, and guess what the postman brought? A cheque for £250 from the National Trust for payment of my stolen article. Yay!

The HierophantBack to Voyager…here’s the Hierophant to guide me through my day. I see Buddahs, a horned moon, an elephant, pillars, a large open poppy, a small child, a heavily embossed golden bowl and lots of stuff I can’t identify.

I used to be wary of the Hierophant — all those overtones of institutionalized religion. Then I met the Songs for the Journey Home version and my view of the card immediately changed.

The Hierophant, or better, Your Eternal Guidance, is one who has tread the path before you. Guidance says, I have been here, stepped on these thorns and dealt with these obstacles. I can help you through, but you are also welcome to work it out for yourself. The easier way is to listen for me as I make myself known in your gut and your emotions. If you are feeling good, then the path is open, if you are feeling less-than -good, then the path will be strewn with brambles and rocks. By all means fight your way through — you’ll feel triumphant at the end for sure. Alternatively, get happy, be relaxed, go with the flow and we can stroll together, observing all the wonderful sights, enjoying our interactions with others, smelling the flowers, drinking from cool, clear streams and reaching our destination eager and ready for the next adventure. This is my take on the Hierophant.

Interestingly, James Wanless, creator of the Voyager tarot also says, “Listen to your inner voice of experience.” Perfect.

Justice is done

Good morning!

You may recall that a couple of days ago, my first blog entry was a bit negative, moany and very much in the spirit of the Four of Cups. I mentioned the fact that a subsidiary of a well-known charity in the UK had decided it was okay to publish one of my articles under someone else’s name.

Yesterday I pulled the Justice card from the Mythic Tarot. Didn’t give it a great deal of thought about how it might to relate to current circumstances – I’m like that…  of course it isn’t about me… wrote the blog post and published it. Later on yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from the ‘Properties Administrator’ of the charity concerned. She was lovely; she apologised profusely and told me the invoice for £250 I’d submitted with my complaint was being processed.

I felt awful, almost as if I’d done something wrong. I almost said I didn’t want the money but remembered that the charity is huge, very rich, and is nothing to do with children or animals 😀

Wasn’t until this morning that the penny dropped about the Justice card appearing for me four hours before the phone call came. Duh, I’m thick sometimes. Just goes to show, you can take the tarot literally and it is possible to predict the future. As long as you are paying attention, of course!

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Today, I have selected to play with Shadowscapes Tarot. This is not the sort of deck I would buy for myself, but my DuH (Dear un-Husband) bought it for my birthday. It’s a pretty-pretty deck, populated by sylphs, faeries, dragons and other mythical creatures. It’s beautifully done with gorgeous muted watercolours. Not a deck I would pick for a reading. Nevertheless, I’m going to draw a random card and see if it has something to tell me.

It says: What the hell are you doing talking to a card?

Okay, I’m going to leave that there – my son decided to make a contribution to my post while I was momentarily distracted. He’s sort of right though, why does Tarot involve a two way dialogue? “Tarot: ideas generator tool for writers and creatives” looks at how and why one would want to talk to a card… but, y’know, it’s what we do 🙂

Shuffling, shuffling… Three of Pentacles. A beautiful silver and green card depicting a semi-robed man hoisting up a similarly dressed woman so that she can fix some ephemeral-looking disks up on a wall. A Shadowscapes-Three-of-Pentaclesbright green lizard-type-thing sits on the man’s shoulder, looking a little incongruous, as it defies the law of gravity. Let’s have a look at the Shadowscapes Companion book. I have a minor irritation with the book — the headings for each minor simply say “Two” or “Seven”. They don’t indicate the suit, so you can’t easily flit to a page you want unless you are very familiar with the book’s layout. And I’m not.

“They work together as one, creating a human ladder and climbing upon each other’s shoulders… Into the stone wall she inscribes her pentacles and circles They form a chain of overlapping arcs like her interlinked relationships… It is a mathematical equation of human relationships and interactions.”

Ah, so she’s drawing the disks with her finger, not hanging a Christmas decoration. No mention of the green creature. Perplexing. Google then. Nothing, although I did find an interesting ‘interview’ of the deck here. Perhaps the lizard is standing in for the third person who usually appears in the Three of Pents?

