Reading using directionality and reversals

Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Tarot  

This is the reading I've been exploring in my journal for the last few days. I'd drawn cards of the number 5 two days in a row (not pictured). Five being associated with finding balance, I asked 'What is attempting to find balance in my life right now? What is out of balance? and What is maintaining equilibrium?' I drew Magician Rx, Strength, Star.

So, a weakened Magician is attempting to find balance right now. Personal power is not being used to bring my needs into reality. I am not identifying my true needs. Strength has come forward as what is out of balance right now -- again a card of personal power and taking the bull by the horns (or lion by the jaw). The Star has maintained equilibrium -- hope has not been lost. I have felt all along that there is plenty of time to address my issues. I just haven't done anything about them. (The reason why is seen in 9 of Pentacles later).

To rectify the reversed Magician, I drew Hermit and placed it above Magician. I can identify my true needs and establish balance in my personal power within myself, or with the help of a mentor, or in a spiritual tradition or practice. wondering what the Hermit's lamp was lighting, I drew another card to see what was in his line of sight. Queen of Cups. Her posture echoes that of the Hermit -- both facing to the left, both intent upon the item they are holding, for the Hermit, the lamp of enlightenment, for the Queen it's the world's craziest cup, shaped like the Ark of the Covenant with the seraphim on either side (if the Ark of the Covenant were made of spare pipe and hood ornaments nicked from the cars of pimps in Starsky and Hutch.)  Queen of Cups is Water of Water -- and so was the daily card that prompted this draw (not in the photo), 5 of Cups, another Water of Water card. This imbalance or disturbance is in the realm of emotions and relationships and personal power.

 Looking at the Queen of Cups and Hermit makes one long to know what is in their line of sight -- so I drew another card to see what they are looking at and got 8 of Cups reversed. Another Water of Water card! 8 of Cups is recognition of time to move on; reversed suggests confusion or delay in making that move.

How can I overcome this confusion, find some clarity? I drew a card to rectify the 8 of Cups reversed and got -- King of Swords reversed! Fire of Air, reversed. I am Aquarius, and King of Swords is the card associated with Aquarius. He's sort of my default setting. But here, to overcome my confusion about what needs looking at and changing, I can't do it through King of Swords, but through King of Swords reversed. Usually, I tend to be rational about things but now that is not what is needed. To clarify this, I remembered a technique of identifying reversed court cards by identifying their elemental opposite. If King of Swords is Fire of Air, his opposite would be Air of Fire --Knight of Wands!

Knight of Wands, that maker of 'down and dirty' plans, that explorer and adventurer, that risk taker! Knight of Wands? How the heck do I access Knight of Wands energy when I don't even feel that I remotely have it right now?

I took the card out of the pack and looked at it for a while. I noticed the pyramids in the background. The Knight of Wands is not drawing energy from his surroundings, which are dry and barren. His passion is inside him. So it must be somewhere inside of me, even when there is nothing in my environment or situation to feed it. What is the Knight of Wands charging toward? What is he charging away from?

I put the card back in the pack and shuffled to find out which cards he would end up between. I found the Knight of Wands and laid him out with the cards on either side of him: Chariot, Knight of Wands, 9 of Pentacles.

The Knight of Wands is moving away from 9 of Pentacles (Air of Earth), whose energy and line of sight are directed away from him (though her body posture is still open to his direction). Her attention is definitely elsewhere, focused on her bird (Air) of prey (Earth). As Air of Earth, she contemplates the material/physical realm. Her satisfaction with her status quo is evident. She is complacent, self-congratulatory, self-satisfied. These are not bad things, but the way she spends her leisure time may no longer be balanced -- too long standing still. Too long watching others move (her bird of prey, which she will presumably set loose to watch fly).

How does the Knight of Wands move me from too much physical luxury? What does he move me toward? The Chariot, a Water card, associated with Cancer and the Moon. Okay, so the Water of Water cards led me to draw a variety of Water cards that have laid me a path to -- a Water major! The emotional plane is dominant in this issue. Not the material plane or the logical plane, but the emotional plane, and how to take action with balanced emotions.

