Well, hello there!

I just joined a swedish tarot group on Facebook Tarot Sverige: and got reminded that hey, I have a blog and people actually read it. I better update.
I been impatient with my crappy camera but really, that is just excuses, I could take photos with the mobile and post. This ain’t no photographical art site, no need to be so perfect all the time 😀

This month, heck, this year, has been all about Tarot de Marseille for me so I will post a little of what I learn here. Above is a picture of most of my collection of historical decks. So why do I love them so? Most people seem to think they are plain, boring or even ugly. Sure they may be a bit crude since they were originally cut out in a piece of wood. You try and cut out a face in wood and see how easy it is :-p
The pips are just that, a select number of the suits which means that the main difference between 2 och swords and 3 of swords are just that… one would think at least! But look closer and there are a lot of really subtle clues in the images. I sometimes get overwhelmed with the visual input in some decks, there is just too much to take in, I think I prefer to let my eyes and mind roam around a picture and find the little details.
Also is it not amazing that the Majors are still pretty much unchanged since the very first TdMs?
Anyway, more on that later. I decided to write this blog post today cause just this week I was re-reading the book Tarot face to face by Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz, a friend of mine on Facebook. In this book he gives a really nice ‘spread’ only it is so much more. It is a way of finding the question based on the Tree of Life.

Separate the majors from the minors. Shuffle the majors and pick one card for the issue. Place it in the middle of the table. See where on the Tree of Life it sits. I picked The Lovers and that card connects the sephira 3 and 6. For each there is a question. Now shuffle the minors and pull out first one card, for the number 3 spot and place it above the major card, then pull out another for number 6 and place it below the major. Mine looks like this:

Now the issue for me is one of connectedness, tenderness and simply lack of touch. See how gentle the people in the Lovers touch eachother. I miss that in my life. The question for the card above in sephirot 3 is:
‘What is trying to be constructed?’
The valet de Spe (page of swords) speaks to me of daring yet holding back. Inexperience and self-doubt. He has the sheaf to the sword ready, any minute now he will withdraw and hide his intentions again. I see it as me building up courage and getting rid of my self-doubts. To do that I need to be clear in my intention and do a statement of what I want and be open with it.

The question for sephirot 6 is not really a question but a statement:
‘The beautiful point of harmony’
The 8 of wands look like a shield and the flowers reminded me of parachutes. Protection, gestation are words that came to my mind. 8 months of pregnancy, waiting… My own sweet spot of harmony will take some time to be perfected.

The deck used above is a quirky little deck called Lobardicher tarot Trieste.

In motion

Things are set in motion. I just got a call about financial aid to help me fix my bad teeth and I got approved! So yesterday I booked the first appointment and will in April start the long and painful, but eventually good, process. Today I pulled 2 cards. The 5 of Swords and Knight of Swords.  The knight with sword held high, charging on his horse. And the 5 swords with the middle one poking and prodding the weave. Look at the hilt of that middle sword. It reminds me of the scroll around the 2 of coins, something moving, twirling, in flux. The Knight has a moon-face on his shoulder, much like the Charioteer.  I see this as meaning I need to face some of my deep set fears. The penetrating swords is uncomfortable too but necessary.

Robledo

I been down with a cold, well I still am, so updates have been lacking. It’s nothing terribly bad, more annoying and distracting really. This weeks deck is the Robledo TdM that I got from Paulo Robledo via the AT forums. It is the third edition, very limited. The price of the deck wasn’t so bad, half the cost was postage across the globe from Argentina with a stop over in the US. The deck is lovely. Cream coloured background, clear lines, perfect colours. Card stock is a dream. It could do with a tiny rounded corner and I might get to that later, but for now I just shuffle it with care. I even did a reading with it in the TdM reading exchange at ATforums!

Yesterday I pulled 2 cards for my weekend and got Wheel of Fortune and Ace of Swords (yeah I never know if I should use the french names or the english ones so I am not consistent at all) The shadow on the top part of the photo is my fault, I should have opened the window blinds fully before taking the photo, oh well, it does add some Drama, right?

Just a few thoughts on these cards (I am sneezing too much to focus on a full on reading) But does not that Wheel looks terribly unstable. I never noticed it being in the water, floating like a raft like that. Also the water is a bit wavy. These monkeys are really out of their depths. Still, I am confident that my Wheel is turning the right direction. I have been down in the dumps some time but despite a cold, I feel my spirit is returning. I am not top monkey, but the one on the right side, climbing.

