Tarot doodles

Do you doodle? I do doodle (another "Buffy" reference here ;)). Sometimes I like to add some doodles to my reading records. It's fun. Do you recognize these cards? :)

They are capybaras...

Queens from Jaśniak Tarot.

From Crystal Tarot.

Magical Forest Tarot.

TdM and Magical Forest.

TdM.

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.

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?

My heritage

I made up a spread about "heritage", the way my character was shaped. I used only Majors. The reversed cards here I see as weaker, not in full strength.

1. Inherited from my mother. IV The Emperor

2. Learned from my mother. V The Hierophant

3. Inherited from my father. XIII Death

4. Learned from my father. VI Lovers

5. Something I have in me naturally. XIX The Sun (Rx)

6. Something I learned in my life. X The Wheel of Fortune (Rx)

I was surprised how well it showed my situation! From my mother I got rational mind and willpower (IV). I learned from her to obey the rules (V). My father gave me a bit melancholic nature after him, I'm also very cautious (XIII The Death has her finger pointing up, like she's saying: "watch out!"). I learned from my father loads of empathy and how to respect other people (VI).

In spite of that melancholy in me, I never totally give up, there's always that feeling in me, that everything is going to be all right (XIX The Sun Rx, weaker). Like my mother, I like to plan things, but only to some level. After that level I prefer to wait and see what comes (X The Wheel Rx). I also dislike controlling other people.

Nobody's perfect, but I believe I received wonderful gifts from my parents. And that I am also a one of a kind human being, that has its own worth! :)

What should I do to feel comfortable?

Because of the previous reading I asked the cards, what I should do to feel comfortable around my husband's family when I'm staying at their place. There is a language barrier.
1. What should I do? Page of Pentacles

2. What should I avoid? II The High Priestess

I should try to accept everything with openness and humour. I should avoid trying to be an ideal of wisdom, I should accept my being not able to communicate perfectly.

Going abroad

We're going for a week to my husband's family, to attend his cousin's wedding. I pulled the cards to ask how our trip will go.
1. Travel there. IX The Hermit

2. First place where we stay (family on his father's side). Page of Swords

3. The wedding. 8 of Pentacles (Rx)

4. The second place we stay (family on his mother's side). Page of Wands

5. Travel back. 5 of Cups

It's possible that there will be a delay on our travel there. At the first place I won't be very relaxed, because I don't speak their language, I will feel a bit off. The wedding will be a party of plenty, although probably wearisome to the body (I expect it to last the whole night till morning). At the second place I won't be allowed to do anything myself, because I'm a guest. Maybe the page also means my husband's uncle's blond children. On our way back we might feel new emotions, maybe discover something?

What happened?

Recently I was wondering, what happened to one of my favourite writers from teenage times. She used to write funny and warm books, now she turned into a preaching author and turned her characters into a parody of their old selves. Also, her texts that used to be smooth and easy to read, now are simply boring and irritating.

1. What's in her head. 3 of Swords (Rx).

2. What's in her heart. IV Emperor.

3. The reason for the change. V The Hierophant.

3 of Swords stands for sharpness of mind, smartness. As it is reversed, I see it as her mind loosing it's sharpness with age (although she's not THAT old!). In her heart she wants everything to be in order and to be the master of the situation. The reason for it all... the need to proove her own truths, to be a teacher of the youth. And maybe too strong a turn into religious zeal?

On my way to publish

I'm still trying to publish my novel as an e-book on one Polish platform, but it turned out there are obstacles, such as having to acquire an ISBN number and some difficulties before uploading the EPUB version.

How will the ISBN thing go? IX The Hermit

Advice for ISBN process. Queen of Swords

How will the platform thing go? 10 of Wands

Advice for the platform process. Ace of Swords.

The ISBN process will require a looot of patience... But I shouldn't give up, maybe also take some advice from a female writer I know. The uploading process will be a pain in the ass... A lot of work, I mean ;) But if I don't give up, I should be successful.

Oh, I just got the answer from the ISBN fellows - they require that I send them a paper version of application form, because the one I filled in and scanned is not enough for them, obviously. They can send you the numbers by e-mail, but the form must be on paper... A perfect Hermit with a white beard!

German classes

We're starting German course on Tuesday. I thought it's a good excuse to pull out my old Jaśniak Tarot and see how the first lesson will go.

I asked about the teacher, the other students and the ovarall aura of the class.

I pulled Knight of Pentacles, 9 of Wands and Queen of Cups.

It seems the teacher will be a serious, methodical person. "Look at the blackboard!" - he seems to be saying, pointing on it (his Coin/shield). Maybe also not showing emotions - the Knight's face is covered by his helmet. The students will be energetic and talkative, maybe even loud? The atmosphere seems feminine - maybe there will be more women than men?

After the class I can tell how my reading worked. The students looked more like they're concentrating hard on what's going on, because the pace was fairly fast, than being loud. There were actually more men than women. The atmosphere was serious and one of the women had the hardest time of us all. So it seems that my interpretation of these two cards (9/Wands, Queen/Cups) was not so accurate, but man, the teacher! He was exactly like the guy on the card! He had broad shoulders, serious face and even a blue T-shirt!

Review: Jaśniak Tarot

I like reading deck reviews, they are very helpful when I'm thinking of buying new cards, so I decided to make reviews of the decks I own. Maybe someone will find them useful.

First allow me to introduce my very first tarot deck, the one I'm most sentimental of. It's the Jaśniak Tarot, titled after creator's name, Aleksandra Jaśniak. It is known also as "Tarot Polski" ("Polish Tarot"), colour version. Aleksandra Jaśniak made also a completely different deck known under the same name, but black and white version.

I bought this deck in the middle of nineties, being a teenager back then. I remember the excitement and the seriousness I treated my deck with. I bought it together with a companion book, but it was not enough for me to be able to read fluently. Also because of the Catholic Church's contempt for tarot I gave up on cards for many years (yes, believe me, the priests hate tarot). Only last year I came back to tarot and pulled the deck with equal excitement.

The cards have gold borders and titles in English and Polish. Strength is VIII and Justice XI (or in my deck was, until I "corrected" it with a marker... xD) and suits are: Wands, Cups, Swords and courts: Pentacles, with King, Queen, Knight and Page as ranks. Pips are non-scenic type. The backs are black, with author's initials AJ, fully reversible. It also has two blank cards.

The artwork by Anna Gałuszka is simply amazing for me. The colours are brilliant and the style daring. I just adore the court cards, their faces, clothing and hairstyles! I have so many favourite cards in this deck that it was difficult to choose for this review. The Devil with his tail in his hand, holding it like a microphone, his tongue stuck out, is just perfect! :D As the author writes, "he is to warn us about mischief we may encounter". You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The ones I have were printed in the nineties, but some two years ago there was a reprint, so maybe the new ones have a better card stock  Mine are matte in feel and the borders are getting a bit worn out. Also they smell strongly of printing paint, but for me it's just "a smell of tarot" I remember from my teen times :D Anyway, hopefully the new print doesn't smell, since it's not nineties in Poland anymore ;) I've seen that in America they cost 25$. You can buy them on Amazon or directly from the author herself (she lives in USA).

I like reading with these cards, although for example characters of the court cards seem to differ from classical ones. But that just adds some different angle to the reading. I recommend this deck to anyone who can read non-scenic pips.