Natalia Lee

A nest of sorts

  • On Tarot Aesthetics

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    Firstly, I want to share and in a way verbalize my thoughts about certain aspects of tarot spurred after watching Kelly-Ann Maddox’s new video.

    I want to talk about the tarot in relation to color politics and dynamics, or better said in relation to people of color.

    Essentially, in its core or heart, tarot transcends issues of color, imperialism, and gender. The reader approaches the cards and reads in them the full aspect and spectrum of life. This spectrum does not necessarily deal with the previously mentioned issues. What it does deal with are metaphysical, spiritual, material, ambitious, vile and destructive aspects of life. Our everyday physical and non-physical life. The visible and the invisible. What goes on inside and outside of our selves. Therefore, tarot is not in essence concerned with the divisive issues that humanity itself has built up, that humanity itself has constructed.

    With that said, there is a historicity to tarot, its roots, where it sprung from that links it to issues of economic and cultural strata. I am not a tarot historian in any way, and I could very well be mistaken in this, please correct me if I am, but tarot sprung up in specific spheres of society, and these spheres were not poor, nor the minority. These underpinnings come with the historicity of tarot but it by no means diminishes the power and transcendence of tarot. Given these underpinnings tarot has a specific look, the classic tarot, and it is beautiful and I certainly do not pretend to suggest that that should change. Classic, historical decks are of immense value. They are eternal and enduring and important.

    What I want to address here are the new decks coming out, the new decks being created. I feel there should be a re-visioning of our communal perspective in regards to tarot and the images and archetypes depicted therein. Our current postmodern hyperreal global world is immensely diverse, and this diversity, as opposed to being limited in its visibility is increasingly visible. Newer generations are able to interact with and see the whole spectrum of diversity that abides on this planet. Given this “progress”, the tarot community should address the diversity and the multifarious nature of it all. We should be open to different perspectives of seeing eternal archetypes, and open to representing these perspectives in an honest manner.  By honest manner, I mean including people of color, including the minority, the outsiders, and the disenfranchised without objectifying nor “exotifying” (yes, I made that word up) these people and their respective culture.

    I have thought about this issue on and off for a while now, as I look at the decks I have and love. I remember one specific occasion in which this issue reared its head. I had ordered the Golden Universal, seeking to bridge a connection with the classic RWS, a deck I do not connect with at all. Unboxing it, I was really excited, anxious to see it, shuffle it and play with the cards. As I flipped through the cards, I was struck by the predominance of blonde people. I know the RWS is a classic deck and I am not suggesting it should change, what I am addressing are the choices behind the re-visioning of this deck by the publisher. I would have been happy with a couple brown haired people. If I recall correctly, I might be wrong, but the original RWS did not have so many blondes. Again, these are just opinions.

    In the beginning of my tarot journey, I was immensely drawn to black and white decks, stark and monochrome. Hence, my first deck was the Hermetic Tarot. From then onward, I have grown to include more variety and color in my decks, and I love all of them and the ones on my wishlist. I love Tarot for all it is, all it brings to the table, its many uses in life both visible and invisible life. I love all it stands for and all the creative endeavors that have sprung up from the inspiration of the 78 cards.

    I am not sure if my point has been transmitted clearly, if I even make sense to the outside reader. But I do want to clarify before ending that I am just one humble person, giving my very humble and, in many ways, naive opinion. I do not pretend to be an expert in any way, shape or form.

  • Dailies

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    I’ve been feeling a little out of sync lately and decided today to do a compass spread, I stumbled upon it while perusing the forums in aeclectic.com a few days ago. I liked the spread and wrote it down so I could try it later. Today is later, so here it is:

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    It was a bit difficult to photograph because of the size.

    I didn’t have a clear question formulated, I have found myself preferring doing spreads that way, just letting the cards speak for themselves. I simply channeled my current energies, my thoughts, desires and worries and let the cards speak to me. What I found was a reiteration of balance, direction and prudence. The cards were telling me to weigh my actions, my thoughts, and my ambitions, to be prudent in my spending, to follow my vision without faltering and to be honest with loved ones.

    I have also begun including runes in my readings and they have worked marvelously.

    I definitely need to pay attention to my physical world, to my actions and how I spend my time, my thoughts and my money. This spread could not be more clear on balance and prudence, especially since big changes are coming this summer with the move.

  • Dailies

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    I was perusing the Aeclectic forum yesterday and stumbled upon some amazing spreads, one of which is somewhat inspired by the I Ching, the Dynamic Hexagram spread. It is about change and transformation, I found the spread very compelling and I decided to try it. Here is it:

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    The words that came to mind were, unity, release and directed purpose. There was no clear question phrased prior to laying the cards, I just thought about changes and sort of channeled my current energies into the cards. The reading certainly did not disappoint. I feel that with all the things that are going on at the moment coupled with the things I want to ‘manifest’ or bring about, the message here is perfect. The cards seem to be a reflection of what is going on both internally and externally. The last three closing cards really seal the message for me, this is where the words came into my mind, unity (The Lovers), release (reversed Devil), directed purpose (reversed Knave of Wands).

    As always Tarot is a wonderful journey, and I love seeing my thoughts, and inner and outer world contextualized.

    I will be continuing my literary journey posts, so if anyone out there like them, there will be more of them to look forward to.

     

  • New purchases

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    It seems I have been purchasing more decks than I have been reading lately… A little bit of both is true. Today I caved and purchased a Marseille deck by Fournier at my local botanica. I have been wanting a Marseille deck for a while, recently finding myself craving a more intuitive read, by intuitive I mean free of esoteric information, whether astrological, kabalistic and everything else in between. Not that those decks are bad, and neither do I dislike them. On the contrary, I love esoteric decks, I have a couple. Yet, I have been craving a pared down landscape in my decks, where I just let my mind whirl in the space provided by the cards, led by words and pure associations and what not. I don’t know anything about the Marseille tradition, other than the basics, that it is one of the oldest tarot traditions and that the pips are not illustrated.

    I had already seen and played around with the deck but I let it go opting instead for the Crystal Tarot. Now when I opened this deck at home and shuffled the cards it was pure beauty, they felt perfect in my hands, supple and soft. There are several versions out there but most of them, from what I have seen, have a lot of white space and more defined faces. The deck I purchased has a sepia tint, the colors are a bit off and the faces are a bit haphazard, and I love it exactly like that. Truthfully, the white spaces in the other Marseille decks weren’t appealing to me, this one instantly attracted my eye because of its weird off coloring. And the backs are beautiful. To say the least, I am in love. I did a little interview spread I got from sevencardspread that has worked wonderfully for me in the past. Here it is:

    You can see the off coloring in the pictures. I got 2 of cups, the high priestess, the emperor, 7 of cups, reversed king of swords, 5 of cups. Basically, this is one heck of an intuitive, and free-flowing deck. And I will be able to get exactly what I was looking for from it. The reading was so great, it just felt like something I needed. All about the inner world, the shadow world, intuition, emotions, the spirit.

    I must admit I have been eyeing Tarot of the Holy Light for quite a few months now, a continental tradition style deck loaded with esoteric information, alchemy, kabalah, astrology and all the powers. It is a breathtaking deck, one I really, really think I want. But a part of me tells me that this is not something I need right now, more work. I have my studies, my rune work, my magical workings, my literature, my kabalistic studies and Norse mythology reading. Basically, I have enough to study right now, maybe by the end of this year, when things ease a bit I can really dig into that wonderful, breathtaking deck. In the meantime, this Marseille does not disappoint and I am very satisfied.

    Here are a couple more pictures of the back and the box:

     

    ps. I probably spelt kabalah wrong.