A Tarot Calling

Ambitious Goal?

2011-12-10T10:28:00.001-06:00

It has been far too long since I have blogged and there were moments when I held on to this blog as a dream of what can be. Idle fantasies kept by one who aspires to do more. Then last night I had a vision for what can happen.

In the midst of the busy holiday season I had a vision for the next year. I am looking to push myself to the utter limit of my reading abilities. I asked myself a question in a moment of mental weakness and physical exhaustion.

"Just how many readings can I do in one year?"

I have done readings before on a regular basis but lately it has taken a back seat to regular deck study, deck collecting and other random silliness. Everything seems to get in the way of my laying out the cards and reading.

Last night, I have considered taking up the "One Deck Wonder" challenge. This is where a reading takes up a single deck and uses it for a distinct time period for the sole intention of reading with it. Lots and lots of readings.

I am tempted and almost compelled to do this. The deck I would choose is almost secondary to the idea of just packing every other deck away. I have found that when I pack away my decks I get itchy fingers to get new shiny decks. They are all precious to me.

In the past, the accounts I have read the readers picked a simple deck, stripped down and general. The International Icon Tarot, a very basic rendering of the Rider-Waite-Smith classic has been a popular choice or a non-scenic pip deck.

I am torn with the idea of using the International Icon Tarot (IIT) or go back to my old favorite Liber T.

Still the issue of the deck aside I am wondering just how many readings I can do? I tend to do online and e-mail readings. I am also thinking I would read for myself everyday. (That's 366 readings for me. 366? Next year is a leap year.)

I am thinking that I want to set a goal of at least 1,000 readings. That is slightly less than three a day. But that seems like it might not be ambitious enough. Doubling it to 2,000 would take it to almost an average of five and a half readings a day. Averaging over thirty-eight readings a week. Each day, Each week, Every day, Every week.

Then the cheesy voice in my head said that if I am going to go for it then go for it big. So I am setting the goal of 2012 readings in 2012. Possible? Impossible? I don't know but I am going to find out. I am going to kick this blog back in gear to track my progress and give myself a place to vent, share and show what I learn.

I accept that this may be a fail. An Epic Fail before the end of January. But I am going to push and see. My Tarot practice needs something and this might just be it.

I have a couple of weeks to prep and get ready. I will be back later to post about my process in picking a deck. That will be a tough one.

Any thoughts?

Why I want to read for others

2010-10-10T09:38:00.000-05:00

“Why do you want to read Tarot for others?“
An overwhelming void settles in my mind as I heard the question. I heard it and did not listen. I was asked again, and I did not listen. Then the question was asked but assigned as a three-page essay. Like any good student, I hear the assignment. Now I have to answer the question.

The question was asked by a recorded voice in the audio book, "The Process: The Way of the Tarot Reader" written by Dan Pelletier. The question is formulated based on the assumption that I do want to read Tarot for others. I have been reading the cards for others for years so it seems reasonable that I have an answer to this question. I have the want to do readings. Since I am a voluntary reader then I don’t have a monetary reason for the activity. I take time out of my own life, energy and expense to read for others. What motivating factor is there behind my desire to read.

The “why” questions of life I avoid so often in life haunt me and find me in many different places. This time it is different. It haunts me here because of how essential it is to the whole practice of tarot reading. I am growing to see that my study of the cards is benign and useless unless I actually take the deck out of the box and begin to shuffle. Knowing the correspondences, elemental associations, Jungian archetypes, and all the rest is only trivial knowledge until I draw out a card as and answer to some question. Shuffling, laying out the card and giving an interpretation for another person is what makes the knowledge become real.

Why I want to read for other is to make the study real. To test myself and to see if I can understand the nature of the language of the Tarot. There is only so much study and learning before a student must be compelled to do. I think that once when I started I had a false idea driven from my conservative religious beliefs that I would learn and “only read for myself” The years of study lead to reading for others. That is the whole point. I don’t want to say you can’t not read for other but I dare say that if you don’t until you read for others your Tarot experience is missing an important element.

Another reason why I want to read for other is to make that special mystical, magical connection that can happen in a reading. I love the power to speak to any issue when the cards tell me what to say. As a Tarot reader I am able, encouraged and expected to speak to the private, secret and tough areas of a strangers life as an invited guest. I have always loved the ability to be an oracle and to speak truth into the lives of others as a voice of help and support. Those who come to seek us out are looking to find truth, answers and support.

I thrill over that moment when the cards are laid out and all still uncovered. Looking at each of the cards and know that the entire world is possible and that the moment is pregnant with anticipation, expectation, and wonder. It is a moment when I am able to see the vulnerability and the power of the random. I know that the power of the cards is that truth is universal and available to all people at all times. The moment if one of power. If the reader is ready and the seeker is able to be open then the whole world of knowledge exists in the very moment.

Being an ethical Tarot reader is one of my greatest pursuits in my Tarot career. To be an ethical Tarot reader I have to know where my own temptation to fall short of ethical behavior. One thing that is part of the Tarot reader experience is if you do it well for others you see into their lives. I secretly love this part of it. Ethically, for me, there is a line that I can’t cross in reading. I don’t/can’t/won’t do third party readings. If Tarot works, then third party readings will work as well. As a strong believer in the privacy of the person, Tarot spying is out of bounds. This means when I am active I have to be sure that I am reading for someone and not about someone.

Dan in his book says that people come for Tarot readings, “to touch the invisible, the unknown or the mystery.” I believe this because that is what drew me to the cards in the first place. When they come for readings they touch the mystery through a proxy. I want to read for others to be that proxy. I want to touch the invisible, engage the mystery. There is a mystery in life. I enjoy being that proxy for others that they may see that mystery which surrounds them.

Reading Tarot is not a morally neutral activity. I know that it can be done “for fun” and as I teach it I know that this is the place where we by necessity have to begin. There are uses of Tarot that are morally neutral but laying out the cards for another is not one of those. While not an official subscriber to the idea of big “K” Karma, I know enough that what I put out in life I get back. Responsible, ethical Tarot reading done well has a moral reward. I also know that sloppy, irresponsible, or unethical Tarot reading incurs a moral debt. People come in and may be vulnerable. They come to me looking for honest answers at the very least.

The answer to “Why” is because something draws me and I want to answer the call. I want to ask questions, to lay out cards, and see how the Universe responds. Since I have accepted the “Why” question and do readings then I have to accept the “Now What?” and the “How?” questions. My “Why” compels me to be the proxy to the invisible and the mystery. I have to accept that there is a burden and responsibility that goes along with that and I must pay the price.

Sacred Rose Tarot: Why the Tarot?

2010-03-30T09:01:00.000-05:00

In the class I teach on the Tarot, this week one of the students was accompanied by her son. He was a twenty-something man who was uninitiated into the history, use, practice and concepts of the Tarot. As the class was getting underway he asked a question. "What is Tarot?" A question held more than just a curiosity about Tarot but a challenge to the validity of Tarot. Getting a chance to engage the skeptical is awesome opportunity for me as a teacher. The question of what is Tarot is one we all need to answer for ourselves. In conjunction to the “What” question is the “Why” question. We live in a time when we can find that we have utterly thousands of different options for our oracular needs. So when Johanna asks the question "Why the Tarot?" in the beginning of our study we are compelled to look for the answer before we continue. If I can't answer the question "Why the Tarot" then I am unprepared and not ready for the study of the Tarot.

The answer to the question is likely to be unique to the person and the answer that works for me will rarely work for someone else. So as I look to again recommit myself to the Tarot by studying it anew I need to spend some time to answer the question.

I have dedicated myself to the Tarot because it is a system that has allows me to engage my understanding of the universe in pictorial form. The tool, that is Tarot, is functional, pragmatic, mystical, and mysterious. I find that in this one tool I am able to use to confront the mysterious unknown that is around me all the time. I think that I have an understanding of the limits of this tool but then there are times when it exceeds my expectations and I am renewed in the mystery of it. I am an academically leaning thinker and the Tarot is a framework that I enjoy understanding the different ways that a variety of paradigms can fit upon it.

Johanna speaks in this portion of the book that it is a study of the archetypes. I will not deny this and enjoy much of what she has written and her openness to the origins of the archetypes. I love the archetypes because they are set of universally evolving symbols and reference points.

"Tarot is the study of universal prototypes, commonly referred to as 'archetypes'. These prototypes have a history of expression through a culture's mythology -- folk tales, legends, religious figures, arts."

Prototypes . . . humm . . . I might like that better than the term archetypes. The universality of them illustrate that they are genuine and that study of what is naturally existent in every culture is valid and necessary. It is my belief that the Tarot origin lie in the Italian Renaissance. The classical Tarot images illustrate the prototypes in that worldview. I may not see the world through that same lens but the system is flexible and solid. I am able to use this tool and I have chosen it to be my primary tool of engaging the mystery of life. Now I also know that the way that the cards have worked in my life I seem to think that they have chosen to work with me just as much as I have chosen to work with them.

Sacred Rose Tarot Study: The Preface

2010-03-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

In this post, I look at what Johanna wrote in the Preface of the Sacred Rose Companion Guide

In the Preface of the book, Johanna discussed the task that was set before her with the Sacred Rose Tarot and in reflection and journaling about that task I feel that she has set out a great set of objectives for those who study the deck, her book and her method of Tarot. I have broken them down into three different sub-tasks.

The Three Tasks:

1. The task before use is to emphasis the role that creativity has in the psychic development experience.

2. The task before us calls us to record, share the role that Tarot plays in each of us.

3. The task before us demands that we understand that lessons are learned when the responsibility for actions and the impact of those actions is accepted and ultimately resolved.

My choice to take up the tasks.

These three things which she sets before herself and in extension before the reader, me as well. It is a task that my journey with the Sacred Rose will lead me to understand, fulfill and accept.

I like how she has linked both the act of creativity to the power of the mind. There is a psychic connection in the act of creation. Making something which is not to be from the virtual nothing that is a thought is astounding in its implication. The ability to see what is not present and then work to bring it into being is a miracle that every creative person, no matter how limited is engaged.

I have long set the definition of what is a psychic power as a limited set of abilities and there I am expanding my understanding of what power the mind has and the need to treat it with a bit more respect. I have long understood and held in a place of honor the ability to be creative but the idea that it is linked to a literal psychic power is revolutionary and empowering. I can't say I'm not psychic anymore because I am, in even my limited way, creative.

My belief system demands that I understand that with every blessing there is a respective responsibility accompanying it. Just as Johanna says in the dedication, "The laws of the universe which govern all our lives require us not to live in a vacuum but to expand our consciousness through our relationships, to recognize the influence we have on others, and that of others upon us." The second task is one that resounds with the need to honor the lessons with the act of recording what I learn and the duty to share that with others. By keeping a journal and posting the lessons on the Study Groups Forum I hope that I am able to keep in my own integrity with this task.

The final task is the test for the lesson. Do I get it? By getting it, I know that it means more than just understanding the concepts and filing away knowledge but connecting the act of learning to the responsibility to act in a way that is more aware and conscious of that reaction my choices have in my life and in the lives of those close and dear to me. The lessons are more than just random new information. It is an organized approach to understanding the very nature of the universe.

