'Blu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-e! ' (with apologies to LeeAnn Rimes)

And here's the deck. It's not finished yet, but I think it's going to look okay. I feel the need to serenade it.

Celtic Tarot, with super slow drying royal blue pigment ink

(Cue the music...)

'Three o'clock in the mornin'...
You're still not dry
I started this project
Now I'm wonderin' why
ohhhhh
Blu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-ue! Oh so inky from you
Why did you get bluuuue...all over...meeee?'

Colouring the Edges of my Celtic Tarot

I don't feel I need to go any further with the Gaian, as I've decided against trimming the borders. To me, it's a tarot. I'm also learning not to be too quick to take a whack at a deck. I have at least one trimmed deck that I truly regret trimming, Roots of Asia. Bless its little heart.

Now, about that Celtic Tarot, the one with the very grubby edges. I finally decided to have a go at colouring the edges to cover up the disgusting grunge (previous owner must have handled that deck a LOT).

Musings on the Gaian Tarot Fives

Fives for me represent something negative. A crisis, a challenge, instability, uncertainty, change. It could mean irresponsibility or being directionless. But it could also be versatility and flexibility, the old cliched 'opportunity for growth'. (I mean seriously. What isn't an opportunity for growth? What a bland thing to say.)

Musings on the Gaian Tarot Fours

To me, fours are resolutely about stability and security, either having it, or taking a break in order to find it. Its shadow side would be digging in one's heels, stubborness, awkwardness, and being argumentative.



I've used the images from Joanna's website with her watermark on them, so maybe it's okay to post them all, hope so!

Musing on Gaian Tarot Threes

Threes, to me, are about creativity, vision, expansion, growth, making (and breaking). Two out of four Gaian Tarot threes make perfect sense to me. The Three of Water shows seals frolicking, which speaks of good feeling, and I can't help but say reminds me of RWS, with the three girls toasting and partying. Three of Earth also makes me thinks of the RWS image, which features a craftsman 'creating' a stained glass window. In this case, three women are making herbal remedies in a well-stocked kitchen. Making, creating, expanding on the meaning of the suit, I get those two.

Musings on the Gaian Tarot Twos

Twos represent balance to me, the need for it, and the gaining of it. They can show balance, cooperation and choices OR fear and weakness on their darker side.

Musings on the Gaian Tarot Aces

I'm trying to decide whether to trim the Gaian Tarot to create an oracle, as Sharyn has done in her blog, Quirkeries.  Before I do that, I thought it might be an idea to test the cards against my understanding of the numerology of the tarot pips, rather than comparing them in my mind to RWS images and memorised meanings, before I abandon the tarot associations altogether.

The Gaian aces seem particularly straightforward to me. The Ace represents potential, the availability of a new, creative impulse or energy. So, the Gaian aces feature baby animals representative of each suit.

The First Operation

The first operation is a technique used in the Golden Dawn, the beginning of which involves a curious ritual which, I suppose, is to see whether the reader is in touch with the 'energies' of the querent enough to proceed with a reading. It's like a test of the water, perhaps? I was intrigued by this idea when I read about it recently, and so I made a quick study of the Golden Dawn method, which involves assigning the querent a significator and then shuffling the deck and dividing it into four piles, read from right to left, and assigned the names 'Yod - Heh - Voh - Heh', YWHW, or Jehovah. This Qabbalistic and ceremonial, as are all things Golden Dawn, and I found these didn't resonate with me. What you do is then search each pile to find the significator and use this to determine the nature of the question. If the querent affirms that you have correctly identified the nature of the question, you should do the reading. If not, the reading should end, to be attempted again another day.

I decided to adapt this technique to my own way of thinking, and instead of assigning the four piles as YWHW, to make them 'Fire - Water - Air - Earth'.  (I still lay them out right to left, as I'm left-handed and always cut a deck to the left.)  In my mind, they represent the progression of  'inception - feeling - thought - manifestation'.

Here's my version: