Carnival of the Tarot – Eighth Edition
Welcome to the Eighth Edition of the Carnival of the Tarot. Fall is settling in around here, and we’re enjoying cooler breezes. The trees are just beginning to change into their brilliantly colored costumes.
We have some insightful, educational, and fun posts for you this week. So let’s begin.
Arcana XV presents Tarot and the Atheist posted at Arcana XV.
At the Art of Cartomancy, Kapherus has written a very interesting article about the origins and use of the Joker in Cartomancy.
Using the Osho Zen deck, Fugdale’s Funhouse is offering Quick and Easy Tarot Card Readings using a Flash application of his own design.
Archertarot’s Weblog makes a powerful observation about the Death card in Fin.
Rainring Blog concludes with Part III of the series, Tarot, I Ching and Rainring – Views of Psyche and the Cosmos.
From Willow Tree, we are sharing some thoughts on setting a nice Ambiance for when you read the cards.
Thanks to all who participated in this week’s Carnival.
I am very please to announce that the Carnival of the Tarot is going on the road! The ninth edition will be hosted next week at Archertarot’s Weblog. As always, if you are interested in participating, please send your entry – the permanent link to your chosen post.
The Phantomwise Tarot
Here is a new deck for my wishlist. Take a look at The Phantomwise Tarot. It is beautiful and dark. The artist, Erin J. McCauley used a palette of blacks and warm grays to create the artwork for her deck.
One of my ‘fantasy decks’ has always been an Edward Gorey Tarot. This one puts me in mind of Gorey’s style, but I find the figures and faces on Phantomwise are less severe and more lifelike. The suggestion of sepia in the coloring, and the facial expressions give this deck life and character that would be missing in a deck made of Gorey artwork.
Ms. McCauley says her deck was influenced by, “…myth, fable, fairy tales, the works of Lewis Carroll in particular and the phantasmagorical in general.” In fact, Alice from Lewis Carroll’s stories opens and closes the deck as the Fool at one end and The World at the other.
The deck consists of the 22 Major Arcana only. It is available from the Art Tarot Website. But at the listed price of $99, it will be some time before I can add this one to my collection.
The Seventh Carnival of the Tarot – Autumnal Equinox Edition
Welcome to the Seventh Edition of the Carnival of the Tarot. Everyone must have been quite busy this week, as we only received two entries. Perhaps everyone is busy decorating their homes for the fall season, and preparing to observe Mabon. This is the time of year that folks get very distracted. I know that is the way it is around my house. So it is no surprise that this carnival is a small one.
94 Stranger from Rainring Blog continues the entry from last week with, Part II of Tarot, I Ching, Rainring: the verdict of the Unconscious.
From The Art of Cartomancy, Kapherus shares some interesting insights resulting from a question from his comment section in The Court Cards.
Here on a Fool for Tarot, we are sharing our personal experience with Cleansing Negative Energy From Your Deck.
We would like to wish everyone a beautiful and pleasant evening on this Autumnal Equinox. This is our favorite time of year, as the days grow shorter, the breezes cooler, the sunsets soft and warm, and the leaves on the trees began their astonishing show of colors.
Thank you for visiting. See you next week!
Halloween Tarot
I know it’s still officially Summer, but I can feel Autumn is very close. In fact, the Autumnal Equinox is Sunday. This is the time of year that I always use my Halloween Tarot Deck.
Even before I get out my fall decorations, I begin using the Halloween Tarot for my daily readings. I know there are some readers who use this deck year-round. It is certainly a fine deck any time. It’s cute, yet under the cuteness it is a very practical, honest deck. It has fun with the symbolism, but not to the detriment of the interpretation. It’s like receiving serious council from someone with a wry sense of humor.
There is a little black cat on every card. You feel as though he’s your constant companion as you journey through the deck, often commenting on the card in his expressions or posture. I also like the use of the moon’s face in many of the cards, also reacting to the events in the image. It gives the deck a friendly, conversational feel.
So as the days get shorter, and the air grows cooler, I’ll be making a cup of tea and spending some time with my Autumn friend, The Halloween Tarot.
Carnival of the Tarot – Sixth Edition
Welcome to the Sixth Edition of the Carnival of the Tarot. This week we have an expanded version of a familiar spread that offers deeper levels of meaning in interpretation, and a comparison of three divination methods. We also have, not one but two, reviews of a very colorful and smart deck that is gaining in popularity among Tarot readers lately.