Sacred Rose Tarot -- My renewed study of the deck.

2010-03-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

I get that this may well be a poorly conceived idea, but who knows there just might be something here for me to take the next step. I am thinking that I want to take a chance, make a change and start working with the Sacred Rose Tarot. I may just be able to combine what I have been learning from the Thoth and combine it with the pictorial sense of the Waite-Smith deck.

I have been playing around with the idea of studying, not so much this deck but with this deck, and now seems like it might be a good time to make that change. I have a new mentee who uses it and I am thinking of using it for an online class. So today, I am casting my cares to the wind and just going for it. Yet I will not be changing my PDR deck but just exploring this one. I am going to try to work through the deck by following the deck's companion guide, which is laid out in lessons. I also want to use a personal journal as a place to track my studying and my lessons from the online class.

There is a lot of room and space to grow. I am weeding out decks from my collection that I do not use and I want to focus on a few that are special, useful, and have traction. Use and traction can come from studying, reading and handling. Listening to the Tarot-To-Go Radio podcast with Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman I am convinced that this is a deck that promise. From the interview, it seems that we have some similar understandings of the Tarot. I am energized to see what will come from this study.

I will be trying to post here and at the AT forum study groups with threads that follow the books sections. I think that it is a great way to study the deck along with the card by card study as well. There are ten lessons and the Major Trumps are covered in a separate lesson as well as the Minor Suits that are in a different lesson. Keeping the standard card-by-card study and then adding these lessons as a separate set of threads might be best. It is of course up to our lovely, helpful, and wise moderators to decide which is the best way and I will of course defer to their choices.

Looking forward to a great study and starting to use a deck that has color, action and history.

Shadow Work -- Spreads

2010-03-20T00:44:00.001-05:00

As I look to begin to work on this process, I want to take a quick look and make sure I have a sense of the spreads. I am planning to put them all here and then work through them with the book.

Star of Discovery (majors only)

Position One: Denial
Position Two: Anxiety
Position Three: Inferiority
Position Four: Anger
Position Five: Secrecy
Position Six: Self-Loathing

Star of Recovery

Position One: Focus (one card from previous reading)
Position Two: Past
Position Three: The Present
Position Four: The Need for Clarity and Insight
Position Five: The Pain
Position Six: The Gift of Wisdom

The Star of Recovery is a spread done to focus on each of the cards in the Star of Discovery spread. So while the Star of Discovery will be done once the Star of Recovery will be done six times. By placing the card of focus in the position one that would prevent it from appearing in the spread. The card appearing again would be a bit like using a word in a definition of the word you are looking to understand.

Star of Illumination

Position One: The Empty Vessel (One card from the Star of Discovery Spread)
Position Two: The Beginning
Position Three: The Formation
Position Four: The Center
Position Five: The Need
Position Six: The Gift

Star of Hope

Position One: The Star Card (Always)
Position Two: Your Desire
Position Three: Your Gifts
Position Four: Your Responsibilities
Position Five: Your Potential
Position Six: Your Self-Completion

Shadow Work Chapter One

Investigating my Shadow and doing the Shadow work requires a desire to be honest with yourself the question is not "How will I get rid of this?" but "Where is my Shadow now and why might this be happening?" It is about fully accepting all aspects of my humanity and changing what is no longer useful with forgiveness and compassion. By deliberately contacting your shadow and taking hold of your opposites, you become aware. Awareness leads to the power of personal choice and knowledge with the power of personal choice leads to freedom.

I wonder if working with my Shadow is at all similar to looking at the fleshly nature and my sin nature? As a Christian, I believe that I am bound by my humanity to a persuasion that is prone to fall short of ethical and moral behavior. There is a feeling that that while we may not be able to triumph completely over our fleshly-human nature I may be able to be more aware of it and how I can be proactive to work against its influence. If I are not aware of it I will fall victim to it.

Survivor: Heroes versus Villains

2010-02-19T10:22:00.002-06:00

I am a huge fan of Survivor and every season I try to put together a spread to look at the season. It has helped me to get to know how I am able to use the cards to look into the future. I thought that as this season is getting started I would post my spread for this season.

The spread I did wasn’t necessarily a set spread but I wrote down a few questions about the season and then pulled a few cards for the questions. I used the Thoth Tarot for the spread.

Question One: What will be key to victory this season?

Card One: Star

There will need to be a strong guiding positive energy and charisma to keep others around them succeeding and positive which I think that really pay off in the Jury voting. This is also something that will give the winner a perspective and over all vision for what will happen.

Question Two: Who will win?

Card Two: Magician

This is a very interesting card. I think that it shows that the one who can best manifest their will into reality.

Now I also like this card as the trickster. I think that there will be one who is more cunning and get their way through manipulation. Keeping an eye on what is going on and who is able to be sneakier.

Finally this a very interesting card because toward the end of Fans vs. Favorites when I was drawing for the winner I drew this card and I knew immediately that it was Parvati because of her skillful manipulation of the others in the season. So I am very interested to see if this card could still be a signifier for her and if she might just win again.

Question Three: What will surprise everyone?

Card Three: 2 of Disks.

We can all just assume that there will be a switch up coming. When it does happen there will be an element of how the tribes will be blended will either be shocking or it might go very well. Now if there isn’t a switch and combing of the tribe or merge would be a huge surprise to me too.

Question Four: What will I admire

Card Four: 7 of Wands

Someone will be brave and face odds that are very opposed to them and they will meet the challenge with bravery and pure strength of will.

Question Five: What will I loathe

Card Five: 10 of Cups

I saw this instantly to represent the overflowing gloating or parading of power. There will be someone or some group that will get into power and will unashamed gloat about their position and it will drive me crazy.

Question Six: Who will be in power at the merge

Card Six: Lovers

Now I have two ideas. I did this before watching the initial episode but I am writing this afterward.

First I think that if a Jerri/Coach hook up happens then they will follow the Boston Rob/Amber pairing in All Stars and control the game.

Second I am wondering if at the merge the tribes or alliances will be balanced and then a new dynamic will happen and there will need to be a playing of a whole new game.

Just my thoughts? Anyone else ever read about T.V. shows?

Onyx.

Lady of the Hunt Spread

2010-01-18T00:41:00.005-06:00

I am starting a new job this week and looking through my new copy of Christine Jette’s Tarot for All Season I found a great spread for the beginning of a project or relationship. It is called "Lady of the Hunt. It is a six-card spread in the shape of a crescent moon. As I was doing the spread it showed a great deal of insight and affirmation for my change in job. I thought I would post it for the blog about it.

Position One: This begins your project: 9 of Cups

The Lord of Material Happiness – My previous job was one that was a great joy to me and if I had been making enough I doubt I would have ever loved it. As a bartender the thought of the 9 of Cups as a sense of what I bring to the new position is a bit of a pun but it does represent the fun and emotional success that I had in the job.

Position Two: This shapes your project: Knight of Swords

The Lord of the Wind and Breezes, The Will transforms the Intellect.
The element of Air represents the logic and intellect. The Knight represents the adult man who can is in control of his mind and thoughts. The promotion to management will be one that will demand that I do less serving and more leading. I want to a leader that is ruled by my logic and sense of justice.

Position Three: Center of your project: 10 of Disks

The Lord of Wealth – My work has changed because I want to be more successful and because I want more in my bank account. It is a bit materialistic to say but there is a security that if I made more money that I don’t currently have. I am now going to be going to work for money not for fun.

Position Four: What the project needs to succeed: 2 of Disks

The Lord of Harmonious Change – I need to make this change as smoothly as possible. There will be some big differences but I have to find the change and roll with it one step at a time. I was ready for a change and I think it is coming at the right time but all change takes adjustment.

Position Five: Direction/Path of your project: Knight of Wands

The Lord of Flame and Lightening – Will strengthens Will
This card seems to show my personal path as it corresponds to my career path. Part of my hope is that with this promotion I will be able to grow in my sense of success, personal power and confidence. This seems to show that I am on a path that will strengthen me.

Position Six: Advice Card: 6 of Cups

The Lord of Pleasure – How will I find my joy and pleasure in this new job. I will need to look to see that I am not necessarily giving up enjoying the job just because I am looking for more reward and stability.

Overview: When I look at the card in their curved lay out I am struck by how the two Cups cards are in a vertical row, the two Knights are in a vertical row, and the two Disks are in the third vertical row.

Both Cups I believe show that I bring a joy and happiness with me and that I can continue to experience that emotional satisfaction.

Both Knights show that there is leadership, development and strength that flow into this project and are within my grasp. Each is the leader of one of the masculine suits and show a dynamic energy that leads me in this project.

Both Disks confirm the material nature of the question and reading. They are encouraging and practical.

eta: Added Labels

The Heart Tarot

2010-01-16T11:15:00.001-06:00

This is going to be a deck that will be ignored by some just because it is heart shaped. The world of Tarot can be rough on a deck that is perceived to be too commercial or unbalanced. In my limited time with this deck I still see a sense of promise in this deck that keeps me working the images.

The artist is Maria Distefano, the artist of the Circle of Life Tarot. Her artistic style is very evident in this deck. It has the same look but for me but the coloring in the Heart Tarot is much more clear and vibrant. One important question to ask is does the shape of the card contribute to the arts presentation or limit it. There are a few cards where the play on the heart shape works and others where it does seem to be limit the image. However for most of the card images I would say that the art fits the heart frame fine but is neither helped nor hindered by it. The back design, while nice is one image where the heart shape does seem to hinder the image.

Let’s discuss the border. If you don’t like borders on cards and you dislike the multilingual borders on most Lo Scarabeo decks then you will likely find this one worse than normal. It is a bright red borer with white writing. The multi-language titles are long the left and right edge and the number of the card sits in the middle of the notch between the two lobes of the heart.

The Little White Book is also heart shaped so that it can fit in the nice looking but often troublesome heart shaped box. Instruction booklets that come with Tarot decks are often times berated by critics for being useless or derivative or even nonsense. This one may receive the same treatment. There is at times a disconnect between what the booklet says about the card’s meaning and the image on the card. For instance the 7 of Pentacles. “7: gifts, success. Success in projects for the family and common welfare. A happy couple. Physical, psychic, and spiritual well-being.” The image on the card shows a solitary woman looking over her shoulder heading into deeper water and seven lily pads. One good use of this booklet is to keep at the bottom of the box and it helps with getting the cards in and out of the box.

Shuffling a heart shaped deck may for some take some time before getting comfortable with it. The booklet even suggests caution and care as not to damage the cards. I have found that a side riffle shuffle works. I cut the deck in half then with my thumbs on one side, my index finger in the notches between the top lobes and then my other finger curled around the other side I slowly let the deck fold together. It is fun to watch the two hearts fold together into a single heart shape. With a little practice I find it easier to shuffle than a round deck.

To use this deck than for more than cutesy Valentine’s Day romance readings then there is going to be some coming to terms with the shape and use of the heart theme. Just as using the Halloween Tarot for general readings takes some doing so will using the Heart Tarot. The deck’s images do allow room for readings on other subjects and concerns. Though the deck make lack a great deal of traction for long term use it may still hold a sense of novelty and appeal to those who want a deck that is just a little different from time to time.

