I read a series of comments on a Facebook forum the other day where this was the topic of debate: "What is the best way to teach or learn Tarot?"
The funny thing is that each person has a different way of learning, and I truly don't believe that there is only one, best way to do anything at all, really. The only thing that I do feel applies to all things one might learn in life, is that to truly understand it, you have to do it.
When I learned Tarot I studied the cards incessantly for quite a long time. I approached it almost as if I were taking an independent study course. I thought that I needed to memorize all the potential card meanings, and I took the "flash card" approach which I know that many people tend to do. I used a deck that had unillustrated pips (Minor Arcana, excluding the Courts) so I had no images to help me understand anything at all. I kept detailed notes, I went through the Minors by number (first all the 2s, then the 3s, etc). I would randomly quiz myself to see how many keywords I could remember for each card. Later I did something similar when I decided to study reversals.
Now this is not a "bad" way of learning, but I don't think it's the best way either. Tarot as flashcards don't give depth or breadth to a story, and are rather sterile. It takes experience doing many readings to learn how to weave a story together, and understand the subtle ways that card meanings change depending on context. Later I read a book called Psychic Tarot, by Nancy Antenucci, and her first step to learning the cards was not to study the meanings, rather to sit with each card and figure out what it means to *you.* How does it make you feel? What do the images and details say about what the card might signify? Not having "book meanings" stored in your mind allows so much more freedom when it comes to exploring your personal relationship with Tarot - it's much more organic. And each reader truly has their own, unique, highly personal relationship with the art of Tarot. I found myself wishing that I hadn't memorized all the meanings, and felt I'd robbed myself of this potentially very rich way of starting the learning process. By starting with memorization, it was more of a challenge to let my intuition "speak," because if it was telling me something that didn't jive with the traditional meanings, I hesitated to give it credence.
Later I took an Intuitive Tarot course which was invaluable to me. I brought my Rider Waite deck because, knowing nothing about how Tarot courses run, I assumed it would probably be best to bring the old traditional stand-by, even though it's not my go-to. The instructor surprised me in a very pleasant way, and said "if the deck doesn't speak to you, don't use it." Why bother working with a deck that you don't connect with? Now I do read just fine with my Rider Waite, but no, it's not my favorite. The images can be pretty, but they don't necessarily touch those deeper chords in my soul. She also said "if you want book meanings, use the internet. This class is about developing your intuitive understanding of the cards. So no notepads are necessary - we won't be covering anything traditional."
**So what's the point of your Tarot journey? Do you want to take an intellectual approach? An intuitive approach? Do you want to become a Tarot scholar? Do you want to simply give accurate readings for other people or for yourself?**
One of the women in the course I took was terrified of learning the cards. She had purchased the Rider Waite out of the assumption that it would be required (much the same reason I had brought mine to the first class). She felt her memory was poor and didn't think she had what it would take to be able to work with alllll those 78 cards. She *almost* quit after the first day, but decided to give it one more chance, and by the end of those six sessions she was giving wonderful, accurate readings. Had she memorized meanings? No. Did she study the deeper significance of Rider Waite symbols? No. What she was doing was using a deck that appealed to her, that drew her in, that "spoke" to her, and that engaged her intuition (like the instructor, she was using the Halloween Tarot by Karin Lee and Kipling West). It was wonderful to observe, and made me, yet again, wish I'd done things the other way around.
Once you learn the meanings, you can't unlearn them. And truth be told, I'm glad I know them. But I had to work harder to detach from book meanings in order to let my intuition tell me what it needed me to know. Fortunately I now feel I have a great balance between the two styles, and feel comfortable working in this manner.
Regardless of why you want to learn Tarot, I think a great way to start is to leave the books alone, and start by developing personal meanings based on your own feelings about the images and colors in each card, and by using a deck that you love. You can, indeed, perform excellent readings based only on your intuitive connection to the cards in your deck. Later, of course you can deepen and expand your knowledge by studying what the books have to say, and learning about traditional symbols that are featured in decks like the Rider Waite (and as this deck is the focus of so many books, you don't have to own the deck in order to learn them - it still provides background knowledge that can influence your own readings with a non-Rider Waite deck). That said, there are so many Rider Waite clones out there, you may well find a deck that you absolutely love that reflects many of the scenes and symbols in the Rider Waite deck, but that at least features a theme or world-view you hold sacred, or that you simply like to look at. So if you like fairies, go for it! If you're into vampires, I'm sure you can find something that sits right with you.
Tarot never stop teaches you new things, and there is never a lack of other people's material that you can peruse. You experiment, read books, find out what you like and what you don't, what works for you and what doesn't. What decks you like and which you don't care for. You read, and read, and read the cards more, which is the only real way to integrate your understanding, and to open new doors.
