Happy Winter Solstice 2016!

I'm packing today, because we're leaving tomorrow for two and a half weeks - we're visiting our families for Christmas and New Year. This of course means I have to decide what cards to take with me. I decided on this:

Crystal Tarot and Jodorowsky-Camoin Tarot de Marseille

Jodo-Camoin is my all purpose deck I couldn't part with and from Crystal (that I also love a lot) I'm pulling cards for Sacred Days Of Yule Spread by June Kaminski. I started yesterday and plan on continuing till December 31st, so I need the deck with me. I might also do some New Year spreads with it, we'll see!

1. Mother Night of Dreams: - Dec 20th This card reminds us to look for a particular message in our dreams tonight. The ancients believed that our dreams on this night foretold some of the important events in the coming year.

I pulled out 4 of Cups.

To be honest, I didn't feel like my dreams were very profound. I did see my grandfather in the dream and he was telling me that all the signs show that the winter will be very cold. We'll see about that!

2. Yule - Winter Solstice: - Dec 21st This card shows us how best to connect to the Light within and without - it symbolizes the Birth of the Sun.

Today I got 9 of Wands.

I probably should focus on looking for new paths and new ways. I think it's a good message for the new year, especially because that's exactly what I intend on doing. Five of the Wands form a pentagram - it can be a suggestion that I will be under protection and guidance in my search, so I can proceed without worries.

Reading outside in December - tips

My first tip about reading outside is: if you only can, do it! It's a great experience and the message sounds clearer, when you're surrounded by nature. At least that's how it is for me.

Last weekend I went to read outside twice. It's December already, so I got quite cold after a while, but it was totally worth it.

If it's cold outside, I recommend taking something you can sit on (in my case it was a thick, reusable grocery bag :)) and a piece of cloth to spread your cards on (that's no matter what season you have, you always want to protect your cards). Fingerless mittens are a good solution for shuffling cards in the cold - paper gets surprisingly cold! Depending on how long you're planning to be out, you might take a thermos with hot tea or coffee inside. Plus a pen and a journal to write down your readings!

My first oracle deck is here!

Sooo, my very fist oracle deck has arrived! I'm so excited to work with it. I'm not planning to use it for divination purposes, I just want to pull one card every day (if possible) and reflect upon it. The deck is "Soulful Woman" by Shushann Movsessian and Gemma Summers (she has the last name like Buffy from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"! How awesome is that). My purpose with these cards is to work on my self-esteem and self-love, because I'm lacking these quite a bit. This deck is a bit too "we're a part of the great universe" for me (meaning the affirmations sound too vague and I never know what to make out of such messages), but I'm planning on turning these very vague sentences into something personal and useful to me.

A card I randomly pulled to work first with was number 9 (a-hah! And I wrote about The Hermit today!). I've already started working on it, using colorful pens and pencils and all. To be honest, at some point I got quite moved in the place where I went with my musings. So I'm very hopeful for the future!

I didn't start with the card number 1, because I prefered to work on them in the order I randomly pick. It's more exciting this way. You know how it is with working on Major Arcana, always starting from The Fool and you're fed up with The Fool soon enough? Exactly.

Card Number IX - The Hermit

I did some musings about this card before, but did not post them here. Recently I get The Hermit quite often, so I thought I would write a post about him. Also (and that is the main reason, hehe) I found that a Japanese picture I kept on my refrigerator for quite a while resembles the card and I'm very inspired by Enrique Enriquez idea of seeing tarot in the world around us.

VIIII L'Hermite from Tarot de Marseille, ukiyo-e lady with a lantern, IX The Hermit from Crystal Tarot.

What I struggled with was that 9 is a number I associate with birth - it's the number of months of human pregnancy. Instead of a newborn baby, however, we get a grandpa dressed in a habit. He has a lantern: maybe he's awaking to a new life? Birth is also a shock and a kind of trauma to the baby that was in the darkness and comfy for whole their life. The Hermit is withdrawn and he's looking at the life he left in the past. He has a walking stick - he'll soon walk on, but he still wants a glance at his old shell he's leaving behind.

In the card we can see an old man, round-shouldered with age. Where is he going to in the winter of his life? Maybe he wants to show to other people what he's discovered? His hood is off his head - he's ready for new ideas.

The Hermit is an ascetic, he practices in solitude. He's not afraid to meet his inner self. Isolating himself is to help him find God and himself too.

The counterpart of IX The Hermit is XIX The Sun. The small lantern he's holding will turn into huge celestial body. In The Hermit you're learning alone, in solitude. In The Sun you've got company, you're learning from others. You can see God in another human being and you're much closer to the end of your journey than you were in The Hermit.

In the spreads the card can mean wisdom, experience, solitude, old age, being isolated.

Positive sides: wisdom, experience, self-determination.

Negative sides: loneliness, lack of understanding from others, tiredness.