Cosmic Whispers Tarot

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Fitting Art to Tradition: A Tarot Deck Creator’s Challenge

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starrynight_vangogh
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

I’ve noticed that each deck creator has the challenge of taking their vision for a Tarot deck and fitting it (at least somewhat) to the existing structural tradition for the Tarot. We do have more than one tradition to work with (Thoth, Rider-Waite-Smith, Marseille, etc.), but to be a Tarot deck, we still need to work with something like the 22 cards of the Major Arcana and at least four suits for the Minors.

I’ve taken on the challenge of working with existing abstract images from the cosmos (because I can’t create like Van Gogh) to create a deck (check here for earlier examples), and I ran into a creator’s block over the past several months because seeing recognizable patterns that match a Tarot card has become more difficult.

I’ve been tempted to move into collage, much as the Quantum Tarot did, in order to introduce shapes that would make a card look more immediately like a traditional Tarot card, but I resisted. I really do believe that all the right shapes and colors can be found if one looks and crops/rotates the images in the right way.

But a good friend of mine, Jean Hamilton-Fford, told me recently to try being less strict about seeing the pattern in the image so clearly, and allow the viewer/reader to take a little more time to figure out why an image has the shape it does to illustrate the theme and symbolism of the card.

Yesterday and today I took her philosophy to the NASA website and gathered some more possibilities for cards.

swords_12_knight_cw_watermarkKnight of Swords

The Knights are associated with men on horseback and the idea of swift movement. Although the idea of a horse is not obvious with this flying knight, an irregular galaxy still shows the almost-human form and the visual of sword moving swiftly across space. So, the Knight of Swords he is.

disks_1_ace_cw_watermarkAce of Disks

I’m using “disks” for the traditional Pentacles suit in Tarot. Still trying to decide about how much brown and how much green to use in this Earth-centered suit, but planetary nebulae (out-gassing from a single star) like the Eskimo Nebula create a great single round shape to use for this Ace, with brown colored dust that is consistent with an Earth element. Of course, I could transform some of the color to green to make a better fit to my theme for the Disks, but we’ll see.

wands_6_cw_watermarkSix of Wands

Normally in the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, this card depicts a young man on horseback returning victorious from the wars and enjoying the accolades of the populace. He usually has in hand a long staff or lance with a pennant on it. Also, in accordance with the association of Wands with the element of Fire, I’ve been looking for images that produce a red color (there are lots of these in NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope infrared imagery). I found this one at the bottom of an image of the NGC 1333 star cluster. Lots of assertive young stars burning in this region of space.

Let me know what you think of my choices for these cards!

Cosmic Outposts

To see how the Tarot can guide even the most mundane of tasks (if you are brave enough to allow it!), check out my friend Katalin Patnaik’s contribution to the last Tarot Blog Hop in September. We had a foodie theme and many of the contributors came up with great recipes. But Kati’s was unique: she asked the Tarot for the recipe and used the “random” draw of the cards to decide what ingredients and quantities to use for the recipe. The results were much more coherent than you might think. Magical!

 

 

A Wildwood Harvest Dinner: Mabon Tarot Blog Hop

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bows_6_wildwoodTime to gather around the fire on a cold evening, with good food, good family and friends, and celebrate abundance and sharing. It is the harvest here in the northern hemisphere, and in the Wiccan nature calendar, it is Mabon. Let’s gather and eat!

We have quite the lovely and creative community in the Tarot Blog Hop Facebook group. If you came here either from Ania’s or Morgan’s fine blogs (see links above), welcome! And if you get lost, the Master List will give you a bird’s eye view to find your way again.

Yes, eat. For what we gather, we then consume to create the energy to survive the winter. Energy to matter, matter to energy. We are part of that basic cycle. Being human social animals, though, we’ve turned our need to translate matter to energy into a sharing of food and friendship/family.

For this season’s Tarot blog hop, in accordance with our wranglers’ call for food sharing (a very tasty theme!), I’ve chosen the Wildwood Tarot, by Mark Ryan, John Matthews, and Will Worthington to create a picture story of our original gatherings to share the harvest. It’s a tale of energy expended and life sacrificed to gather matter (food) to consume to create the energy for us to continue as conscious beings.