This is an apt card for me right now. Our two children are home-schooled, so the three of us have to work out ways to integrate and cooperate constantly. It’s a learning path for each of us. There are things I want them to do. There are things they want to do. I have tasks to accomplish each day, and so do they. Recently I have felt as though we are out of step; that the children need to engage more in organising themselves. They are often content to leave it up to me and I am becoming somewhat irritated with having to micro-manage stuff for them.

My partner and I spent some time discussing the problem last night, we both agree that I need to step back and allow the children to experience the consequences of not being ready on time or not completing homework for their creative writing course. This morning, they seemed to make an effort to get themselves moving. They both tidied their rooms and helped a bit around the house. In turn I made myself available to help with their studies, so there was definitely a real Three of Pentacles thing going on. I’m going to think about it and see if there are more ways to bring the energy of cooperation into our days.

Buy Shadowscapes in the UK

Random deck: The Mythic Tarot; random card – Justice

Morning!

I noticed the Mythic Tarot on my bookshelf this morning. I don’t think I’ve opened it since it arrived, oh Mythic Justiceabout 11 years ago. It’s one of my many overlooked decks, so it’s good to give it an outing. The cards feel nice; they have a lightness about them. The imagery is very Rider-Waite-with-a-twist. For example, Justice, which appeared when I shuffled, cut and turned one card, is numbered eight in the accompanying book. Actually the Majors aren’t numbered, so you could allocate it any position in the deck you like.

I like the addition of the owl to Justice’s symbols – the scale and the sword. It reminds us that, while cool impartiality is an important skill, when weighing up a decision or a situation, it is also essential to use wisdom in order to reach a conclusion. For instance, it might be easy for you to see that a good friend is making a mistake. Using the influence of Justice, you might be tempted to ‘clarify things’ for her. However, with a little wisdom and common-sense, you will realise that she needs to come to her own understanding in her own time.

The Mythic Tarot is a pleasant deck, and I can see I need to bring it out into daylight more often. I do enjoy it when a deck creator takes the usual RWS symbolism and adds extras, which increase my understanding of a card. Of course, this deck is based upon Greek mythology, which I love, and which is timeless in its lessons and deep in its symbolism.

The colours in the original deck are pleasing and fairly muted. The art is a little static and the figures have a ‘posed’ appearance, but don’t let that put you off. There is, in fact, a new version of the deck with images by Giovanni Caselli. I haven’t got it, therefore am not able to compare the two. From the reviews, it seems you will either love it (probably if you don’t have the original) or hate it (some say the artwork is a little contrived and relies on digital enhancement).

If you have the opportunity to get hold of an original copy of this deck, then grab it… and don’t let it languish in your bookcase.

Buy the Mythic Tarot in the UK

Be aware that it is still possible to pick up a new copy of the Mythic Tarot at a reasonable price. There are some unscrupulous sellers out there trying to increase the price to an almost mythical level.

Text refers to The Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke & Liz Greene, illustrated by Tricia Newell.

 

 

Two of Disks day ahead

After my day of moaning yesterday, the only way is up, I suppose. I have a busy day ahead, getting puppy Two of Pentaclesready for his class later. He’ll need a walk to tire him a little, a good grooming and a nap. Right after puppy class comes Creative Writing for the kids. I’ve also got a few domestic chores to slot in between, so I shall be looking to accomplish everything I need to with panache and aplomb. All right, I just need to remember where I’m supposed to be, with whom and with what. That will be accomplishment enough.

The Two of Disks helps us to maintain a sense of proportion and balance. As we are often told, the only constant is change. The Two of Disks is not about major change, despite the keyword on the Rohrig card (I dislike keywords on cards very much); it’s about continual adjustment. Minor tweaks to help us deal with daily life and keep our sanity.

The image on the card suggests that the disks are being buffeted by air currents, as though they have no choice, however, we can make decisions all the time. It might be a simple choosing to not allow external pressures to get to us. To decide to jettison a particular task just for today, or merely to focus attention on something pleasing, instead of caving in to anxiety.

Keep your head up, travel through your day with confidence, bend like a reed when you need to, but return to equilibrium whenever you can.

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