There's no "best" way, but the way I would recommend is to start off intuitively. Spend time feeling out each card using a deck you adore, and try giving readings to yourself/friends/family based on what the cards say to you, before you know what they are "supposed" to mean, and see how you do. Later on you can dive into more formal study, and explore the millions of avenues of esoteric learning that are available to you, per your interests, desires, and motivations.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Spirit Conversations
The other day a Tarot friend from across the globe asked me about some experiences she’s been having connecting with her father-in-law in spirit, who she had never met in the physical. (You can read about Joanna’s conversation with her father-in-law here).
What is interesting is that for the past couple of weeks I’ve been connecting with my own father-in-law who I’d also never met. Jose passed very quickly of cancer when my husband was barely 21 years old, and it left a deeply painful mark on him, which in many ways he still struggles with. I never had the opportunity to know Jose, and I have often felt sad about that, so having a context in which to interact with him (in this case, via mediumship) has been a very important and special experience for me.
My first foray into connecting with spirit was when I connected with the energies of Jorge’s (my husband) brother Manuel, who also died of cancer far too young. My thought at the time was: if I can connect with living energies, why can’t I connect to the energies of those who are no longer in physical form? I’ve often felt Manuel’s presence in and around us. In fact he came to Jorge in a dream to inform him of my pregnancy with our daughter Lourdes, the day before I decided to take the pregnancy test. The two of them had a very strong tie, and his death also took a major toll on Jorge. So I decided to tap into Manuel’s energy, and found that I could, and I was able to pass on a message to Jorge via a combination of clairsentience and the tool of Tarot.
Jorge was touched by that, and eventually asked if at some point I could try to connect with his father. One evening after I put our youngest child to bed I sat with my cards and closed my eyes, and invited Jose to connect with me. I felt him surprisingly quickly, and his energy was very strong. I felt him, his face, his neck, his being, very near to my own face, and it almost tickled, and it made me laugh out loud. I had the sense that he’d been keeping his distance, observing from afar, for quite a long time, and he was happy to have received an open invitation to be present and to interact. I also felt that he really didn’t feel like “talking” with me via Tarot. He just wanted to “be.” He passed to me the feelings he experienced at the time just prior to his death, when he was in the hospital. I knew that Jorge had told me that his father glared at his grandmother during this time. He could no longer speak, but his eyes conveyed a strong message, and Jorge’s grandmother told him later, “Your father died hating me.” Their relationship had not been simple. So I wasn’t surprised to feel anger, but the complex combination of feelings was striking. He felt anger, and sadness, yes. But there were a host of other feelings that took me by surprise. Eventually I persuaded him to allow me to use cards to provide a somewhat more tangible message for Jorge, and while reluctant, it worked out okay. It was interesting, that reluctance, because when working with Manuel and even my own grandmother, there had never been any issue with using the cards. But for some reason Jose didn’t want to bother, it was like it was an annoying hassle or something. So he did pass a message to Jorge, recognizing some of the current hurdles that my husband is facing, and also expressing a regret at not having been as communicative as he wished he had been with his son. (An afterthought: according to Jorge, his grandmother had a strong connection to spirit, and also worked with cards. Thinking back on that, I wonder if his reluctance to "speak" via the cards was a reflection of the difficult relationship he had with her.)
When I was ready to close down communication, I found that Jose was not. This was also a surprise. He seemed so happy to have made the connection that he wasn’t quite ready to be done with it yet. So we went together into my daughter’s room and I silently introduced him to her (she was reading and I didn’t bother her). A short time later I was chatting with Jorge and I just burst out laughing. I had the strangest sense of viewing Jorge from the angle of his father, and even had the feeling that Jose was looking at Jorge through my eyes. That has happened a couple of times since, and I’ve come to think of it as borrowing someone’s binoculars; it’s entirely unobtrusive, but the sensation is unique. It was so funny, so odd, so new that I had to laugh. Jorge looked at me strangely, wondering what was up, and suddenly said, “My dad’s still here, isn’t he!” And I said that yes, he was. Jorge said that he could feel his dad’s energy. He seemed both annoyed and at the same time happy that his father was “there.” Later I had to tell Jose “Okay listen, I’m ready to go do normal things like eat some food and watch T.V.” I went about my business and he eventually faded. I asked my mentor about this and she said that sometimes passed loved ones just want to be a part of the family, and hang around with us. Okay. Cool.
So last night I connected to Jose’s energy again and we had a nice “chat.” I will say that we aren’t so much “talking” – it’s more a strong sense of his reactions, emotions, and sometimes an image flash, or a brief phrase that comes more as an imprint than an utterance.
