Me and Tarot – How did it start?

The Soprafino is very special to me, as it represents a little family history:

My grandmother Elizza (1869 to 1956) had one and used to read with it. Remembering seeing this deck when I was a little girl and looking at the old worn out frayed cards together with my mother is ultimately, what later brought me to Tarot.

Today I have an ever growing circle of Tarot clients , that come for readings, I correspond with other Tarot enthusiasts on the Aeclectic Tarot forums and I deepen my personal knowledge about Tarot and reading images on an ongoing basis.

Every couple of months or so I pick out a new deck, expose myself to its imagery and see, where that leads.

I welcome you, to look over my shoulder 🙂

Right now,I am looking at the”Roots of Asia Tarot  as my “Deck for the summer Month:

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Of heavy rains and missing Owls:

Reading exercise for August 22^nd

It is rather late in the day for my daily draw, but here we go:

While I shuffle I am thinking:

“For today, with the torrential rains and all our plans for outside work having fallen into a the proverbial water puddle, I should draw a Water card”

Sure enough, for my card of the day I pull the

8 of Swords –

Now, remember, in this deck Swords are Water. And here they are all sharp and pointy in a circle surrounded by the signs of the waxing and waning Moon, pointing into a water-world that has much the same colouration as the Kawpakwakog Creek outside my living room window.

Yes, I am hemmed in on all sides by the rain and the wet weather. The Moons feel like time – time running away fast. Sooooo much to do and being stuck inside due to the weather.

Well, that is my RWS feel of the card anyway.

The LWB card blip instructs me to read it as:

– Crisis, – yes, for all our farmers, who now definitely are loosing the hay and gran harvests as well as other crops bad news,

– Fatality, (hope not!!!!)

– Treason – well, I can not worrrrry about other people’s nasty behaviour, can I? I am not planning on any treasonous actions today….

Card 2 of my reading is my “challenge of the day”

Again, I feel I should draw a Water card

But NO, the Sun comes up!

At least in the reading 🙂

Yes, it is actually true. All is well here, ifffff not being able to cut and pile our winter wood today and not being able to spread a truck load of gravel over a new parking lot is our biggest, most pressing problems, we are doing fine. These are just inconveniences in a all around sunny life.

The LWB card blip reads

– completion of an enterprise – no for the above mentioned tasks, but YES for our over all life plan: we are snug and save and approaching our sunny retirement. Looooong hard work has paid of!

– full results, rewards– ditto – see above

– promotion – neeeeaa – rather not!! 🙂

– inheritance – well, hopefully not in the next ten years – Peter’s mom is 89 and still quite fit and happy

Card 3 is my Advice for the day and or outcome card.

I pull the 5 of Chalices.

The card has a happy feel 🙂

A large green pentagram and 5 happy cups surrounded by Birds and Butterflies.

This is pretty much exactly a Picard design of the 5 of Cups

The LWB card blip reads:

– Inheritance – again???

– Patrimony to protect – well, I am not taking this one all too literal…

However from the notes found on the internet about how Picard prescribes the pips to look like, I find out in dismay, that my card lacks 1 essential image: In the centre of the green Pentagram, there is supposed to be a small Owl!

Panic- button!!

AN OWL IS MISSING!

(for those of you, who know me, they KNOW, how much Owls mean to me….

Now I will drop EVERYTHING and draw a little Owl into the card:)

The Crystal Tarot by Elisabetta Trevisan

 

This sumptuous treasure is the generous gift from a member – via the “I don’t love you anymore” thread on the Cartomancy forum. It arrived today in my wilderness cabin, securely packed in a very sturdy grey box, that is sure to get re-used in our household.

The deck is also known as the Tarocchi de Vetro

It could not have come at a better time, after yet another thunder storm and deluge this morning I was recuperating from one of my nasty weather triggered migraines, but just sitting there and looking at the stunningly beautiful images made my woes evaporate and fill me with joy 🙂

The mayors and courts are stunning and I was glad, that I had the time to look closely at each and every one.

Favourites?

When I just saw the Fool, I KNEW, I would love this deck.

The HP the muted colours fitted exactly how I felt this morning. Having to sit still, among the dark greens and blooming sunflowers around me. Migraines make me see everything quite a bit pixelated and that too is reflected in the image.

Temperance with vessels reminding me of Mayan pottery:)

Knave of Wands with his oversized shepherd’s staff.

Is the Queen of pentacles pregnant?

So much to see and discover!

Of course I read the deck review written by our own Le Fanu.