Why don’t I trust my Intuition?

2010-01-08T20:56:00.000-06:00

When I began working with Tarot one thing that was promised to me but I never really believed or understood was that the longer I worked with the card the better my intuition would be.   It was a great idea that just by looking and reading the cards I would understand the messages I send myself and receive from the universe better.

In Tarot I work with images and connect them with ideas in strings of coherent thought.   I lay out cards in patterns and from those patterns I see the scope of the world and place meaning to an aspect of my life. For years I have learned to look at the card and ascribe meaning and reason to them. But there is still a disconnect with that part of my psyche that whispers to me little thoughts and suggestion.

All morning I sat at my desk working I kept having the thought “put a lid on your coffee.” Nothing crazy. I would look at it and know it was fine. It wasn’t near the computer or my books. It was fine, and it was fine but still the thought lingered. “Put a lid on your coffee.”

Now my mother would say it is just common sense. She would be right. I have a lid for that coffee cup. Plenty of reasons to put the lid on it. To keep it warm, to not send a gushing stream of steaming beverage into my mouth burning my tongue, but that was not the reason my intuition was telling me to put the lid on it.
One last chance came when I filled it one last time for the long cold trip to work. But I didn’t. It was a huge mess and potentially the biggest mess I have had in my kitchen in a long time.    All because I didn’t listen to my own inner wisdom.

When will I listen and how can I learn to act on what I know I should do? Working with a Primary deck, I want to get a better sense of of the information that is revealed to me. That information comes from the cards but there are other more intimate sources as well. A goal for me this year is to pay more attention to myself and the a better sense of the information that I am receiving from the world around me.   How will the Thoth Tarot do that? I am on notice to pay more attention and listen. Nothing too difficult but strangely it is for me.

Oh my beautiful Thoth

2010-01-02T07:43:00.001-06:00

I have been trying to find out a good deck for my upcoming Primary Deck Reflection. It was a stressful choice because I both liked the Liber T and needed a change. So as I considered the change I kept thinking about what someone had said about decks with "traction." The idea of a decks traction is essentially how well it works over time. Some decks that I have used were great for a season. But as I look to make a longer term commitment to a deck, I want to use a deck that is a bit more established with a good track record along with a rich symbolic language.

My Liber T has traction but it isn't the only one to choose. I have looked for other decks and I nearly went with the Rider-Waite. I don't think that any serious or even casual observer to the Tarot world could honestly contest the idea that the deck created by Waite and Smith has traction. I didn’t choose any deck that had Justice as 11 because it is an 8 year for me and I associate it with Justice.

On New Year's Eve, the issue still quite undecided but I was sure that it would work out. Late that night, I picked up a book and few things that I wanted to look over while settled into sleep. I picked up my trimmed Thoth deck to work on my 78 Weeks study. As I looked over a few the cards, it hit me suddenly but not forcefully. The Thoth deck is really a beautiful deck! Never before have I said that because I just didn't think it was that good looking. I like the subtle, smooth tones and coloring of the Liber T. I thought that the Crowely-Harris deck was too jagged and jarring. I never used it for more than a reference deck. I trimmed it years ago but that didn't help me use it more. I almost traded it away thinking that I would never really use it. (I had my Liber T, which was Thoth enough for me.)

In the quiet of that night as the year changed, I shuffled the deck and read for myself. It was awesome. I saw past what turned me off before but now was sailing into the deep waters of the divinatory ocean. As if the last year with the Liber T was preparation and now I am ready for advanced study.

This year’s PDR will start with the Thoth. I don't know how long it will last but I am going to give it some real time. I will need to work with it some before I get comfortable handling the deck. The downside is that my trimming job was not the greatest and it doesn’t shuffle well. Still I think that at least for a couple of months I am going to be using the Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot for my PDR!

Finishing the Year -- My 2009 PDR

2009-12-30T21:57:00.002-06:00

I started the PDR year with a brave hope that I would learn a little bit about myself and connect in a meaningful way to a deck that had eluded me in study and introspection. Looking back to when I first posted to this blog it was review of the deck. August 2008 seems a long way away from the eve of 2010 but as I have spent much of the last year and a half using and investigating this deck, I feel that I have only begun to uncover the real power of the deck.

The Primary Deck Reflection was by definition not a study of a deck but a study of myself with the help of one specific deck. In January, I chose the Liber T. The reasons why I chose it are still pretty firmly set in my mind. In an early blog post about my PDR I wrote, “This PDR is really to answer one question. After six months of neglect, why after a moment of panic one night did I rush to cling to this deck? When I thought I might be losing touch with Tarot how did this deck first come to mind? This deck is in my soul now.”

This deck is in my soul now. That was such a strange way of saying it then that I am not sure I knew the power of the statement. As my primary deck, this deck has taken hold of me in a way that is personal and at time strangely intimate. I have abandoned using this deck for public readings. It is mine. It is precious to me. I still cling to it at times and I am never without it.

The Liber T still eludes me in many ways. I have barely begun to understand the underlying astrological structure of the deck. There is more to this deck each time I look and read how others use, study, and have come to understand the deck. The mystery of this deck is that the worldview that created it and shaped it stands almost in absolute counter distinction to my own personal worldview. The more that I use it I see how it shapes me and the way that I think in new, strange and at times a little frightening ways.

So was my Primary Deck Reflection a success? Yes but not completely. I did not blog as much as I wanted. I did not read for myself as much as I wanted either. The insight I gained however was far more than I had expected. It was a good combination of the deck, the right time in my life and the right set of spreads coming together. I do know more about why this deck is the first one I grab when I have an issue or concern. It has been my Primary deck for a while and at times I choose not to use it. The Primary Deck Reflection taught me how this deck works and fits into my life. This is the reason that I will be doing it all again next year. Same deck? Not sure just yet but will be deciding soon and I have to say that it is in the running.

In closing a few other highlights of my 2009 Tarot year:

• Madame Irma and Assistant are proud to present PREDICTIONS!
• My Summer and Fall with Tarot Shadow Work
• Winning National Novel Writing Month
• Teaching, mentoring and reading for others

Happy New Year everyone! Onyx

NaNoWriMo! Here I come!

2009-10-31T22:40:00.002-05:00

While I was initially toying with the idea that I would use the National Novel Writing Month as a chance to explore the world of a narrative deck decided that it would far too limiting and I need freedom to explore and set my characters free.

I have decided on a story idea and a cast of characters that are all lined up like racers just ready to get off the blocks and run. Currently it is still the fading hours of October 31 and I am busying myself with little tasks to complete before I start this adventure. In and attempt to pass the time I thought I would do a quick reading about the month ahead and what I will need to do to be successful.

Using my ever faithful Liber T deck I will simply draw out three cards and see what I find.

Card One: Three of Scepters

The Lord of Established Strength

If I am going to get through this and be a winner I have to go with what I know and build my strength. Being a winner takes drive, leadership, enterprise and motivation. I love this card and it is actually my Minor Arcana Birth Card!

Card Two: Eight of Scepters

Lord of Swiftness

If I am going to make it to the finish line of 175 and 50,000 words it is all forward and no looking back. I like the colors and the lightning bolts in this card. Go, go, go . . . write, write, write. This will be the theme of the month. All progress is good progress.

Card Three: Six of Cups

Lord of Pleasure

Do it because it is fun and the pure joy of writing. It won’t be a best seller and it may not even be read by any one else. I look forward to the challenge for the chance to express myself, if even to myself. I look to challenge myself to know that yes I can write a novel, no matter how bad it may be.

So with two hours left to go before the starting gun goes off I am ready and excited. The cards seem to be behind me in this!

Fan Fiction for a Tarot Deck?

2009-10-19T21:27:00.004-05:00

If you met me on the street and asked me what is one of the things that define me as a person I would say I am a writer. My path into the Tarot was its ability to generate stories and by extension help me tell my own stories. I fondly remember those first nights when I was just getting started and I would lay out spreads and see the stories and people on the cards come alive and interact. Yes, when I am reading for personal entertainment Death means death! This was before I found the deeper well of spiritual understanding that would grip my journey.

So at the end of October for the last couple of years I have always toyed with the idea spending my November by diving into the writing frenzy of the National Novel Writing Month. (www.nanowrimo.org) I have many half finished books, story ideas that have been started but need to have some structured discipline applied to them that this year I have decided to give it a try. Now here is the deal. The National Novel Writing Month rules, yes there are rules, state that it must be a completely new attempt. So no I can’t use the fifty pages I have already written in this endeavor.

Okay I am a rational guy and I ask myself do I want to simply spend November in an attempt to work on what I have or do I want to do the Nanowrimo thing? I have decided to consider starting something new. But what?

Since I have discovered Tarot much of my fiction writing has given way to journaling about Tarot, posting on online forums about Tarot, writing lesson plans about Tarot and even creating PowerPoint's about the Tarot. A book is not a novel, necessarily. I want to write a compelling piece of fiction. But strangely in the late hours of the evening I found that I was sort of out of ideas.

An initial thought was to consider taking what I know about the Fool’s Journey, my research on pilgrimages and symbolic forms to craft an outline and then simply apply characters and let it play out in a post-modern allegorical way.

That seemed reasonable but then what if I created a storyline that mirrored not the Fool’s Journey but rather the many stories I see played out in the different Minor Suits. A story told based on the Suit of Wands or Pentacles? This idea completely exploded in my brain so that I was surprised it didn’t come out of my ears. I had done in part already in looking at suits in their numerological progressions. I have also read this in several guide books for some decks like the Mystical Faerie deck and the Tarot of the Cat People.

So the challenge was raised in my psyche, could I find a deck that I own that I could tell a story about that is heretofore unwritten or at least unpublished? The thought could best be described by the the term “fan fiction." Fan fiction is define by Merriam Webster Online dictionary as “stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet —called also fan fic”

Is this a new idea? In the next couple of days I will be looking over my decks to see if any of them have potential. I am very excited about this idea and though I know that if I were to even attempt this task it would be for the sheer joy of writing to get a deeper understanding of a deck.

An interesting idea that my prove fruitful in practice and fun in exploration.

Be well,

Onyx.

Here are a couple of footnotes on Fan Fiction:

Definition for Fan Fiction: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fan%20fiction

Wikipedia Link on the History and implications of fan Fiction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction

PDR -- 78 Days Left

2009-10-14T22:45:00.000-05:00

I have been surprised at times how this simple idea of using one deck for personal reflection has led me to one of the most productive and meaningful years in my Tarot journey. The simple idea that intrigued me early in January has produced more fruit than I could possibly have imagined.

My chosen deck is the Liber T – Tarot of Stars Eternal. It was an easy choice in some ways and a tough choice in others. It was easy because it is an interesting deck that has many secrets to be discovered. It was a tough choice because it represents a worldview that I don’t normally personally align myself. Yet with one exception of a short period in the Spring I have been faithful to this deck all year.

As of October 15th there are exactly 78 days left in the year. I have done daily draws for everyday of the year so far. Most have been random, though some where intentional. I have placed a copy of the deck in order and set it on my personal altar. I have decided that I will draw a card a day and slowly go through the whole deck one more time.

I am still hard at work with my weekly spreads and so powerful and personal it has been that I am reluctant to share it publicly at this time. I have a plan to finish my Shadow work as well by the end of the year.

In the quiet moments I have been considering that I will do next year. I am sure I will adopt an new PDR deck but what voice will whisper to me next? I don’t know yet but I know that while I still have work to do I have set an action plan to finish this year well and know I will treasure the journal that I have carried with me every day this year and this deck for decades to come.

Onyx.

Exploring My Shadow

2009-08-10T22:30:00.008-05:00

For almost three months I devoted myself to work through the first half of Christine Jette’s excellent book Tarot Shadow Work. In those eight to nine weeks I have done seven of the most profound, revealing, insightful personal readings of my entire tarot career.

My purpose for undergoing the Personal Deck Reflection (PDR) at the beginning of the year was to get a better understanding of the Liber T deck. The weeks went by and everything was fine but I began to hit a wall. I thought that simply doing a weekly spread would get me more familiar with it. The answer turned out to be yes and no.

In my experience the Liber T does not read well with careless or contrived spreads. Embracing the path of Shadow Work seemed right up this deck’s alley. Working Majors only, I did the first spread, “Star of Discovery.” The Spread appeared okay, I definitely got a feeling that something was going on in it. I spent the next week going through each of the positions and the cards in sequence. The layers peeled off and each card sang, condemned and encourages as it needed.

Right off I didn’t see the significance of the spread but after that week of study and meditation I saw my own subconscious laid before me. Not sure why I thought exploring my shadow side would be easy or why I thought I was self aware of it. It wasn’t and while in time I recognized it I was fairly new aspect of who I am.

Casting that one spread, I felt a connection. I continued through the process weary that the next spread would be a bust, or confusing or worse, simply wrong. I did not need to worry. I am unsure if my work with the deck in the last year was the deciding factor to why the spreads worked but I know it didn’t hurt.

After the Star of Discovery, I worked through the second set of spreads called the Star of Recovery. These spreads each focused on one of the cards in the Star of Discovery. It added better understanding to initial spread. It was six weeks of trying to look at many areas of my life and personality that I had ignored, repressed, or was unaware. Taking up this challenge was more intense and revealing than I thought it would be and richer in rewards than anything else I have done personally with the tarot.

I am more committed to the Liber T now as a result of this process. Also there is a strong desire to work more with Majors only. I found that the readings were open, direct, pointed and clear. Yet there also seemed to force me to looking more openly and see how a wide variety of influences and meanings worked and where available to me for use. I had to resist a desire to switch decks for fear that it would throw off the process.

Letting Go . . . . Starting over

2009-05-01T23:08:00.002-05:00

This post has been coming for quite some time now. In the last four months I have been working with, studying, getting an understanding of a single tarot deck. The Liber T tarot is beautiful, strong, deep, and mysterious. I have tried to work through as many of the facets of this deck as I could. I have read with it weekly and done daily draws for each of the 120 days of the years so far.

There are a few reasons why I would like to move on but there is a true sense that I desire variety and change. Contemplating the rest of the year ahead, I made a choice to vary my study. I have devoted myself to an intensely esoteric and hermetic deck. I want to spend the same amount of time with two other style decks. For the next four months, I will be focusing on a more classical approach to Tarot. I am anxiously awaiting my copy of The Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot. I have also recently finished Paul Huson’s book “The Mystical Origins of the Tarot” and I have decided that I am going to focus on the entire idea of studying Etteilla and pre-Golden Dawn tarot. Until that deck arrives, expected in the next two weeks I am going to use my historical decks for my study, Daily Draws and my Primary Deck Reflection.

Then for the final four months I want to look at a contemporary approach to tarot. My ideal deck would be one that blends innovation with classical symbolism. The September release date for the Legacy of the Divine Tarot would make an excellent transition. Yet I am also looking forward to the summer release of the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight. Still there are many different and exciting decks that have come out recently that have grasped my attention and my money but not my study. Other contenders are the Transparent, The Mona Lisa, or an animal-themed deck.

It is my hope that by providing this variety I will be able to continue through the rest of the year continuing to focus on a primary deck and expand my understanding the history and future of tarot.

Liber T PDR Week 12: The Blind Spot

2009-03-30T23:46:00.009-05:00

The Blind Spot is a four-card spread that looks at what is known and what is unknown. This is a good spread for insight into an area of confusion or mystery. It was created by Hajo Banzhaf. He recently passed away and I have been revisiting his books. His “Keywords for the Crowley Tarot” shapes my study of the Liber T and the Thoth decks.

Position One: What we all know
Card One: The Hermit

The first position in the spread is a representation of what others know and what I know, the present common knowledge.
Everyone who knows me well understands that there are times when I must answer the personal call to withdraw and spend time in quiet isolation. However, in the last couple of weeks I have struggled with the urge more than normal. Part of this is the intense nature of my study with the Liber T Tarot and the amount of time I have been devoting to it. In addition, the months of Winter are normally rougher for me than other times of the year. I am solar-powered and the cloudy wintry weather takes its toll no my emotional strength.

Moving deeper into the card, I accept and embrace the common knowledge that I am a spiritual and introspective person. I have devoted much of my time to study those things that enhance me spiritually and connect me deeper with my life purpose. I have been building that connection and I allow myself the time. I must consider that Hermits are not isolated repositories of wisdom but are required to share their knowledge and spend time among the people. Isolation for the pursuit of truth is valuable but isolation as an absence of personal relationships is not healthy. I need to find that balance for my own well being.

Position Two: What others see but my blind spot
Card Two: The Hanged Man

Uh oh! I have been in a rut for a while in my job and my personal life. I have felt it but The Hanged Man seems to indicate that those close to me see it as a bigger issue. This raises the question, am I more stuck and stranded than I know? There are times when my family and friends see my life in terms of my limitations. There is a greater breath to my life than I believe they see but I must also accept that there may be a great inversion than I have confessed to before in my life.

The Hanged Man is a representation of the knowledge gained from sacrifice. It is a card of slow transition and powerlessness. What is the price I am paying for my insight and knowledge? Is the cost higher than I realize and my family and friends see me paying a high price? What perspective have I gained and what knowledge? Am I undergoing a change that they see and that I do not?

Position Three: What I know and others don't
Card Three: Prince of Cups (Air of Water)

How I see myself is that I relate to the world through the filter of my emotions and my thoughts. I see how this card draws out the man inside of me that looks to connect with the spiritual and intuitive. In the card, we see a person who is looking at peace and possibly mediating. I know that while others see me as The Hanged Man stuck and stranded, I see myself as seeking enlightenment and wholeness. My parents would wish me a career of stress and striving to reach the top of a profession for the material security that comes from such a pursuit. I do not want that for myself. I fully understand that there are things that I will miss in life for the choices that I have made. Am I being overly romantic in my picture of life? Maybe but the dream stirs and the rewards are real in a life pointed in the direction of spiritual devotion.

Position Four: The Big Unknown, What is unknown by all
Card Four: The Lovers

I had a reading done about the nature of love and the expression of love in my life. It was in celebration of Valentine’s Day but the power of the reading has lingering results. I am unsure how I am going to reconcile my Hermitage and my need for a relationship that is meaningful and unique. The Big Unknown is how or if I will every find love in my life. I know that sounds a bit melodramatic. I have lived a chaste life and found a measure of peace and satisfaction from it. I have been able to complete many of my life’s goals as a bachelor more easily. Love is messy and unpredictable. It is the surrender of the ego of self to the service and devotion of another.

I do not look back with regret, yet I am now staring into the unknown of the future and trying to comprehend how there may be more to my life. My life may be more complete with a soul mate to give my love and service. Being single into your late thirties many of us have developed a defensive posture to those in our lives that would see us married off at all costs. My defense is the assertion that my life is not of lesser value due to my singleness. I now question the possibility of the richness that intimacy and commitment bring to a person’s life. Am I finally reading to open my life up to the idea of joining my journey with another?

Update on my PDR progress: This spread was completed way back on March 19th, but finally getting around to posting it. It was a busy Spring Break. This week I hope to get the blog caught up with my study. I am excited about what I have been learning and I the connection that I am building with this deck.

Liber T Week 11: Light and Shadow Spread

2009-03-14T20:26:00.002-05:00

In looking for a new creative spreads, I found this spread used in an Oracle reading circle. This spread comes from the 2006 Tarot Lover’s Calendar and it is by Earth En Lady. It is an attempt to see how the Light and Shadow sides operate and are at odds. I am always constantly aware of how the good I want to do is not the thing I do but rather the evil that I don’t want to do. Searching for ways in which I can better understand the tension, it is my hope to find better ways of acting as well.

..5..
..4..1..2..
..3..

1. Significator
2. The Light (the light card will be placed to the left or the right, depending on which way the significator is facing)
3. How you sometimes move into the Shadow
4. The Shadow
5. How you can move further into the light.

Significator: Prince of Sphere – I do not normally use significator as positions in spreads because I want them to appear organically in the positions. I am aware of my traditional significator and my current year card as well. In personal readings, I am conscious when these cards appear and add that importance to the reading in general. But here picking a significator was both easy and a challenge. A couple of weeks ago I did a Secret, Lies, Promise spread, in that spread the Prince of Sphere came up in the promise position. I also did a work-related spread for an on-line class I am in and it came up in that spread for an almost exact same position. I chose to follow the trend and select the Prince of Spheres. In addition, I want to learn to embody some of the foundational earth energy into my practical everyday relationships and interactions.

The Light: Queen of Swords – This card appeared last week in my Spirit Guide thread in the position “Why are they with me.” In this spread it gives me more clues to why it was in my last spread. This is my light side. Are the Spirit Guides with me to help me see the light that I have? Are they helping show me how to embrace being a more positive and welcoming person? I know that some of you must be thinking. The Queen of Swords? Normally the first impression of the Queen of Swords is not a welcoming and positive person, but her positive attributes are that of a strong ally, quick witted, a good defense. I may need to help and defend others more than I do instead of using my sarcastic humor to cut people down.

How you sometimes move into the Shadow: 9 of Cups – Material happiness. This generally positive card is how I move into the Shadow? I think that there is a weakness for me in jovial moments when my mirth and laughter empower my biting sense of humor. When I am happy with myself then my normally self-deprecating humor turns outward and is just as sharp. Too much drink maybe? There is a sense as well that I become very content in my own private bubble and also withdraw from the healthy positive relationships in my life.

The Shadow: Death – The Death card has become a feature in my daily draws this year. I have pulled it more than any other card in the deck and I have only pulled it on Saturdays. It is the oddest thing and I wonder if there is a sense that when I have been getting it I have not spent the proper time to reflect on it and get a true sense of the meaning. Death respects no man and a dark force we all confront, help or oppose. In my life, I have helped Death far more than I should. Death is the power to kill what is alive. This is the taking away of life. In practice, when I speak harshly to the timid, when I voice doubts to the hopeful or when I treat the student as foolish I am acting as Death’s proxy. In this spread, I like how the Light stands on the side of the significator where they are facing and the Shadow is behind. I was struck by the idea that behind me I have left a wake of symbolic Death in those who I should have built up.