I like Jose’s energy, it feels good. Since that first, intense connection, things have mellowed, and I’m enjoying learning a little more about him. I asked him about his relationship with Jorge’s mother (they were never married, but had six children together – later on they split up). I pulled the King of Cups and the 6 of Cups reversed. I sensed that he had loved Irma, and always had caring feelings toward her. That they may have been soul mates of a sort, but the romantic aspect to their relationship simply ran its course. They remained friends, but couldn’t stay formal partners.
I told him about his grandchildren. Isa, our oldest, is my child from a former relationship, and Jorge legally adopted her. I told Jose that although Isa is mine from before I met Jorge, she really needs both Jorge and Jose, and I felt Jose’s sense of pleasure and willingness to be present for her. I told him that his grandson, Gabriel, is very precocious, and we call him a “true” Destrades because his personality is so closely tied to so many of the men from the Destrades clan. I immediately felt a very strong sense of fierce pride and happiness, and I pulled a card and it was the Emperor – the over-arching patriarch of the family. I smiled.
I asked Jose to tell me something about his relationship with his own mother, and I pulled the Justice card. It was a relationship with a profound theme of fairness (and consequently unfairness) that deeply impacted their ability to love each other.
Finally I asked how Jose felt about us finally communicating, and what he felt the benefit was, and I pulled the 3 of Wands – the beginning phase of a journey, a new, energy-based relationship. The three brought to mind me, Jose and Jorge. Interestingly, the card that represents my own role as a Tarot reader (and perhaps budding medium as well) is the Page of Wands: the mediator between worlds, the messenger, the gatekeeper, the guide, the facilitator. So seeing the three wands builds on that, and it represents my role as the go-between.
I hope that my husband will be able to connect directly with his own father some day. He deeply appreciates the fact that his father is able to be present with us, but his pain is keen, and setting up a direct line would be ideal. Fortunately Jorge has those sensitivities, and I expect that he’ll be able to accomplish that at some point. The last time I connected with his father, I had failed to mention it to Jorge. Suddenly he walked into the room where I was sitting and said “I hate it when that happens! I just saw something or someone in the hallway standing there!” And I said “Oh! It was probably your dad!!” That was surprising, and also really nice.
So this journey is interesting, touching, wonderful, kind of crazy, and very humbling. I’m grateful to have a way to develop a relationship of sorts with Jose, and to be able to provide a link between him and his son, who desperately needs him. Last night Jorge told me, “If I had gone to some stranger and they’d told me that they were able to sense my dad, and send me a message, I’d say it was cool, but I wouldn’t be as moved. I love the fact that the person receiving messages is you.” That filled me up to the brim, I’ll just put it that way. <3
What is interesting is that for the past couple of weeks I’ve been connecting with my own father-in-law who I’d also never met. Jose passed very quickly of cancer when my husband was barely 21 years old, and it left a deeply painful mark on him, which in many ways he still struggles with. I never had the opportunity to know Jose, and I have often felt sad about that, so having a context in which to interact with him (in this case, via mediumship) has been a very important and special experience for me.
My first foray into connecting with spirit was when I connected with the energies of Jorge’s (my husband) brother Manuel, who also died of cancer far too young. My thought at the time was: if I can connect with living energies, why can’t I connect to the energies of those who are no longer in physical form? I’ve often felt Manuel’s presence in and around us. In fact he came to Jorge in a dream to inform him of my pregnancy with our daughter Lourdes, the day before I decided to take the pregnancy test. The two of them had a very strong tie, and his death also took a major toll on Jorge. So I decided to tap into Manuel’s energy, and found that I could, and I was able to pass on a message to Jorge via a combination of clairsentience and the tool of Tarot.
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| Wildwood Tarot John Matthews, Mark Ryan, Will Worthington Sterling Ethos, 2011 |
Jorge was touched by that, and eventually asked if at some point I could try to connect with his father. One evening after I put our youngest child to bed I sat with my cards and closed my eyes, and invited Jose to connect with me. I felt him surprisingly quickly, and his energy was very strong. I felt him, his face, his neck, his being, very near to my own face, and it almost tickled, and it made me laugh out loud. I had the sense that he’d been keeping his distance, observing from afar, for quite a long time, and he was happy to have received an open invitation to be present and to interact. I also felt that he really didn’t feel like “talking” with me via Tarot. He just wanted to “be.” He passed to me the feelings he experienced at the time just prior to his death, when he was in the hospital. I knew that Jorge had told me that his father glared at his grandmother during this time. He could no longer speak, but his eyes conveyed a strong message, and Jorge’s grandmother told him later, “Your father died hating me.” Their relationship had not been simple. So I wasn’t surprised to feel anger, but the complex combination of feelings was striking. He felt anger, and sadness, yes. But there were a host of other feelings that took me by surprise. Eventually I persuaded him to allow me to use cards to provide a somewhat more tangible message for Jorge, and while reluctant, it worked out okay. It was interesting, that reluctance, because when working with Manuel and even my own grandmother, there had never been any issue with using the cards. But for some reason Jose didn’t want to bother, it was like it was an annoying hassle or something. So he did pass a message to Jorge, recognizing some of the current hurdles that my husband is facing, and also expressing a regret at not having been as communicative as he wished he had been with his son. (An afterthought: according to Jorge, his grandmother had a strong connection to spirit, and also worked with cards. Thinking back on that, I wonder if his reluctance to "speak" via the cards was a reflection of the difficult relationship he had with her.)
