Can you untell what you've told?

The Dreamer Princess is the Princess of Swords. It's important to make a distinction between tarot Princesses and tarot Pages. They aren't exactly the same thing. An RWS Page of Swords is characterised as a studious young person who enjoys playing devil's advocate and challenging those in authority to debate, someone who is always questioning why. Armed with this knowledge, the verse assigned to Dreamer Princess may puzzle:

Her leaves are whispers on the wind
She will tell them how and why you sinned
She gleans her knowledge from the earth
And dreams of what its gift is worth...
                                                 - Emily Carding

That doesn't exactly sit well with our contemporary RWS vision of the Page of Swords as earnest and questioning student, but look what Crowley says about the Thoth Princess of Swords:

'The Princess of Swords represents the earthy part of Air, the fixation of the volatile. She partakes of the characteristics of Minerva and Artemis, and there is some suggestion of the Valkyrie. She represents to some extent the anger of the Gods...The character of the Princess [of Swords] is stern and revengeful. Her logic is destructive. She is firm and aggressive, with great practical wisdom and subtlety in material things. She shows great cleverness and dexterity in the management of practical affairs, especially where they are of a controversial nature. She is very adroit in the settlement of controversies.'

You look at the figure in the card differently now, don't you? She's got a lot of power, this one. She's no student. She's in control of what she unleashes -- but is she in control of the consequences? Can she really control where those leaves go, or does she just think she can? She might just be a little too big for her britches.

'If ill-dignified,' continues Crowley, 'all these qualities are dispersed; she becomes incoherent, and all her gifts tend to combine to form a species of low cunning whose object is unworthy of the means.'

We've all got the gift of telling, but should we always unleash all we know? Should we say everything we think? Can we control those leaves once we set them loose on the wind?

The Buddha's teaching about right speech has been rendered by some unknown person into this memorable verse:

If it is not truthful and not helpful, don't say it.
If it is truthful but not helpful, don't say it. 
If it is not truthful but helpful, don't say it. 
If it is truthful and helpful -- wait for the right time. 

That's worth thinking about.

Dreamer Five - Tarot of the Sidhe

I don't know about you, but every time I draw a downbeat card as my Card of the Day, I feel my heart sink into my shoes. 'Oh no!' is my first thought. Or even, 'What? I thought today was going pretty well! I don't feel bad, or I didn't until now...'  Anybody else get that?

So here we have Dreamer Five, or 5 of Swords. Now here's a kick in the head. If you're familiar with Mary K Greer's Tarot for Yourself, you may have heard of the Destiny Card. It is the minor arcana card that corresponds with your actual birth date. She provides a list of dates, and mine is 5 of Swords. 'From this card you can find indications of your fundamental impulses, desires, and reactions as an individual.' That's kind of amazing, considering the dates associated with this card cover a nine day period. So the implication is that everyone born on one of those nine days is going to have the same 'impulses, desires, and reactions' as me. That's not very individual, is it? So I take all this with a grain of salt. But it's still kind of depressing to be told that your nature is 5 of Swords. It's not like someone with that sort of outlook needs more confirmation of how crap everything is! Ha ha.

Anyway, when I drew this card this morning, my first thought was, Oh. Poo.

I think, though, looking at this card, we see a lot of self-sabotage here. This is a sidhe who has not lost hope but who is throwing hope away. The fire has gone out of him (or her) and so he is turning a dark, sooty green. The flame has gone out of his hair. Worst of all, he appears to have used that sword he is tossing aside to chop off his own wings. He has bloody stumps on his back and is holding the wings in his hand. He's standing on a tremendously high plinth (one of five) that reaches above the clouds. What is his plan now? To throw himself off it, wingless? The sun is blood red, reflected on the icy mountaintops.

So, the card suggests certain questions:

How am I self-sabotaging?
How am I cutting off my own wings?
What fire has gone out of me?
In what ways do I feel I am disappearing into the background? (as the sidhe is doing in his lower half)
What weapons have I used against myself?
How have I isolated myself?
Why have I isolated myself?

And then, to take it deeper:

How have these actions served me?
What reward have I received by doing these things or making these choices?
Did these actions really serve me well, or were they dysfunctional coping mechanisms?
Do I choose to continue these actions, or am I ready to move on from them?


