Imagine a round wooden table inside a warm and cozy kitchen with a small window over the sink. A billowing fire burns in the fireplace on the right wall. The table is worn with scuff marks, as are the 3 chairs that surround it. Fresh flowers sit on the windowsill, half empty cups lie about the table, a couple of small lit candles illuminates a pack of playing cards, disordered and facing up. The smell of coffee, bread and liquor permeate the kitchen. It is night, the kitchen is small, and low music wafts in from another room.
This is what I like to invoke mentally when I sit before a pack of cards, while calling on their history as a game of risks and trick-taking. I love the cards for their simplicity and directness, for their capacity to play tricks and in so doing revealing the permutations of truth. I love the cards in their barest form, when they speak of the mundane, disclosing the magic in the everyday, conjuring the possibilities, a chimera. As Nietzsche asserts in his essay, On Truth and Lie,
Truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.
… I want to explore these truths, the truths we tell ourselves and with which we construct our realities, and through this exploration extract ego and identity from the questions posed to the cards. When the ego is extracted from the question, one gains a position of clarity, from this pivotal position, the answer we seek has the exact precision we need so that the unconscious is made conscious. We gain clarity along with perspective.
As I continue to form my cartomantic narrative, I know that herein lies the crux, this is the card reader I aspire to be. Simple and precise. Le Bateleur in all his incarnations, before his table, with his tools, ready to regale you, to entice you, to elevate, as above so below and vice versa. All this while sitting round a kitchen table, quotidian, a cup of black coffee on one hand and the potential of a pack of cards in the other hand.
Decks used: Le Tarot Noir by Matthieu Hackiere, and Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot by Paul Huson.
This post is about the art of finding and tapping into the flow.
I have been thinking lately about magic, namely, how to live a magical life. Now I don’t mean the spacey, ceremonial, casting circles, cloak wearing magic. Let it be known there is nothing wrong with that magic. Here, I simply mean the magic of being present, connected to the flow that goes beyond words, the spiritual mumbo jumbo that goes on behind the words and the ceremony. How does one live this magical, open, detached life of truly seeing and being?
As a mother to a toddler, I constantly find myself stripping the moments of ceremony and ritual, leaving only the bones, the essence. I often wonder about the “correctness” of this. Then I look at my son and laugh at my pretensions, there is no right and wrong, there is only being and participating, being in attendance as Camelia Elias said recently in one of her Patheos articles, or sustained devotion. Time often eludes and constricts me, and I am reminded constantly that time is a construct, step outside that to participate in the flow, in the being present, this is where the magic is. From this position of magic is where I want to live a magical life, a life that is present, in attendance, and devoted, where I am connected to the flow that was, is, and is becoming.
Deck used: Ancient Italian Tarot published by LoScarabeo (a Soprafino Tarot variant)
Here the six is is in the suit of passion, heart, love, and desire, speaks of following the ebb and flow of the magical waters. Of being present at all times, detached from strictures and formulations. Here the cups form a beautiful pathway of cyclical movement as the flowers in the center go both ways, above and below. The cycle of nature. This is a card of balance and cycles, of pathways opening and of renewal. As I think on the movement of this card, I learn a bit more about tapping into the magical life. One must be present in the cycles of nature, while aware of the definitions and formulations we latch on to magical constructs and ideas. From a position of awareness we can detach from the excesses we accumulate with words and limitations in our daily lives, and in doing so we tap into the magic of the flow, by sustaining our devotion stripped of pretensions. Being in attendance like the flowers within the stream of magic that moves in the 6 cups.
Deck used: Ancient Italian Tarot published by LoScarabeo (a Soprafino variant)
Deck: Jean Noblet TDM, restored by Jean-Claude Flornoy. Artwork from The Cosmic Bicycle by Sätty.
Well, this past week was one hell of a week. And by that I mean, it was tough. A convergence of conflated emotions. As the week came to a close, all I kept thinking about was the collective, how to care for the disenfranchised, for the left behind, for the cast aside, how to emphasis the importance of community and unity. Especially when it seems like the world and its rulers are insistent on division and individual selfishness, each one for her/him self.
It turns out this week’s card is the 5 of cups. Fives are for the body, we have 5 limbs no? The 5 of cups highlights the water aspect of the body. The emotions, pleasures, feelings as we interact with the outside world. It can be read as merrymaking, enjoyment, and also nurture. Inebriation perhaps, if coupled with the 10 of cups.
With these qualities in mind, today, this card leads me to the questions:
How are we nurturing our bodies in times of stress? How are we conveying this nurturing to the body that is the community?
