Dame favorites

It is such a dreary day today, cold and rainy and gray. Good day for candles, tea and just playing around. I really like this deck I am using this week. It has a really fresh perspective on a lot of the cards. Showing here a few of my favorite ones. I love the TdM inspired classical Majors, such as the moon with the two towers, the dogs and the crayfish and the moon sweating drops of inspiration. The clumpsy looking, almost absract Devil with a mask covering his groin and with big bird feet. The Star is kneeling as she should but is pouring water on a dolphin and she is really a he!

7 of cups is not a confusion of choices to be made, it is an astrologer showing us the very idea of Universe – as above so below. The couple in 5 of coins may wear rags and be poor but are rich in love and passion. The 10 of cups shows us a city walled in like the city is a cup itself. The 2 batons is not at all excited or contemplating his domain, he is bored out of his skull with itchy feet almost taking a walk without him.

Now I gotta close here cause my cat wants attention, he is restless but don’t want to go outside in the rain so he demands some playtime.

The gift of right now

Today I pulled 6 of coins from the Dame Fortune’s Wheel tarot. 6 coins circle the new moon, below among green hills stands a woman holding a staff, a lamp and a bell. Beside her a stork holding a pearl in his foot. In Rider-Waite decks this is the card of giving, but here the gift is the Present as in the Now. The moment right infront of us. This is with Paul Huson says about this card:

The crane holding the stone in its claw was a recognized sixteenth century allegorical emblem of attention; the
woman carrying a lamp and rod while ringing a bell, of vigilance. Many modern cartomancers interpret this
card as “a present” as in “gift,” although the original divinatory interpretation is “the present moment,” as in
“do it right now!”

I wonder when and how it was changed into the meaning we most often see today, that of charity. Still, one of the most precious gifts we can give is our time and our attention.

Falconeering on my fields with a fair maiden.

That is just the thing for a stressed soul. Usually 8 of Wands is about connections, messages, speed. Here is it more about recharging the batteries with some time outdoors. Now falcons are a bit short in stock these days so I chose my second best option, a little gardening.

This is just what the doctor ordered. I know I will feel so much better for spending a day outside in the sun (and wind) but yet I act as if it is going to kill me. I drag on, reluctant to put on my shoes and jacket. Finding excuses to just stay in and putter around. But once I break my own laziness down and just DO it I feel so much better. I return home with a little skip in my step. Rosy cheeks, tousled hair, cat in tow. Now I didn’t get much gardening done but the wind swept through me and I feel brand new.

Weekend with a few Kings

I have been tardy in posting here but I taken some time out to get to know a new deck, the Dame Fortune’s Wheel by Paul Huson. The Majors are based on the TdM but not a clone in any way, For example is the Magician not out alone in the desert but rather performing his tricks to an audience.

The Minors are based on Etteilla. Now I always been interested in getting an Etteilla deck and learn more about them as I am a total novice. I do think it is refreshing with a deck that is not a RWS or a Thoth clone. It plays it’s own kind of music. The courts except for the Knights are named but are not meant to be seen as the actual historical persons but as their mythical selves.

My first card from saturday was King of Batons – Caesar. The thing I noticed right away was the bundle of wands tied with the axe. The same symbol is on the Sheridan-Douglas card. It makes me think of something very strong but also something very rigid, a tool that is really not practical any longer. What outdated tools do I cling on to? Is my way of using the Tarot one of them? Perhaps it is time to loosen up a little.

My next card was another King – King of Swords that is pictured as David. He looks so stern and then by his feet is the harp. A very double image. The man in full armor and sword pointing up brings to mind David as a King of Justice and the harp brings to mind the young boy soothing others with his calm music. Perhaps it just goes to show that in order to be righteous and just we must not forget to have a heart and to show tenderness and mercy.

Temptations

It is safe to say I an just not loving the Crystal Visions Tarot much. I can’t even be bothered to take a photo of my daily card, I just pull one, look at it, go ‘hmm, ok’ and put it back in the box. Meanwhile this week my mailman brought me two other decks that looks great. I haven’t had time to look through them yet though but will pick one of them for the next week.

The first I got was the Langustl Tarot. Bold lines and bright colours. It is a very expressive deck, just look at those hands, how they sort of tuck in the Chariot and wants to touch the fishies.

 

The second one was the Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot. Just looking through this quickly to count the cards made me smile, some of these cards are just brilliant. I love how the people in some of the minors looks so bored so they want to bash their own heads in the table. Like a medieval version and ‘facepalm’