Dodal and Visconti, the wheel turns

I didn’t get to update last night due to my internet. But the card I pulled from the Dodal TdM was Ace of Bastons.

Just look at it! Such a meaty card. Hefty! So substantial and so raw. Where the cuts are we see almost tears of tree marrow, like drops of blood congealing and sealing the wand. Around it is the yods, like falling leaves, or flames, or sweat. Still stuck to it is one leaf looking almost like the saw that must have cut it down.

The hand holding it is showing the palm of the hand, almost like an offering – here, take this! What to do with it? Well, that’s the thing, this is raw-material, raw energy to all sorts of things and actions. There is no denying that we want it though, is there? And I am not going all freudian here even if I could.

I will for sure pick out the Dodal again soon, such a lovely deck and in a way this card is such a great one to finish my week with it. Cause this is how I see this deck, raw, strong, filled with potential.

 

Now new week and new deck and I decided to go with the historical deck theme for a month or so and so I pulled out my Visconti Tarots from Lo Scarabeo. I even got the book for it by Giordano Berti (who is right now working on a new edition of the Sola-Busca that I really want) and Tiberio Gonard. It is a beautiful deck, with the missing cards re-created by Atanassov and filled with gold high-lights. It does have the multi-launguage border but I don’t mind it terribly.

Today I pulled the Wheel (La Routa) For this card the book was quite good. We see in the middle a winged and blindfolded figure turning the wheel upon there are 3 figures with banners telling us ‘I reign’ ‘I will reign’ and ‘I have reigned’ and at the bottom a man on all fours and a banner saying ‘I am without a Kingdom’ yet he carries the world. All the potentates have either donkey ears or donkey tails.

I take it as meaning that Chance is blind, that what we get are not always deserved, sometimes the winner is a real ass. But grab Lady Luck by the hair and hold on cause the Wheel will turn no matter what.

At the table

Today’s Dodal was yet another 4. This time 4 of Discs/Deniers/Coins whatever you pick. At first sight it looks like 5 Deniers. But that middle one is really a shield, not a disc. The whole thing makes me think of a family dinner, everyone seated in their place, the grand turkey on its platter in the middle. The table is richly decorated but it is all so rigid. No elbows on the table, no talking with food in your mouth. Sit still and be quite and eat your food. We do it as much for show as for nourishment. Its the expected thing, this family dinner.

However stiff and filled with underlying conflicts a family dinner can be, it is still essentially an act of love.

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
― Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Quite enough

Dodal for today is 4 of Cups. Look at how they are all separated, standing alone without touching. That middle branch seems to be less concerned with flowering then of compartmentalizing the cups. And what flower there is in the middle is just a step to the next branch. The two top cups open and full but not letting go of a drop. The bottom two with leaves like umbrellas making sure they stay the same. Stand-still, unmoving. Not giving, not receiving. Time to digest and rest.

Oh and see how the leaf-lids on the bottom cups look a bit like swans with red beaks… For me swans symbolizes love and fidelity but here the swans are moving away from each other, to solitude.

“You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

About to burst

Todays draw from the Dodal TdM was interesting. I had 9 Swords the other day and now I get the 10 and they do have totally different moods to them. On my post-it note I jotted down this: Tightly pinned down, pressure and movement like a gear or even like the Wheel of Fortune. Tucked in and laced through, poking holes, about to burst open in an explosion of sharp edges. The right straight sword already broken, the left one partly escaping the lattice.

And then after an hour: The flowers just buds, sharp and pointy like thorns. I am thinking stress-headache, commitments  you can’t keep much longer. Appointments you rush to and fear to miss, elevators getting stuck between floors. Your wedding dress a size too small. A tray of champagne flutes dropped on the floor. Obligations you just cannot fulfill. Stretching too thin, afraid to crack open like a raw egg.

Do I have to repeat how much I love this deck?

As usual the Pages of Shustah will be posted later. I somehow see the Dodal as my morning deck and the Shustah as my evening deck now.

The (almost) unbearable lightness of being

Dodal TdM (Flornoy) is such a treat of a deck. I even stopped dreading it every morning, the fear is gone. I no longer think I will struggle over coming up with anything, or drawing a blank. These cards are only blank as in carrying no preconceived notions of what the cards mean. 3 of Wands (or rather 3 Batons here) is not being read until I hold it in my hand and look at it. TdM is so hands on. You need to really Be There Now. That doesn’t mean I throw out of the window all my years learning the tarot, just that I open a window and let new light in.

The wands are straight and thick, powerful. The leaves are curling outwards but not all are fully ready, it invokes a feeling of spring and freshness. While they are all meeting at the center there is no pressure, they are orderly and neat but not yet rigid. The leaves and stems look open and inviting.

I am only wishing to have such a grand day filled with lightness and openness and freshness in all my interactions.

A Pages of Shustah reading will be up later today.

A stitch in time saves nine

The card for today from Dodal TdM was 9 of swords. I am a total novice in reading with the Marseille deck. But I like the Dodal, thick and creamy and luxurious. Clear lines and colours and I think an excellent deck to pick out those tiny details. So looking at 9 of Swords, my first question is of course, is it the right way up? Should the middle sword point up or down? It ‘feels’ right with it pointing up wards. Then look at the tip of it, the tiny black lines coming from it, like thorns from a cactus, or like sparks from a fire?Perhaps it is those black iron filings my science teacher had to show magnetism. So the sword is either prickly, really hot or magnetic. It is also not fully lined up. The top of the sword is still straight but slightly moved to the right, like how a reflection is broken in a prism. It also looks like it is forcing open those yellow bands, like some weed breaking up through the  hard soil, with force (like heat or magnetism are forces)

Finally I decided to do a search for some cool verse about the number Nine and came up with the proverb in the title: A stitch in time saves nine. Short and sweet (and to the ‘point’) Anyone that ever had a seam open know how important it is to mend it right away or it will be a lot of work later.

So to sum it all up this could be a card about a mental breakthrough, an Aha moment, the light bulb going on, but I should take care to note through what ‘prism’ I learn things and try to keep it straight. If things are going the wrong direction I need to right them, mend them, in time to save myself a lot of trouble.

I’ll be back with my daily Pages of Shustah draw later today.