New Blog Address

Well, a discussion of the Death card (which is about major change) seems an appropriate point to end this blog on. I've moved to a new address. If you're interested in hearing more stories about Tarot cards, maybe even sharing a few of your own, you can find me at: www.thetarotteaclub.wordpress.com.

Happy Blogging Everyone!

Death In Its Infinite Variety

My thoughts today are with the families and friends of those who have passed away during  the once-in-a-lifetime weather event happening along the U.S. east coast. So I thought I'd explore different types of death Tarot style. Keeping in mind that the Death card doesn't always mean someone is going to die. Far from it. But sometimes it does. Death during a freak event such as Hurricane Sandy would be represented as follows:

Death + The Tower: A sudden death caused by accident or misadventure.

Death+ The Fool: An unexpected death

Death + 10 Cups: Death at home with loved ones.

Death + 4 Swords: Dying in your sleep.

Death + The Hanged Man: Waiting for death to arrive.

Death + 5 Pentacles: Death of a poor person. Or death of someone with no belief in the afterlife.

Death + 10 Pentacles: Death that involves an inheritance.

Can you think of anymore possibilities?

The Tarot Of Frankenstorm (Or Any Natural Disaster For That Matter)

The Tarot cards that refer to a disaster of the scale of Frankenstorm come near the end of Life Lessons Tarot (otherwise known as the Major Arcana.) They are the heavy-hitters of the Tarot pack. The sequence of events might be summed up as follows:

The Devil: Living in denial. Refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a disaster of this magnitude. Refusing to allocate adequate funding/resources to provide safeguards. Refusing to leave your home when requested by the authorities.

The Tower: The storm.

The Star: Finding sanctuary. Our dazed state in the immediate aftermath of disaster. The angels who come to our rescue.

The Moon: The scumbags who take advantage of the chaos to commit crimes. The dark underbelly of civilisation revealed e.g. sewage and garbage spread throughout city streets. Nuclear power plants in meltdown endangering millions of lives (and up till now they seemed so harmless. Just a real pretty backdrop for our farmer's fields and cows, aw!)

The Sun: Rebuilding. Note: This can take years after severe events. A lifetime even.

Judgement: The government enquiries set up in the aftermath to decide what action should be taken to prevent injury to persons and property during like events in the future. Often just lip service. Thrusting us back to the card of The Devil. Then the whole deadly cycle begins anew with the next serious disaster. However if we did actually take meaningful action we'd move onto this card...

I wish any readers in the path of Frankenstorm well and hope you keep safe during this freak event. Let us know how you go (if you're up to it.) Cheers!

Would You Let Tarot Choose Your Mechanic?

I'm having a bit of car trouble. Earlier this year my old Holden began leaking coolant so I took it to my regular mechanic to have it fixed which cost me serious dollars.

Seven months later the same issue. This time I took it to someone else. The verdict: I need to spend some more serious dollars to keep the darn thing on the road.

This leaves me with a dilemma.

Should I take the car back to my original mechanic who knows it really well (even though he might not have done the best job last time)? Or should I take it to the second mechanic who worked out the problem (even though he's not a Holden specialist)? It's a toss of the coin. There's no way to know which choice is the better one. Either way I'm sure my dosh is done.

This is a perfect example of when consulting the old Agony Aunt In A Box can come in handy. When no one else can tell you the answer you can ask your intuition/inner voice/ gut instinct/angels/whatever to guide you via the cards.

The best spread for asking questions is the horseshoe spread. (I'll tell you how it works if you ask me to. You know how I love hearing from you guys.) So I've done a spread asking which mechanic I should choose. The answer was obtuse as usual but I think I worked it out.

In the 'What I Should Do' position is The High Priestess card meaning I should listen to my intuition. Gee thanks Tarot, pass the buck much? In the 'Outcome' position is the Ten of Wands meaning I should go with the one that will take more work on my part. That would be my original mechanic I guess who lives further away and is a pain in the arse to get to. Which backs up my first instinct when I learnt how much trouble my car was in which was to go back to him.

So be it. Fingers crossed it works out okay. I'll keep you posted, boom boom (you know, post as in tell and post as in blog, aw fuggedaboutit).