Oh what a big and red sword! Positively flaring with energy and sparks flying off it. It is igniting! I jotted down just a few words for this card ‘King-maker’ and ‘kvinna för sin hatt’ (to be woman for her hat) i.e to man up and accept the challenge. I think the King-maker was cause it made me think of King Arthur and the Excalibur. His wheel turned also, all the way around. Not that I feel very Arthurian but all those old stories were made to teach us our lessons, right? And today that story is speaking to me of accepting challenges and making my Wheel turn.

Now, time for more sneezing and some tea while I think of my game-plan. I am writing my to-do-list today 😀

 

Stress

It’s funny how your mood will colour your card interpretation. Today I pulled 7 of swords after a sleepless night and saw this:

disparate and lonely buds, chopped off, with no stems or roots or support. A swords struggling to fight against 6 closely intertwined swords, to break up the pattern. But it is really trapped, weakened. Locked in but with the ambition to be free. Mental stress and wariness but not yet giving up.

Another day, when waking up refreshed and rosy-cheeked, I might see the Chariot here, the quest and the glory, the Will breaking free. But today oh dread.

Didn’t manage to get a photo of the story cubes, but it was Mail and Foot. And yeah, I did go to the postoffice to collect a parcel with 2 books 😀

Barnacle

It’s not really a barnacle, but this cup made me think of one. The tight rim, hard shell and something red and alive inside it… This whole card is a little garish with the reds and the yellows shouting. And the king got both a swashbuckler hat a la the Magician and a crown plunked on top of it. It now looks like he got huge dumbo-ears, oh and look, his real ear is covered with some flap. He looks away from the cup, and he seems uncomfortable with the whole situation, a bit like a mans man forced to hold his wife’s handbag for her.

Well, just a few fast impressions. I am feeling rather uncomfortable myself today, that constant internal monologue (the tingling bells of the fool) is never shutting up and I am restless and tired at once. A bit too emotional. I need to cool down and shut off a while.

Today’s cubes would provide a solution if I were into that kind of thing. But I am not. I am trying to wean myself off the sleeping pills this week so I got enough on my plate. The Happy Rainbow Pill just gotta remind me that there are several ways of reaching bliss, little tablets are not mine.

I am sitting here thinking about what decks I personally would put on a top 10 list. The lists over at AT caused a riot 😀 I think it is funny how a subbaculture deck ran in and grabbed first place. Surprising but rather neat too.

The top 10 all time list is just a yawn though. Imagine in 100 years we take out those 10 decks to show what we valued the most in the Tarot world. *giggles*

Delicate

The 7 of Coins from the Fournier TdM has a stable base with 4 coins in each corner, a plant with a root that is strong and with red and blue leaves separating and showing off 3 middle coins. The leaves show their undersides with the nerves and it looks like they are gently caressing the coins and perhaps even kissing each other. One of the coins are not yet mature (the left right one in the triangle is missing the little edges in the middle) so while it looks like the base is providing a robust harvest, it is not yet finished, we counted the chickens but they haven’t hatched fully yet.

I like that the stability in the corners are there. It makes me think about what I do with my ‘base-skills’ do I let them go to waste, or do I keep them alive and up to date? Is the soil of my craft fertile? Even if I am idle now and looking for work I must not feel dejected and worthless, the base is there.

The cubes I love. I throw these dice a lot and make up stories for myself. Todays throw is just 2 again (I usually throw a fistful and then pick 2 or 3 that stand out and connect) Portal and World. It makes me think of this book I am reading right now ‘Ghostwritten’ by David Mitchell. First parts of it takes place in Japan and China and this portal looks like it is from around there. I love how the author, who spent a lot of time in Asia, manage to give me a portal into a world I never been to. Books can really transport you to all times and places.

Tricking and fixing

Le Bateleur came up today (one might think I didn’t mix the deck properly but I did) That name in french always made me think of a sportsman, a batter for a team. He strikes for the goal. What he does is keep a keen eye on you and me while talking a lot and causing distractions so he can slip and slide those tools of his and make them appear in unexpected places. It’s all a trick, a play with time and movement and direction and focus.

The cubes gave me Turtle and Time. That is a trick too. The turtle only appears to be slow but in its lifetime it will achieve just about the same things any other animal and human.

Today I feel the weight of Time and wonder what it is I should have done to fulfill my purpose. We are born, live a little here and then we are gone, let’s just make the most of our days.

