February Month Card and Mantra

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

February is the second month, so to find the 'month card', I have added 2+2017=2+0+1+9=12. The Hanged Man. Or the Hanged One, as Cathy McClelland calls it in the Star Tarot. Please follow the link in the image caption to read Cathy's words about this card.

The Hanged Man, then, is the card for February. As Cathy says, the image represents a sort of surrender to the universe. With all that's going on in the world, surrendering up our fears and worries seems the best possible choice, and it is the advice of the card.

The mantra that I have selected to represent the Hanged Man is Shante prashante:

Shante prashante sarva bhaya upasha mani swaha

Invoking peace, perfect peace, I offer up the energy of fear to the universal formless mind

Bhaya is the word for fear. If you would prefer to release some other energy, you can substitute a different word: 

Khroda - anger

Shoka - grief

Here's a pleasant enough example of one way to chant the mantra. Chant it however it suits you.

I am chanting this for 5 minutes a day every day in the month of February.

Blessed be!

Rise up

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

I'm a little surprised at the overt Native American elements in this card from the Star Tarot by Cathy McClelland. There are a few in some of the other cards from the deck, but none so dominating as seen here.  I feel a bit uncomfortable with this sort of 'generic' Native American spirtuality. Upon closer inspection, though, this card actually contains an eclectic mixture of images.

Cathy calls this card 'Resurrection/Awakening of the Self'. 'It is a time when life becomes fresh again and all the burdens or limitations of the past break away, opening one to the beauty of universal love,' she writes, in the Star Tarot companion booklet.

Lightning strikes again

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

For a Tower card, I find this one looks rather too static and stylized for my taste. This card comes from the Star Tarot by Cathy McClelland.  At first glance, it looks to me like a cutaway of a nuclear cooling tower, or the neck of a bottle, or just about anything other than a tarot Tower. I think it's the lava flow and the blackness of the Tower that confuse my eye.

Lightning strikes the black tower from above, piercing it all the way through and crackling it down to its very foundations. It won't stand for much longer before it crumbles to dust.  Three figures that look nothing like human beings exit through flaming windows, but instead of plummetting to earth, they appear to be flying away in the form of a rather putrid-coloured smoke. In the background there is water, mountains on the horizon, a setting sun on the right and perhaps a comet falling on the left. At the bottom in the foreground, curiously, a dove holding an olive branch flies across the scene.

The middle way

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

In Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings, Rachel Pollack goes out of her way to state more than once that the Temperance card is unexciting to her and one of her least favourites. She says it combines her three least favourite cards in one: 1+4=5, The Hierophant, while 4 reminds her of the Emperor.

I, on the other hand, have always loved the Temperance card, and in fact, find the the Temperance is often my favourite major in most decks, and is certainly one of the cards I look at when deciding whether to buy a new deck. I find this Temperance card from Cathy McClelland's self-published Star Tarot one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. Let's take a close look.

The Lovers

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

I suppose it should be no surprise that I drew The Lovers today, after all that talk yesterday about the Devil and the Lovers!

This Lovers card from Cathy McClelland's self-published Star Tarot (majors only) is subtitled in her companion book 'The Sacred Marriage - The Healing Union.' Cathy suggests this card has to do with  'how sensual love can bring one to spiritual awakening, and bring back the sense that the world is alive, renewing, regenerating and fulfilling, and that we are always a part of that.' That's a lovely sentiment, but I do think the card goes deeper than that, which she touches on when she adds, 'Understand your dualities and take the journey on the heavenly road to the ultimate love - union with the Divine.'

This is a very traditional-looking Lovers card, quite beautiful. We have the Angel Raphael blessing the union from above, crowned by Shekinah glory, with the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove.

Sympathy for the Devil

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

I have been drawing The Devil a lot for the last several weeks, and I have been pondering its meaning, both the card itself and what it may signify in my life right now. I actually drew Magician for Monday, but decided to blog about Devil, because of its significance of late. It turned up again yesterday in the Anna K draw, as outcome. It just keeps coming up lately.

In her guidebook to the Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland says that this card in particular was a difficult image for her to paint. 'The Devil wants us to come to terms with with our failings and drawbacks,' she writes. 'When we stop running from our demons, and decide to confront them, we will stop being controlled by denial and our dark side.'

This is a complicated card which depicts many aspects of the dark or shadow side. Working from the bottom of the card upward, we see individuals isolated and trapped. I think it is significant that they are curled in the fetal position, which seems more powerful than the standing figures in the traditional RWS. Also, the chains that bind them acutally create the outline of the Devil himself. The Devil is made up of the chains that bind us. We also see several creatures associated with the Devil--the demon figure itself, a serpent, a goat, a wolf, and corvids. The androgynous dancer in the middle of the card is a combination of the Fool and Pan, being coiled about by the red serpent, which might be the kundalini. Black and white, good and evil, innocence and appetite, all dancing in flame. Which will win, or is it more about finding a balance?

Round she goes and where she stops, nobody knows

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

Is the Wheel of Fortune turning for me? It's a silly question, because of course the wheel is always turning for us all. Sometimes, though, it seems to be whirling, while at other times it is ceaking along very slowly indeed. When you take an action that could have consequences affecting your daily life and routine, you always feel its motion more distinctly. I think it's apt that I drew this card today, because I have just set one particular wheel in motion by sending an email this morning. (This has to do with the previous AnnaK Tarot reading below).

Star Tarot by Cathy McClelland

This week I will be drawing from the absolutely stunning Star Tarot. I saw this deck on Lisa's site and fell in love with it. I have the self-published majors-only deck, but Cathy McClelland is currently working on a full 78 card deck to be published by Schiffer next year. Find out more at her website here: Star Tarot

I can't wait to get started with this deck, so let's have a look at today's card.

Star Tarot, Cathy McClelland

Wow, what a truly auspicious start! And I could use a card of this power and beauty after the day I had yesterday.

In this card, we see the integration of mind, body and spirit. Cathy McClelland's guidebook, included with the deck, contains a detailed explanation of all the symbols in the card. I find that most of them are natural and easy to interpret, to the point that you don't need the guidebook to understand the deck. I find this a plus with tarot decks, and consider it a sign of a deck designer being in touch with the Universal. If something is so esoteric no one else can figure it out, what good is it, really? These cards are chock full of imagery, but it is imagery that resonates in the universal consciousness and is accessible to all.