New Deck Interview

Monday, June 14, 2010

I've never done a deck interview, so I took myself over to aeclectic.net and picked one out of the many offered by members there. I sat down with Shadowscapes, some incense, and had a chat. Here are my results, see what you think:

1. Tell me about yourself
Result: 4 of cups--isolated, self focused, introspective, narcissistic. Perhaps a good deck for growth of self, or reflection of inner states.

2. Strengths
Result: Queen of Wands--passionate, lyrical, attractive, draws you in, inspiring, confident, creative, feminine. Feels like the deck is very inspiring to creativity and spirituality, especially for women.

3. Limits
Result: Fool reversed--overconfident, foolISH, stagnant, rooted, careful, plodding. Deck might be a bit too cautious, not want to push the querent into harder territory.

4. What are you here to teach me?
Result: Page of pentacles--Deck has potential wisdom, to trust the earth and the messages received. To rise above difficulty, or to see difficulty as potential. You are a part of everything.

5. How can I learn and collaborate with you?
Result: 4 of pentacles--Selfish or greedy. Perhaps deck wants to be used for readings for self only, rather than be shared.

6. Potential outcome of our working relationship?
Result (this one made me giggle): Wheel of Fortune--eh, things always change anyway. Seems like the deck is telling me that it isn't the life changing sort, rather a companion for each turn of the wheel.

All in all, I interpreted this to mean that the deck will work better for personal readings than reading for other people. That it is clearly feminine and creative, passionate and engaged but not particularly pushy or daring. And that it remains staunchly committed to the 8 fold path ;)

So, I probably won't be reading much for others with this one, but I revel in its beauty and earthy spirituality all the same.

Dark Decks

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Note: Apparently I wrote this and failed to post it in October. My bad.

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain, everyone! In honor of the day (and also the fact that I just received my brand new Bohemian Gothic tarot), we're going to talk about "dark" decks.

There are thousands of different tarot decks out there, with imagery that will appeal to just about everyone. There are tarot decks devoted to cats, ferrets, and even (ugh) baseball. There are decks aimed at different cultures; Native American decks, Chinese decks, Norse decks. There are decks about angels, fairies, saints, and dragons.

I have two "dark" decks. One is the Deviant Moon.



This deck sometimes gives me the crawlies. The imagery is beautifully done, the art is amazing, and the deck stayed on my mind until I gave in and bought it. It's not really a horrifying deck; it's more just that the inhabitants of the deck are "different"- but if you look past the differences, they're living lives not much different from ours. The cards themselves are brightly colored; it's not the first thing you notice when you look at them, but eventually the thought creeps in... "These are oddly... cheerful."

This deck is different, and takes a definite turn from my other decks, but it is a walk in a sun-filled rose garden compared to my other dark deck- my brand new, deliciously creepy Bohemian Gothic.



This deck is, to put it plainly, creepy as hell. Some of the cards give me shivers- if you're interested and in the Halloween mood, go check out the Four of Wands on the Bohemian Gothic website. That card makes a chill crawl up my spine- and as my husband says, the really fantastic thing about this deck is that the images that really make you shudder are the ones that look the most benign. This deck isn't blood and gore horror, though- it's a more thoughtful kind of horror from a time when artists really understood that sometimes, true fear isn't about having zombies jump out at you and graphically eat your face off. (Have I mentioned that I REALLY hate horror flicks?) This deck is somehow over the top and subtle at the same time.

There are some decks that may not be described as "dark"- but that I won't touch with a ten foot pole. The Morgan Greer, while a favorite for many and not to different from some decks I do have (and love!), creeps me right out. It's that Devil card. The Barbara Walker literally makes my skin crawl.

There are other decks, far, far darker than the two I've profiled here. You can check out a great variety of dark decks at Aeclectic.

So why have dark decks? For some people, it's just what they're comfortable with. For me, it's about understanding that there is a balance of light and dark in the world, and in the people, around us. The fact that there is always another battle to fight, always another struggle on the horizon; the fact that people are NOT always fair, kind and just; the fact that most people are generally, at the heart of it, out for themselves- these are things I am finally learning to accept, and it's not easy.

Tarot is a reflection of life. Every card represents something that every person has experienced in some way. Change, heartbreak, growth, celebration- these are all universal experiences, and every different depiction of these experiences in different decks can teach you something different about that situation- a new angle to view it from.


(The Death Card image up there is from the Dark Tarot series by Tease Tarot. As far as I can figure, it's not an actual deck, simply the covers for a series of books- but if it is available as a deck, can someone please tell me where to buy it?)

Connection

Saturday, June 5, 2010


I keep talking about my tarot hiatus. In reality, it was more of a spirituality hiatus; I played a lot of video games and did really nothing else.

I'm ok with that. For whatever reason, a period of stasis was what I needed, and I am a firm believer in giving yourself what you need. (Also, I REALLY like video games.)

Coming back to the Tarot, however, has been an interesting experience. I expected to pick up a deck and be able to read with it the same way I could six months ago, and that's just not what is happening. I remember my book meanings, but the connection I had with my cards, the ability to hook into my intuition and see what the cards were really saying, is hard to tap into. It was a climb the first time, and I can already see it's going to be a climb again.

And I don't mind. In my earlier post about apples, I mentioned that I had immersed myself into tarot to the point where I wasn't really paying attention to anything else. I was excited about the journey and the possibilities; I was very much the Fool stepping off into a brand new adventure, never seeing the dangers or day-to-day concerns around him.

This time, I am more grounded and more aware. I am back on track to developing my spirituality, but in a slower, more careful way. More of the Eight of Pentacles in me this time, I think, than the Fool. And it's better, and I am happy with that.

Balance is good.

Hey a post! Shadowscapes

Friday, June 4, 2010


I know, I know, NaNoWriMo totally derailed my posting, and then... yeah. But I refuse to let pixels make me feel guilty!

Anyway.

My sweetie and I were discussing the "perfect" tarot deck some time ago, and we hatched the brilliant plan to create one from scratch. I'm not an artist by any means, so my plan was to scour the internets for images that spoke to me, and combine them into one self-use-only tarot deck. I was pretty excited about this, and I went searching for images right away. As soon as I found one I liked, I would save it to my hard drive and move on. After doing this for, oh, an hour or two, I realized something--nearly all the images I was saving came from one tarot deck. A then-unpublished tarot deck called Shadowscapes.

Problem thus solved, I settled in to wait for Shadowscapes to be published. I just received my copy about a week ago, and I absolutely love it.

The images call to me on a very spiritual, intimate level. Taking a leave from the more Christian-based imagery of the Rider-Waite, the artist instead draws from nature and fantasy to create images based in the four elements. The deck truly speaks to my woo-woo pagan nature, down to depicting the Hierophant as a treeman and Death as a phoenix rising from her own ashes.

The natural world crawls through the deck, even nature spirits like sylphs, dryads and dragons make an appearance.

I hope to do a deck interview and post the results here... as soon as I get a quiet moment, which during the summer with two crazy kids can be a challenge! So far the deck seems to give soft answers, gentle and spiritual rather than the more person-centered Mystic Dreamer I use often. I'm very excited to do more with Shadowscapes!

Image ©Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

 
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