Tarot Thursday Three: New Decks

Tarot Thursday Three is a set of weekly prompts for "mystical" bloggers begun by Julia from Spiral Sea Tarot and I thought I would participate today for the first time!

Question 1

What do you do with a deck you don't connect with?

"Connecting" with a deck is a rather mysterious process. For the decks I don't keep reaching for, they tend to collect on a divination bookshelf that I have in the living room. All decks have interesting perspectives to offer via their arrangement, artwork, themes, etc. I have yet to acquire a deck that I don't like, but I do have a lot that don't inspire me to work with them very often. One such deck - the Raven's Prophecy - has become my glove compartment deck, in case of emergency. Sometimes, if I feel like I need a divinatory "breath of fresh air," I'll pull one out to read with. And it's worth mentioning that I don't always read with the decks I like a lot. For instance, the Dark Goddess Tarot is spectacular, but I only pull it out from time to time.

The Raven's Prophecy Tarot lives in my glove compartment

Question 2

How long do you give yourself to connect with a new deck?

I don't time the process. If I find myself called to use a deck over and over, then I know there is something special there. That said, usually I know how it's going to go if after a week or two the deck is gathering dust. To date there is only one deck that I've used with great consistency over a relatively long period of time, and that is the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot, by Uusi. (I reviewed the deck in this post). That doesn't mean it's the only deck that I connect with, but I would say that perhaps it's my "the one." ;)

Question 3

What consecration ritual(s) do you use with new divination tools?

Nuttin'. I think fondly back to my early divination days when I would smudge every single card of a new deck in sage smoke, and "charge them with my intentions." Perhaps I'm old and crotchety now, but saging them (or not) doesn't impact my readings for better or for worse, doesn't help me focus more deeply, and doesn't open my intuition to more profound messages. So I don't bother!

Release

What do I do in the morning when instead of being present in the moment - enjoying the sound of the coffee percolating, listening to my children chatter about peanut butter toast for breakfast - I sense my mind start to fill with anxious thoughts about the many tasks ahead for the day?

Yesterday morning I pulled a card for the day. I don't always do this, but when I do I most often set the question not as, "What might unfold for me today?" but as, "Where can I find my center; what can I draw on for strength and focus today?" It was nearing time for me to leave the house so I reached for my handiest deck - the Raven's Prophecy - quickly shuffled, and drew the 5 of Swords reversed:

At first I slightly resisted it, as my knee-jerk reaction to "negative" cards often seems to be. But then I really looked at the image, and what I saw was that instead of what might have once been a fist clenched around a grouping of small feathers, there was an open hand, a grasp no longer tense and rigid, but soft and relaxed. Instead of holding tight to the feathers, they were now allowed to catch in the breeze and float away.

This morning I was making my second pot of coffee (the pot is spotty and the first was a bit more like tan-colored water) when I started to realize that I was already feeling the jagged edges of my to-do list, and I sensed the way it was reducing my enjoyment of those early morning hours. I immediately thought of the 5 of Swords reversed, of the feathers floating away on the wind.

Each feather, when held too closely, is like a needling voice, and five of them together create a subtle cacophony in the back of the mind, a push and pull of nebulous demands on time and energy and attention. But if I take a moment to allow my awareness to settle on that noise I find I have the choice to release my grasp, to let those voices fade away like feathers in the gentle breath of morning air.

The Golden Glow of Quiet

Life has been so busy lately that at times I find myself longing for a moment of quiet peace, a short measure of silence with my bóveda, a breath of communion. This morning was no different. I woke up, and after finally gathering the energy to move my body out of bed, my first feeling was one of, "I need space." I need space to sit and, rather than think, to let my mind be still.

As the coffee was brewing, I shuffled my Raven's Prophecy deck and pulled: Hermit.

I looked at it for a moment and just thought: Yes! Yes, to the Hermit in general.... but this depiction is so welcoming and precise in its reflection of what I hunger for: the golden glow of quiet. A lantern burns within the heart of an ancient tree, providing a secluded place, a protective and natural embrace.

This image reminds me of a book I cherished as a child, My Side of the Mountain, about a young boy who escapes into the hills and lives off the land on his own. He has a hawk companion, he learns to tan his own hides using the natural tannins in fallen oak trees, and he lives inside of a massive, hollowed-out tree. This is the kind of experience I always wanted to have as a kid, and I would lose myself in that story.

Now I am blessed with some new and wonderful opportunities in my life that also bring a higher level of "involvement" and attention and "noise." I don't have the choice to ignore it - it is my job to face it all head-on. And so it becomes even more important to intentionally carve out a space in my own proverbial sacred tree to steal away to from time to time, to recharge, release, and recenter.