What Card for December?

I have indeed been lax in posting and I shall not go into the vagaries of my life.  Instead, I will consider what jumps to mind here in the twelfth month of the year right before Solstice.  The Hanged Man (or Woman as the case may be.  More on that later.)

The last month of the year is the perfect time to consider what has come before, what worked, what didn't, what was expected, what didn't manifest and how to look forward into 2014 with a sense of grace with arms wide open.

So, here are some Hanged Man cards.  Many of them I do not know the deck from which they swing.  But the feeling of letting go is always apparent.  Release.  Accept. Be calm.  Meditative.  Surrender.

The Peaceful Path Tarot

 Cat's Eye Tarot is one of my favorites.  Real cat positions, 

not felines dressed to match the traditional image.

Traditional Rider Waite Hanged Man

Unique image from unknown deck.

Animals Devine tarot deck

The Sun & Moon Tarot Deck

I love this deck!  The artwork is playful and intuitive.

Victorian Faerie Tarot Deck

I love this art work.  This is on my wish list!!!

Tarot of the 78 Doors

Blessed Solstice, Darlings!

The Light will return and the cards will turn.

Join Us!!!

In honor of Veteran's Day

SpeakEasy 12 poets look at War

Free Admision

Join us!

World Peace Poets present Read-In! Write-On! event this Saturday, November 9, 2013

Join us for international poets, youth poets and an open mic.

St. James Presbyterian Church

Bellingham, Washington

worldpeacepoets@gmail.com

Rotarota: Tea & Tarot

One day when I was having a hair cut, my stylist said she was taking a tarot class.  Immediately we began a conversation that continues to this day.  Art, beauty, life interpretation, nuance, curiosity and what-do-you-think-this-card-means? comments.  She asked if I would start teaching.  No.  That's what I said for a few years.

She was as persistent as I was.  Then it became clear to me that it wasn't about teaching but guiding, allowing each person to find their own truth in a card's image.  No, we don't toss out the books.  We just set them aside while we delve into our own experiences and begin to create a bridge to the subconscious with truths that reflect our connection to a higher self.

That's how the study group Rotarota: Tea & Tarot began.  This month we had our first featured tarot artist, working on a new deck.  (Of course there will be a new deck!!!  We always want one!)  (Just one more.)  Gordana Curgus is the artist.  The accompanying book will be by Judyth Sult.

Photo by Gordana Curgus

The study group card of the month was The Hanged Woman (or Man as the case may be).  With divine synchronicity it was the card that Gordana had just completed.  We were most honored to have her present two versions of the card and talk about the process.

Number Twelve, The Hanged One

This is the second card that Gordana produced for the Hanged Man.  The first one, more traditional, did not suit writer Judyth Sult's perception of the card.  Here half of the infinity sign surrounds an androgynous figure.

My focus is that you know everything you need to know.  You just don't know it.  No, it's not an original concept.  I learned it from a spiritual sculptor in the '60s, Riva Bruns at the Yucaipa School of Creative Arts.

Long ago when I lived in Colorado, writer/artist Rachel Pollack came to a tarot group I hosted there.  To see the original artwork is a great honor, to understand the back story from the creative point of view, expands awareness of the card.

What deck are you working with today?  Use a magnifying glass and see if you missed anything.  In this group, we have half a dozen magnifying glasses on the table and many different decks.  Have fun with your cards.  And may we all send out gratitude to the creative process and the creation of a deck.

Bright blessings this day!!!

Malachite

This striped beauty may appear common but its attributes are anything but common.

Malachite

(Photo credit:  Hall of Minerals)

Turn to the Stone People to help many life situations.  Malachite is considered beneficial to enhance the immune system, to reduce the stress of arthritis, to assist in reducing tumors, to alleviate torn muscles, to strengthen and repair broken bones.

Also look to Malachite for toothache (place externally.  Use polished stones.  Malachite dust is considered toxic.)

Gum infections and sinus blockages are also helped by Malachite.

Look to Malachite for emotional stability, to resist emotional abuse and blackmail and encourage healthy relationships based on self respect and self love not need.

