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Tarot Blog Hop: New Tarot Deck

07 Thursday Jan 2016

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This blog post is a part of a monthly Tarot Professionals Blog Hop. Please click the links above and the links below the post to see how other Tarot Readers interact with a new Tarot deck.

So…you’ve received a new deck in one way or another. Maybe, it was a gift or you acquired it from a proprietor of some sort, it doesn’t matter, you still want to use it. The deck itself may seem like a lifeless paper product with a weird factory smell when you first get it, and that may put you off to using it for readings. This can be disheartening if you are like me and must use everything you own. Otherwise it was a waste of money, and a waste of an artist’s hard work and dedication. With a lot of great decks being a good chunk of change, you may expect your new magickal item to be instantly, well, magickal. The pictures may ‘call’ to you (aka you love the artwork), but when you open the box, you become a nervous wretch and forget everything you know about Tarot.

I have been getting new decks lately, even though I don’t really necessarily want them. Mostly, these have been given to me as gifts or as rewards for my participation in fundraisers. I have most of the ones that I want, and I am very particular about the type of artwork I prefer. However, I feel like I should work with these decks, because it seems that I should be able to read most any deck. Plus, it keeps your skills fresh, and it’s kind of fun to play with a deck that you have no connection to at all. Here are my techniques of transforming a deck of cards into powerful allies in your magickal arsenal.

Get Acquainted

The first thing I do after freeing my new friend from the confining restraints of its

The Court cards for the cups in the Tarot Illuminati (top), Thoth Tarot (middle), and the Michelangelo Tarot (bottom)

The Court cards for the cups in the Tarot Illuminati (top), Thoth Tarot (middle), and the Michelangelo Tarot (bottom)

packaging is take it out and feel it in my hands. I like to get a sense of how the card stock is in my hands when I shuffle or just take a card out of the deck. I take note of how slippery the deck is, because this will produce a ton of ‘jumpers’ while I shuffle.

I like to look at each individual card and familiarize myself with the order of the Majors, as well as the names of these Trump cards. In some decks,the Devil may be named Oppression. In Waite-Smith based decks, Strength is numbered as VIII and Justice is XII. In other decks, the Strength and Justice cards are named something else completely and their order is flipped. Sometimes, the Court cards may be in a different language than one you are familiar with or they aren’t what you are used to. For

example, you might have only used decks whose Court cards are Page/Knight/Queen/King, and now you have a deck that has them as Princess/Prince/Queen/Knight. This is when that little booklet included with all new decks becomes your best asset in becoming acquainted with your new deck.

Shuffle…A LOT!

One of the best things to do is shuffle your new deck. First, these cards are in order, and will clump together if not shuffled enough. It’s kind of like making cookies, but only stirring the ingredients 3 times with a small spoon then trying to bake them. Secondly, this simple action stirs life into your new found friends. You start to incorporate your essence into them, and this starts to charge your cards. I will usually play with a new deck for a good hour before using it for readings that I would put any stock in. While I am stirring the cards, I will think about a million things, and I may even be anxious or excited. I will also periodically lay out the cards as I think of questions. I keep the spreads very simple, and I do not ask super serious life changing questions. I will ask questions that I know, or I will even ask the cards about their personal tastes. Asking playful, yet respectful, questions calms my own anxiety, and allows me to fully connect with my new deck. I will use the booklet if need be.

Everywhere I Go…

One of the most important things I do is take my new deck everywhere with me if it’s portable. It goes to work with me, and it goes to the grocery store. It is not uncommon for me to have at least 4 different divination tools on my person. This may be a little harder for menfolk as they may not have a knapsack that they carry with them. Another way is to sleep with the cards nearby you. This continues to aide you in not only strengthening your intimate connection, and continues to charge your cards. This will also remind you to keep working with the cards. I feel that by doing this, you really establish the cards as a magickal tool that you can trust and work with on a daily basis.

While with ritual tools you want to consecrate these items for specific purposes, because you do not use them on a daily basis. I do not do this with my cards or other divination devices. I establish them as a tool for this purpose by passively attuning them to my energy. They then become a part of me, and my cards are a trusted member of my life.

I hope this was helpful! See the other blogs to get different ideas, and try them out to see what works best for you!

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Exciting Kickstarter Tarot Project!

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

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Tarot Fundamentals Kickstarter Campaign

Lo Scarebeo Tarot and other names in the Tarot world are currently working tirelessly to create a complete work centered around the subject. There is a Kickstarter campaign going on right now! If you are interested in the project, please visit the campaign for more details!

Numerological Energies for the New Year

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to be forewarned as to what you may be dealing with on a yearly, monthly, or daily basis? While there are a ton of divinatory tools at your disposal, simple math can help you deal with everyday, physical energies. You can then add on to all of this using Runes, Tarot, Lenormand, or whatever else you are wonderfully attracted to.

So, let’s get started!

Calculating your Yearly number:

First, add up the month of your birth, day of your birth, and year you are looking into.

Month of Birth                   4
Day of Birth                 +  28
Year of Inquiry              +2015
Total Number for the year     2047

Next, we are going to break this down into a single number, unless it’s 11 or 22, by adding the individual numbers together.