And of course there will be a recipe in the end. 🙂

The Hunter and the Hunted

7_archer_wildwoodIn the world of the Wildwood, it’s hunter-gatherer time, so the balance of nature is found in the process of killing and being killed. These days, post-agricultural revolution, we think of ourselves as owning and cultivating our food, and we often feel detached from the plants and animals who give their fruit and their lives for our sustenance. In the Wildwood, one moves eye-to-eye and arrow to claw with one’s food.vessels_queen_wildwood

One of my favorite Wildwood cards depicts the intense energy of focus and hunting skill that is necessary to gather food for our sustenance (The Archer/The Chariot). I think my favorite part of this wonderful Worthington illustration is that the hunter is female, and also not alone. She is using the skills of her canine companions to support her own. A wonderful twist on the in-charge Chariot card.

Because food is so easy to obtain these days, we have mostly lost our focus on its value, as well as the sacrifice of the food itself, and we waste both it and our bodies in unconscious consumption. The Archer calls upon us to engage in conscious eating with gratitude for our prey’s sacrifice, in order to find balance in our bodies and our lives.

Sourcing the Water of Life

vessels_6_wildwoodAlong with good hunting grounds, the folks of the Wildwood need clear water to process their food and keep soul and body together. They found the calmness and flow of a good spring to be good for both. I love the Cups cards in this deck; I always get this feeling of meditative calm or the relief of releasing the flow to create new pathways.

Today, we have used up so much water, particularly in urban and agricultural areas, that we are finally seeing that there is wisdom in conserving this universal resource. Conscious appreciation of our water sources, including the savoring of water instead of sugar drinks, continues to be good for human bodies and souls. Besides, toasting one’s friends in a shared beverage feeds our social connections.

Gathering the Community to Sharebows_8_wildwood

Being social animals, we like to share our food with others, so get out your cauldron and let’s mix up a great comfort meal (see below) to celebrate this harvest season.

In the Wildwood, the folk bring food and beverage to the village fire to cook and share abundance and the accomplishments of the hunting and gathering season. Worthington, the illustrator for this deck, has deftly captured the simplicity and good feeling that goes with love and full tummies after great effort.

And the cycle of energy to matter to energy continues on and on…

Comfort Food Time!

3_green_womanIn my old New England family, food has always been savory but basic: animal protein, veggies from the garden, some savory herbs, salt and pepper. Over the past year of living with my mother-in-law and then traveling to Oregon from Texas, I’ve relied heavily on the simplicity of the basic foods from my childhood because complex culinary activities just weren’t working (or appreciated!).

I’ve also found that I don’t need to rely on cans and packages to create good comfort foods, and that my ideas for recipes are often tastier anyway. One of my favorite basic meals was inspired by Shake ‘n’ Bake chicken, although I no longer use the package. I add mashed potatoes and either salad greens or broccoli to round out this recipe. Here are the details.

Ingredients

1.5 to 2.5 lbs (or more if you have more folks) Chicken or other white-meat fowl (you could shoot your own quail, turkey, etc.) cut into pieces (breasts, legs, and/or thighs, etc.)

1/4 to 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (either plain/make your own—need to be dried—crackers are good—and add your own herbs and spices, or buy Garlic and Herb breadcrumbs)

1 or more tablespoons of oil or oil spray

For the potatoes:

3 or more medium white or red potatoes to mash

2–3 tablespoons butter

1/8 cup milk (I just pour a little in, and I love goat milk!)

1/2 teaspoon basil, and salt and pepper to taste

Greens and other harvest foods for a salad or cut broccoli or other favorite veggie to steam

Favorite salad dressing for salad choice

Process

Sprinkle in a large plate or shallow bowl half of your breadcrumb/herb mixture. Rinse your chicken pieces (or dress/clean your own fowl as appropriate) and lay them out on the breadcrumbs. Pour more breadcrumbs on your fowl and turn with tongs to cover (you can also pour all the breadcrumbs in a plastic bag and do the shaking thing if you like).

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease a cookie sheet or shallow baking pan that will hold your fowl pieces (I use an oil spray or a thin layer of vegetable oil) and then place your pieces in the pan/on the cookie sheet. Bake for at least 45 minutes. Enjoy the lovely smell while the herbed chicken cooks!

About a half hour before your fowl is done, cut your potatoes into chunks and cook in a medium saucepan half-filled with water until tender. Drain out the water and add the butter, milk, basil and salt and pepper to the potatoes. Then use a fork or masher tool to mash your potatoes (always better than boxed potato flakes, especially if potatoes are from your own garden!).