Excellent, thank you!

https://mycuriouscabinet.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/elizabeth-trevisans-crystal-tarot/

 

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Since I am so taken by this new deck it had to have a nice pouch/ bag. I love going into my basket with bags, pull them all out and match one of them to the mood, I perceive the deck to have.

This one wanted to have a green embroidered brocade bag embellished with gold thread.

But then i remembered all the many unused gold and diamond pins and blouse needles I still have from my sister Mausi. They languish in a dark cabinet, because I only wear jewellery made by Peter and me. So I decided to see, what it would look like, to put a little something onto this bag and so give some usage to the antique jewellery Mausi used to collect.

There were 2 pieces, that volunteered for this job:

One a small pin featuring the ivory carving of a lady set in red gold with2 small diamonds, reminding me of a young female page. The other is a blouse needle, diamond encrusted stem, topped with a large grey cultured pearl also encrusted with tiny diamonds 🙂 I chose this one, because it looks a bit like the wand/ sceptre of a king.

 

Thus “blinged out” it was time to shuffle the deck and get ready to do my first reading with this deck.

Solstice Reading Card 12: Cheater or not?

12. Parvati, Earth Mother – June 25:

The card shows us how to ground ourselves and how to connect with the earth’s abundance.

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Page of Stones, the Wren

So there is an old hollowed out Tree stump, overgrown with lush green moss. It seems to be the ideal nesting cavity, because 2 Birds seem to be competing for it:

A tiny Goldcrest,

the truly smallest Bird in all of Britain and a Wren, a Bird often assumed to be the smallest one. Wrens are a bit of an imposture. In the olden times the Goldcrest – due to its crest was called the King of all Birds – until a myth arose, giving this title to the cheating Wren. The tale goes somewhat like this: There was a contest amongst the Birds, which one could fly the highest up into the sky. Well, the Eagle could and soared above all other Birds – until a tiny Wren crawled out among his feathers and fluttered right above the Eagle’s head.

Rascal that! It stole 2 Birds their title of honour.

Today I am settled with this cheater.

So how can he connect me with my reverence for the beautiful and merciful sacred Earth Mother that shows mercy and patience and still continues to provide for all her living creatures including us greedy destructive self centred human beings?

Oh I am soooo aware of the continually escalating havoc humans wreck in our environment and the plight we unleash upon all other living Beings, that, in reality, are kin to us, but are loosing their habitat, the clean water, Earth’s lifeblood and that so slowly dying out.

Humans are cheaters, like the Wren. Pretending to do something, giving lip-service.

I could go on here, but this is just a Tarot reading…..

You all KNOW, what is at stake!

No the Wren is no the ideal Being, to connect me to the abundance of Mother Earth and a deeper understanding of environmental issues.

Or is it?

The Wren does, what Wrens do, following their own nature.

It is just a Bird, a cute one at that. I saw Cactus Wrens and Canyon Wrens in the wild this spring 🙂

The legend it is, that speaks of the cheater.

Humans? Are we cheaters? Are we not ultimately cheating ourselves?

Is THAT our true nature?

Pages are students.

When will humans be ready to learn AND follow their hard lessons?

Solstice Reading day 11 Tough teachers

11. Guru Purnima – June 24:

Indian festival of expressing gratitude to teachers.

This card reminds us of a lesson we have learned, or an experience or person that has taught us something, that we should remember and have gratitude for as we move forward.

Death

Blue stands for truth

the card is blue. In its centre rests the partially de-fleshed skull of a Deer.

A Crow, the Guardian and teacher of the Sacred Law – cause and effect just ripped of another morsel of decaying flesh. Other Crows are circling.

Yes, death IS my most important teacher

In my life i had at least 5 full blown near death experiences.

The first one, when I was less than 3 years old. Diphtheria and the long journey into flirrrrring light, where a lovely lady, later identified as Umai E’ene lovingly hugged me – and send me back to battle for just one more breath – and one more after that…..

Then the one in the orphanage, after all my welts – from the beating had infected my heart valve…

The last NDE was in1999 when I was without vitals for 19 minutes and yet again sen back in a lifeless body with cracked ribs and burn marks on my chest from all the CPR performed at Scottsdale, AZ hospital……

Death and me, we dance a dance.

Around my patients, many of whom are sick with terminal cancer or the like……

Often I win a few months or even years from him for them.

But in the end we both know, Death will win.

Has to –

It is the Sacred Law.

A month ago on New Moon I did a shamanic “Kamlani” (a Siberian Spirit calling/ healing session the way my People do them) for one of my beloved human teachers. Pleading for a few more years, drumming away the blue shimmering cancer cells in his common bile duct…..