When I was ready to close down communication, I found that Jose was not. This was also a surprise. He seemed so happy to have made the connection that he wasn’t quite ready to be done with it yet. So we went together into my daughter’s room and I silently introduced him to her (she was reading and I didn’t bother her). A short time later I was chatting with Jorge and I just burst out laughing. I had the strangest sense of viewing Jorge from the angle of his father, and even had the feeling that Jose was looking at Jorge through my eyes. That has happened a couple of times since, and I’ve come to think of it as borrowing someone’s binoculars; it’s entirely unobtrusive, but the sensation is unique. It was so funny, so odd, so new that I had to laugh. Jorge looked at me strangely, wondering what was up, and suddenly said, “My dad’s still here, isn’t he!” And I said that yes, he was. Jorge said that he could feel his dad’s energy. He seemed both annoyed and at the same time happy that his father was “there.” Later I had to tell Jose “Okay listen, I’m ready to go do normal things like eat some food and watch T.V.” I went about my business and he eventually faded. I asked my mentor about this and she said that sometimes passed loved ones just want to be a part of the family, and hang around with us. Okay. Cool.
So last night I connected to Jose’s energy again and we had a nice “chat.” I will say that we aren’t so much “talking” – it’s more a strong sense of his reactions, emotions, and sometimes an image flash, or a brief phrase that comes more as an imprint than an utterance.
 |
| Halloween Tarot Karin Lee, Kipling West US Games, 1997 |
I told him about his grandchildren. Isa, our oldest, is my child from a former relationship, and Jorge legally adopted her. I told Jose that although Isa is mine from before I met Jorge, she really needs both Jorge and Jose, and I felt Jose’s sense of pleasure and willingness to be present for her. I told him that his grandson, Gabriel, is very precocious, and we call him a “true” Destrades because his personality is so closely tied to so many of the men from the Destrades clan. I immediately felt a very strong sense of fierce pride and happiness, and I pulled a card and it was the Emperor – the over-arching patriarch of the family. I smiled.
I asked Jose to tell me something about his relationship with his own mother, and I pulled the Justice card. It was a relationship with a profound theme of fairness (and consequently unfairness) that deeply impacted their ability to love each other.
 |
| Halloween Tarot Karin Lee, Kipling West US Games, 1997 |
I hope that my husband will be able to connect directly with his own father some day. He deeply appreciates the fact that his father is able to be present with us, but his pain is keen, and setting up a direct line would be ideal. Fortunately Jorge has those sensitivities, and I expect that he’ll be able to accomplish that at some point. The last time I connected with his father, I had failed to mention it to Jorge. Suddenly he walked into the room where I was sitting and said “I hate it when that happens! I just saw something or someone in the hallway standing there!” And I said “Oh! It was probably your dad!!” That was surprising, and also really nice.
So this journey is interesting, touching, wonderful, kind of crazy, and very humbling. I’m grateful to have a way to develop a relationship of sorts with Jose, and to be able to provide a link between him and his son, who desperately needs him. Last night Jorge told me, “If I had gone to some stranger and they’d told me that they were able to sense my dad, and send me a message, I’d say it was cool, but I wouldn’t be as moved. I love the fact that the person receiving messages is you.” That filled me up to the brim, I’ll just put it that way. <3
The Devil and the "Lost" Girl
Two nights ago I was working with my cards when my girls were getting ready for bed, and I had them pick a card for their day ahead. They were excited about it. I asked them to tell me what they saw in their cards, and then helped them to interpret it, as necessary. Mostly we focused on what the pictures meant for them, though I also did bring in the traditional meanings for Isa since she’s in middle school and there is a bit more going on in her world.
