Look look it’s here!

 Tarot Stripped Bare is back from the printers. Here is a terrible photo of me holding it so you know I’m not lying.

Apart from being incredibly orange, Tarot Stripped Bare is also:
a) a stylish accessory for any coffee table
b) a perfect Christmas gift for the man or woman who has everything
c) an excellent thing to watch when the football’s on (if you don’t like football)
d) full of Vitamin C*

*this last claim is not entirely – or even remotely – true.

It’s very strange. I keep looking at it. It has taken us a long, long-long, long time to get to this point. I think we possibly started talking about it almost three years ago and now it’s here, in the flesh plastic. And you know, it hasn’t turned out bad. I’m not going to tell you about the journey – the many agonising script revisions, all the things that went wrong during filming, the bruises I sustained banging my head against brick walls – because, quite frankly, if I told you all that you’d NEVER believe we managed to produce something halfway decent. But we have. And I’m quite proud of it. It’s not perfect, it’s not five stars, but it’s not two stars either. So I’m happy.

(I’ve just read that last paragraph back through and realised I’m the worst salesperson ever. I fear my Englishness is to blame. We’re generally not very good at ‘bigging ourselves up’. Our most enthusiastic praise is usually something along the lines of, “not bad, can’t complain”, which is basically what I just said.)

Anyway…it’s the best tarot DVD ever. (Is that better?) Its official release date is 31st October. Anyone who wants to can pre-order it from Tarot Chest for the special price of £12.50 – after release it will be £14.99.

Oh, and I simply must insist you go and buy the International Icon Tarot because Robin Ator was nice enough to let us use his deck and because you’re just not cool unless you own it. So there.

All change (again)

I may not have looked at a tarot deck all week, but I have redesigned my readings website (for the third time). Now it’s blue!

The whole exercise is probably pointless. I am smarting from the lack of visitors, mainly due to the fact I refuse to pay Google’s ridiculous and ever-increasing adwords fees. So now I have new decor in my lair, but no flies to appreciate it. Ah well, I shall have to be more 7 of Swordsy and think of clever, non-Googley ways to lure the crowds. I bet if I used the word ’sex’ just once the visitors would flock in.

Anyway, sorry if you’ve visited here in the last week only to be greeted by the same old same old. I have been a) busy, b) lazy, and c) sleepy but I think I’m back to normal now.

Burnout

Occasionally, I spend so much of my time thinking about, reading about, writing about or using tarot, that eventually I get tarot burnout.

The symptoms of tarot burnout include but are not limited to:
a) an inability to remember what a single card means
b) an overwhelming urge to throw every deck you own in the bin*
c) severe teeth grinding associated as a result of excessive shuffling

Fortunately, the effects of tarot burnout don’t last long. In this particular case, I’ve found a blast of Mary Oliver  has done the trick.

(*Relax. No tarot decks were harmed in the writing of this post.)

The Quiet Priestess

I like the High Priestess. Not because of the usual reasons – wisdom, intuition, the mysteries of the feminine, etc etc. All that stuff has its place, but it’s not why the High Priestess appeals to me. I like her because she’s quiet. She’s only too happy to sit silently in a corner while those around her talk. She doesn’t feel the need to be heard. She likes her own company and she doesn’t need others to validate her existence.

Sometimes I am very much like the High Priestess but most of the time I am not.

The Killer in the Backseat

I know Halloween is still three weeks away, but that gives you plenty of time to try out this chilling spread. I’m a big fan of urban legends, so I thought I’d have a go at a spread based on one of the most famous urban legends of all: The Killer in the Backseat.

1. You – the hapless victim - mwahaha!

2. The Killer in the Backseat – a hidden danger, something that’s gonna getcha if you don’t act fast

3. The Dark and Lonely Highway – this is the route you definitely DON’T want to take (i.e. what not to do)

4. The End of the Road – this is the sticky end you’ll come to if you choose the wrong path

5. The Well-Lit and Extremely Safe Highway – take this road if you want to live…

6. Home Sweet Home – where you’ll end up if you manage to last the night

7. The Gas Station Attendant – something or someone that will help you

Have fun, and remember – don’t have nightmares. [Insert crashing organ music here.]

