Tarot Teachings

I’ve just found the Tarot Teachings website and I don’t know how I’ve managed to miss it before now. This fantastically detailed resource includes the history and use of tarot as well as sections on numerology, colorology and symbology, all of which can enhance your readings. The symbology section alone contains enough information to keep anyone occupied for a good few hours.

The site uses cards from the Rider Waite, Hanson Roberts, Morgan-Greer and Aquarian decks – all good solid beginners decks – making this an excellent site for absolute beginners as well as more experienced readers. Plus, it all looks really nice – I love the art deco illustrations.

Housekeeping

This morning I’ve been doing a little housekeeping at my readings site. I’ve reduced the number of cards for a few of the readings so I now offer only 1, 3 and 5 card readings. This makes sense on a number of levels. When I read for myself I hardly ever use more than 5 cards, so I’ll be sticking to the kinds of spreads I have the most experience in. Also, I’m hoping it makes it easier for people to choose the reading they want or need as opposed to the reading they can afford, as all readings are now £7.50 or less. Finally, I truly believe 3-5 cards is perfect for most readings – any more and there’s a danger of giving too much information and confusing the issue.

You may also notice that I’ve shifted the ‘See into the Future’ reading right down to the bottom of the page. I’m trying a little experiment. Since I started the site, over 80% of my clients have ordered that reading. So, is that just because it was the very first reading on the page, or is it because it most closely matches what they’re looking for? We shall see…

By the way, that 8 of Swords in my weekly reading is manifesting quite nicely…

The Week Ahead Spread

I’ve been wanting to develop a spread for a while now that I could use for weekly readings – something that I could do on a Sunday as a forecast for the week ahead. I came up with this simple 3-card spread this morning.

1 – Overall tone. This card shows what the prevailing theme will be for the week ahead. It’s something outside my control.

2 – Personal situation. This card shows a specific situation or issue that I’ll need to address in the coming week.

3 – Advice. This card shows the best course of action or an attitude that will help me this week.

I lay the cards out in a triangle shape, with card 1 at the top and the other two underneath.

And here’s my reading for the coming week. I used the Mythic Tarot:

1 – Overall tone: 8 of Swords. Ah yes, the ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’ card. Great. I shouldn’t expect to make a lot of progress this week. This card indicates confusion, indecision and inaction. This card is a very good representation of what is referred to in the gaming world as ‘analysis paralysis’, where too many choices leave you unable to decide. Except – in the 8 of Swords – none of the choices you’re faced with are particularly appealing. It’s interesting in this card that the Furies wear black and Apollo wears white, leaving Orestes stuck in the grey area between them.

2 – Personal situation: 4 of Cups. In the Mythic Tarot this card represents ‘divine discontent’. On the surface, everything seems like it’s fine and dandy, but underneath there’s that feeling that something’s ‘just not right’. It’s all a little too ‘fine’, if you get what I mean. There’s nothing wrong with what you’ve got; it’s just not what you want.

3 – Advice: 7 of Swords. I should keep my thoughts and plans to myself. If I experience the ‘divine discontent’ shown in the previous card, it’s probably best not to say anything. Perhaps it’s just not the right time to bring it up, perhaps others won’t sympathise, or perhaps if I leave it a while those feelings will pass and it won’t seem like such a big issue anymore. I think the reason for keeping quiet is actually shown in the first card, the 8 of Swords. Talking about it won’t change the situation, there won’t be a way to get what I want without encountering either a rock or a hard place, so best to stay put in the grey area for the time being.

       

Deck Desire Strikes Again

There I was, minding my own business, trying to find out something for a customer, when BAM! I walked into this. I have long been aware of the Alchemical Tarot but although I found it intriguing, I didn’t much like the big borders. But now…now, I’ve laid eyes on this Art Edition and life will never be the same. The colours! The card! The thin borders! The wooden box and beautiful blue backs!

 

Alas, it is not meant to be. At $330 it is way, way out of my league, so I must move on and learn to live without it.

Perhaps this will help. The Tarot of the Saints is perhaps not as…shall we say…elegant as the Alchemical Art Edition, but it IS lovely and I am constantly compelled to learn new things so it would give me a chance to explore the stories of the Saints. Plus, it’s much more reasonably priced.

Actually, the thing that most intrigued me about it was something I read in this review by Nellie Levine. She includes an extract from the book about the Queen of Staffs card, which starts: “St. Genevieve, the young shepherdess, stands with her crook and her lamb.” My beloved Vacchetta uses the same image for its Regina di Bastoni (Queen of Wands), though whether it is meant to be St Genevieve or whether either tradition influenced the other, I don’t know. But it does give me the perfect excuse to buy the deck. Research purposes, you see?

   

A Friend in Need Spread

This is a spread designed to help you figure out the best way to support a friend or loved one who is having a hard time. The first five cards (the centre cards) all relate to your friend and the situation they’re in and the last four (the outer cards) are advice cards for you. In that way, the spread shows you creating a circle of support around your friend. 

Centre cards:

1. The heart of the matter – the problem or situation

2. Underlying cause or motivation – often an internal aspect which has contributed to the situation

3. Past influences – an external factor or event in the past which has led to the present situation

4. Manifestation – the effect the situation is having on your friend or those around them

5. Future potential – the opportunity for growth that lies in the situation

Outer cards:

6. What practical support can I give my friend?

7. What attitude can I adopt to help my friend?

8. How can I best communicate with my friend about this situation?

9. What emotional support can I give my friend?

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

During an online wild goose chase last week, I came across this painting:

It’s called ‘Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’ and it was painted by Caspar David Friedrich in 1817. I just love this picture. It captures the romantic spirit of the golden age of exploration when there was still so much to discover. But what struck me most of all was what a great 3 of Wands image it makes.