Lourdes picked the Devil from the Deviant Moon, and I just had to laugh. It was clearly *her* grinning impishly, prancing away from a trick she just played on someone. She’s really our little devil, in the most loving way possible. She even has a little cackle she uses when she’s brewing up some fun trap for her older sister. In that way she reminds me a lot of myself when I was young – I used to play jokes on my own older sister all the time, some comical, others perhaps a bit less fun (for her, anyway!). So I loved that she was not at all put off by this potentially scary image – she thought it was hilarious, and very fitting for her. Yesterday evening I was sitting on the couch and caught a glimpse of her doing the “Devil prance” in the other room. I think she liked the Devil card a little TOO much, haha…
Isabella picked the 7 of Wands, which features a girl running along a path in a wood at night. She seems anxious and has her hands up as if in defense. There’s almost a feeling that she’s lost in a forest, except that she’s moving onward on a clear, bright path that keeps her from truly losing her way. The traditional meaning relates to having to defend your position, stand firm in your ideas, and know that, even though at times there may be a lot of obstacles in the path ahead, with effort and determination comes success.
So I told Isa that one of her teachers may ask her an unexpected question that would put her on the spot, but that she’d probably find herself able to answer the question when all was said and done. She said, “Good to know!” and went to bed.
Yesterday afternoon when she got home from school she was so excited to tell me that in science class her instructor had suddenly picked on her randomly to explain the benefits of “green” energy to the rest of the class. She was nervous and surprised, but gathered her thoughts and gave the best answer she could. When she finished, her teacher said, “That was a great reply – almost textbook!” So she was relieved and also very pleased that she was able to perform well under pressure. Above all, she was excited that her card draw from the evening before had been so relevant to her day. It made me smile, too ☺
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| Deviant Moon Tarot Patrick Valenza/US Games 2008 |
Isabella picked the 7 of Wands, which features a girl running along a path in a wood at night. She seems anxious and has her hands up as if in defense. There’s almost a feeling that she’s lost in a forest, except that she’s moving onward on a clear, bright path that keeps her from truly losing her way. The traditional meaning relates to having to defend your position, stand firm in your ideas, and know that, even though at times there may be a lot of obstacles in the path ahead, with effort and determination comes success.
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| Deviant Moon Tarot - 7 of Wands Patrick Valenza, US Games 2008 |
So I told Isa that one of her teachers may ask her an unexpected question that would put her on the spot, but that she’d probably find herself able to answer the question when all was said and done. She said, “Good to know!” and went to bed.
Yesterday afternoon when she got home from school she was so excited to tell me that in science class her instructor had suddenly picked on her randomly to explain the benefits of “green” energy to the rest of the class. She was nervous and surprised, but gathered her thoughts and gave the best answer she could. When she finished, her teacher said, “That was a great reply – almost textbook!” So she was relieved and also very pleased that she was able to perform well under pressure. Above all, she was excited that her card draw from the evening before had been so relevant to her day. It made me smile, too ☺
Monday, November 11, 2013
You Will Rest!
In September I started pulling a monthly forecast, with one summary card for the month, and then a single card to represent the major energies of each week. The card I pulled for this week was the 4 of Swords, from the Deviant Moon deck (Patrick Valenza/U.S. Games). I love this card. I mean, I normally enjoy the energy of this card – its meditative feel, the aspects of introspection and rest that are associated with it. But the version from this deck is just…. pretty.
I like the fact that she’s underground. It reminds me of how frogs hibernate under the mud during the winter. It’s dark, quiet, imbued with the deep peace of solitude. It’s like she dug a hole and jumped in because it was the only way she could ensure that she would be left alone. I like the roses, little pleasant, fragrant blooms that to me indicate that though she’s underground and quiet, she’s very much alive and internally aware and active. Perhaps they also give the idea, similar to Death, of a life cycle on a smaller scale – renewal. The flowers are the bright spots amid an otherwise very muted color scheme. One eye looks at rest, while the other looks a bit concerned. She may not be acting on anything, but she's definitely pondering some important matters! The fact that one sword is pointing up toward her gives the impression that she’s being strongly encouraged to relax for her own good. It reminds me of when my husband says, “Put that book down and go to sleep already!!” He knows I’m exhausted and need to sleep, but I just. can’t. put. it. down. Sometimes we need stern reminders to take care of ourselves.
I do feel I could use some extra sleep, but with a 2-year-old who still hasn’t found the pleasure of staying in bed all night long, that’s not bound to happen. I could certainly use a break from my job, where I’ve taken on extra responsibilities due to my program director leaving town on business. Life is normally happily busy, but this week is definitely moving far beyond the average! So perhaps this card is simply letting me know that I need to be more conscious of the responsibilities and projects I’m juggling this week, and that I need to make rest a priority. I’m grateful for that encouragement! A soft couch, a cup of hot tea, and a T.V. show are calling my name!