How you can move further into the Light: The Moon – This card was a bit of a shock when I first saw it and I was not sure what it meant. I rambled through a few of my keyword understandings of the card but never felt satisfied. It was late when I did the reading and so I wrote a little about the card but went to bed. I was still considering the Death card as my Shadow. Then I came to understand that the Moon is the Light in the Shadow. The Moon is the Light between the worlds of Light and Shadow. Anubis guards of the tombs of the dead watch over the night. The Scarab in the image is a representation of the Egyptian mythological embodiment of the dawn. It is symbol if Khephra the scarab that rolled the Sun in to the dawn. This card is all about the movement from the time of Shadow into the Light of Dawn. I will need to find my way through the darkness. Finding that secret that may take some time to learn.

eta: blog labels

Liber T Tarot: Spirit Guide Readings

2009-03-10T18:38:00.003-05:00

Spirit Guides Part One:

While reading the other blogs on the Spirit Guide spreads, I thought it might be interesting to perform one for myself. I have long heard other tarot users rave about the insightful information that they received from their guides. This is something completely outside my experience. My use of the tarot is on the synchronicity of life. We as reader find meaning in the Order that we draw from the chaos of the shuffled tarot deck. Is there an intelligence that can speak to use through the cards. They meaning being directed from another source? This is a curious idea that I am willing to try out. I have found this spread in the Aeclectic Tarot Forum. http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=23957

The Spirit Spread

--2-----3--

-----1----

---4-----5--

1. The Spirit: Prince of Cups – an airy water spirit that blends logic and emotions. He stands (okay, sits) at the middle of the reading as if ready to rule and dictate the message that will come.

2. Why they are with me right now: Queen of Swords – As the Prince of Cups is Air of Water, the Queen of Swords is Water of Air. An elemental combination here provides a double emphasis. The emphasis may be on how I blend my emotions and my intellect. Are they at odds or do they build on each other? Another thought I was having is could it be that I am currently being guided by two complementary spirits?

3. What They want you to know: The Magus – The manifestation of what I want and what I desire to become is within me. I already have the tools or they are within my grasp. It seems as if this is the sense of who I can become or what I am becoming. I have to see that I have valuable skills, understanding and abilities.

4. Actions to Take: 9 of Spheres – There is a sense of richness and gain in the card. There may be a sense of seeing the richness around me and grounding myself in a bit of reality while in the midst of the winds and the waves of the Queen and the Prince. I may need to understand what I have to gain by accepting the offering of wisdom that the Spirit Guides have for me.

5. Outcome: 3 of Cups – Abundance, in the final outcome there is growth that will take place. A unity and productive environment for my intuition and my emotional well being.

Summary: This was a good reading but it seemed introductory. The play of the Court Cards as defining who they are and what they are with me is interesting and how the Magus illustrates what I need to know seems to me to illustrate the vision of how they see me and my potential. The final two cards hold promise for what I have to do and what the outcome will be.

Spirit Guide Reading Part Two

As I completed the spread , I felt there was more to learn in the reading. I was connecting with something because this reading was different than the normal readings I get from this deck. The Liber T is insightful but not normally kind to me. I looked that the four-card reading that has been used for blogs recently and saw it would fit on top of the spread.

Looking at the original spread still laid out I placed the new spread on top of it. Here is how the second spread fit. The numbers fwere the positions in the original spread and the letters represent the four-card spread. There were some overlap in positional meanings but they would provide more clarification or deeper aspects to those ideas.

--2--A--3--

--D--1--B--

--4--C--5--

A. What should I remember that I am forgetting? – The High Priestess
This fits together with what I need to know from the first spread. The High Priestess sitting next to the Magus stands out as important. They are counterparts. She is the intuition, the inner mystery and he is the action the outer manifestation. They are a pair. I cannot forget that there must be the balance. This seems to mirror the Queen of Swords/Prince of Cups pairing.

B. What is my Spirit Guide trying to tell me? – The Lovers
I get the idea that these three cards (Magus, High Priestess, and the Lovers) is a unit. Are the guides trying to illustrate that through my balance of Air and Water energy that I may be able to marry my inner High Priestess and my out Magus?

C. What is the advice my Spirit Guide is giving me? – The Universe
This card completely relates to the advice card earlier the 9 of Spheres. These cards advise step into richness, completion, blessings and grounded earth energy. Greater than the idea of material gain this card suggests that I am to pursue the wealth of the Universe. This wealth is the full bounty of my life and spiritual journey. What will count when my life’s course is complete? I should pursue these things.

D. What would be the outcome if I decide to follow this path? – 10 of Cups
With the idea of the outcome being the 3 of Cups abundance, this stresses that the outcome of this path is abundant and full. If I act in accordance to this advice, temper both my mental energy and my emotional energy along with my inner intuition and my outer manifestation there will be a feeling of overflowing, almost embarrassingly, excess to my life in ways that accountants are not likely to measure.

Summary of the Whole:

This was far more insightful, challenging and reflective that I had anticipated. I have expected the spread to be a wash and not lead to any logical conclusions. I was wrong. I was glad that I did them both together and have a greater understanding of the spiritual challenges that lay before me.

While not ready to commit to any statement of belief this exercise was enlightening to see that there did seem to hint that there may be an intelligence driving the lay of the card and not just the normal order that I find when I read. It was genuinely a unique experience with the Liber T deck.

eta: Adding blog labels

Week 9: Secrets, Lies and Promises Spread

2009-03-01T10:57:00.009-06:00

Looking for a new spread to try for the week’s exercise I found this interesting one by Corrine Kenner that I believe appeared in the Llewellyn Tarot Reader 2007. It is a four-card spread and I thought I would let it play out as a general reading.

Position One: Your situation – What is important to you now
Card One: Prince of Swords

The Prince of Swords is elementally Air of Air. This card would most likely apply to my desire to work on my personal writing. The suit of Swords is a suit of words, intellectual pursuits and communication. As the Prince is in the rank of Air there seems to be a double Air energy reinforces this idea. Like nearly everyone on the planet, I have long harbored a desire to write a book. I have worked in media development and worked as a freelance writer but I encounter a block to getting any of the stories floating in my head down on paper. I want to be the Prince of Swords a brave courageous an almost arrogant force that does what he wants and when and for how long he wants.

Position Two: A Secret – Something you don’t know
Card Two: 2 of Scepters

This card is an interesting one because I have been focusing on it recently. Someone once told me that the 2 of Scepters (Wands) is a dynamic and powerful card and deserves more attention. It is the Lord of Dominion, Rule. What is the Secret? My first impression is that the secret is that I am unsure how I am supposed to take dominion over my path and my writing. I have desires and expectations but now strength or authority. Mars in Aries, the 2 of Scepters is a card that challenges me to action. To embrace the masculine energy of fire that blazes and takes no prisoners. I need to learn, discover, or will into the existence the path to my strength.

Position Three: A Lie – Something you believe that is not true
Card Three: Knight of Cups

What is the lie that I believe that is not true? I have a fantasy that the time will come and I will just arrive at begin an author and the books will just flow. Like a shiny Knight on a beautiful white horse, I will just arrive and be triumphant. There seems to be the blind dreamy idea that I will eventually get around to writing. When I do, it will be fantastic and riveting to every reader. The self-deluded idea of the some days will come and the process of typing out the word would be secondary to the brilliance of my ideas. The Knight of Cups is the lie that I have assumed was true. I was going to appear on the world literary stage a heralded genius.

Position Four: A Promise
Card Four: Prince of Spheres

The Boy Scout. Be prepared. This card for me is the embodiment of stubborn, laborious hard work. The blending of one part Aries Fire and two parts bullish fixed earth energy of Taurus is the perfect realistic promise. Once I find a way to step into my personal power, dispel the lie of the Knight in shiny armor, and get down to solid, practical work then I can find myself successful. The Prince of Sphere is not a card of momentous applause and world renown but there is a sense that I will be able to be who I am and I will be productive. Again, the Tarot doesn’t give me magical solution but practical advice and realistic consequences to the actions I take today.

While I may want to be the Prince of Swords or the Knight of Cups the reality is that to get anything accomplished I will have to embody the energy of the Prince of Spheres. Humm . . . I wonder what I want to work on first? (Shuffle, Shuffle, Shuffle)

eta: adding blog labels

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2009-02-19T09:07:00.003-06:00

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Ask anything and you will hear everything.

Predictions Galore!

For those of my readers who are part of the Aeclectic Tarot Forum you may have stumbled upon Madame Irma’s advertisement in a recent thread. (Here is the link to it: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=113163)

Madame Irma is the reading alias for a twelve-year-old boy who has recently took hold of a Universal Goddess Tarot and a Victorian Flower Oracle and has been practicing giving readings. Practice is over and Madame Irma is now going professional. Once the proud auntie posted the news of the posters put up Madame Irma has been getting nonstop request for readings. These readings are done while sitting in a tent hidden from view and with a Bulgarian accent.

The story was a bright light in what has turned out to be a somewhat dark week for me personally. Since coming across this story I have been captivated by it. I was at first enjoying the light hearted nature of youth that creates and encourages a sense of self that can promise “Ask anything and you will hear everything.” But as the minutes have turned into hours and a few of them sleepless I have become in a strange way jealous of Madame Irma and her Assistant.

Now as things happen in the universe this jealousy arises from a couple of things coming together at once. A wise author dared to ask his tarot reading students recently “Why to your read tarot for others?” and “Why do they come to us?” He continued on to describe in very eloquent terms the disconnection of the modern age we live in with the mystery and the invisible of our experience. In the end I could never have thought to sum up so accurately the reasons that people come to us as Madame Irma did in her poster. “Know everything about everything!”

They come to us because they need answers. They want answers to problems that they can’t solve. They want answers for loveless relationships, lost jobs, disobedient children, sudden medical news, unsure times and foggy futures. Fighting the urge to speak for everyone, I read tarot for others because I get a thrill every time I turn a card over that holds the promise of answers. I want to be a help to others and in some way give them insight that they needed to be empowered about their own lives. Madame Irma has already figured out what her clients want and with full confidence tells them what they come to hear. Everything about Everything!

I am jealous because I want to be able to boldly make these types of promises and deliever on them. The promise of Tarot has unspokenly held out is that if I spend enough time, read all the right books, get the right deck then the universe of mystery will open up to me. Either Tarot can do this or it can't. The doubts I have in myself only get in the way. My desire to play it safe may be prudent at times but it can also hold me back and limit me too. Madame Irma doesn't promise "100% Accurate Predictions" but "100% True Predictions." There is a refreshing idea, lay out the cards and say what you see.

Madame Irma and her Assistant have thrown down the challenge to the rest of us. I am done with doubting myself. I am through with playing it safe and holding back on what I want to say! From now on, when they come to me for a reading, I will work with Madame Irma’s promise in my ears, “Ask anything and you will hear everything!”

Liber T – The Ace of Scepters

2009-02-08T23:10:00.005-06:00

When it came down to it I found it would be easier simply to post each of the Aces on its own. My unvarnished brand of optimism allows me to think that once I move on from the Aces that I will be able to post about four cards in one post but I am not holding my breath. In my study of the Aces it has been enlightening. It turned out to be an exercise in learning more on each of the suits as well as the Aces individually. Therefore I will be looking at the Aces and their suits together.