'Cancer is the gateway to incarnation, as Capricorn (its opposite) is the gateway to ascension. Cancer's energy guides us to learn the distinctions of our emotional and logical reasoning so we can recognise how they don't always agree' - agent64.com/cancer-the-chariot

Like a Cancerian crab, the Chariot has a hard shell and a soft centre -- appearing tough on the outside but deep down quite sensitive and vulnerable.

The Chariot card is full of this tension between opposing forces: black and white sphinxes, male and female, facing in opposite directions, meant to be pulling the chariot but not hitched to it and lying down (they seem ambivalent), the lingam and yoni on the shield (which to me looks like a top that spins in place but doesn't actually get anywhere), the chariot is a conveyance but is built like a cube of concrete, no reins and no motion in the charioteer who is encased in the concrete cube (he seems ambivalent), chariots are often associated with the sun ('chariots of fire') but this one is decorated with moons and starry night skies and is associated with the moon.

In other words, the Knight of Wands is me progressing, through my own inner drive,  toward a state of balance created by acknowledging that there is always a state of perpetual tension, and harnessing that tension to drive my life forward. I have been looking for balance rather than acknowledging constant tension. In fact, I have turned from acknowledgement of tension, turned from the areas that need attention (Water and Fire) and settled into some complacent wallowing in the material realm. And there I've wallowed for quite some time.

'To be useful, either to herself or any higher purpose, she had to use her ambivalence as a driving force in her life, a force that would power the Chariot' (Rachel Pollack, The Forest of Souls, 75).

Much to ponder. The Chariot and the Knight of Wands are going on my altar.

Some of these techniques were shared by Caitlin Matthews in a session at the UK Tarot Conference, October 2015. A webinar and DVD of line of sight and rectifying reversals, etc,  may be available at some point. Visit her website at Hallowquest.

Other techniques seen herein have been shared by Alison Cross in TABI conferences, by Benebell Wen in her book Holistic Tarot, and many others.

'You canNOT be Sirius' -- the Dog Star in Sirian Starseed

Osiris

I've drawn the Star from Sirian Starseed this morning. This card features, of course, Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest star in the sky. It is the nearest star to earth at 8.6 light years' distance. It is nearly twice as hot as the sun and puts out 26 times more energy, which it produces by converting hydrogen to helium through nuclear fusion. This is Sirius A.

Sirius B is 10,000 times dimmer than Sirius A and wasn't discovered until 1862. A white dwarf companion to Sirius A, it is very small at nearly the diameter of earth, and is affectionately called 'The Pup.'

As far as Sirius C is concerned, there is debate in the scientific community as to its existence. If it exists, it is tiny. It was first suspected in 1894 because of anomalies in the Sirius orbit. Something was observed at least 20 times between 1920 and 1930, but even scientists were unsure if they were actually seeing anything. A study of 60 years of observation conducted in 1978 by Gatewood & Gatewood concluded that nothing suggests the existence of a third body. However, there are anomalies and the debate continues.

Well -- of course you know a big bright obvious star, a tiny companion, and a near-mythic teeny-tiny 'phantom' star would hold GREAT appeal to New Age types! Listen to this from the LWB:

The image [on the card] includes the three stars of the triunal Sirian star system, described in detail in Sirian Revelations [a series of three books by guess who -- deck creator Patricia Cori] as Sirius A (still in the third dimension, Sirius B (ascended to the sixth dimension) and Sirius C (ascended to the fourth dimension). The Egyptians referred to them as the 'star sisters' and indeed they are. Hence, it also invites us to contemplate the ascension process, which many of us know we have come into this lifetime to experience. 

Click here for some 'channeled material' from the Sirians on Patricia Cori's website. (While you're there, click the link to the messages from the Sirian High Council. I like how they all end with ©Patricia Cori! Ha ha). And here is an entertaining look at some of the New Age ideas surrounding the Dog Star: The Dog Star from Outer Space.

So in the card we have Osiris, riding a barge through the heavens, holding a staff and an ankh. Sirius tops his staff. I assume the big star over his ankh is meant to be Sirius B. And your guess is as good as mine as to which little blinky is meant to be Sirius C. The interpretation is traditional - hope, trust, moving toward dreams or goals, etc.

Today I go to the surgeon to have my hearing checked again. The card suggests a positive outcome. For me, that will mean my hearing hasn't decreased more than expected and that I'm holding steady.

Love is the gardener

What a nice card for a groggy Monday morning. It's the time of year when the sun is streaming through the windows by 4.30 in the morning, and the two crows who live outside my flat block, who I usually enjoy watching out the window, are crowing their fool heads off. SHUT UP!

Anyway, it's Monday morning, I'm up now, and I've drawn the Star for today. I'm an Aquarius and the Star is my birth card. Water bearer, as you can see. In tarot tradition, the naked woman kneels on one knee on the land, one foot on the water, and pours water from two vessels, one onto the land and one onto the water. In most decks, the star above her has eight or 16 points. In this deck, it is a five-pointed star. The two vessels are featured in the upper left and right corners of the borders as well.

There are many flowers on this card. The white lilies represent purity. I also see daisies as representing purity, as they are a white petals surrounding a golden centre. The companion book suggests they represent simplicity. There are also white and red roses here, representing passion and purity. I see some 5-petaled purple flowers which look to me like violets, symbol of modesty and maidenhood. Butterflies fly around the female figure, representing transformation and rebirth. There are some small golden flowers that might be marigolds, a Hindu symbol of good triumphing over evil (it assumes an important role in festival of Vijayadashami, when Lord Rama prevailed over Ravana).

Today's yoga practice was Real Yoga for Real People, featuring teacher Mark Whitwell. I love what he teaches about yoga, which is very different from what many yoga teachers do. He maintains that yoga must be adapted to the person, not the other way around. Yoga is not about asana (postures or poses). It is not about physical gymnastics -- but more importantly, it is not about spiritual gymnastics, either. Let's let him say it:

For me the Star is about enlightenment, spiritual awakening. It's about hope, as most contemporary readers interpret it. It can also be about aspiration, and where there is aspiration, there can be disillusionment and pain. The Star, in that way, is a good card to represent yoga, its beauty (acknowledging oneness and wholeness) and its shadow (arrogance, haughtiness, impotence). The yoga practice is simple but astonishingly profound. We have to work so hard to accept that we don't have to work hard. We have to try so hard to see that we don't need to try hard. People are funny like that.

The Pearls of Wisdom companion book calls this card a card of 'great love, holding the impersonal forces of the Universe in balance. The Star is Aquarian love kindled by hope for humankind.'

If the Universe is the garden of existence, love is the gardener.

Only her hairdresser knows for sure

I'm an Aquarius and so it seems natural that the Star is a favourite card of mine, and this one from Haindl Tarot (Lotos 2002) is in my Top Ten of all Star cards. There's something so romantic about the maiden washing her hair in the stream here. I love it. It has to do with oneness, and vulnerability, and purity, and ritual, and all sorts of wonderful things.

'The Star shows a kind of consciousness that does not need  extreme measures. She bends down to wash her hair, and so becomes part of stone and water. With the star in the sky giving us fire and air, we find all four elements, not as in the mystic Grail emblems of the Magician, but in nature, in daily life' (Pollack, Haindl Tarot: Major Arcana).

I like the easy nature of the card, and as I don't have to go to work today (it's my day off for Saturday), I hope my day is as flowing and gentle as this card. I'm off to Spec Savers, though, to see if they can do anything about this nuisance of having to take my glasses off every time I need to something close up, and put them on again to see something across the room. My days of reading while watching TV are now in the past! And at this point, even my dinner looks blurry if I don't take my glasses off. They may give me a new prescription, but I bet they just tell me to keep taking them off and putting them on to deal with the close vs distance vision thing. Ah, aging.

Added to this card we see the Hebrew letter Tzaddi, meaning 'fishhook', the rune Eh, which means 'horse', and the astrological symbol for Aquarius. This card is associated with element Air, which is symbolized by the white border. (I forgot to mention border colours in previous posts.) To be honest, I have no clue what fishhooks and horses have to do with this card, but there you go!

I dreamed a dream

Cosmic Tarot

I had a dream last night and I can't remember any of it except this one part. I was lying in a bed and looking at a ceiling decorated with very intricate patterns. I lay there and contemplated the patterns, very comfortable, the mattress was soft and the covers were warm, but I knew that I couldn't move from this bed. I was confined to it. As I lay there counting off the many strokes that made up the complicated ceiling decorations, I knew that my body was soft and spreading across the bed. I was very fat, I was confined to this bed as a result of my own choices. It was strange, realizing this and feeling nothing. (This sort of thing happens to me often in dreams; for example, I might see a face that should be truly frightening, but in the dream I am not afraid, I just look at it. And in this dream, the grief and regret weren't there. It's only when I think back on the dream in my waking hours that I connect the image to emotion.) I had completely forgotten about this dream until I picked up my deck to shuffle this morning, I had the urge to draw one card to help me understand the meaning of this dream. And I drew The Star.

Book of Shadows Vol 1, All Week

For the next 7 days, I will be drawing from the new LoScarabeo deck by Barbara Moore, Book of Shadows Vol. 1: As Above. I bought this as a deck-only, before I realized it was available as a box set with companion book. The book covers the two decks that the set will comprise: 'As Above (Vol. 1)' and 'So Below (Vol. 2)'. I've seen images of the 'So Below' deck, and I'm not sure I want it, anyway, so it works out that I didn't buy the set.

Another reason it's good that I didn't end up with the set is that I'm forced to do my own thinking about each of these cards. 'Each card is a portal that enables us to enter vast realms of knowledge and experience through meditation and study,' writes deck creator Barbara Moore, in the Little White Book. To me, this means I am meant to find my own way through this deck, just as a practitioner of Wicca or other pagan traditions would create their own 'Book of Shadows'. I have been looking through this deck quite a bit lately, but I haven't yet tried to use it for actual readings. So this week will be a good experiment.

Book of Shadows, Vo1 1
Barbara Moore 2012

Today's card is XVII Imbolc, or The Star. We see a female figure at winter sunrise, in a snowy setting. In the background there appear to be standing stones and some sort of large animal. To me it reminds me of a polar bear, but it is probably a ewe, this card being 'Imbolc'.  The red-haired maiden is crowned with 7 lit candles, robed in a white fur robe. (Too bad it isn't 8, which would better reflect the RWS version of the card). She has a fiery cauldron to her right out of which she dips liquid. She pours liquid from another vessel into a pool with her left hand. Her left foot is in the pool, her right knee on land. (This is the opposite to the hands and knees in the RWS Star card). Peeping out from behind her robe is the ubiquitous fluffy bunny that is included in virtually every card of this deck, whereas in the RWS card there is a bird in a tree.  Curiously, there does not appear to be a star in the sky in this 'Star' card.

Isn't she lovely?

Hezicos Tarot, Griffin 2010

Today the Hezicos Tarot offers me the Star card. I am quite taken with this image. It is one of my favourites in the deck. The colours are beautiful and the scene is so evocative, with its mossy rocks, tumbling blue stream, water lilies and blue pickerel weed. As in the traditional RWS image, from one hand she pours water onto water, from the other hand she pours water onto land (or in this case, rock). However, she does have both feet on the ground rather than one on land and one on water. The liquid pouring on land and water is said to represent the integration of our dual nature of body/spirit, conscious/subconscious, baser/higher. The pitchers flow in an endless supply. The card is always representative of hope and renewal.

I quite appreciate the depiction of the woman in the image. Her body is not oversexualized as you see in some tarots, such as the Druidcraft. (Don't misunderstand, I love the Druidcraft, but why do the nudes have to be 19-year-old Page 3 models?) I like that this small-breasted figure is crouching in a manner to do with the task at hand rather than to emphasize certain parts of her anatomy. Okay, I like that she's got tiny tah-tahs. It makes a change.

In fact, I think they might just count as two of the 8 stars from the original RWS. Five in the sky, one on her headband, where are the other two?

I don't know why, but the more I gaze at this card the more I love it. She has such a demure look on her face. What a feeling of peace and hope you see here. The crystal purity of the stream. The life inherent in the colours. The movement of the water. I can even imagine the cool feel of the moss underfoot. I notice her foot is even casting a shadow. This would be an easy card to fall into for meditation.

I may just have to give that a go. (I hope there's a fleece jumper just outside the frame!)