Tarot inspired territory where images are read, rhymed or just talked about
You’ve never had so many golden coins in your life!
Now get on your horse and cut to the chase.
Your planets are aligned to claim the crown.
You can’t buy your way to the throne.
But before inflation steals your entire fortune,
You can gamble your chips away in the Queen’s tavern.
Does astrology enrich the meaning of Tarot cards or does it distract from the self sufficient complete system that can stand on its own very well, thank you? Perhaps the baby gets thrown out with the bath water in both extremes I believe.
I prefer my cards not “peppered” especially when I disagree with given associations. Similarly, most of the time I read with cards as I see them and let them speak for themselves. Can they speak for themselves and stand on their own? Sure!
But they are not necessarily isolated. Archetypes overlap considerably. Case in point – Moon. Do we really imagine highly educated artists and engravers unaware of the astrological (call it poetic or psychological ) moon? Like “looney”, “lunatic”, moody? Feminine (yin, magnetic, inner bound)? Luminous? Caring? Silent? To study astrological moon one would do good to themselves to read Japanese poetry, for example. Japanese has the word Ma which used to be spelled as Moon shining thru the (opening in the ) door and means the space or time or silence (in which things reside or sounds or notes are played). And so this is not diminishing the beauty of the Moon card, it adds to that.
Is Tarot Moon identical to astrological Moon – it doesn’t have to be. Was Moon card (some say depicting an eclipse, another astrologically significant indicator) in part inspired by all the lore around the Moon (including astrology) – most definitely.
I think part of the issue is that centuries ago astrology was baked into everyday life. Not every farmer was an astrologer of course, but perhaps many read the farmers almanac. Great William Lilly used to write for farmer’s almanac in-between readings for royalty and writing astrological treatises.
I rest my case. As you can see I love both astrology and tarot and it pains me when one is misused or denied altogether 🙂
Trying to gage hurricane Henry impact on NYC two days in advance. Still unpredictable, but can grow very significantly in power and present unexpected turns and surprises.
The question was whether reading with full deck or major arcana is more effective and why. I used full deck to see what each method offers.
Row 1 (nature of reading with a full deck) seems to be a precisely powerful unifying balanced approach that keeps me interested and reading well .
Row 2 (nature of reading with trumps only) seems to tilt the scales a bit, wouldn’t you say? But of course it too is super charged with all these swords ⚔️ 🗡. Maybe a bit too charged for my taste.
Thanks to Wilfried Houdouin and Yves Reynaud for this fantastic Tarot de Marseille Millennium deck. It never disappoints and it is so pleasant to look at and work with. Link http://tarot-de-marseille-heritage.com/english/catalogue_millennium2017.html
To Mozart the game of Tarot was one of the favorite pastimes. It could probably be compared to video games of today played with friends and strangers, except it was commonly played not only in taverns or private houses, but also in theaters before and/or after the show.
This copy of Miller 1780 is most likely the same design as cards played by maestro himself. We may never know if he ever used it for cartomancy, or if it enticed his imagination to enrich his compositions or operas, but we do know about his passion for the game.
My newly arrived copy was created by inimitable artist, art historian, expert consultant and teacher Giordano Berti. I’d like to share his recent comment on the look and feel of the cards that I found quite musical:
Sometimes someone says to me: “Hey Berti, why your Tarot cards look so old? Why don’t you have the cards laminated?”
Every time I have to explain my philosophy.
I hate plastic. It breaks my heart to see oceans and beaches full of plastic. OK? I don’t dispute who produces plastic cards. I just don’t like plastic cards. And I don’t like plastic cards. for environmental reasons only.
Mine is a work of love for history. I want RINASCIMENTO decks to look like antique decks, faithful in color and size. But it is not just an aesthetic fact.
I want to give the physical sensation of having an ancient deck in hand as faithfully as possible. For this I searched for a very special, rare and expensive paper. This cardstock is very similar to the old cotton paper.
Many people, after they started using the RINASCIMENTO decks, write me to tell the sensations they felt: warmth, softness, naturalness and a particular inspiring energy.
And the music that comes out of non-laminated cards … listen to it! Plastic cards do “prrrrrr”. Ancient cards do “fruuuisch” … a sound that caresses the heart.
This is my great satisfaction. I am happy to make people happy …. and not to pollute the world .. at least, the world of Tarot. I do my duty like that too. 🙂
What of this wonderful day? This is a day of love, sharp wit and magical reunions.
Let’s invite new people to the table. You got to roll the dice to win. Boom. Was it wine or lightening that lit up the tree? In the large scheme of things you are famous – irreplaceable and indispensable – so have another drink on the house!
To help our whale friends (and because we could) we messed with the whalers and fooled them.
We appeared as a bolt from the blue and outsmarted them, we cut their virtual nets and got out intact.
Together, as a team, we taunted them, drove them mad and thus we threw magic seeds into their souls, on a good soil.
One of my favorite things in Tarot, especially Tarot de Marseille and similar, is “eye rhymes” – a kind of moving poetry in flowing images where one can follow similarities (“rhymes”), fill in the blanks with context and see the story unfold. Each time one looks one can see a different story. Is it past and future meeting in the present as two rivers meet in the ocean? Is it getting out of the shell and braving genuine direct experience to turn your world upside down? Is it a birth? A lifetime?
Or is it a COVID released by animals to turn everything on its head and suspend us in midair, inviting us to take a look at our world and ourselves in it??? That would be a remarkable story to tell in 9/12/2019 when I pulled the cards. That was when I took a class with Enrique Enriquez – a brilliant tarot reader, master teacher and an amazing genuine poet.
I had so much fun just pulling cards and reading, my baby moves and his fluid play. To protect my fragile ego I told myself that this method shall be secondary for me, perhaps to stretch my limits, a practice of sorts. What I didn’t know was that a curious seed was planted. My “upside down” side got the spotlight it was longing for. That too can be a plot in these three cards posted exactly a year ago.
A golden flower has nine lives. Cut eight times it grows back even stronger. But the ninth time is the charm – it turns into an elixir of life.
New life begins, filled with meaningful choices and wholesome integrity. Hail the King, the ruler with soul that inspires just deeds.
Tarotoria 