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| Deviant Moon Tarot Patrick Valenza U.S. Games/2008 |
I do feel I could use some extra sleep, but with a 2-year-old who still hasn’t found the pleasure of staying in bed all night long, that’s not bound to happen. I could certainly use a break from my job, where I’ve taken on extra responsibilities due to my program director leaving town on business. Life is normally happily busy, but this week is definitely moving far beyond the average! So perhaps this card is simply letting me know that I need to be more conscious of the responsibilities and projects I’m juggling this week, and that I need to make rest a priority. I’m grateful for that encouragement! A soft couch, a cup of hot tea, and a T.V. show are calling my name!
Friday, November 8, 2013
Uniting Poles: Dragon, Cat and Sow
This year has been one of many changes, some of which I mentioned in my Samhain spread blog post. I sense the transition happening subtly (although sometimes it is very apparent, and gives me little surprises), under the surface, like an underground river flowing. In recent readings, the Lovers, Chariot and 2 of Cups have come up quite a bit for me. What these cards all have in common is a sense of union between two aspects, or elements. The Lovers and 2 of Cups relate to harmonizing those contrasting elements, while the Chariot is about harnessing that energy and bringing it forth into the world to achieve goals, and make things happen. I've been sitting with those cards, pondering what those meanings might signify for me, and the truth is that that meaning has felt somewhat veiled, a little hazy and hard to put my finger on.
Last night I decided to forgo the Tarot and pull out my Druid Animal Oracle deck which I haven't worked with in a while. I felt the desire to access the energy and wisdom of animals. So I shuffled and cut, and laid out three cards: Air Dragon, Cat, and Sow.
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| Druid Animal Oracle P. and S. Carr-Gomm/Will Worthington Touchstone 1995 |
When I saw the Air Dragon I thought that was interesting, because I've never pulled that before, and lately I've been getting a lot of Swords (particularly the King and Queen) which are air cards. While the Tarot swords are about intellect and decision-making, the Air Dragon is about spiritual journeying and spirit communication and, very interestingly, visitation. It's interesting because this Dragon is also about flashes of insight, those lightening bolts that change the way you understand the world and the possibilities before you. This reminds me of the Blasted Oak (from Wildwood Tarot) which has also been a significant card for me lately, because it also incorporates the idea of the sudden flash of insight that sparks significant change. And the Blasted Oak/Tower has been meaningful for me in terms of my spiritual journey, so there were some synchronicities there.
The Sow is a nurturing card. The Sow is about connecting to the abundance of nature, the physical aspects of our nature as living beings. The image shows a sow herding her group of piglets (is that what baby wild pigs are called??). The ground is strewn with morsels of food, and the background is lush with ripe wheat and vegetation. As it relates to sensuality and fertility as well, this is like the Empress card in animal form. Very earthy and loving.
Finally, the center card was Cat. Cat is considered to be an animal that connects to the spirit realm, and can see and communicate with both sides of the veil that separates the worlds. So it has one foot in this world, and one in the other. Another interesting element of the cat is its observation skills - it will sit and listen and watch quietly, only making its move when it's sure everything has come together in the right way. This also reminds me of the Wildwood Tarot Page of Stones (Lynx, which is also a wild cat). All of these meanings hold significance for me, and in fact the Page of Stones/Pentacles has also come up a lot lately in my personal readings. I do feel I'm exploring a new wave of life, taking time to observe and learn about the best way to move forward in the material world with spiritual matters.
So after spending some time pondering this series of cards, I suddenly realized that it makes perfect sense! On the left the Air Dragon represents new insights and spiritual journeys, while on the right side the Sow represents our physical connection to nature and sensuality. The Cat is the bridge, the unifier, of both of these opposites. And when I realized that, suddenly the Lovers and 2 of Cups and even the Chariot, made sense.
When I was young I was very involved in spirituality and had a lot of meaningful experiences that have impacted me indelibly. But as a child, spiritual experiences are ungrounded - in many ways you can't really live your spirituality in a balanced way until you learn how to live in the world. And that's precisely what I did. I had my first child, finished my college degree, got married, spent many years involved in developing a career, had two more kids (and few things are more grounding than having and raising babies!), completed my graduate degree. I distanced myself from more intentional spiritual practices, and really immersed myself in Life. Six or seven years later (ending with this current year) I experienced a series of events that have led me back to spiritual practice and a renewal of my path, which has been wonderful and very much like "coming home." So I've gone through two major phases of life - one very airy/watery, and one very earthy - and now this year I'm learning how to integrate them so that both are equally important and balanced parts of my life, and who I am. And that newly established and building inner-balance is impacting how I move forward in the world, and where my path is leading me.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Those Little Somethings
The Tarot deck that I learned on was the Golden Tarot by Liz Dean. The pips are not illustrated, in the Marseilles tradition. At the time I really enjoyed that challenge - I couldn't rely on an image to help tell the story - I had to memorize the potential meanings in each card. So needless to say I studied hard and really learned the "book" meanings (all 234 of them, if you randomly decide that each card can mean at least three different things - and of course there are more potential meanings than even that, so it's a tame estimate). Later I learned reversals, though in a slightly more organic way, bringing the total potential meanings to somewhere around 468. Yes, what a rock star. :-/
Then I delved into the world of Tarot decks with full illustrations, and I opened myself up not just to commonly understood meanings, but to intuitive meanings, which effectively exploded my Tarot world, kind of like the Big Bang. Now, while I am happy to read with a deck without illustrated pips, I am truly "fed" by those that do have full images.