So, let’s get started.
Kapherus, from the Art of Cartomancy brings us an expanded version of the three-card spread called the Answer Spread.
From Archertarot’s Weblog, Lynda share a review of the Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot.
This deck is apparently on many people’s minds lately. Fugdale’s Funhouse also has a review of the Phantasmagorical Theater Tarot.
94Stranger is sharing Tarot, I Ching, Rainring: the verdict from Rainring Blog.
At A Fool for Tarot, we take a look at the idea of Darkness and the Devil.
Thank you for joining us this week.
Help take the Carnival of the Tarot ‘on the road’. If you are interested in hosting a future Carnival on your own blog, let me know what Sunday you would like to do so. If you have any questions about hosting the Carnival yourself, please ask. It is a good way to drive traffic to your site, and to share your work with other people.
Cleansing Negative Energy From Your Deck
If you read the Tarot for others, do you let the querent handle your deck? Many readers like to let the querent shuffle, cut or even draw the cards themselves. I know of one reader who hands the cards to the querent and does not touch them at all himself throughout the entire reading. He lets the client handle and draw the cards, which the reader and querent then interpret together.
I don’t usually have a problem letting others handle my decks. I often like to involve them in the shuffling process, usually by having them cut the cards any way they like, and then re-stacking them in a pile from which I draw the cards for the spread. One woman that I read for a few years ago, liked to hold the deck in her hands and slowly mix the cards using an overhand shuffle, while sitting quietly with her eyes closed. I always enjoyed reading for her, because the cards seemed especially responsive after that.
This was never a problem for me, until one particular afternoon in the New Age bookshop where I used to do readings. A new client had arrived and as I took him to the reading room I could sense his frustration. It ended up being the most difficult reading I’ve ever done for anyone, I felt as if I was struggling with the cards and him at every turn. He remained surly, refused to give me any feedback of any kind. I finally gave up in frustration, and did not charge him for the reading.
I felt so drained, both emotionally and mentally afterward, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. After I saw him to the door, I went back to pack up my things and leave. As I gathered my cards from the table, they felt very heavy and very dark to me. Almost as if they didn’t want me to handle them.
Now I know some people feel this is nonsense, that they are only bits of cardboard and ink, and there isn’t any way they could ‘feel’ dark and uncooperative. However, this was a very real feeling for me. I sensed that the cards had picked up his negativity.
Never having to deal with this before, I went online to see what others had done about this situation. I found various techniques for cleaning decks. Smudging was a favorite, as well as leaving them out in the light of the full moon, or in full sunlight for a day. Shuffling and re-ordering the deck was another suggestion. One person advised burying them in the ground for several days. I ended up setting them on the windowsill in the sunlight with a quartz crystal on top. Afterward, I placed a small piece of lapis in the bag and put them away for awhile. They were fine after that.
Since then I’ve heard one experienced reader suggest to simply hold them in your hand and say ‘this deck is cleansed’. I think that one is my favorite.
He also gave some advice about handling difficult querents. He said there is absolutely no reason one should ever feel obligated to continue in such a situation. He told me a story about a lady he knew who read tea leaves. One session a client was being particularly demanding and difficult and the reader simply slammed the cup down on the table and said “This reading is over!”.
Nowadays, if I get particularly strong negative vibes from someone, I won’t let them handle the deck at all. If they do happen to touch the cards, I will simply re-order the deck afterward just so that it feels ‘reset’ to me, hold it in my hand and declare it cleansed.
Darkness and the Devil
I love this card. It’s from the The Halloween Tarot, and it’s probably the only Devil card I have ever seen that I would describe as cute. But in reality, there is nothing really cute about the Devil.
There has been an interesting discussion going on in one of the Tarot forums I use. Someone started a thread concerning the Devil, and the ensuing discussion got me thinking about it. This card has rarely come up in any reading I’ve done so far, and when it has it’s been pretty straightforward in meaning. But I think it goes a lot deeper than issues of personal bondage or enslavement to material things.
In this forum discussion, questions were raised as to the nature of the Devil and whether he is ‘within’ or ‘without’ ourselves. I think it can be both, and sometimes at the same time. But more often than not, I see it as a tendency inside oneself to be destructive and negative. It is the desire to turn away from the light, because it is the easier path to take in a given situation.