Cancer cells = Death cells do not like the combination of heat, vibrations of a certain kind and the drum is the oldest weapon we have to – just bust Death cells…..

OK, they also do not like certain chemicals – drugs – and certain herbal combinations – like Essiac….

Death taught me a lot.

Death at times can be a good friend to those he visites.

Some hope for him to finally come….

Some see him as a short-cut out of life – – ??

Him and me, we will dance together again – soon……

Solstice reading card 10 Bear Medicine

10. Saint John’s Eve – June 23:

Like the herbs traditionally gathered on St. John’s Eve, this card shows what protects or heals us.

The Guardian = there is no “Devil” in the Greenwood Tarot.

The skeletal Spirit of a long extinct Cave Bear rises growling at the entrance of her fiery cave, barring entrance to anyone who does not have the right combination of gumption, humility and knowledge to make it past her into the sanctum of the deep and honest Self.

She is the pompous ass and big ego eater and every aspiring shaman will get confronted and rejected by her over and over and over again. (They are all on Facebook, writing about their wondrous feats – in case you wondered.)

If you make it past her, she will protect you, from them, and ultimately from yourself.

How I got past her the very first time, many decades ago is a looong story…..

For me and my People in Siberia Ee’ren Adik the bear is the Guardian of the Eastern Door – the one leading into the future, where among all the nice stuff also all the “albis” lurk, the disease spirits a Medicine person must battle with.

Here in Canada, Ma-qua the Bear is the one who teaches you about strengths, goodness and knowledge of self – Bear also teaches healing with herbs and guides shamans and healers when working with patients.

I treat my patients while they are resting on a large Bear fur…….

I find it very auspicious seeing, that herbs were gathered on this day.

I DO have quite a beef with christian saints appropriating ancient old traditions and giving them a christian whitewash and could write 5 pages on that.

The Summer Solstice was and is the special time, when northern European pre-christian People used to gather their healing herbs and put them up for winter use!!

Today “Bayan Adik” is growling at me for running myself ragged and also seeing to it, that I get another day of rest. To make it easier for me the electricity came back on and – good or bad – 2 of my clients for Tarot readings cancelled on me today, citing the nasty thunderstorm weather we are still having as a reason.

So I am resting in my Bear Cave today, waiting, until I have some more meat and some fur on my bare bones again.

I will need that tomorrow!

Solstice reading day 9: Tarot Card Advice

9. Honey Moon – June 22:

This card shows us how to release anxieties or worries, how to enjoy ourselves in this moment.

4 of Arrows

YES!!

I sooooo need that!

A huge Butterfly hovers protectively over a person reclining amids t4 staked arrows.

Is he/ she on a shamanic journey/ altered state of consciousness or merely sleeping, maybe dreaming?

I should opt for the former – with my line of work and all, this card often prompts me to journey, in order to uncover causes an solutions to problems, but today, honestly – I am opting for sleeping.

I have soooooooo much to do and sooooo much stuff is piling up, but after drawing this card early in the morning I opted to crawl back to bed for a while and take it easy today.

The pile of stuff to do will be there tomorrow.

Solstice reading card 8: Burning up Energy

8. Summer Solstice – June 21:

We are at the height of the sun’s power, the longest day, in the Northern Hemisphere.

This card shows us how to shine our own light like the Sun. 

2 of Wands

Well, the card sure looks like a Sun Person. I often see one of my Ancestor Guides like this with light and Medicine Energy radiating from her ethereal body.

In this card the Spirit Person is standing between the 2 wands, which also emanate light and fiery energy outward. The ground is illuminated by what looks like “Saint Johannes Fire” and the sparkling stars compete with an army of Fireflies.

How beautiful and energetic it looks!

The Summer Solstice in Canada is also National Aboriginal Day and many celebrations are taking place everywhere. Normally on the Summer solstice I am teaching and holding ceremony, but this year I knew, that Peter was away and it being a Wednesday and thereby Farmer’s Market day, I opted to just go to the Market. My friend, who is Native, her daughter and I greeted customers with “Happy Summer Solstice and happy National Aboriginal Day” and so raised awareness….

I had been up at 4.30 and watched the dawn rise, but here we had no sun. It was a dark morning, threatening rain, but by noon the sun came out and the temperature quickly climbed to seasonal.

I pulled this card of the day well after I got home, had completed my new routine of starting the generator and a million other mundane but necessary things. When I looked at the image, it made me take a deep breath. How beautiful and celebratory it is!

I was soooo exhausted, but it brought the light of the Solstice into my heart in a very visceral way.