Why? It's those little "somethings" in each card that spark my intuition, that bring amazing doses of clarity and insight, that penetrate to the heart of what's going on in a client's situation. I love decks that have "a lot going on" because there is a lot there for my intuition to latch onto, and of course meanings then can change radically with the same card from reading to reading, which makes each card so incredibly rich (not unlike a living person, I suppose!).
When I do readings, I consider the traditional array of meanings (or sometimes I don't have time to consider, because the meaning is immediately apparent), but I also go further and see what the card art has to offer - and sometimes the art itself is more important, and I throw out the traditional meanings altogether. For instance, the other day I did a reading for someone who wanted to know where their new path was taking them. I pulled the 10 of Pentacles from the Deviant Moon deck (Patrick Valenza) and the typical significance (a stable home, inheritance, marriage, security) was nearly meaningless. It was the image on the card that gave me what I needed to pass on to this client, which was that he was currently in an apprenticeship period of his life, but he was heading to a time when he would eventually become the teacher. The Pentacles were about spiritual riches, as opposed to material riches, and spoke more of grounding spirituality in the world, making it accessible to people. In fact later, when I was doing a numerological assessment of that reading, the Hierophant showed up, which fit nicely, as the Hierophant is, in a sense, grounded spirituality - a bridge between the sacred and the mundane - and also represents teaching and learning. Now it may well be that his path will lead him to economic stability, but that was the least relevant element of the card meaning in this case.
My own mentor prefers the Halloween Tarot (Karin Lee, Kipling West) because there are so many little details that pop out at her. I own that deck and enjoy it quite a bit, but I've been quite bowled over with the Deviant Moon so far, in this respect. It's funny that I'd spent quite a period of time avoiding this deck because I felt it was creepy, or just not my style of artwork. And yet when I took the leap, I discovered yet another whole new, profound world of possibilities, filled to the brim with little somethings that speak clearly to me (all decks out there provide something valuable, and a little different - I guess that's partly why Tarot deck collections accrue!). It's an amazing deck, I'll just say that :)
Alright. Time for breakfast.
Then I delved into the world of Tarot decks with full illustrations, and I opened myself up not just to commonly understood meanings, but to intuitive meanings, which effectively exploded my Tarot world, kind of like the Big Bang. Now, while I am happy to read with a deck without illustrated pips, I am truly "fed" by those that do have full images.
Why? It's those little "somethings" in each card that spark my intuition, that bring amazing doses of clarity and insight, that penetrate to the heart of what's going on in a client's situation. I love decks that have "a lot going on" because there is a lot there for my intuition to latch onto, and of course meanings then can change radically with the same card from reading to reading, which makes each card so incredibly rich (not unlike a living person, I suppose!).
When I do readings, I consider the traditional array of meanings (or sometimes I don't have time to consider, because the meaning is immediately apparent), but I also go further and see what the card art has to offer - and sometimes the art itself is more important, and I throw out the traditional meanings altogether. For instance, the other day I did a reading for someone who wanted to know where their new path was taking them. I pulled the 10 of Pentacles from the Deviant Moon deck (Patrick Valenza) and the typical significance (a stable home, inheritance, marriage, security) was nearly meaningless. It was the image on the card that gave me what I needed to pass on to this client, which was that he was currently in an apprenticeship period of his life, but he was heading to a time when he would eventually become the teacher. The Pentacles were about spiritual riches, as opposed to material riches, and spoke more of grounding spirituality in the world, making it accessible to people. In fact later, when I was doing a numerological assessment of that reading, the Hierophant showed up, which fit nicely, as the Hierophant is, in a sense, grounded spirituality - a bridge between the sacred and the mundane - and also represents teaching and learning. Now it may well be that his path will lead him to economic stability, but that was the least relevant element of the card meaning in this case.