But that's an awful lot just for a daily draw. So for today, we could just take it as a warning to watch out for self-sabotaging behaviour, be careful to not to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Courtesy

'Suppose in taking a break from my whirling thoughts, I settle down quietly to think about the word "courtesy". It means far more than mere politeness; you can be polite without an iota of personal love. Courtesy, on the other hand, is an expression of love, warm concern for the other person's comfort, peace of mind and well-being. Even giving directions to a confused stranger can be an act of courtesy, if I take the trouble to be explicit and reassuring. 

'The practice of courtesy in the home gives us many opportunities each day to convey our love in little ways. Yet we often overlook it in routine contacts with those we love.
'I will take every opportunity to be courteous to those nearest me, as well as those outside my orbit. The warmth and kindness of courtesy will take the sting out of resentments, and give dignity and importance to the members of my household, making them feel secure and loved. 

'Courtesy makes a less troublesome game of life. Misunderstandings melt away; it gets rid of the avoidable obstructions.'

-- The Courage to Change: One Day at a Time in Al-Anon II, p 159

The question today is, how can we show more courtesy to those we encounter, those in our intimate circle and those with whom we merely cross paths for a moment? Why is this important? How does it help us?

The answer is The Sun. It shows a faery woman inviting us to join the spiral dance toward the single tree atop a hill, which is crowned by a glowing faery glyph, the sun. We can show more courtesy to those in our intimate circle by sharing with them in the joyous aspects of existence, rather than the dark. At the risk of sounding trite, be nice. Talk about nice things. Don't dwell on gloom. Not every conversation has to solve the world's problems, or pinpoint the little things that annoy you about life, the world, and any one person in particular.

Why is this important? Dreamer Prince, aka Knight of Swords. I have been drawing this card a lot lately. The verse accompanying this card is:

He dreams of more than any could know
But they are seeds he cannot sow
His winged thoughts fly upon the air
Never to land within a prayer...

It seems important to practice courtesy, to 'be nice', because the Dreamer Prince can get very caught up in his thoughts. His tremendous sense of right and wrong can lead him to behave quite rashly. He can see battles where no battle is required, or even possible. Of all the courts, he is most likely to tilt at windmills. In the Anna K Tarot, for example, he is depicted as vigorously attacking a strawman -- an enemy that exists only in his imagination. The Dreamer Prince suggests that it is important to show courtesy to avoid seeing everyone and everything as some sort of mental adversary, as a threat to his personal 'liberty' or integrity.

Courtesy to others helps us enjoy our lives and our relationships.

When the whole shines full and round
The three blithe dancers may be found
Skipping for the joys of life
For friendship and forgotten strife...

Perhaps the 'three blithe dancers' are mind-body-spirit. When we work to create an atmosphere of kindness and courtesy, when we resist the urge to indulge the Dreamer Prince in his righteous battles, we create conditions that allow for strife to be forgotten, and simple joys to be experienced.

In summary, this advice comes as no surprise. The surprise is how easy it is to forget the obvious logic of all this. When we are so close, so intimate with people, for some strange reason it is easy to forget to show them basic courtesy. I've mentioned before that I think this probably has to do with how we treat ourselves. As we get close to someone, we come to think of them as part of ourselves, an extension of ourselves. And if we have a habit of being mean to ourselves, expecting too much of ourselves, being cruel to ourselves -- well, we do it them, too.

Let's stop.

Altar-ation

It was a sunny day today and even though much of my day was quite fraught with emotion and turmoil, I did accomplish a lot. I think it's very therapeutic, particularly when aspects of life seem to be spinning out of control, to bring some order into your world by tidying, organising, and making a ritual of creating a new altar. 