If you choose steamed veggies, you will want to start them while the potatoes are cooking. You can use a steamer device, or just a basket in a saucepan with a little water (my choice). Keep an eye on it, because you want your veggies firm and smelling slightly cooked, but not turned to mush.

If you choose salad greens (and whatever else you might have from your garden like radish slices, carrot shavings, green onion, etc.), I assume you’ve already cleaned and sliced earlier. Toss them together and add a store-bought or homemade vinaigrette and you are done!

Gather your community and enjoy!

And don’t forget to eat up the rest of the great blog hop posts along the way (see below for links).

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The Mary-el Tarot Journey: Rising from the Depths

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Sunday Morning Mary-el Draw 9-18-16. © 2012 Schiffer Publishing

Seems like only yesterday that the Mary-el Tarot invaded my consciousness on social media. At first I was totally intimidated, in much the same way that I was by the original Thoth tarot (the Mary-el is based more in the Thoth tradition than the RWS). The imagery was so visceral, even shocking in some cards, that I wasn’t sure I could read from it.

I did eventually pull my courage together to purchase the deck. It still looked like a mess of conglomerated archetypal imagery, although some of the colors and the willingness to make the paintings so textured they seemed touchable, was rather appealing, in a challenging way.

The key, it seems, to understanding the Mary-el, is to read the wonderful book that goes with it. Without Marie White’s tapestry of words to weave together mysticism and mythology, her deck seems quite opaque to interpretation. But with this key, a deep and wondrous inner world opens up, a world created by our ancestors to inform our own soul work. Just amazing.

This deck is one of very few where I continue to consult the book as I make my own interpretation of a multiple-card draw. And it’s not because I need a crutch at this point in my Tarot reading; it’s just that Marie’s insights are so comprehensive and detailed that I keep finding new symbolic and semantic ways to weave my own interpretations.

Take this past Sunday’s draw (I’ve made the Mary-el my deck of choice for a Sunday draw and meditation on the symbolism of Tarot). There is a super-cool imagery connection between the Six of Cups and the Moon card. See the crab hands above the water (that’s Archangel Uriel rising)? Just like the crab in the RWS Moon card! Of course, Marie’s Moon card is a bit different, taking us into the depths of the death and rebirth (check out the vulture) as well as other cycles, in accordance with the Moon’s cyclical changes in the night sky and her fondness for what looks like Aztec astronomical symbolism.

And then I got two sixes in this draw, and two archangels: Uriel in the Cups, and Raphael in the Swords. And now that I can read Marie’s stories about her Tarot paintings and their connection to archetypal symbols, pulling them together into a message just flows:

With the protection and guidance of Raphael and the strength of Uriel (manifested in loving people around your and in your self-exploration), face your fears of the unknown dark within your own soul and the cyclical challenges of your own Moon phases to rise out of those fears into the light of new revelation.

mary-el_box

The Mary-el Tarot—An Encounter with the Deep

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knight-swords-mary-el
© 2012 Schiffer Books

Nope, not a review, this one. I think the only thing you can do with the Mary-el Tarot  from Schiffer Publishing is encounter it and then walk away with your mind blown (also your heart, your senses, your sensuality).

I saw the launch of this deck several years ago…and was afraid. At first, the art work struck me as wounded, chaotic, downright weird in the good old-fashioned occult sense of the word. I was so visually and viscerally overwhelmed that I couldn’t digest the symbolism, the patterns that followed the Tarot archetypes. Besides, it was described as a Thoth-based deck, which meant all that business of complex layers of Kabbalah, Hebrew letters, Egyptian deities (I did already know about those), deep psychology, probably astrology. Just too much stuff!

3-wands-mary-el
© 2012 Schiffer Books

So, I put the deck on my Amazon wish list and procrastinated. Bought other, simpler decks instead. Very nice ones, but simpler.

Then I won the TABI (Tarot Assoc. of the British Isles) Free Reader raffle again this past month. Yay! It comes with a lovely coupon code to indulge one’s Tarot love at Amazon.com. So, this time I ordered it (along with the Celtic Lenormand—more on that in another post).

OK. Deep breath. Holding my nose…here I go!