Would you let Tarot choose your mechanic?

An Ode To The Wheel Of Fortune

I think the following W. H. Auden poem beautifully encapsulates the yin and yang of the Wheel of Fortune card. I reproduce it here for your contemplation...

Musee des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,

The Old Masters; how well, they understood

Its human position; how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth, there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Note: Auden wrote this poem after a visit to the Musee des Beaux Arts in Brussels where he saw a painting by Breughel called 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus'. In Greek mythology Icarus is the man who flew on wings of feathers and wax too close to the sun whereupon the wax melted and Icarus fell into the sea where he drowned. In the painting several men and a ship go about their business ignoring Icarus's death in the background. Just as we can go about our daily activities not realising the pain our neighbours/workmates/loved ones may be in (or vice versa).

Can you see the connection with the Wheel of Fortune card? Please comment below.

Tarot: So Much More Than A Fortune Teller's Tool

I had a comment on my blog the other day (yay a comment!) asking me to predict somebody's fate, her doom even. I declined of course, being the non-psychic Tarot card reader that I am (As if I'd want to predict someone's doom anyway. What the?) As I've said before that's not what this blog is on about. I mean, yeah, sure, you can use Tarot cards to predict the future if you want (I keep warning you but that you can get into trouble if you do. Feel chained to a particular outcome. Mind you, that doesn't stop me doing it now and then, ha!) But as I cannot emphasise enough there is more to Tarot than that. Clearly the message needs to be hammered home with triple exclamation points: Tarot is so much more than a fortune teller's tool!!!

What kind of more you ask? Well, for starters...

It's an Agony Aunt In A Box for on the spot advice. Ever so useful if you are prone to panicking like me about everyday situations. It's a bit like asking one of those toy fortune telling balls 'Does he like me?' but with more reliable and detailed answers.

It's a language. One written in picture form like Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Both use images that can be interpreted in different ways according to context. This association with the ancient world makes Tarot kind of cool don't you reckon?

It's the ultimate story telling tool. Great for would-be novelists. Just chuck some cards in the air, see where they fall and make a story out of that. Or do what I do. Tell the news-of-the-moment using the cards.You can also use it to send secret messages in code. Say for example you're worried about your boss reading your emails at work, you could send a message to your loved ones in picture form e.g.

Ten of Wands: Am overloaded with jobs.

Ten of Swords: Feeling slaughtered.

The Star: Need to escape.

Three of Cups: Let's go have lunch.

Or simply:

Five of Swords: My workmate is being a prick right now!

It's a library. A repository of stories about the human condition. I feel like I'm reading you another chapter from the Great Book of Tarot as I write these posts each night. A little bedtime story for you (or wake-up story if you live on the other side of the world.)

It's a philosophy. This is perhaps my favourite thing about Tarot. There is a hidden book of life lessons written in the Tarot cards e.g. Tarot says you can't feel truly at peace unless you're contributing to the wider community in some way. (This message comes from the placement of the Judgement card just before The World.)

Can you think of anything else it could be used for?

The Tarot Of T.G.I.F.

I had that darn Katy Perry song 'Last Friday Night' stuck in my head for months this year. You know, the one that has a chorus singing T.G.I.F. T.G.I.F. T.G.I.F. louder and louder. Well, after a week back at work, I couldn't agree with that lyric more. So just for fun I thought I'd explore the Tarot of Thank God It's Friday.

This is how I normally feel by Friday...

The Ten of Swords i.e. Slaughtered.

This is how I feel when the school bell rings on Friday afternoon...

The Fool i.e. The world is at my feet (or the weekend at least.) Yee-ha!

This is what I do on Friday night...

The Three of Cups i.e. Celebrate. Although while Katy is dancing on tabletops and drinking shots my idea of a great time is lying in bed with a good book and a cup of tea. Maybe a bit of catching up on TV over the internet if I really want to live on the wild side, lol (I know, I know, I lol way too much but I find life hilarious, that is, when it's not giving me panic attacks.)

This is the gift the weekend offers...

The Star i.e. A holiday from responsibility. A retreat to the sanctuary of home (or pub, whichever!)

Can anyone relate?