I say this because oftentimes we all go about our daily lives, giving little or no thought to those that suffer, human beings, animals, and the planet earth. The suffering that is outside our individual life. I am guilty of this. Sometimes, there is a reminder that takes us out of ourselves, outside of our narrow focus. When this happens, this is true for me, my heart breaks, my soul hurts. This quickly turns into frustration as I feel my impotence, my minuscule efforts. How do I find pleasure, enjoyment in myself in the face of everything that goes on around me? I hope we all learn to answer these questions, and to explore the many nuances of the answers. There might be hope in detachment, but I find that there is more hope in the fight, in our innate instincts for survival. And this is where the crux lies, as all the machinations of this current world endeavor to take the fight out of our hands, to distract us, to make us forget.
I am making no rallying call for fighting nor revolution. I merely suggest that we explore our lives, and how we live it.
As I think about the 5 of cups, I ask the cards for guidance, How do I go beyond my impotence to be present for the heart and soul of the community?
Deck used: Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille, restored by Jean-Claude Flornoy. Artwork from The Cosmic Bicycle by Sätty.
Re-examine and reinvent my concept of action and work within and for the community, remembering to to get involved in the collective. With my sweat and hard-work, to help with my sword raised, ready to fight, to be present, never giving up. Look at all those batons, look at that raised sword. This is all about fighting, sweating, exerting myself. I hope everyone is blessed, and that we all move closer rather than more apart.
Well, I went ahead and bit the bullet, so to speak. I opened up a little shop on Etsy for tarot readings. It took quite a lot of back and forth on my part, debating whether I was ready or not. For better or worse, I feel ready, so here goes… Here’s hoping the odds are always in my favor. Meanwhile, I am going to continue with my installments of the cards. Except today I want to talk about the suits and how I see them. I should have probably written this from the beginning, before starting my card by card observations, but before I go any further, what better day than today to talk about the suits. See this, to know know what I am referring to with the card installments.
Before I delve in, I have to say that there are two big influences on these correspondences, or views, of mine. The first is the now-defunct Dawn Jackson’s Hedgewytchery method, and the second is Camelia Elias’s cunning method, more specifically her book Marseilles Tarot: Towards the Art of Reading. I did a review of the book not too long ago, I highly recommend it. What really made the suits sing for me, and tied everything together, was Dawn Jackson’s method. Unfortunately, her method as described on her site is no longer available because her site is no longer around. Her method is for playing cards. Before I get sidetracked, I want to talk about the suits. Also, I must add that I do not associate any astrological nor esoteric, Golden Dawn, correspondences to the suits, nor to the Trumps. This is plain old cartomancy reading style.
Coins: The coins exist in the realm of transactions, money and means. With money we acquire things, we transact, we exchange, we get to places. Money is kept close to you, in your pocket or purse. It is quick, think “Wall Street”, and it is electric. Hence, I view the coins as agile, astute, sharp. Mental prowess, and intellect, belongs to the coins, a quick mind, alert and clever, knows when to make a transaction that benefits. Coins are fire, cold calculated fire. And the season to which it belongs is Spring.
Cups: Cups are the slowest of the suits, and as the image alludes to, it is liquid, water. Herein falls family, friends and love. All things pertaining to the heart, to water, to the soft part of ourselves. It flows like water, and sometimes it takes time to reach its goal, to know what the heart wants. Cups are also celebratory in the sense that one drinks with cups, so I think of friendly gatherings, family reunions, dates, spending time with loved ones. Within the suit of cups one sees the progression of love in all its manifestations. This suit is about feeling. The season to which it belongs to is Summer.
Batons: These are about work and projects. Think of trees, they are cut for wood to make things, things that have been planned, to build houses, furniture, etc. Either to sell or for living, or both. As the wood originates from trees that grow tall and strong and reach the sky, batons are associated with air. These are quicker in movement than both cups and coins. Batons can also be used for defending oneself, but I generally give the suit of swords this task, of defending. These talk about work, work situations, work partners, possible plans, career growth and expansion. With the suit of batons, the way in which we move in the working world and our interactions are displayed. This suit is about doing. The season here is autumn.
Deck used: Isis Tarot de Marseille 2010, Japan.
Swords: This is the fastest of all the suits, quick and cutting. I think of swords as starting from mineral base, from the earth. We mine the minerals, refine and forge swords with them. With these forged weapons, we defend ourselves as well as conquer outside of ourselves. War. Generally, this suit displays the tribulations we traverse through life, tribulations that help us grow and that refine us further into a better person. This suit is about learning through hardship, pain, loss, and tears. The season here is winter.
I know this is a brief overview of how I see the suits, but this is the foundation. From here onward I read the suits as they interact with each other, and the Trumps.
As we enter the realm of swords, Winter, perhaps we should ask the cards to illustrate in what ways we have grown, for the better, through hardship?
Natalia Lee 