Recently, my busy tarot life of readings, traveling and writing, found me teaching a class called “Anatomy of a Tarot Reading”. In this class, I posited that a tarot reading can be divided into seven distinct activities. Those steps are: Preparation, Invocation, Intuition, Operation, Interpretation, Presentation and Manifestation.
While the class was to be specifically about the art of tarot reading, I found much of my magickal theory about tarot leaking in. With sections like "Invocation" and "Manifestation", how could it not?
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that there's a solar eclipse set to cross over the US on August 21st, right in the last degrees of Leo. Yes, this is a major astrological event (and a pretty cool astronomical one, too), but it also has some connections with the tarot too. The strength of those connections lies in the artist's interpretation of the decks, and some have more than others. When I teach the tarot, I always default to the RWS deck, and it's got some interesting imagery when it comes to eclipses, especially the Moon card.
Now, I'm sure that some will say that the face on the Moon card in the RWS deck is just that; the face of the Moon. I want to take that further though. Some of the interpretations of the Moon card include
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.
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.
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.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...