The Ace of Scepter is the natural starting place Scepters is in many ways begins the Minors. The suit of Scepters is the suit of Fire in the Liber T tarot. This suit corresponds with Yod, the kabalistic world of Atziluth, the Chiah or life force part of our souls, and the realm of natural force. It is the highest sephiroth in the highest of kabalistic world. The Ace of Scepters is a card that is brilliantly red, orange and yellow. It is a fiery wand a blaze and on the handle is the Greek word AGAPH. The card shows ten sparks of flame in Yod-like shapes. The phallic card is the most monochromatic card in the deck and a clear representation of masculine energy in the tarot deck. The Ace of Scepter is the universal lingam.

The Ace of Scepters is the primal cause, the spiritual catalyst and represents the height of the world of emanation. There are the passions of principles but this now adds the concept of spiritual love to the equation. This is the heat of passion but greater than personal desire and sexuality but of the more divine and spiritual love. This expresses itself not in the lusts and desires of the flesh, the kindly affections of mutual respect and admiration but the immensely more profound unconditional selfless love for others.

This Ace of Scepters holds to the similarity of the Ace of Wands in the Crowley-Harris Thoth deck. The differences however are significant. Beyond the addition of the word agape, the most striking contrast is the organization of the Yods on the card. In the Crowley-Harris Thoth they depict the Tree of Life diagram. In this card, they are two lines of four with two in the middle. I currently do not see meaning in this pattern and I believe that the Tree of Life diagram does add to the card’s symbolism in a meaningful way.

The change of the name of the suit is also interesting. I am not convinced that it was a necessary change but I have committed to it. If the deck creator wants to change the name then as I study and learn this deck I am going to be consistent. I like Scepters because it is more regal in aspect and Wands has a more magical association. Scepters represent power in rulers and authorities while Wands suggest to me more influence and action. While the name Rods suggests the idea of club, a blunt weapon of the caveman, I find that both are preferable. In the end, I feel more comfortable with Scepters because it seems more in line with the idea of the world of Atziluth.

For a long time I have just been simplifying this card to mean strength of will, inspiration, or a good start to an endeavor. It some ways this card is far more important than that but can include those meanings. The power of selfless love that ignites and spreads has the potential to be revolutionary and healing. It is powerful but not selfish, strength without being brutish or bullying. This card can signal a sense of opportunity to appeal to the better parts of others and ourselves.

In reflection, I must consider what do I do to ignite the spark of the spiritual drive in others to be better, love better, act more compassionately and also boldly for others. How often do I feel the love for others that is beyond my desires, needs and cravings? This card represents a fire that I can stand to have more of in my life. The Ace of Scepters appeals to my higher self to encourage and pull my everyday self to higher heights and more noble aspirations.

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Liber T Week 6: The Aces

2009-02-07T11:50:00.002-06:00

As I begin this week’s blog, I wanted to start applying myself to the scholastic aspects of my year with the Liber T. While it may seem natural to begin a study of a Tarot Deck with the Major Trumps, I am going to first look at the Minors and initially examine the four Aces. It is my goal that in the weeks to come to examine all the numbered cards, then the Court Cards. I will look at them in sequence and across each of the suits at one time. Once I complete my study of the Minors then I will devote my study to the Major Trumps. My intent is not to turn this blog into an ad hoc study forum but to look at each card as a lesson or a step into personal fulfillment. It is my belief that the tarot highest promise is as a tool of exploration of the individual and the more that we use it to that aim the better and deeper our self-reflection will be.

In my personal study of the Aces this week I have found I take them for granted and treat them with less respect than they deserve. Considering the Liber T tarot there is always a fine balance of how much to consider this deck as an original, individual voice in the tarot community and then also how much it relies on the Thoth tarot as a source of inspiration. As the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and the myriad of clones that have reinterpreted its style that there seems to be almost a sense of commonness with these decks. This has inspired the whole “plug and play” idea that you can just convey one set of keywords and understanding to multiple decks. Though this is not a universal approach, I fight against this weakness or almost lazy attitude. Many of the cards of the Liber T deck are obviously similar to the Crowley Thoth Tarot. I have for the last year just assumed that it would be safe or consistent to just plug in any research or study of the Thoth tarot and then move on to my study. This I have found is not the case. While I have an honest sense that any study in the Thoth does help it is not the final say. Each of these Aces contains significant differences that need to be observed and studied in a way that teaches me how this deck is a different voice. This has taken my study to a completely new level and I am starting back at square one. Looking with new eyes at every card, I will become aware of the differences and the similarities and not assume any longer that they are just the same card. In the end I am sure that I will come to many of the same conclusions as the symbolism is so consistent but that is not something I should be taking for granted.

There are many different sets of correspondences to consider when looking at these cards. First thing to consider is the obvious elemental attributions that are listed in the border on each of the cards. In my posts previous posts I have included pictures that did not show the border in an attempt to focus on the images. I personally do not have a problem with cards that have borders because I think that they age better but with borders that contain more information than the name of the card in six languages this deck does give us a place to look for understanding each card. Also there is a strong sense of Kabbalah that one would expect in the deck. Each card show a Hebrew letter either as part of its imagery or more blatantly. The letters refer to the holies to names for God. In Hebrew, it is written (hwhy). Hebrew is read right to left, in English it is commonly referred to by the sequence of letter: Yod He Vau He. This name for God is considered so sacred to some Jews that they do not pronounce it and at time simply refer to is as “the name”. Each of these letters represents a separate realm of the soul and four levels of reality. In addition to one set of linguistic references, there are also Greek words on each of the cards. These Greek terms are clear reference to Crowley’s beliefs in Thelma and an expression of his worldview that has been include and expanded to the Ace of Scepters and the Ace of Cups.

The Tarot Aces are multifaceted cards in the deck. They are part of the Minor suits but they are also higher and over the suit. The Aces are in and of themselves a representation of the potential and the completion of the whole suit. Aces represent the element of spirit in their suit and the root, the potential for that suit. The Aces are the promise of the suit in its highest expression. As Scepters illustrate fire energy in many forms the Ace of Scepters is not Fire but more a representation of Fire’s power. The Aces are the bridge from the small cards to the Court Cards. Each of the Court Cards illustrates an elemental combination with in a suit. The Knights show the fiery aspect of an element, while Queens suggest the more watery expression of the element. Princes are the airy combination and the Princesses are the earthy manifestations. These are four different sides to the suits are subsets of the Aces. Just as the small cards are representation of the modality of the elemental energy expressed (Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable) these are part of the Ace’s greater meanings. Therefore as a representation of the elemental energy the Aces are a seed of what can be and also at times the each of the manifestations. Ace can be the seen as the idea of the energy but not necessarily the reality.

I plan to release the study on the Aces as two separate blogs. My first post will be concerning the Ace of Scepters and the Ace of Cups and then following that with the study of the Ace of Swords and the Ace of Spheres. It is my intention to study them both separately and in comparison. This is a pattern that I think I will follow but I hope to post on all four suit cards in one post but the Aces have been so productive in study and reflection that it felt better to put into to a couple of the posts.

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Week Five – A Look at Four I Like

2009-01-26T21:38:00.011-06:00

The world outside my window is covered with ice and cold winds. As my choices of activities for this evening are to stay trapped inside or to risk my life in my car on icy roads I have decided to go ahead and update the blog.

Last week I looked at four cards that I have issues with and I thought as a flipside I would look at four cards that I do like. To speak about the Liber T in terms of the cards I like there is no escaping how great the Major Trumps, the Courts and the Aces are in the deck. I love the way that the artist Andrea Serio has redrawn the artwork of Lady Frieda Harris, it is softer and I like the way that the colors work as well. I decided to look for four Minor pip cards that I liked to reach a sense of balance and equality. I choose one card from each of the four suits. Looking through the suits for cards I liked I had fun. I looked for cards that express ideas through images. Clear communication of ideas through images is the genius of the tarot. This communication is what I like about the Tarot. This activity gave me a chance to get excited about the deck.

The 10 of Scepters – The Lord of Oppression

This card is of a man in grey spiked armor with eight bars, which holds three smaller people back, trapped. In front there are two larger scepters, Dorjes that are seen in the 2 of Scepters. I look at the minor pips through the representations of the decan images. Each card meaning is symbolized by an image of a figure that represents the expression of that meaning. The there is a sense of inescapable power. The 10 of Scepters, this Lord of Oppression, is convincing. He is the one who holds people captive, the one who oppresses. He is the burdens, setbacks, and restrictions that we all face in life. This is not an Emperor, King or other representative of government and order. This is more earthy energy of fire more akin to the Devil that asserts control from an outside authority.

The 3 of Cups – The Lord of Abundance

In this card the Lord of Abundance is associated with Nekhbet the white vulture goddess of upper Egypt. She is the goddess of childbirth, the mother of mothers, from the beginning, the creatrix of the world. This is a great sense of growth, abundance and fertility. There is play and celebration with the couples under the image of Nekhbet. I like how that the Thoth image is included in the cards so that there is the set of symbolism that can still be studied.

The 6 of Swords – The Lord of Earned Success

I think that the Crowley title of Science is an apt way to understand this card. In all the imagery of math, science, the book of knowledge, the aged student, sphere of the cosmos I can get the scope of the shape and color of the world around us. The value of a mind put to a task is one of the greatest commodities in the world. The scholastic achievements are the results of hard work and success that is earned.

The 8 of Spheres –The Lord of Prudence

The card image takes a break from the Egyptian mythology and tells the story of Demeter, Persephone and Hades. Hades takes Demeter’s daughter Persephone to be his bride in the underworld. The time that Persephone must spend in the underworld Demeter sends barrenness and want to the earth. But while the time spent with her daughter the world is in bloom and growth of crops. This adult-only image shows how prudence works by allowing for the moment to exist and pass. Everything has its own season and timing. Balance of times of lack and abundance, growth and want are natural and the prudent accepts and works with those limitations.

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Week Four: Facing What I Don’t Like

2009-01-21T01:02:00.013-06:00

I have been decided this week to work with the Liber T Deck as both my primary reading deck and the object of my intense study. I decided to first confront the difficult cards. These are not the Devil, Death or the Tower. These cards are those I find violent, the overly sexual, offensive and the confusing. Looking and studying on the cards that have familiar and comfortable meanings helps but not as much as looking at the cards that turn me off. There are many great cards that communicate their meanings well. Those will come as the year with the deck continues but let’s take a look at the cards.

First up is the 6 of Spheres (Coins). The Lord of Material Success

The card shows the image of a circle of people in a magical act of some sort. There are six discs with planetary symbols on them and an inverted rosy cross in the middle of the circle. Above the group, larger than the others was a hermaphrodite holding a large key. There is a lot about this card that I simply don’t quite put together yet. I have looked at the unicursal hexagram and the hermaphrodite as symbols that illustrate the card’s meaning of reconciliation of opposites. This unification is not in tension with itself and shows a blending of influences into a complete whole. This card as loads and loads of hermetic symbolism that I will need to continue to work through this year.