Roll up, roll up – the Ninth Carnival of the Tarot is here!

Mona and the gang have finally arrived – a little soggy from having to cross the Atlantic in October but ready nonetheless to welcome you to the Ninth Edition of the Carnival of the Tarot! They’ve settled in quickly and wasted no time in sampling the local fayre (yorkshire pudding and bangers and mash) so let’s get the show started before they start to feel sleepy. 

Performing in the big top this week (drum roll please):

All the way from Willow Tree Tarot in the northeast United States, Carnival of the Tarot founder and all-round tarot maestro Willow presents My Deck Family about those decks that have made themselves comfortable under her roof.

From The Art of Cartomancy (where it seems there was a close shave last week) Kapherus demonstrates How to Handle Bad News in a Reading - a post that’s bound to resonate with any serious tarot or card reader.

Fugdale brings his Funhouse to the ring where he not only dazzles us with some juggling, but wows us with his review of the oh-so-delicious-delectable-and-divine Housewives Tarot.

And finally, from yours truly, a death-defying (not really) post on A Question of Question.

That’s it from the Carnival of the Tarot for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show. Next week, the Carnival will be back home at Willow’s place so if you want to join in just submit your article using the carnival submission form or send it to carnival@willowtreetarot.com. For more details see the FAQ.  

A Question of Question

One of the most repeated pieces of advice given to beginner tarot readers is “Ask the right question”.

What’s the right question? Well, a Good Question is one that is positive, empowering and keeps responsibility with the querent. Questions such as “How can I improve my chances of promotion” and “What can I do to repair this relationship” are Good Questions. Questions such as “Will I get a promotion this year”, “Should I buy the Mystic Faeries deck“, and “What’s the capital of Greenland” are Bad Questions.

This is exactly the advice given in Tarot Stripped Bare, so I can’t knock it. But I wouldn’t anyway. I still believe that, for beginners, it’s good advice. Asking the right question gives you a context in which to interpret the answer. If you ask “How….” and the Knight of Wands comes up, you’re getting a pretty clear message. If you ask “Should I….” and the same card comes up, it’s a lot more tricky to work out what it’s telling you.

More and more, however, I find myself asking Bad Questions. It seems to work for me. The key seems to be in how you interpret the cards. The main criticism lobbied against Bad Questions is that they invariably lead to yes/no answers (see my examples above, except the one about Greenland) and that’s true, in a way. But when you ask a friend whether you should buy a dress or go on a date with that guy you hardly know or take a job selling popcorn, you hardly ever get a yes/no answer. You get a “Yes, because…” answer or a “No, but…” answer. Sometimes you get a “Ohmigod that guy’s so cute you should totally go out with him and then marry him and have all his children” answer. The same is true with tarot.

The truth is, if tarot was a machine and all that happened was you put in a pound, asked a question and out popped your answer then you really couldn’t expect more than a yes or a no. But tarot is a rich, complex, deep, versatile, beautiful, intelligent divination tool. And if you believe tarot works – if you’re willing to believe that much in such an incredible, illogical thing – then you should give it more credit. Tarot doesn’t just give us answers – it converses with us. That’s why when I ask “Should I go to my cousin’s wedding”, I know that not one card will tell me “yes” or “no”. Instead my friend the tarot will discuss my fears and apprehensions with me, and help me come to my own decision.

