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It’s been a long, wet, and trying Spring for the Priestess, and for many of us! With the hard emotional work of Venus Retrograde calling us to revisit our deepest heart wounds when it comes to love, the challenges of communicating during Mercury Retrograde, and the navigating of the stormy karmic waters of Saturn Retrograde, we’ve all been doing a lot of emotional and spiritual heavy lifting! Even without all the social and political turmoil going on for many of us, from the US to the UK and beyond, it’s been a challenging few months. Now that the planets are slowly returning to their regular patterns (emphasis on the slowly), however, it’s time to get back to what grounds us and look ahead. What will June have in store for us, after such an eventful Winter and Spring?

I’ve drawn three cards for us from Kris Walherr’s lovely Goddess Tarot to give us some guidance through the first two weeks of June.

Calling all Tarot bloggers! Ferguson Bree is organizing a Tarot Blog Hop commemorating the FIRST International Tarot Day that will occur on July 8, 2017. You can find out more, including how to sign up, at this link.

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So the wrangler for this hop was me.  Here's what I asked.

Since Beltaine is a holiday of coming together, I thought it would be fun to answer this question: "Do you combine Tarot with any other divination system? Why or why not?" That's it. Short and sweet. Simple. You can answer it however you like.

Yes, I absolutely do combine Tarot with other divination systems. Tarot already has an association with astrology and numerology. That, for me, is a given. I do a weekly Tarotscopes offering on YouTube so that's a done deal for me. :D I interpret a weekly Tarot reading as well as Oracle reading for all twelve signs. Please subscribe if you enjoy so you can be notified each week.

For many years I didn't do anything other than a straightforward Tarot reading. I used one deck and only one deck. Then I had an opportunity to read for two people. They wanted a relationship reading. I decided to use not one, not two but three decks. I used one deck for person A, one for person B while the third deck was used for the relationship. It took a few hours to do. :D Yeah, I might have bit off more than I could chew at that time.

This review was first published in the April 2017 issue of SageWoman Magazine (issue #91)

The newly re-released Barbara Walker Tarot is rich with dedicated, attentive symbolism. A very no-nonsense deck, the suite cards as well as the court cards are illustrated with multilayered and complex images. This deck is an intense one. The images are bold and striking, even stark and harsh in presentation. They clearly draw inspiration from classic medieval images and styles, though blend many myths and themes within that artistic style. If you want an inspiring, comforting, and pretty deck, this deck will not be the one for you. Many of the cards are ominous in presentation and vaguely (or directly) threatening in imagery and theme.

The Hierophant is usually deemed Trump 5 in the Tarot. Hierophant means revealer of sacred things. While The Emperor is earthly, secular and governmental authority, The Hierophant is religious, spiritual and sacred authority. This archetype embodies cultural traditions, moral dictates, religious teachings, orthodoxy and philosophical or ethical mandates.

Phrases and Keywords: Tradition; Exoteric Religion; Formal Education; Religious Authority; Right and Wrong Wrangling; Dogma; Ethical Standards; Social Mores; Morality; Philosophy; Doctrine; Canon; Spiritual Beliefs; Revered Teachings; “Shoulds”; Orthodoxy

I've been doing a lot of work with the court cards in the tarot, recently. Some of this is due to the projects on which I'm working in my mundane job as an author, and some of it is my own research. The correlation between numerology and the tarot has piqued my interest. However, the court cards aren't numbered, so how do you go about reading them when using numerology? Do you simply count them as 11 (Page), 12 (Knight), 13 (Queen) and 14 (King)? What if there were another way of looking at them? 

What I've found has resonated with me—and your mileage may well vary—is to look at the court cards as a more complex set of numbers, rather than just as court cards. In numerology the number 11 is known as a master number, and it does seem to resonate well with the energy of the Page. It's a combination of both 1 and 2. As the Page is the first card in the second part of the suit, the first card in the court cards, it also takes on the energy of both 1 and 2. 

I distinctly remember my first Tarot deck and the sense of anticipation, “danger,” and intrigue it held for me. I was about 13 when I got it, a Rider-Waite in the yellow box, and I did NOT like it. I never connected with the deck, the book that I also got was way too esoteric and, frankly, boring, and I didn’t find the images compelling at all. This experience set me “off” of the tarot for a long time. I discovered other oracle systems I greatly enjoyed, such as Crone Stones, I bonded powerfully with Womanrunes and wrote a book about them, but I felt like Tarot and me were just not a match. Ah, then…The Gaian Tarot. One afternoon in 2013, I was turning over some issues of leadership, power, group dynamics, and “warrior priestessing” and, for a reason I no longer recall, decided to do an online reading using the Gaian Soul website. Now THIS, this was a deck with which I could connect. The images. The earthy-messages, the goddess roots. I fell in love. I ordered the deck and began to regularly use the cards, enjoying many profound and illuminating experiences with them. So, when I found out a new edition was being released I was thrilled to review it!

Since I have and love the older edition of the Gaian Tarot, my first instinct when receiving the new one was to compare the two and the new edition does not disappoint. The cards are larger and thicker and edged with silver.