I started with the cupboard (aka closet) in the hallway. It's a combination towel storage, medicine chest and clothes hamper. (There's not a lot of space in this flat). I started by taking all the towels out and refolding them so they fit nice and tidy in the shelf. The next thing I knew something came over me and I had to drag everything out of the closet, sweep and dust it, put it all back, then I pulled all the drawers out and dumped the contents into the hall floor and started sorting. You would not believe how much junk I threw out -- half a black sack! Expired medicine, useful items like the instruction manual to electric kettles and old phone books, you name it, it was in there. I then got the bright idea of labelling everything (I have tubs with labels on them in the kitchen, and that really works well). So I labelled it all up. I did the same thing to the plastic drawers in the bathroom. This took the better part of the morning. In the process, I found the hammer (I thought we had one, but I haven't seen it in years), a box of small nails and some pictures I've been meaning to hang for the last couple hundred years. So I actually hung them. (The owl over the altar space, we actually just bought yesterday. Isn't it awesome?) 

I'm trying to introduce colour into my life. Year before last, I went on holiday with my friend Chloe of Inner Whispers, and I told her then that I love colour and sparkly things, and would like to wear colour. 'And yet you are wearing grey and black,' she pointed out. We were looking at beautiful, long flowing wildly coloured dresses in a shop in Matlock Bath, and I was wearing a grey smock top and navy blue leggings. The intervening months and years haven't been the most conducive to personal expression. They've been mostly about survival. That's why I was away from this blog for so many months. I got rid of so much of my stuff and was so close to packing in my entire personal practice. As it is, it's just evolving. And part of that is getting some light and colour into my home. I've chucked out the wretched blinds and hung net curtains in the living room and bedroom. I removed the cream coloured duvet set and bought a patchwork pattern one. I had my heart set on some lime green curtains but alas, ended up with taupe (no green available). Still, there's a lot of colour in the bedroom now compared to how it was before. 

Then I went out to try to find some new trousers...I was unsuccessful in getting new work trousers, but I did get two pairs of leggings, a bright yellow tunic top with blue flowers on it, a T-shirt, and a pair of those patterned trousers that are popular at the moment in a blue, black and white print. They're super long. I may have to get some platforms. At my height, platforms will put me at 6' tall. That ought to make me feel powerful! (If I don't break my ankle). 

When I got back from shopping, I cleaned out the closet of all the clothes that no longer fit (a lot of them -- I've packed on a lot of weight in my dark months) -- another black sack full of junk gone from this flat. Clearing out is good.

This week I'm using Tarot of the Sidhe (Emily Carding, Schiffer, 2010). For today, I've drawn Dreamer Prince and Maker King:

He dreams of more than any could know

But they are seeds he cannot sow, 

His winged thoughts fly upon the air

Never to land within a prayer...

All he has he makes his own,

Carpenter of his own throne, 

Smith who forges his own crown, 

And earns his status and renown. 

 -- Emily Carding, Tarot of the Sidhe LWB

Summer Solstice Reading 2014

This is my summer solstice spread for 2014. I shuffled the cards very well and laughed when I drew the Sun as the first card.

1. Sunrise - What is beginning in my life? - Sun
2. High noon - What is my greatest power right now? What should be my sharpest focus? - Dreamer Two (2 of Swords)
3. What is winding down in my life right now? - Justice
4. What is under the surface, at rest for the moment? - Dancer Three (3 of Cups)

Sunrise
I'm entering a new phase of optimism, success and achievement in my life. The figure in the Sun card beckons directly to the viewer to join hands and dance around the hill, which resembles Glastonbury Tor, topped by a tree framed by the sun, which is also the faery glyph. The little butterfly fluttering between us and the figure is a symbol of rebirth. It is also me, freshly emerged from my chrysalis, seeing everything with new eyes. Can you imagine what it would be like to be fresh born, looking around for the first time, feeling yourself moving for the first time, and the first sight you see is this scene? Nothing but joy and wonder would ever have been your portion. You emerge from your shell to go directly upward toward bliss. My, my.

 The sun in the card shows its great power, as it is the source of all life after all. The sidhe join hands and progress up the hill in a snake-like procession, toward the Source and the Tree of Life. This is kundalini rising, it is enlightenment of a kind. The upward spiral image is used to characterise kundalini and the awakening of bliss. Eion Finn refers to joy as an 'upward spiral.' We know that life itself is an upward spiral, we can see it in the form of the double helix of DNA. We see here in the card, the bottom of the card is somewhat murky in colour, though creatures of flight abound - birds, fluttering bugs and butterflies of various types. There are also some rounded objects in the two lower corners that look like geodes, a word that itself means 'earth-like'. The red-haired sidhe beckons me to join the creatures of the earth in a spiral dance into the greenness of life, upward, to return to source, to return to the True Self.

The card does not point to specific events necessarily, but an overall feeling of happiness and radiance. It is the start of my time to shine. Combined with the other cards, it suggests ways to gain in self-confidence and personal power, and that success and hope are on the rise. I can see many connections to my spiritual practice, my yoga practice, and the direction I hope to move my life.  All this is in the sunrise phase of the 'day'.

High Noon
At its zenith right now in my life is Dreamer Two, 2 of Swords, titled 'Half-Moon Truce'. The card shows a purply-bluey sky dominated by a huge circle, half black and half white, containing the ghostly face of a sidhe. It is ephemeral; there are wisps around the circle suggesting it may have suddenly appeared, and may be going into and out of focus. At the bottom of the card, the yellowing of the sky above two mountain peaks, in swirls of clouds, and hanging between earth and sky is a magpie, its wings outstretched. With its black and white colouring, the magpie represents duality in some ways. In folklore, the magpie can represent risk-taking, as its dual colours suggest both good and bad. Magpies are courageous, daredevil birds, they have amongst the most complicated of bird vocabularies, and they are notoriously attracted to shiny objects. All of these help us to see the sorts of things represented by the black and white moon - decisions, decisions. Do I dare to take a risk? Do I dare to speak my truth? Do I dare to go for the shiny objects?

Called 'Half-Moon Truce,' this card actually represent the pause between decisions. It is the moment of drawing breath between having an idea and speaking it into the world. We know that words make manifest. The moon is the silence of the heart, the mountains the resolution of the spirit, the magpie, then, would be the speaker of the magic. So all the swirling around the moon becomes the breath that gives life to the words.

In Dreamer Two, none of this has happened yet. It is the moment between initial foment and subsequent action. It is the balance that cannot last, it is like a rock that has been pushed up to the pointy top of a precipice, where it pauses, filled with potential energy, before either rolling back or teetering over and down the other side of the hill. It cannot just sit there forever. Natural laws will not allow it. Spiritually and mentally however, we can prolong this moment through hesitance to move either way. This is one reason why the woman in the traditional RWS image wears a blindfold and is seated in the non-land at the edge of water ('between the salt water and the sea strand', as Simon and Garfunkel call it, a non-place). One message of this card is that you cannot sit in this non-place forever. The moon in the card cannot stay half black and half white forever. The magpie cannot hover with outspread wings forever. Even the mountains will not endure forever!

So what is at its greatest power right now, what should be in sharpest focus in my life right now?  I am at the crossroads of possibility, the state between changed states -- and my greatest power is in being able to see with clarity, by looking inward, where I've come from and where I want to go. There are many decisions that must be made, but the card suggests that now I am at my greatest potential for making them.

Sunset 
The time for balance is over. The previous card just talked about how a balance act can't last forever. And then to represent what is on the wane, we see a card which represents a balancing act that lasts forever. In the sky of the card we see a sun and a moon side by side, the clouds around them forming the lemniscat of infinity. The green-haired sidhe, wearing a fetching red leotard, balances on the tips of the fingers of both hands on the handle of a glowing sword, which stands on its tippy-tip in the centre of a spiral, which is of course a faery glyph. The hair of the sidhe spills down from her head, forming the earth and the spiral, which actually looks like it could be the surface of a small pool of water. Here we have day and night, sun and moon, light and darkness, earth and sky, rock and water, and the flashing colours of green and red. The balancing sidhe can clearly maintain this pose forever. She herself is part of the landscape she balances on. It's all connected.

 However, the Justice card isn't about rock solid stability. Even this highly skilled, amazing strong sidhe cannot maintain such a posture like a marble statue. The balance requires continuous tiny adjustments to maintain the equilibrium to allow her to stay there in that position, which may vary in tiny degrees moment to moment, but which, overall, always appears the same. Look very close and you will see all the tiny tremours and miniscule movements of muscle that allow her to maintain the pose. (Just like in yoga.)