White Buffalo Woman

In a reading I did at the weekend using the Haindl Tarot, White Buffalo Woman (aka Daughter of Stones in the West) turned up in the “situation” position. Here she is:

I am still getting to grips with the Haindl’s court cards. They are quite different to court cards in a traditional deck. For example, you could say the Daughter of Stones is the equivalent of the traditional Page of Pentacles (in The Haindl Tarot Volume II: The Minor Arcana, Rachel Pollack actually uses the title Princess of Pentacles but round these parts we say ‘Page’). However, the comparison couldn’t be more uncomfortable. The sad, solemn eyes and simple beauty of White Buffalo Woman are a world apart from the eager and enterprising Page of Pents.

Whilst Rachel Pollack’s comments on the card are very interesting, I wanted to delve deeper into the myth of the White Buffalo Woman, to try and form my own understanding of the card. (I plan to do this for all of the Haindl court cards.) I love mythology but know very little about Native American folklore – something I’m determined to change.

Last night I found a more detailed and elegant retelling of the White Buffalo Woman myth online. I appreciate how tiresome it can be to click links, so here is an extract to entice you:
“As the woman came closer, they could see that her buckskin was wonderfully decorated with sacred designs in rainbow-coloured porcupine quills. She carried a bundle on her back, and a fan of fragrant sage leaves in her hand. Her jet-black hair was loose, except for a single strand tied with buffalo fur. Her eyes were full of light and power, and the young men were transfixed.”

It was interesting to read that this is one of the central myths of Plains tribes and that it is the only myth in which White Buffalo Woman appears. She came from the horizon as a woman and returned to the horizon as a buffalo, after bestowing her gift of the sacred pipe. Since reading the myth, I have been pondering possible interpretations of this card. I think it can refer to many things, for example:

- a gift, or a person giving a gift
- helping others, showing them how to do something (Rachel Pollack refers to helping others to “help themselves”)
- the sacredness of the earth; a connection to nature and all living things
- an appreciation of material things (not ‘materialism’ but rather treating objects and possessions with respect)
- simple beauty and simple pleasure
- ritualistic objects and objects which possess meaning (for example: heirlooms and items with sentimental value, religious artifacts, and even tarot decks)
- respect and appreciation for the basic things in life, e.g. food, shelter, clothing, etc.

This last point is reflected in the importance of the buffalo – both in the myth and in the lives of the Lakota. The article I linked to above explains:
“For the Lakota, as for most Plains tribes, the buffalo was a vital source of food and clothing, as well as providing most of the material goods of everyday life. Tools were made from its bones, rattles from its hooves, tipis from its hide.”
So White Buffalo Woman is also a reminder of all those things we take for granted but are so fortune to have (including the earth).

In her introduction to the card, Rachel Pollack describes it as “one of the loveliest in the Haindl Tarot”. Before learning more about the myth, I would have disagreed – to my eyes, it was a rather drab image. Now I feel differently. This is why I love the Haindl Tarot. It possesses such simple beauty and yet such depth, and it is a very spiritual, meaningful deck. Since I have started using it, I feel as though I have truly found ‘my’ deck.

Archertarot to host next Carnival of the Tarot!

Wow, exciting stuff, eh? The Carnival of the Tarot is on the move. Between now and next weekend, it’ll be packing up its decks, putting away its purple iridescent spreadcloths, harnessing the tarot-reading monkeys to the back of the tarot-reading elephants, and trundling its way from wherever Willow is (America I presume) to Archertarot’s Weblog in the dishcloth-grey midriff of England. On arrival, Mona – tarot reader extraordinaire and Carnivale matriarch – will fling wide the windows of her gypsy caravan and proclaim “By ‘eck it’s miserable ‘ere!”, donning a knitted tea cosy and an extra pair of fingerless gloves before settling down to read.

Translation: I’m hosting the Carnival next week so if you have a blog that has anything even remotely to do with tarot, send me your bestest post and I will mention it here on Sunday. You can email lynda@archertarot.co.uk or you can use the form here – whatever takes your fancy.

In the meantime, Mona and the gang have the latest thrilling installment for you at Willow Tree Tarot.

(Mona the Carnival Queen, and Pietro with his tarot-reading monkey)