Chakra:  Heart

Malachite can help daily living by neutralizing some of the effects of modern life:  place a tumbled Malachite near the microwave or TV.  Place a stone on or near your computer.  It also reduces the effects of fluorescent lighting and harmful rays of technological equipment.

Tuck a thumb stone in your pocket when traveling if you have fear of flying.  "What's in your pocket?" a TSA agent will ask me.  "Oh, I forgot," and I hand over a collection of stones.  I'll remember Malachite on my next flight.  Usually I call in Archangel Michael. Archangel Raphael is also a good traveling companion.

Malacite invites you to let go of the past and move forward toward your intention.

This emerald/grass green striped helper is associated with Viking goddess Freyja.

Depressed?  Hold onto a Malachite palmstone as you work through the source of depression and find a way to release it.

Whisper your darkest fears to Malachite and let the stone transmute them to the trees, to the Moon, dissolved to your greatest and highest good.

When Do You Pick Up Your Tarot Deck?

The sun is bright above and you're heading out for your favorite beach.  Do you take a tarot deck with you?
Perhaps tuck it in your suitcase?  Or if you're driving, do you have a back-up deck in your glove compartment?

Do you think of the cards when everything is Pollyanna bright and life is good?  Or do you only wonder how you can get out of this dilemma and that's the moment you think about your tarot deck(s)?

What card did you draw?

One friend draws a single card each morning and meditates on it, writes down the images and uses this process to understand her day better.

If you're a fair weather friend to tarot, that's fine.  However, if you use the cards daily, the images will assist you more readily when you are in crisis.

For today, I send you bright blessings of Lughnassadh!

Tarot Alert

Do you have a favorite deck?  What?  You've used one deck for 24 years?  Battered corners, eh?  Well, quick, while there's still time.  The Gaian Tarot deck published by Llewellyn is going out of print.  Very few copies remain.

I had the pleasure of hearing Joanna Powell Colbert talk about her deck on Friday night (7.12.13) at the Stone Moon in Bellingham, Washington.  Joanna's deep understanding of tarot combined with her detailed artwork present new images for a current realtiy.  (How many pages and knights do you know?  Don't count those friends in  the Society for Creative Anachronisms.)

Joanna Powell Colbert presents the Gaian Tarot at the Stone Moon.

Quick.  Call your local metaphysical book store and get a copy while they're still available.  This is a deck that is bound to resurface in the future.  Better to have a copy now.  The questions alone that the cards ask are insightful and encourage the reader to pursue the answer rather than reading a standard interpretation.

What card are you sleeping with tonight?

How Do You Chose a Tarot Deck?

The Wheel is Spinning

 What draws you to a deck?

o

Do you read the interpretations first?

Or is it the artwork you find irresistible?

Both the words and the art pull me.

But I start with the visual image.

I look at friend's decks.

 I look on line and sometimes 

don't even know what deck I see.

It used to be possible to go into a 

metaphysical store and look at every card

in a deck.

They'd have sample decks.  I haven't

seen that in years.

 It was a pricey investmennt for

a book store.

Some places now keep their

decks locked in glass cases.

The cards tell us

that things change.

I am content with the decks I use.

But quickly I can 

fall into covet mode

and yearn for a new deck.

Do you have one card you always

look at in a new deck?

I look at my personality card:

The Star.

And I look at

the Ten of Swords.

Have fun discovering

your first deck 

or your twenty first deck!

Your Birthday and the Tarot

Unveiling the Arcana

Wind blows steady, jumping over lacy ocean waves.  Rain drops fall slow and dot the sand like a dappled leopard.  Cold sand slips in and out of my gold sandals.

            “”Hey, Ma, you like to make friends,” one of my children says and points to people gathered around a roaring fire at dusk.

            “Sure,” I say, “I’ll just go say ‘hi’, introduce myself and ask ‘what's your birthday?’”

            My children laugh.  They know me.  They’ve seen me do this before.  But not tonight.  We stash driftwood for a fire later when we come back to check on high tide.

            The question lingers.  Tell me your birthday, I’ll tell you patterns that likely apply to your current reality.  Everyone wants to know more about her/himself.  So, it is an easy way to make new friends.  It is only a suggestion, a possibility of what might be going on beneath the surface of your life.