The Lord of Pleasure, the 6 of Cups is a depiction of sexual fulfillment in three couplings. A male-male pairing, a female-male pairing and a female-female pairing. This is another example of how this is not your Grandmother’s tarot deck. I learned tarot with the meaning of memory, innocence and childlike approach to the world. This is not that type of card. As my numerology of the Six’s are and apex or a short-term victory this does fit the idea of the Little White Book’s title “Realized Pleasure.” My aversion to the card is simply the fact that the scene would make this deck an adults-only deck. I have a prudish streak and I am not likely to use this deck for live readings. I have used in e-mail readings though. However, it is as an illustration of short-term or euphoric pleasure very effective.

The Lord of Perfected Success or The Lord of Perverted Success?

The Ten of Cups in the Thoth tarot carries the title “Satiety” I see this card not as the sense of fullness and completion as I learned it to be but rather the frantic, manic chasing one more emotional high. Getting more when what you have isn’t enough. The addict who finds themselves looking for the harder drink, the stronger drug, the new high ‘cause what you have been doing, isn’t doing it for you anymore. This can be anything that eases the pain, satisfies a desire, or dulls the pain of life. As a side note, I also dislike this card as the cups in the bottom illustration are not in the pattern of the Tree of Life diagram.

And lastly for this entry is the 7 of Spheres. The Lord of Success Unfulfilled
As a bible-toting, church attending, tithe-giving Christian this card can be the biggest and most offensive symbolic hurdle to the deck. In my personal study of numbers and the minor pip cards I have associated the number seven with challenges and struggles we all face. I have associated the 7 of Pentacles as the challenge of patience and timing. This is based on my study of the Rider-Waite-Smith imagery. Here it is different. There is a red boar-headed god gloating over a buried and dead Jesus Christ figure. My use, study and ownership of this deck hinged last spring on how I understood this card. If I could not make peace with this image and not find it offensive then I would have cast it aside in my collection right next to the Tarot of Broken Windows that I never use either.

I worked with it and worked with it and then I had a breakthrough. This was essential into my ability to use the whole deck and not just this card. As I struggled to try and learn the names of the many incarnations of Set, Horus, and a dozen other members of the Egyptian Heliopolis that I began to reflect more on the esoteric titles. Who in this card is the Lord of Success Unfulfilled? We have two options. Is it the Boar-head god gloating over a dead Christ. I would say that a majority of those who see this card would say that could be a solid option. Many more would say that it reflects the failure and unfulfilled success of the Christianity. It is my expectation that for those who study the authorial intention of the card would find this to be there understanding and message. I have decided to choose a different interpretation. My faith is all about timing. There is the fulfillment that is to come but is not yet. I have faith it will come, I hope that it comes soon.

I see this card again in the sense of a challenge to patience. We are simple humans stuck in the forward direction of time. We can glimpse backward at the past as see its faint shadow. We can look at right now it the present and see a pale reflection of what is. It is the future, the time after the waiting in which all truth will be revealed. I find that any who gloat, roar, flaunt and force their faith, belief or practice on anyone is wrong. I admire anyone who feels so strongly that they are right and I will give them a chance to persuade me. I may be wrong, but I may be right too. I think I am right. I think that the card illustrates a Christ dead in the grave who has yet to be resurrected. Those who gloat too soon risk failure and humiliation. As my Grandma would say, “Time will tell.”

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PDR Week 3: How this is going to work

2009-01-13T01:33:00.003-06:00

Over the weekend, I became more excited and more structured about how my PDR is going to happen. I am excited about actually blogging on a regular basis. Choosing the deck was the easy part. Now i face the task to find an organized way to engage the deck. All of a sudden the idea of fifty more readings/postings became overwhelming. It led me to a very logical and interesting question.

How is this exercise going to work?

Card One: Princess of Swords – Earth of Air

Finding the practical in intellectual pursuits. I need to ground the reflections of myself in reality. Finding this to be a straightforward deck there is no room for an overly romantic view of myself. Be rational, logical and create concrete results from the insights and discoveries. I have to admit that I am often so delighted by ideas, thoughts and fantasies that I do not get them down on paper and in my journal only to be lost to the next stray thought that blows through my head.

Card Two: 10 of Cups – The Lord of Perfected Success
Clearly not the happily ever after card that is shown in the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot. On the horizon is a lizard man green in coloring except for his forked tongue, which is red. Two scenes of . . . . well let’s just say they are couplings of a graphic nature. It is clear that if I am ready and willing I will get a full sense of this deck. Nothing will be held back by the deck and I will get a sense of the fuller meanings and power of the decks images.

Card Three: 5 of Spheres – Lord of Material Trouble
This deck as a tool has never promised roses and sunshine. If you have seen the deck, you know that there are many, easy reasons to never look at it again. There is a sluggishness, a depravity of ease that comes with working through the deck as well. If I am afraid that I may lose something, or scared of what it may cost me to use this deck then maybe I should put it away. Am I willing to endure the struggle against the material over the spiritual? I would not put it past this deck to try and scare me off either.

For many of my younger co-workers today was the first day back to classes. I just imagine those first day of classes when the teachers were strict, firm and painted a grim picture of the work that was ahead of the students. I don’t put much store by the Little White Book with this deck but the title it gives the card is “Effort.” Well of all the things I know, if this is going to work it is going to take some stare down the darkness, don’t fear the work and worry effort.

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PDR Week 2 – Why I like the Liber T

2009-01-08T00:05:00.009-06:00

As I begin to move forward with the Liber T as my primary reading deck, I decided it was time revisit my notes from my study of the deck last spring. I remember the initial doubts I had with the deck, the trouble reading with it as my only deck, and how the philosophical background that this deck comes from is drastically different from my personal belief system. I discovered a post in an AT thread that was essentially which deck do you hate so much that if you were in hell this is the deck you would have to use. The Liber T made the list early and I can honestly identify with many of the posters reasons for not liking the deck. That got me to thinking about when did I start to like the deck.

Studying this deck, I was breaking out of my secluded Rider-Waite-Smith clone shell that I had been raised in and study for years. I wanted to be done with the deck and its imagery. I wanted nothing more than to move on to something more safe, sterile and sociable. I didn’t like its imagery with the violence, nudity and outright displays of near graphic sexual encounters. Okay sure they are my favorite clone images of the Thoth I have ever seen. Okay fine. . . . I will give you the Majors, Aces and Courts as a deck I could use. And fine I will say it. . . I like scenic pips cards, there happy but get a load of the 6 and 10 of Cups? Yet I remembered, looking through my notes how slowly I was making connections. I reviewed readings for others I had done and how they were good readings. I don’t get the deck in many ways, but I found that I could use this deck. I was able to work with it and allow it to be what it is. I didn’t need to force it to conform to the sanitized reality that I would like to enforce on it.

This PDR is really to answer one question. After six months of neglect, why after a moment of panic one night did I rush to cling to this deck? When I thought I might be losing touch with Tarot how did this deck first come to mind? This deck is in my soul now. All those threads and questions about “If you were trapped on an island, which deck would you want?” now seem clear. This is the deck for me. I know that this deck does not like to be scrutinized about itself. I decided to try a reading for this week. This reading is about me and the deck, but essentially about me and not the deck. I asked, “Why do I like this deck?” I shuffled the deck and laid out three cards.

Card One -- Prince of Spheres
I know that this is the deck's view of me. I am an Aries but I am a late Aries. My birthday is April 10th, but I feel a strange connection with the earth energy and many of the attributes of this card is what I aspire to embrace. This card verifies I see myself as this practical, down to earth, dig deep air of earth conflicting energy. I want to be prepared, ready, trustworthy and stable. I may not move quickly but I want to move honestly, practically and with resolve.

Card Two – The Tower
This deck has pulled the rug out from under my feet more than once. I will have a set of assumptions about Tarot and hold them to be Tarot gospel. Studying and using the Liber T and they will fall with a fiery crash. The Liber T respects no one and challenges everything. This card is Mars and it shows the dominating sense of institution crashing, rock bottom power that I love in this deck. If I was the publisher, I would change the back of the cards is a heartbeat. (Blue and White image of the Adjustment card looking up from me out of every reading!) But that is just it. I came to this deck in one rigid point of view and this deck calls me to change to find the adjustment to the imbalance of my approach. I don’t want every reading to be a Tower experience but I want it to matter and be meaningful. This is not a plaything, this is down to earth work and struggle.

Card Three – Emperor
Now this is a compatible card with the Tower. It is not all dome and gloom. The Emperor insures order and the deck has its foundation strong and sure. The Liber T is a deck that I will continue to discover and learn from for years to come. I can’t say that about many of the decks I use and certainly not about most of the decks I own. I will learn from the perspective and the structure that is foreign to me because it forces me to think differently. Not a lot in this world can help us to think differently and isn’t that part.

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PDR: Week One -- Liber T Tarot of the Stars Eternal

2009-01-02T09:46:00.002-06:00

A Primary Deck Reflection (PDR) is an exercise where as a tarot reader you have one primary deck that you use for readings and reflection. In this exercise, my goal is to connect deeper with tarot decks that I own and want to be using with more insight and greater understanding. While in the course of the year, I will study and use other decks but it will be with the understanding that this deck will be my primary deck.

I am excited about the idea of working with one deck every week for a whole year. Finding a rhythm with a deck and a connection with the artwork can only happen over time and with use. I am a person that is easily delighted by new decks, new ideas and techniques. I think that I can learn from just about anything, but it can leave me with knowledge but without wisdom.

My interest in the Liber T deck started about two years ago and I finally purchased a copy in the late summer of 2007. I looked at it and thought it was nice but then really packed it way for about 8 months before deciding last March to use it exclusively and studying it intensely. At the time I started the study my intention was to give the deck an honest shot and if after a couple of months it didn’t live up to the hype I was going to pack it away for good with a clean conscience.

I struggled at first because this deck never seems to read well for me personally and it gives nonsense when examined with “Get to know you Deck” spreads. Yet I take this out and read for others it is fantastic and the sitters have commented on it. Even if they find the scenes a bit graphic, the payoff is well worth the effort. Yet after the three months of daily examination, study, and readings, I was ready to move on to something a bit lighter. Happy with my time and the virtual rescue from a being abandoned the Liber T found a home in my collection.

Then another six months go by and it has been ignored for the new happy bunny deck and the dark book of magic tarot. A sleepless night and a moment of revelation have inspired me to examine this deck weekly for the year. I will not make any promises to what this PDR will look like but I will spend time with the deck. I will use it and reflect. It has rewarded me in the past and I am confident it will not let me down.

Introduction to the Minor Suits

2008-11-03T13:19:00.001-06:00

Working on the how to present the suits, I spent time with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and as I looked at the different cards I looked to see how the 2's were all the same and then what did the 3's have in common. In this exercise, I was able to determine a set of meanings for the numbers then see how the four different suits spoke to that idea. I will quickly then set out my thoughts on the number keywords first then you will be able to see how the card reflects that idea. I have to quote a source on this. I was influenced significantly by Mary Greer's book "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card." For the Court Cards, I will outline the different aspects of the card that I link to them as symbols. Also I will spend a bit of time looking at how I see them as ranks as well to that when I get to the cards in the Suits separately I will be able to save a little time.