2+0+4+7 = 13
Still not done! Now time to simplify the number even more.
1+3 = 4
So, 4 is the final answer!

So, the number 4 would be the energies that were playing into your life on a physical level.

Now, you try it! The meanings of numbers are HERE

Calculating your Monthly number:

Take the Year’s number that you had calculated. So, mine is 4. Now, you are going to add the yearly number to the month in question.

January:          4+1 = 5
February:         4+2 = 6
March:            4+3 = 7
April:            4+4 = 8
May:              4+5 = 9
June:             4+6 = 10; 1+0 = 1
July:             4+7 = 11
August:           4+8 = 12; 1+2 = 3
September:        4+9 = 13; 1+3 = 4
October:          4+10 = 14; 1+4 = 5
November:         4+11 = 15; 1+5 = 6
December:         4+12 = 16; 1+6 = 7

The meanings of numbers are HERE

I did the whole year so you can see how you would break down the numbers to their simplest form. You do not do this with the number 11 or 22. These are considered Master Numbers, and they do not need to be simplified into a single digit.

Calculating your Daily Number:

Now, you can go even further down the number rabbit hole, and calculate the number for each day of the month. You do this as follows:

For October, the number that was calculated was 5. I would then take the number 5 and add it to the day that I want to know about. So, let’s take the 6th of October.

Month Number (October)      5
Day of the Month (October) +6
                           11
11 – This is the energy you are working with on the 6th of October.

Let’s try another. Let’s take the month number for April, and the 11th of April.

Month Number (April)           8

Day in the Month (April)     +11
                              19
1+9 = 10; 1+0 = 1
This is the energy you are working with on the 11th of April.

The meanings of numbers are HERE

I hope this has been informative. Enjoy 2015!

The Life Marathon

27 Sunday Apr 2014

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I hear some people use that line made famous by that movie. You know… the one about a box of chocolates and not knowing what you’ll get. Sure, that would work if your life was fairly simple and Hollywood easy. In fact, you can plan your box of chocolates. They have a list on the bottom of the box of exactly what is contained within that box. It is predestined and easy to figure out. For the rest of us, it is more like a Marathon in the Dark.

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Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Life is like a marathon in the dark, you never know when that tree is going to smack you in the face.”

This seems to be more or less the way it is for some of us. We may keep charging ahead blindly, but we are cautious most of the time. However, when that overconfident mood strikes, Wham! A brick wall. Sometimes, that wall may be just a small one and other times it’s one that takes a few years of feeling around in the dark trying to find a way around it. No clues are given on this marathon, especially if they are helpful. You know, like a light bright with an arrow on it to point out our paths for us. The path must be paved on it’s own with all the scrapes, bruises, and possible broken limbs.

Eventually, a torch is found, and it illuminates the surroundings a bit. It helps for the short term, but until the flood light is found it is better than nothing. When that is found, then the possibilities open up for us, and it becomes easier to surround ourselves with all the box of chocolates we could ever hope for.

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Image: Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dark Night of the Soul

11 Friday Apr 2014

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As morose as it might sound, the aptly named dark night of the soul is necessary to our spiritual evolution. It is the universe’s way of initiating us into a new level of consciousness. it is there to test our previously held belief systems. We will either use this time to strengthen those beliefs or we will throw them out to make room for something new. A break from all our paradigms that will either make or break us.

The dark night is when we loose all faith in ourselves and our abilities not only as spiritual beings but as physical ones. On a spiritual level, a person who is going through this period of initiation will feel disconnected from their intuition, their beliefs, and from their chosen gods. On a physical level, this time will make us feel as if we don’t know who we really are anymore. Things around them will fall apart, and they may feel extremely depressed. They may feel as if we have spiritual ADD in a way, meaning they will go every which way with their energies to find a solution to their earthly dilemma. Nothing seems to satisfy those who are going through this bit of spiritual boredom. Searching for answers because more of an addiction than an actual searching for answers. It’s like they are searching for a certain sort of something, but don’t know what that something is.

The problem is that one doesn’t know what to do about the fact that they are going through such a dark time. One almost has to approach it with a “go with the flow” type attitude.

Some people state that when you going through this time you should meditate to calm yourself. That is always easier said then done. Of course that is simple when you are content and don’t feel the need to be all over the place with your energy and spread yourself thin. A spiritually unsound soul is not at rest, and eventually will keep that not so rested feeling as the norm. It can cause a multitude of mental maladies, and a lack of confidence.

Some people in this time, will not being searching for spiritual answers at all. Their whole life may have fallen apart, and it is hard to be spiritual on any level when your physical self is threatened as well. A person’s physical well being must be cared for first before you can or should do any hardcore searching into the spiritual. Spiritual work is tiring, and so is not being able to take care of yourself or your family.

It is important to remember that all of this will pass. Life has it’s cycles of knowledge, and even what we think we know will ebb and flow like the ocean. Existence can be chaotic at times much like the ocean in the storm. I am a firm believer that even seemingly tough times can end up being our greatest teacher. Challenges can show us how strong we really are in the face of adversity if we are willing to learn from it.