            You add the month and day together.

            Example for March 7^th:

                        3

                ____7____

                        10

            Then you add the current year:

                        10

               ___2013___

                     2023 = 7  The Chariot

            Voila, a peek into a life pattern, a part of the Constellation of The Chariot, offering personality unfoldment. 

            We walk up the path to the cottage as the glowing disk of sun dives into Neptune’s lair.  I scrounge around the bottom of my suitcase and find one of my travel tarot decks:

            Secret Tarot:  Tarot secreto by Lo Scarabeo.

            With Summer Solstice in sight, I can only think of The Sun, XIX, a rather non-traditional image in this deck.  A brilliant sun fills the upper half of the card, two young boys, naked and contemplating (actually, it seems that one has a cell phone.  I don’t have my magnifying glass to see what is being studied.)  There is a flair of Gemini in this card, a reminiscence of The Lovers, and a hint of duality that takes us through the Major Arcana.

            Two aspects of The Fool coming through the vicissitudes of the previous cards.  There is an innocence and clarity here, as the promise of nature reveals itself in the full sunshine.  It is here that The Fool sparkles in the brilliance of The Sun and senses the connection with all things, where the outcome is clear and joy is a reality.

            As Summer rides in on a horse and wanders in the garden, celebrate your Fool.  Share your tarot with someone new.  You might be surprised at who’s very interested but didn’t know who to ask.  Tarot is out of the closet.  There are more decks than we can imagine.  Find one that suits how you’re feeling now.

            A thousand bright and joyful summer blessings to you!!!

C.J. Prince received a call from the mermaids who tend the waters at Haystack Rock.  Back in Bellingham, Washington, she considers another deck to study the dance of the pearl moon and the 78 archetypes to freedom.

Catching My Breath, by co-author C.J. Prince is available at The Stone Moon, Village Books and Amazon.   One of the main characters receives a tarot reading. 

Reprinted from The Stone Moon newsletter.

 .

Walk in Beauty

Ceiling at Chihuly Glass Museum, Seattle Center

Look up, look down, walk in a circle.  May there be only beauty.  Of course the eye will register the unkind, the rude, the unacceptable.  But what will the heart internalize?  

I do not think this when I get up at 2 AM, a goddess-less hour to rise, though quite acceptable to retire.  Yet it is required this night and Capricorn steadies to the task at hand.  As I drive down the quiet road, mist and rain keep me alert.  On the S curve I sense and then see another who is out in the early hours.  I slow and stop and focus. A large owl swivels her head briefly and returns to her catch.  I stay, transfixed, on the lonely night road, watching until she flies beneath cedars and out of sight.

While I might have been caught in the grumble of early rising, I was instead transformed by the beauty waiting in an unexpected place.  Later there were three deer and a charming young woman serving chai at Cruisin' Coffee.

I am guided by #17, The Star.  It is good to be out at night and connecting to Sirius or any star beings or nightly creatures.  I am blessed.  To you, the same.

Who's Fool?

Where is the Fool?  S/he pops up when I'm feeling foolish, of course.  Or when I observe another.  Or when I'm starting something new.  Or when I feel inadequate.  But which fool?

No matter the image, the sense of change, abandon, adventure appears on each card.

I do not know this deck with the Fool urged on by a cat but I find it enchanting.

Cats usually present me with the unexpected.  (Like the one purring in my lap right now.)

This Fool is more reminiscent of the familiar dog in Rider Waite Smith. 

Except I see this dog pulling rather than nudging.

I saw this Fool on Facebook and searched, trying to find the deck.

It seems that it is part of a deck used in a TV show and only the cards needed

have been created and is not available to the public.

Nevertheless, I like the image, the flirting toe testing the next reality.

Ah, the intellectual Fool.  

I do not have the names of the decks, unfortunately.  Sometimes people send me Fools or I find them in unexpected places.  Just remember that the Fool is always sacred.  

What new adventure are you embarking upon?  What deck are you using?  Ask for the Fool's sacred wisdom.