My time of 'continuous tiny adjustments' to maintain my status quo is now on the wane. It's on the way out. The time of tiny adjustments to keep everything looking the same is over! In conjunction with the previous Dreamer Two, the message is clear. Change is about to happen, based on decisions that I make. And because 'adjustment' is on the way out, making these decisions is something I can't avoid. Or even if I do avoid them, refuse to make them, change is going to happen. It's going to happen.

Night
Dancer Three or 3 of Cups is the card of celebrations, parties, festivities, community, lightness and joy. And this is dormant right now. Oh yes, I can certainly see that. We can safely say that I haven't felt like these water nymph type sidhe, frolicking together in the warm sea under the radiance of the full moon. I have felt isolated, agitated, and in many ways hopeless and directionless. Perhaps not hopeless, but certainly I have had no joy in community of any kind to speak of for many, many weeks. And in fact, this aspect of life is still dormant for me right now -- but there's one good thing about night. It doesn't last forever. If something is in the darkness of night, there is a clear implication that it will eventually see the light of day. If something is asleep, it will wake up.

And actually, I do have several social engagements lined up in the near future, and of course a big cause celebre is the end of this secondment, which is the main source of my feelings of isolation and unhappiness lately.

Advice
I decided after all this to draw one last card, asking for advice. How do I move more fully into the sun? How do I make the best of the Half-Moon Truce? What is the recommended action?

Night and Day

Trying to shuffle this morning, a card came flying out of the deck and fluttered to the floor. I call those 'jumpers', and sometimes I pick them up and put them back in the deck with no thought, other times they strike me as calling attention to themselves and I set them aside and proceed, taking them into account at the end of the reading, and sometimes they strike me as the 'true' answer to the query and I look at just the jumper and forego drawing any others.

Today I decided to stick with the jumper as my card of the day, Dreamer Two from Tarot of the Sidhe.

Just (You do it to yourself)

Tarot of the Sidhe, Carding 2010

Rider Waite Smith

This is an alarming-looking image for an easy Friday morning!

Dreamer Seven, 'A Coward Betrays', from Emily Carding's Tarot of the Sidhe, is the equivalent of 7 of Swords, which in RWS shows a man carrying swords which he's apparently stolen, tiptoeing away from some tents. Traditionally, the card is taken to mean some sort of unethical behaviour or nefarious scheming. But it's also sometimes interpreted to mean studying and learning (such as in the Druidcraft Tarot, though he might as easily be plotting or scheming something underhand, I suppose.) Learn Tarot suggests these meanings, as well as: 

The Seven of Swords can also indicate a hidden dishonor - a choice you or another has made that does not do justice to the highest. We all make wrong choices that we want to hide. Some of these are minor, some serious. Your inner voice will tell you when this is happening. When you see the Seven of Swords, take a good look at what you're doing because hidden dishonors will eat away at your happiness and self-respect.

That is a profound interpretation of this card, and I think it is quite pertinent to the image seen on the Tarot of the Sidhe Dreamer Seven card. It is a full moon, in a clearing amongst bare trees. Five wraith-like beings have apprehended a male sidhe. One of them holds a knife overhead in a threatening manner, as if he would plunge it into the sidhe's chest. From behind a tree, another sidhe watches, in hiding. What are these terrible wraiths? What has the green-shirted sidhe done to deserve this? Is he the coward who betrayed? Or is it the other figure peering around the tree? I believe it's the overall sense of the thing rather than the details that must be considered with this particular card. Emily Carding's verse for Dreamer Seven:

'At times the shadows in Dream are hidden,
And from the depths will emerge unbidden,
They must be faced, the challenge met,
Lest dreams be tangled in cunning net.'

An Invocation of the Fey

Tarot of the Sidhe, Carding 2010

'The Mysteries'

Here and now are the Mysteries.

Out of no stored and storied past

Of things long lost,

But the breathing moment of time.

Out of no twilight

But that which falls upon the hills this night.

The old trees partake of them,

And the voices of the grass,

The ghost-white blossomed elders,

And the first clouded glow

Of the rising moon.

If we can hear.

If we can see.

Out of no buried past they come,

But from the fields of our own home

Is reaped the grain

That makes the bread of their feast.

Out of the flowers of every summer

Flows the honey of their mead.

Look -- between the stones is a blade of grass,

And all the rites of the high Mysteries,

And the runes of all witcheries,

Are written upon it.

~Doreen Valiente

Now that's a power squat

Tarot of the Sidhe, Carding 2010

My Card of the Day is Warrior Two: Power Awakes. Interesting, as I woke up this morning at 4.59 AM. I didn't feel terribly powerful at that hour, let me tell you! It's getting that time of year, though. See, I have one of the most deeply entrenched circadian rhythms on the planet -- when it's dark it's time to sleep, when it's light it's time to wake up and that's that! So of course during this time of the year when it gets light at ungodly hours (like 3.30 AM in June), I struggle. I've got an eyemask around here I use during this time of year; it went in a drawer for the winter months. I need to dig it out again!

Anyway, today's card is Warrior Two (2 of Wands) from the Tarot of the Sidhe by Emily Carding (2010). It's a beautiful card. The sidhe is covered in blue body paint (or else really is blue) and decorated with red and orange swirls, wearing a red loin cloth. His hair and face have a distinctive shape, almost as if splitting in two. He squats in a kundalini yoga frog pose, his forearms crossed in front of him, palms facing out. Emerging from his two palms are dragons of fire, which curve about each other over his head.

Soulmates

Tarot of the Sidhe, 2010 

Today's card from Tarot of the Sidhe is Dancer Two, Soulmates. In RWS, it would be Two of Cups. We see another twilight landscape under a low-hanging full moon, a pool of water, mountains and green grass. Rising up from the pool, the water forms itself into two faery shapes, standing back to back, one female, the other male. Their arms form a shape reminiscent of heart shape. The water churns at the surface (one can imagine the surface had been bubbling and churning in the moments before pushing itself up into the faery shapes), and the moonlight forms a rather miraculous little rainbow there. A golden fish leaps up out of the water on the left, and dives back in again on the right. So there is the circle of the moon, the circle of the pool, the circle of the rainbow, and the circular route of the fish arching over the water. I like the way the shapes of the faeries are flow into one another. This is a moment caught in time, a spontaneous surging upward of the water, and it will merge back into one and sloosh back down into the pool the second after we leave the card, and calmness will once again settle over the face of the pool, reflecting the moon.

It's a wonderful relationship depicted in this card. Strong and sure and always there, like the mountains and the earth and the water, predictable and dependable like the cycles of the moon, but beautiful and amazing like the rainbow, precious and life-filled like the leaping fish. The upward surging of the water into the faery shapes is like the surges of love that can wash over and amaze us, even after so many years.

This is a lovely card for contemplation of the nature of love, or for reflection on the beauties and joys of the relationships in your own life. They surge and ebb and flow, but always they are there.

Apples and apples

I saw this spread, originally posted by Arwen, featured on Chloe's blog at Inner Whispers.:

*Center Card: Your World
*Left Card: The best way to describe your world
*Right Card: The one thing you should think about changing

I thought I'd give it a try so here's what I drew from Tarot of the Sidhe, Emily Carding, 2010:

Tarot of the Sidhe, Carding 2010

I was surprised by this. I haven't exactly been feeling on top of the world lately. Though there is essentially nothing wrong, I have been feeling like there is. You know what I mean? And while these cards at first look positive (the Fool, who knows no limitations, with the 'granted wish' card), they also show a lack of direction, or at least untapped potential. The Fool and Dancer Nine in combination creates an unstable, ungrounded, up-in-the-air situation. Fortunately, the Maker Six offers a way of anchoring them. 

Sit like a rock

Tarot of the Sidhe, 2010

Time to get back down to earth today with Maker Prince from Tarot of the Sidhe by Emily Carding. He is the Prince of Disks (Thoth), or Knight of Pentacles (RWS). He appears to me some kind of satyr, having horns on his head and the legs of a goat. The Maker Prince sits in rock pose (vajrasana), a yoga pose of sitting in a kneeling position on one's heels, feet and knees together. It is said to be a very grounding pose which also aids in digestion.

It seems appropriate that the Maker Prince would sit in such a pose, as he is possibly the most grounded and practical of the all the tarot courts. We see him in Tarot of the Sidhe depicted with elements of nature that echo his personal qualities. The trees, strong and slow-growing, are like his steadfast patience and slow pace. The dog represents his faithfulness and commitment to service. The hedgehog is his humble, retiring nature. The owl is his quiet wisdom, the butterfly represents the transformative potential of all these slow and patient qualities. 

Feeling salty today?

Tarot of the Sidhe, 2010

Well, yesterday we blew away the old, and in today's card from Emily Carding's Tarot of the Sidhe, we rise up again, renewed with card XX Judgement. 

The traditional Judgement card of course depicts the resurrection of the dead as prophesied in the New Testament:

Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? ~ 1 Corinthians 15: 51-55

Instead of the usual depiction of an angel blowing the trumpet and the dead rising from their graves in their new incorruptible bodies, we see here in this card a series of sidhe, mountain spirits perhaps, each standing on her own hilltop, sending out a similar call to awaken.

Beltane, and a new day

When I woke up this morning, I thought of a phrase from one of my favourite books, 'Anne of Green Gables':  Today is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.

It's Beltane and we've got a card today with the sun sending out huge beams across the entire sky! And along with it, the wind sending leaves whirling around our Airy Princess of Swords, or Dreamer Princess in Emily Carding's Tarot of the Sidhe. I remember reading somewhere that Beltane, or May Day, used to be a day when people would take out their old winter bedding (probably some sort of bag or mattress stuffed with straw or wool or a combination of things gathered the previous summer), mats and the rushes or mats from the floors and burn them. Very practical; one can imagine all that bedding from the winter being pretty used up and ready to be replaced with fresh! Even though we don't need to do that anymore, we can continue the spirit of that ritual by looking at the things that perhaps used to make us comfortable but which are now outworn and ready to be replaced, and light our own Beltane fires to figuratively burn them away.

Swift justice

Look who's back already today, the King of Swords, or Dreamer King, from Emily Carding's Tarot of the Sidhe. The Dreamer suit is associated with element Air, as are Swords in the traditional RWS tarot deck (and Golden Dawn tradition). In this card, we see the King of Swords in close-up, riding a dragon through the night sky. Behind him is the full moon. The Dreamer King wears a golden winged helmet, his hair flies out on either side. He has oversized epaulets of gold and golden gloves, with a rather simple shirt that laces at the neck. His high collar appears to be made of fire or blazing light, and is part of a cape that streams out behind him (reminding me of the capes seen in the Thoth tarot). The Dreamer King holds his sword up before his face, in an attitude often depicted of warriors. I've never known quite why they did this as it would seem to me to make you vulnerable with your vision obscured. On the other hand, perhaps it is to create a connection between the sword and the eye before battle commences, so that where the eye goes, the sword will follow. (I'm reminded of the many times Aragorn does this in Lord of the Rings).

Who are the Sidhe?

Tarot of the Sidhe, Emily Carding 2010

This is the beginning of a One Deck Wonder with Tarot of the Sidhe, the Faeries' Oracle and reading of the book Faery Craft by Emily Carding. I embark on this journey with a kind of fragile uncertainty, because I am skeptical about faery on the one hand (my logical side) and wary of them on the other (my Christian upbringing--and general wariness of dealing with unknown entities). I don't know what they are. I don't know if they exist. I don't know if I want to know. But I want to know. It's like that. So I am also excited at the prospect.

I bought Tarot of the Sidhe because though at first the images actually disconcerted me, I could not escape their power to reach out of the cards and touch me, even when viewing images online. From the day I opened the deck I knew it was powerful and important. It's taken me three years to be ready to take a closer look. 

Who are the Sidhe?

This spread was created spontaneously whilst I was shuffling the Tarot of the Sidhe, the deck I will be using for the period of Beltane to Midsummer. I was wondering 'Who are the Sidhe?' I then asked seven questions to correspond to the seven points on the faery star, beginning with the center top point, and working around clockwise:

1. Who are the Sidhe? Maker Six (6 of Coins)
2. What is their relationship to humanity? The Lovers
3. What do they offer to humanity? Dancer Eight (8 of Cups)
4. What is their relationship to me? Dreamer Prince (Prince of Swords)
5. What do they offer to me? Dancer Queen (Queen of Cups)
6. What do they need from humanity? The High Priestess
7. What do they need from me? Dreamer King (King of Swords)

I have attempted to write the answers spontaneously whilst staring at the cards in question. I have not edited or changed the words that came to me, and I stopped typing when the words stopped coming into my mind.

Beltane - Summer Solstice: It's Faerie Season!

Yesterday even though it was freezing cold, I couldn't help feeling suddenly overwhelmed by the first flush of Beltane fever, and the impulse hit me to end my One Deck Wonder with the Cosmic Tarot and focus on faeries from now until Summer Solstice. I found my book by Emily Carding, my two copies of the Tarot of the Sidhe, and my Faeries' Oracle by Brian Froud. They will be my exclusive divinatory tools from now until Summer Solstice. I am excited!

The book, Faery Craft, is not related to the two decks, but instead is about Faery lifestyle and practices. I haven't read it yet but have flicked through it on several occasions. It contains some information on Emily Carding's (and other's) ideas about faery, and there are lots of exercises suggested to help you get in touch with the faery. The remainder of the book focuses on the Faery lifestyle, a community of people who enjoy expressing their faery vision through artwork, writing, festivals and events--and dressing up!

Back from holidays!

We stayed in Durham Castle Thursday night, which wasn't as salubrious as it sounds. Turns out the keep where our accommodation was (it's that big round bit on the left of the castle structure, in the photo) was rebuilt in 1845, and it's student accommodation. Plus, our radiator didn't work so it was freezing in there. And there was no TV or radio, to my husband's horror. Didn't matter though, as after all that walking, we were both dead to the world by 9.45pm. :) Friday and Saturday night we stayed with a friend in Stockton, and spent all day Saturday tramping around Newcastle city centre, where I saw my first real-life examples of 'Geordie Shore' type girls. Wow. How they can teeter along on those platform shoes I don't know, and I can only say that 'super smoothing conditioner' probably isn't selling well right now in Newcastle. ;) 

I took Tarot of the Sidhe for company, and was inspired by the deck and my constant trawls through charity shops to put together a sort of little altar for the Elementals. I have a representation of Air, and of Earth, and now I just need to get Water and Fire. As I've got a spare Tarot of the Sidhe deck (thanks, Chloe!), I have displayed the Ace of cards of each suit there as well. It's shaping up. :D

What projects have you been up to lately? I'd love to hear!

Overindulgence--Dancer Four, Tarot of Sidhe

I drew this card this morning and thought, 'Hmph, I'm not bored -- and I'm off today for a weekend trip and surely I won't be bored during that!' The keyword for me for 4 of Cups is 'Boredom', but there's more to it than that, and it's that second level of meaning that then rose up. Lethargy, gluttedness, overindulgence. Oops, guess who made a pan of brownies yesterday? And guess who ate more of them than did the only other person in this household?

I've also been overindulging lately in spending money on 'stuff'--oh yes, 'spiritual' stuff, like a meditation DVD, a few tarot and oracle decks, a couple of yoga bolsters, a little figure of a blackbird (a power animal for me), a wonderfully useful little seiza bench . But you know, I don't have an endless cash flow, and besides that, surrounding oneself with 'spiritual paraphernalia' doesn't do a thing to advance one's spiritual practice. A lesson most of us need to be reminded of again and again, because those of us who are into divination and such tend to be little magpies, don't we? (Another totem of mine). We do so love to buy more esoteric/occult items, or as I like to call them 'sparkly stuff'.

Tarot of the Sidhe has little quatrains in the LWB, and the verse for Dancer Four goes:

'But when our soul is fed too much
Reflective longings are as such
That we lose sight of all that's good
And boredom drains our dancer's blood...'

Well...my soul hasn't been fed too much I don't think, unless it's the acquisitive little imp in my soul, but it's true that when I fall into a pattern of spending, all of a sudden I want everything I see, and lots of stuff I've noticed in the past comes swimming back up into my awareness and I'm off to order those things as well...and it gets to the point that opening a parcel is anticlimactic compared to the thrill of clicking 'Buy' and then you know you're in trouble.

So okay, a hiatus on online ordering, then. And I won't buy any more chocolate for a while either--gosh, the Sidhe are strict!