Traditional 3 of Wands cards show a man overlooking the sea as ships travel to and fro. The usual meanings are leadership and vision; a pioneering spirit. The 3 of Wands represents a time of initial success and growth; a time when you begin to see the first results of your efforts and can get a sense of future possibilities.

The Wanderer in the painting has reached the mountain’s summit. More so here than in the usual 3 of Wands images, you get the sense of it being a stage – a resting place – on a much longer journey. You can see an even taller mountain in the distance, many miles away – a new destination. The Wanderer has achieved what he set out to do but, in doing so, has set himself on a path that goes further than he ever dreamed possible.

Four of Swords

Here’s the thing: this morning I was thinking about writing a post about the 4 of Swords because I’d had a nice, relaxing weekend. Then work happened and I forgot all about it.

I sat down this evening wanting to write something for this blog but none of the usual topics appealed so I thought, hey (well, no, I didn’t think that – my thoughts rarely begin with ‘hey’), why don’t I just draw a card at random to write about? So I did. And it was the 4 of Swords. Ta da.

 The 4 of Swords I’m looking at as I type this is from the Housewives Tarot. There’s a lot of cucumber in this card. Well, of course – cucumber is cool and so is the 4 of Swords. There are also a lot of lotions and oils. Four knives rest snugly in a knifeblock, taking a break from the dangerous whizzing around they do in many of the cards in this deck. And of course, there’s the lady with a face mask and cucumber over her eyes and her hair wrapped up in a towel.

The 4 of Swords is the ‘time out’ card and that’s why I was going to write about it this morning. Because at the weekend, I took some real time out: played some board games, had a nap in the middle of the afternoon, generally did nothing requiring any real effort. More importantly, I spent most of it away from the computer.

Swords represent the mind and mental activity, so the 4 of Swords signifies mental rest (or mental routine – either way, something that isn’t very demanding). Sometimes we need to shut off, and it’s not just to recover, although that can be one good use of a time out. My 4 of Swords weekend gave my brain time to just sit, like farmland left to fallow. And eventually, out of the quietness, came some small new thoughts – thoughts I probably wouldn’t have heard or have paid attention to at any other time. I also had an incredible feeling of calm.

Okay, so there’s no great insight here. But it was worth writing about because it’s worth remembering. I’m a big fan of quiet time, but sometimes I just forget to have any.

The Haindl’s silk pyjamas

Today I have received my first Tarot Tote:

 

Strictly speaking this lovely silk bag isn’t a tote but a ’silk sleeper’. It’s a little bit large because I chopped the borders off my Haindl, but charming nonetheless. The outer silk is a pale gold colour, like bamboo, and the inner silk is a bright turquoise – exactly the same shade worn by the bridesmaids at my parents wedding. It came with an aqua ribbon so I can wrap it up in a parcel.

I’ve looking for a bag for my Haindl for a while - it being one of my most favouritest decks - and I wasn’t sure if this would be right for it, but yes, it’s perfect. Contrary to popular belief, the Haindl is a very colourful deck and especially has a lot of blue in it. The 2 of Cups, which you can just about see on the very right of the picture above, is one of the most beautiful cards of any deck, ever.

Next on my list: a bag for my Vacchetta. I’m thinking red.

The New Unnamed Tarot Deck

I have just discovered that Norbert Losche is working on a new tarot deck. I have only recently become acquainted with his Cosmic Tarot, despite the fact it was published almost 20 years ago. I love the vivid colours and filmic quality of the cards. It’s also a great reading deck.

According to this website, Losche has so far completed ten of the cards for the New (as yet) Unnamed Tarot Deck – including, we are tantalizingly told, the Ace, five and six of Cups. Sadly there are no samples on the site but, if you’re feeling impatient, you can speed up the painting process if you have £6969 to spare! (I checked behind the sofa, but didn’t quite have enough.)

There is also a more detailed section of the site dedicated to the Cosmic Tarot where you see some of the cards, including an early version of the Moon card. I actually prefer the version on the site – I love the detail in the waves, the turbulent waters of the subconscious. I can only imagine what a fantastic deck it might have been painted in that style. Luckily, the final version didn’t turn out too bad either.

Tarot Solitaire

I like to play solitaire. I find it very soothing. And when I play it with tarot cards, it helps me get more familiar with the deck. (Plus, tarot cards are much prettier than playing cards.) (Plus plus, if anyone walks in, I can pretend I’m doing a really complicated reading.) 

1. Shuffle the deck.

2. Deal out a row of 7 cards. The first card (on the left) is dealt face-up; the rest are face down.

3. Deal out 6 rows below the first, each face down except for the first card. The rows should be ‘right-aligned’ – you start the 2nd row below the 2nd card of the first row and so on.

4. You can place face-up cards onto other face-up cards that are one higher in number. For example, you can place the 6 of Wands on the 7 of Cups. However, you can’t place a card onto a card of the same suit, so you can’t place the 6 of Wands on the 7 of Wands.

5. When you move a face-up card, you get to turn the card that was below it face-up.

6. Any Majors can be removed to a separate pile in any order.

7. Aces are placed above the other cards. When you get an ace out, you can place cards of the same suit on top of it in ascending number order, i.e. Ace, 2, 3, 4…

8. From the deck of remaining cards, deal three cards face down and turn them over (so you are looking at the third/bottom card). If you can place that card out onto any face-up card or an ace, do so. If not, deal three more cards.

9. When you’ve dealt out all the remaining cards, just pick them up, turn them over and start from the top again. Keep going until you have got rid of all the remaining cards or (more likely) can’t move any cards.

10. The aim is to get all the cards out onto the ace piles so you end up with four suit piles with the kings on top (plus the pile of majors).