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| Deviant Moon Tarot - 10 of Pentacles Patrick Valenza/U.S. Games |
Alright. Time for breakfast.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Tarot Alchemy - Triplicity of Card Meanings
I’ve been thinking lately about the dual (and triple, maybe even quadruple!) nature of some card meanings in readings. I'm not talking about the fact that all cards have multiple facets of meaning (which of course is true). I mean that one card may relate to more than one aspect of a reading. I will now attempt to make sense!
For instance, the other day I did a reading and the Queen of Wands reversed appeared as one of three cards. The reading was about a familial (non-romantic) relationship between two people, and I felt that the Queen of Wands related to several elements: on one hand I felt it represented the first of the two people as being “unrealized” and even somewhat manipulative (though I felt that part was unintentional). But on the other hand it struck me as also highlighting the feeling of powerlessness experienced by the second person in the relationship. That second person also appeared as another card in the reading, so there were a lot of layers going on. So rather than the Queen representing one particular person or situation, it represented several facets of both people involved in the reading.
I feel this can happen in readings where no spread is being used, because without positions, there is more flexibility and alchemy possible with card meanings and relationships between various cards.
This all brings to mind my thoughts on receiving “signs” from the Universe. I do believe that little, meaningful, symbolic things occur in our lives that can serve as catalysts for self-improvement, introspection, and even just the simple feeling that there is something out there that is powerful and beautiful, and mysterious. Sometimes these signs can take the form of synchronistic moments, or meetings, or interactions where we think, “If I’d been here just two seconds before, I never would have seen that!” Those “wow” moments that make you think, that put you in awe of the Universe we’re all a part of. So a long time ago I remember thinking “Yeah, but if I see something that has meaning for me, there is surely someone else who also saw it, was affected by it, but perhaps in a different way. So does it become meaningless, then?” And I determined that in fact it doesn’t become meaningless at all, it simply means that one event can have multiple meanings and different implications, all equally important, for many different witnesses. I see this as the Universe multitasking. It's far too busy to provide unique signs and symbols for different people all of the time. Instead of detracting from the power inherent in "signs," I feel it enhances it.
So I feel it works with cards in a similar way. The Queen of Wands represented different aspects of both people in the aforementioned spread. In fact there were three cards total in the reading, and all of the cards had some kind of overlapped meaning for both people, respectively. Think of a Venn diagram, which I hope will illustrate my thoughts more clearly than my words probably are:
I sincerely hope that made the right kind of sense! In the end there is just so much meaning, so many circles integrating, overlapping, weaving in and out, that it becomes almost dizzying. But then, that’s the beauty of Tarot. ☺
For instance, the other day I did a reading and the Queen of Wands reversed appeared as one of three cards. The reading was about a familial (non-romantic) relationship between two people, and I felt that the Queen of Wands related to several elements: on one hand I felt it represented the first of the two people as being “unrealized” and even somewhat manipulative (though I felt that part was unintentional). But on the other hand it struck me as also highlighting the feeling of powerlessness experienced by the second person in the relationship. That second person also appeared as another card in the reading, so there were a lot of layers going on. So rather than the Queen representing one particular person or situation, it represented several facets of both people involved in the reading.
 |
| Deviant Moon Tarot - Queen of Wands Patrick Valenza/U.S. Games 2008 |
This all brings to mind my thoughts on receiving “signs” from the Universe. I do believe that little, meaningful, symbolic things occur in our lives that can serve as catalysts for self-improvement, introspection, and even just the simple feeling that there is something out there that is powerful and beautiful, and mysterious. Sometimes these signs can take the form of synchronistic moments, or meetings, or interactions where we think, “If I’d been here just two seconds before, I never would have seen that!” Those “wow” moments that make you think, that put you in awe of the Universe we’re all a part of. So a long time ago I remember thinking “Yeah, but if I see something that has meaning for me, there is surely someone else who also saw it, was affected by it, but perhaps in a different way. So does it become meaningless, then?” And I determined that in fact it doesn’t become meaningless at all, it simply means that one event can have multiple meanings and different implications, all equally important, for many different witnesses. I see this as the Universe multitasking. It's far too busy to provide unique signs and symbols for different people all of the time. Instead of detracting from the power inherent in "signs," I feel it enhances it.
So I feel it works with cards in a similar way. The Queen of Wands represented different aspects of both people in the aforementioned spread. In fact there were three cards total in the reading, and all of the cards had some kind of overlapped meaning for both people, respectively. Think of a Venn diagram, which I hope will illustrate my thoughts more clearly than my words probably are:
I sincerely hope that made the right kind of sense! In the end there is just so much meaning, so many circles integrating, overlapping, weaving in and out, that it becomes almost dizzying. But then, that’s the beauty of Tarot. ☺
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