My whole hope was that when I did this there would a set of my own meanings and understanding for each of the cards. That was the best aspect of this exercise. I was able to cast off the books and finally get to the heart of what I think the cards mean. I actually first did this exercise about a year and a half ago but have reworked it into a complete understanding of all 56 minor suit cards. It has been an invaluable exercise. I continue to refine and use to this exercise to create alternate card meanings. I also utilize this type of exercise whenever I get a new scenic pips deck.

Number Keywords – Steps on the Journey

Looking at each of the four suits side-by-side there is an opportunity to reduce the commonality of the images to a single keyword or phrase. Then looking at the suit card individually, you can find different understandings of the single concept. These then can be reduced to a keyword or phrase as well. It can often be listed on a chart or be the basis for individual card studies. Here are my initial keywords for the numbers derived from my study of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot.

Aces: Primal Energies – The Aces stand on their own for they are a grand idea of the suit and the embodying energy. The Aces are the energy at its core and in its most foundational and pure. It is a burst of the elemental energy. I see the Aces as representing the gifts of the suit, they are seeds to what the energy can grow into, and they are the catalyst to a journey in life. They are the spark of inspiration, the curiosity to discover, the pilgrim's unsettled spirit, the business man's good idea, the lover's intuition or the farmer's change of season.

Twos: Duality – The look of the Twos just shout the duality of the western mind. The modern western mind dictates that all of life must or can be placed in a category. It is always "this" or "that". Looking at the RWS deck we see that the Twos show us that lesson. How do we deal with opposing forces.

Threes: Adding – Three speak of addition and outcome. The adding to what already is and how that change affects the dynamic of what already is. The elemental property can give us insight to the realm in which we see that increase but I also see in the images how the addition looks.

Fours: Stopping – It was the fours that got me to consider this road of study. As I looked at them, The Emperor illustrated one aspect of Four while the Minor Fours another. The moment when we stop, pause or cease to move forward we must look at the force that is acting. Inertia dictates that an object in motion will stay in motion until acted on by another force. What is the energy acting in these cards that will stop a journey?

Fives: The Maze – In every journey there is a moment when we face setbacks, distractions, struggles or even just being lost and unaware of where we are heading. A labyrinth is often considered an essential element of a pilgrimage. Fives are about the crisis that we are facing, the fierce struggle to survive.

Sixes: Short Term Success or Apex – Sixes are the start of the slide to a complete cycle. Here is also the sense of a completed small victory. The plateau on the way to the top of the mountain, the break in the action to see how far you have come. This is the moment to apply the lessons learned or to receive the recognition that is deserved.

Sevens: Challenges – As we begin to ready ourselves for the success we which we fight, yearn for, wait for and imagine there are challenges that we face. Each of these challenges are on our own and we are all alone. How do we see ourselves through these challenges to our character? Will be fight and prove faithful or will all be lost in a moments of immaturity and weak moral character?

Eights: Reactions – Coming off the challenges of the Sevens, we arrive at the Eights, which reflect how we may need to respond to the struggle. Each of the elemental energy here shows a lot of influence to how we react to situations.

Nines: Solitary – It was a struggle to understand the Nines. The theme that I came to understand for them developed after a reflection on the Hermit and a representation of Nine. I saw how each of these cards show people, and people as they are as individuals. They are all on their own. I think this is an excellent cross section of how people are with the fruit of their labor or as they come to the end of their journey.

Tens: Completion – All things that have a beginning must have an end. It is part of the very nature of our existence. The Tens in my minor study truly grasp the finality and the outcome of a situation.

Court Cards – People of the Tarot

To attempt to understand court cards requires a sense of commitment and dedication as well as a keen eye for observation as you use the Tarot. I love the court cards for many reasons. They are unpredictable, flexible and useful. They can represent many different concepts people in the questioner's life. They can represent the mix of elemental energies, phases in a progression, and to way of acting. Ranks of the Court and the Suit that they are part of all work to show the system into which you can work the individual cards. These sixteen cards have a great opportunity to be used to give the reader and the questioner more of a clear reading.

Pages: They are elementally Earth, Astrologically a Season, they can represent younger people or women. They represent the developmental stage of learning and can be novices or students of all types. In relationship, they are people who the Questioner considers beneath them.

Knights: They are elementally Fire, Astrologically Mutable Signs, They are representation of journeys, those who are trained but untested and therefore are developmentally practicing and doing. They are Extremists or experimenting. Can often take things to their elemental end result with little thought to the outcome. These can be younger men, or relationally someone that the Questioner feels is on the same level with them.

Queens: They are elementally Water, Astrologically Cardinal Signs, they are mature women, and they are supportive and responsive. They represent those who encourage, teach and producing. They are the mothers, grandmothers, and a maternal influence in a situation. They are representations of the building energy of the suit. They are what may be assisting the energy to grow.

Kings: They are elementally Air, Astrologically Fixed Signs, they are mature men, they are leaders, authority figures, fathers, bosses, agents of social control like presidents, kings, police officers. They are the force of control and ruling. They are the mature aspect of the suit that is in full control of the elements power and have proven to be able to direct it to profitable ends.

Liber T Tarot of Stars Eternal Deck Review

2008-08-04T23:25:00.002-05:00

My first impression of the Liber T Tarot of Stars Eternal Deck was that it is both intriguing and intimidating. Unsure how to begin to understand the imagery and symbolism it sat quietly in my collection for nearly six months. It took the devoted on-line fans of the deck to convince me to spend the time it would take to get into the deck. I decided to dive in by using it exclusively for a couple of months. I was determined to find out if it could be a reading deck or simply another deck in my collection.

The deck creator, Roberto Negrini, is an Italian Crowley expert. The artist, Andrea Serio, is widely known for his work on the Dante Tarot. Published by Lo Scarabeo, the Liber T is the same excellent size and quality as the majority of their decks. The numbering and naming of the Major trumps follow the Crowley-Harris tradition. The organization of the deck suits are Scepter (Wands), Cups, Swords and Spheres (Coins or Pentacles). The Court Cards are Princess, Prince, Queen, and Knight.

I am immediately impressed with the subtle beauty of the deck. With a softer rendering the Harris paintings of the Trumps, this deck displays an impressive depiction of the archetypes. Seiro's images are clear and distinct but do not contain the emphasis on projective geometry that characterizes the Harris paintings. Likewise, the Aces and the Court Cards remain true to the Crowley Thoth Tarot symbolically. The student looking for an alternative deck for Thoth study may find this deck an approachable alternative.

The small cards carry the essential depictions of the pips from the Crowley-Harris deck but divert from the original by adding illustrated scenes to the cards. Negrini draws deeply on the Egyptian astrological Decans and mythology to create extremely vivid scenes. These scenes are frank depictions of violence, sexual activity of all flavors and esoteric symbolism and can elicit reactions ranging from shock and revulsion to wonder and confusion. Though it hampers some, the cards are a unique blended of the classic Thoth pips and stunning new symbolic scenes.

Challenges abound with this deck. The common disappointment with this deck is the desperate need for substantive companion literature. The effort that went into the deck's creation and structure is clear to anyone but some find this deck prohibitively confusing. There has been some impressive work done by a few fans in online forums to provide the novice with information but even that work is speculative and full of assumption and conjecture. In the end, the lack of support information has left this promising deck with low sales and on the verge of going out of print.

Each of the cards has a border that contains the title in six different languages but also contains the astrological association using the astrological glyphs. The original Crowley-Harris deck also contained the information in each painting often is unclear. Here it is clearly visible and accessible to the reader but this may have been at the cost of the card titles such as Love, Ruin, and Happiness that often appear on the cards as they do in the printings of the Crowley Thoth Tarot.

Aside from the beautiful reinvention of the Harris paintings, my recommendation of this deck is due to its potential for the intuitive use rooted in solid traditional meanings. Each card is so full of thought provoking images that the reader's intuition can literally feasts off the depth of the artistry. Mythological gods and goddesses, animals, beasts, icons and stories drip from the cards and repay the reader for the effort. Not for the faint of heart, this deck is an excellent deck to explore if even for a change of pace or a new challenge. Based on the substance of the Thoth system and crafted with the gateway of illustrated pips the Liber T may open new doors of discovery.

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Deviant Moon Tarot Review

2008-08-04T23:17:00.002-05:00

The Deviant Moon Tarot is an exciting new summer release from US Games Inc. by Patrick Valenza. The deck has a surrealistic theme that explores the nature of the subconscious. The deck is a fascinating blend of line drawings and the computer manipulation of photographed textures. Patrick has taken what he has drawn and then wrapped the textures photographed from gravestones, old buildings such as abandoned asylums onto his original drawings. These different artistic elements combine to create a unique look and engaging images that are both fantastical and authentic.

The structure of the deck is a classic Justice as the eighth trump while Strength is the eleventh. There is a Page, Knight, Queen, and King Court ranking. One of the many personalized touches that the deck creator has made to make this amazing deck is that the thirteenth trump is unnamed but to all who see the card understand the idea clearly. The card size may be an issue for some with small hands because the cards are longer but slimmer than traditional decks. The cards measures 2.75 x 5.13 inches or 6.99cm x 13.02cm. The lamination of this deck can give it a bit of a plastic feel but the size of the cards does allow the deck to be shuffled, but for smaller hands will find the length a drawback. A highlight of the deck is the quality in the printing. The images are vibrant in color and clarity.

The Deviant Moon Tarot is a great deck because it illustrates a great balancing act. It speaks of both tradition and innovation. The cards hold many of the traditional symbols that are associated with the Tarot. There are many reinventions in the card scenes providing new insights and a well thought out structure. The creator has taken both his ingenuity as an artist, combined it with the study of the tarot, and has created a deck that engages both the mind and the imagination. Though the deck has some similarity with the Rider-Waite-Smith iconography, this deck has its own voice. The deck colour associations for the minor suits are Wands are associated with the color green, Cups with blue, Swords with red and Pentacles are the color black. A downside would be some might find that this deck is a bit too different and overwhelming. This deck will initially work with memorized meanings and keywords but will take a little time, willpower and study become acquainted with the subtlety and finally to master.

This is dark deck in theme rather than palette because of the blending of the gothic images and the surrealistic style of art. The Deviant Moon Tarot blends the two exceptionally well. This deck provides a step into the intuition and allows it to come alive and speak. The deck has the stated purpose to examine the dark side of the psyche and to plumb the depths of the human consciousness. The Deviant Moon is just such a tool that will allow the introspection and personal growth in these areas. If you are open to blending your own emotional journey into your study of tarot and are not afraid to look into your personal darkness then this may be the deck for you.

In the end, the deck is one of strength and possibilities. The deck reads well and some readers report that it is pointed and quick with answers getting to the heart of a matter. Time will tell if this deck last, but there is a captivating experience in examining the cards for both their detail, beauty and the intensity of symbolism. For those avid readers looking for a new voice or those who collect decks for their artistic merit this deck has something to consider and well worth the time to examine for yourself.

For more information and other goodies check out the website: http://www.deviantmoon.com/wordpress/index.php

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