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.

Card number XV - The Devil

I've written a post where I put some of my thoughts on this cards before, you can find it here.

Today I pulled a card for meditation and it was XV The Devil. And I had some new thoughts.

There's that song by Elvis Presley that I like a lot, "Devil In Disguise" and I did listen to it while writing this post. Devil - the Prince Of Lies, master of deceit... Yeah, I actually think that the Devil is one of the most truthful cards in the deck.

Why is that?

First of all, the tarot Devil rubs our faces in the truths we would prefer to not know about ourselves. He says: "look, look at all this ugliness and awkwardness! Look how false you are". His role is also to unmask false people around us. He points to them, warning us against them. That's because he knows all about baaad things. Look at these three cards: intererstingly the Devil figure has wings on each of them. He is the fallen angel - he has experienced both heaven and hell. He knows it all.

XV The Devil from Crystal Tarot, Jodorowsky-Camoin TdM, Jaśniak Tarot.

What I like about The Devil too, is that sometimes you can interpret him as a card telling you to laugh people in the faces, show them your tongue. Don't care for appearances. Let them be shocked and don't let them chain you up. Also, very important: don't be so serious about yourself all the time! Have a good laugh sometimes :D

And listen to Elvis.

Expressiveness of TdM

Before Tarot de Marseille started talking to me, I wouldn't have thought how talkative it can be! After all, there are no people on number cards. But let me just share an example of a reading I have just recently experienced.

The question was why a certain person acts in a certain way towards the querent. I got three pip cards (oh noes!) and the message was in fact very clear.

I got 4/Swords, 8/Swords, 9/Coins. Each and every card has something trapped inside! A flower, a precious coin... imprisoned. The person is feeling hurt, vulnerable, not ready to take part in wordly things. After the reading I got a confirmation that it is actually true. Those chatty pips!

St. Catherine's Eve

It's St. Catherine's Eve today! In the old Polish tradition, it's the time for fortune telling - particularly for unmarried men, about their future wives. Since I'm neither a man nor unmarried, I decided it's just a good time for fortune telling. And my tarot agrees with me!

I did a daily draw today and here's what I got: 7/Coins, XVIII The Moon, III The Empress + Queen/Swords.

I think it's about leaving the mundane for a bit (7/Coins) to go deeper into the intuitive world (XVIII). Perfect time for divination! The two women of the last two cards correspond with two dogs/wolves from The Moon. The floral motif from 7/Coins lookes like the crayfish. Everythig is pointing to the XVIII card.

Also the Empress struck me as very resembling of St. Catherine that I saw on a painting. The crucifix/scepter with a cross, the crown, holding a wheel/shield, being royal... She lacks the sword, but look, the helpful Queen is handing it to her!

M&L?

With my tarot passion rekindled, my hunger for new decks has also awoken. To to be expected.

I managed, however, to stop myself from buying new tarot decks - I've ordered two oracle decks instead! Can't wait to receive them. They will be my first ever oracle deck experience.

The dangerous thing is, my old unconsummated love for a tarot deck is alive again. I have a weak spot for decks that are pieces of art and this one is just... I can't put it into words. I mean the "Mary-El Tarot". I looked at it on the Internet many times loving it, but I never bought it because I had the feeling it won't work for me as a regular reading deck. Like I ask a question and get all those seraphim, firey lions and I totally don't get the message. However, now I've started to think I could do some meditations with it, using also the companion book it comes together with. I could expose myself to this stunning imagery putting a card on the desk and so on.

Then I asked my Tarot de Marseille about the matter. The question for the upper row was "how would my meditations with 'Mary-El Tarot' go?". I got 3/Coins, Le Mat, 7/Coins. For the lower row: "what would the effect be?". I got 2/Wands, Ace/Wands, King/Cups and additional card to see what he's looking at: 9/Swords.

It looks surprisingly promissing! Like I will start a whole new thing and I will feel uncertain and unsure, but also excited and will have the feeling I'm gaining something.
It would help me overcome some blockades (2/Wands being crashed by the huge branch of the Ace) and allow me to analyze my emotions (King/Cup looking at 9/Swords).
Oh, man... Now I have to get it, don't I?

Different faces of the Star

Hello everyone!

Somewhere deep inside I knew I would come back. It's been over a year since my last post. There were various things going on in my life and tarot was not so present during that time. But now I feel that it's time to come back to tarot world.

I have calculated my year card for 2016 (by adding the day and moth of my birthday to the numerals of 2016) and it seems it's XVII The Star. It honestly seems right, because then 2015 was XVI The Tower and 2014 XV The Devil. These were very difficult years for me, and full of radical changes. I'm still recovering. And when I looked at The Star from my favorite Tarot de Marseille deck, it looked to me like she's pouring a lot of dirty water to the sewer. I know it's against the traditional view of crystal clear water... But that's how it looked to me at the time. She's cleansing her life. I need to get rid of many painful things and take the next step.

I took the Star cards from most of my decks and spread them on the table. They all seem to be saying the same thing (except for the "1001 Nights Tarot", but this deck doesn't talk to me anyway).

2017 should be XVIII The Moon... Shoud I worry?