Another way I see it, is a need to confront something dark and scary about our own nature. To accept it and shed light on it. If you drag your inner demons into the light and fresh air, they often shrivel up into nothing and blow away. Sometimes they may put up a struggle, but you will have the advantage when they are in the open like that. In some cases, they may never go away, but they become so small and powerless that you can easily control them. The important thing is to bring them into focus and shed Light on them so that you can see them for what they are. If you can do this, you will no longer fear them. Even better, you will no longer project that fear outside of yourself. Essentially and eventually, you will fear nothing. (This card is from the Universal Waite Tarot Deck.)
Now that sounds very simplistic, and I don’t mean it to be. It’s very hard work to confront your own darkness. There is a spiritual healing process called Shadow Work. It’s not easy, and it may take years to complete. Christien Jette has written a very good book about using Tarot for this work, called Tarot Shadow Work: Using the Dark Symbols to Heal.
Powers of Dark and Light exists in each of us. The Yin Yang symbol depicts this. It is human nature to contain both, and this is often a theme in stories.
There is an interesting passage in one of Terry Pratchett’s witch books, Wyrd Sisters.
I find this an intriguing theme in stories, movies, poems and songs. As I am fascinated by the complexities of human nature, I also find the Devil to be one of the most intriguing cards in the Tarot.
Carnival of the Tarot – Fifth Edition
Welcome to the fifth edition of the Carnival of the Tarot. We are back in business, after last week’s little break. We have several good posts to explore today, so let’s get right to this week’s Carnival.
From Kapherus at The Art of Cartomancy we have The 21 Card Layout, a spread that is simple to use yet offers many levels of information. Kapherus has changed the site’s location recently. So please make sure to update your bookmark if necessary.
Isabella Mori presents Fractals, Rorschach, Tarot and meaning making posted at Change Therapy.
Fugdale’s Funhouse has a review of the beautiful Navigators Tarot of the Mystic Sea.
Lynda shares her observations in Straight Shootin’ in Archertarot’s Weblog.
Using the Rainring deck, 94Stranger shares The unconscious blogs about blogging at Rainring: post-tarot psychological cards.
From here at A Fool for Tarot, we offer The Rules.
Thank you for joining us this week.
Help take the Carnival of the Tarot ‘on the road’. If you are interested in hosting a future Carnival on your own blog, let me know what Sunday you would like to do so. If you have any questions about hosting the Carnival yourself, please ask. It is a good way to drive traffic to your site, and to share your work with other people.
Seeking Clarification in a Spread
What do you do if a spread just doesn’t make sense, or seem to relate to the question you asked?
There are a few schools of thought in this matter. One is that you should never draw a second spread if the original doesn’t make sense. Some feel it is wrong to ask a second time.
Now if you choose to do this, you can make note of the cards you pulled, wait to see what happens in the matter you inquired about, and then check back to see if the cards relate to what happened. In this way you may gain some new insights into the cards you pulled. You would, of course, want to journal this and possibly add the new perspectives to your meanings for these cards.
Another idea is let the spread ‘steep’. You can leave it out for a time, and come back to it later. If you can’t leave the cards out, you can note the cards and their positions, sketch them or even take a snapshot. This way you can recreate the layout for future contemplation. Some will do this for a few days. But you may certainly benefit from ‘sleeping on it’ and find a new perspective in the morning. This may be an opportunity incorporate dream journaling in your interpretation, as often your dreams will access your unconscious for you and help you solve the puzzle of a tricky layout.
My belief is that there is nothing wrong with drawing more than one spread of cards for a given question. The only caveat I have is that you should not do so simply because you don’t like what you see in the spread, and you are trying to get a different answer. A good practice is to ‘reset’ the deck by putting all the cards in order. My usual order is Majors first – Fool to World – followed by Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles – Ace to King. But any way you are comfortable with ordering your deck is fine. There is no ‘right’ way to do it. If you are using an Oracle deck that does not lend itself to any particular order, you can simply begin making piles of your cards that relate to one another in meaning, color, symbolism or anything you choose. If nothing else, simply sitting quietly and shuffling them for a time, while keeping your thoughts clear and calm can reset the deck quite well.
You can always choose a different deck if you have one, especially one that you have not used in a while. This tactic can have amazing results for giving you a fresh perspective on any reading.
If all else fails, it may simply mean that the information is not available for you at this time. It may also mean that it is best for you not to know. If you are reading for someone else, it may be difficult for them to understand that, but sometimes that is the plain and simple truth. Acceptance is always a good path when all else fails. Meditation, prayer, hope and faith are recommended ways of following that path well.