Fournier Tarot de Marseille and Rory’s Story Cubes

Weekend is here and I take out another deck, one that I haven’t used in many many years. The Fournier TdM was actually my very first tarot deck that I bought back in the late 1980:ies. I found it in a bookshop in Uppsala, but failed to find any tarot books so thought I might have to write one myself, so I got a pencil and a blank notebook, promptly named all the pages, 2 pages for each card and set about learning the tarot!

It does come with a strange little white booklet (LWB) that among other things names the physical areas that the cards could indicate, I discarded that information and just looked at the cards, did readings for friends and just chatted to and about them for a few years.

I also bought a few more decks, one RWS and a Herbal tarot and later a Hanson-Roberts. But all these years I kept the Fournier. So that is a bit of background. I will also be using the story cubes I told about earlier.

Today’s card is The Fool/Le Mat. Instead of going back to any books or old info stored in my head I simply decided to step into the card. Be The Fool. So I went for a walk, it’s a wonderful sunny but cold day. Just walk, what do I see, hear, feel, smell? (I can’t say I tasted much)

I saw the sky, paly blue with just a hint of white clouds near the horizon. I saw the sun low, just coming up. I saw white snow, soft like whipped cream flooding the ground, tracks – white on white, footsteps – white on white. I saw people smiling at me when I passed them, I saw neighbours and friends and stopped to chat a little. I saw dogs and I saw Charlie shadowing me for a bit of the way. I could smell the snow! And a motor running, someone passing me with a cigarett, a teenager with a bubblegum, someones woodburning fire. I could feel the nipping (not of a dog) but of the cold in my face and the warmth of the sun when I faced it. I could hear the constant tingling (not of bells) but of my own thoughts, that inner never-ending monologue. So I stop! Clear my mind, breath a bit and take the quite in.

The story cubes gave me lock/kåta (tipi) But I thought kåta cause doesn’t that Fool look like he is wearing sami colours? A kåta is a tipi but for sami people. The principle is the same, you wrap hides or canvas around a structure of long thin sticks, leaving a hole for the smoke in the top. The idea to put a lock on a dwelling like that is Foolish. It also made me think of this image I saw on Facebook the other day. It was a sign out on the lawn outside a house. The sign saying ‘This is a gunfree house’ and all the comment on how stupid that was, like it was an open invitation to burglars. When I piped up that it is extremly rare for anyone where I live to own a gun unless they are a hunter I got called stupid. I have to wonder who the Fool is though.

Fools

Inspired by Tarot Bonkers!  I decided to see if I could find my own favorite cards from my collection of decks. First card out – The Fool, is not really a favorite card at all. I never could connect much to it, see myself in this specific card. Of course we are all foolish! But The Fool seems to me to be so much more then that. Some intermingled sense of being child-like, innocent and curious, daring, but also driven, to have a passion. In life I been all those things, but hardly ever all at once.

In order the Fools I posted here are from: Tarot of the Spirit, Transformational and Fourniers TdM. I wanted to include the Fournier Fool mainly cause it was my first one 😀 This is my very first tarot deck bought in late 1980:ies and this was the first card I saw as I unwrapped the deck. It is the Essential Fool for me. Notice that we can’t really tell where he is walking, and neither can he of course. But we don’t see the abyss here, just a bum in a bumpy road. See, I could relate to this card back then, cause I was just like that, a bum on a bumpy road, no idea what I was gonna do, had no home, no money, no family or friends near-by. I was a student waiting in line to get a dorm-room in a new city. I spent my days reading thick novels and drinking cheap coffee. Crashing in sofas, getting drunk a lot, sleeping around. Somehow I got my shit together, got a dormroom, made tons of friends, did excellent in all my exams and so on. But I do remember being quite happy at my bum-phase too. I was happy being that fool. And I was happy finding this fool in that pack of cards.

The Fool to the left is from Tarot of the Spirit and I love it for the stepping out into the abyss/astral. This is my Dream Fool with a dainty purse too! Red rose for passion on the forward leaping foot, white rose for purity of purpose in the hand. I guess this is The Fool I aspire to become. The Dagaz Fool, standing between night and day. This is me Fooling around in the Astral in my dreams.

The Fool in the middle is the pretty little Fool. It is from Arnell Ando’s Transformational Tarot. I think really the cool thing about it that I love is the bubbles (that and the forest that looks like ferns or sea-weed makes me think of this as a little deep-ocean diver) and the female-headed owl.