So, I got sensible and actually went through the cards one by one while reading the book. Wait, first I read the introduction, and then I realized what a beautiful work of philosophy and art this deck is. Some decks are stronger in story than imagery, whereas others are stronger in art than story. Marie White has covered both at depths I have never encountered in a tarot deck (although Aleister Crowley waxes more complex in the Thoth deck, Marie is easier to understand).

13-death-mary-el
© 2012 Schiffer Books

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in both deep psychology and mythology, but I learned so much more just reading the intro to this deck. The breadth of knowledge and connections made among cultural traditions is breathtaking (check out Morta the Crone at left—great agent for the Death event).

“Landscapes of the Abyss” indeed. And in Kabbalah, the Abyss is above the Earthly plane. After reading Marie’s take, I think I’m even beginning to follow the intricate patterns of the Hebrew alphabet and the Tree of Life. O miracle of miracles!

19-sun-mary-el
© 2012 Schiffer Books

I’ll do a full take on the Major Arcana for this deck next week after May Day (when I get to do a blog hop post on “icky” tarot cards). Suffice to say for now that the symbolism works wonderfully with the archetypal symbols in The Fool’s journey, with lots of fascinating tidbits from Marie’s text to support them.

 

 

Chrysalis Tarot—My Take

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© US Games, Inc.
© US Games, Inc.

I’ve had some additional funds lately to indulge in my tarot deck interests, and my first acquisition in this series is Toney Brooks’ and Holly Sierra’s Chrysalis Tarot.

I had been intrigued by the development of this deck on a Facebook deck creators’ group I belong to. I really liked both Holly’s art and Toney’s philosophy. I’ve been focused on decks with practical daily reading symbolism vs. psychological or spiritually themed decks lately, but I’m ready to add to my inner journey-themed collection, and the Chrysalis Tarot is a worthy addition.

Holly’s artwork is mellow and quite enchanting, with soft colors and a balanced focus on the human (or other mythological) figure and its frame or surroundings. I just found the whole ambiance very cozy.

The full companion book for this deck is not available quite yet as far as I can tell, but I am definitely looking forward to it, because I can see that Toney can go much deeper into his mythological choices for the cards than he was able to do in his Little White Book (LWB). That said, I still found the LWB quite useful; I particularly liked how he would relate each card to its use in a reading rather than giving just the symbolic story in abstract.

© US Games, Inc.
© US Games, Inc.

The only thing about the deck that keeps me guessing a bit is identifying the suits. Toney has changed up the traditional suits in Tarot to scrolls = swords, spirals = wands, stones = disks, and mirrors = cups. For the last two I have no trouble “getting” the relationship, but the first two are so close together in shape that I often have to look twice or three times to make sure I’m seeing the correct suit. Not a show-stopper, and I see how Toney’s style would lend itself to getting rid of the swords as a suit, but it will take a bit of time to get used to scrolls vs. spirals.

© US Games, Inc.
© US Games, Inc.

Others have noted the variety of mythological characters in the Troupe (corresponding to the Court cards), which don’t follow the normal progression of related ranks (page, knight, queen, king), although he gives the traditional counterpart in the card label. They seem disconnected to their suits, too, and one needs to refer to the LWB to find the message from each one.

© US Games, Inc.
© US Games, Inc.

After seeing how the Troupe was used and noting the use of specific mythological figures in most of the other cards, I settled into this sense of having 78 companions on my inner journey, lending me their unique perspectives to support me in my day or in pondering the question I may ask. A personal deck, this is. Almost an independent oracle deck, but not quite. I feel like I’ve got input from all over the world as well, with many different cultural mythologies represented along the way (my fav is Papa Legba, who sits with the Strength card).

© US Games, Inc.
© US Games, Inc.

I plan to use this deck primarily for inner journey and personal transformation types of questions. It’s also useful as a daily draw, particularly in conjunction with another deck to see “who” is working with you and what message they may have to apply to the question.

I’d love to know what you think of this deck in the comments. Go! 🙂

The Fool—Cosmic Whispers Deck

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Here’s the image I’m thinking of using for The Fool in my deck. I keep going back and forth about whether or not the outline of the fellow is obvious enough for doing readings. Here’s the text that will go with it. Let me know what you think in comments, please. Many thanks! (Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU))

Keywords

beginning, taking risk, trusting, spontaneity, apparent folly, the world in the egg, innocence

The Physics

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant from an event that occurred relatively recently in universal time, your time of 1054 CE. Chinese and Arabic astronomers recorded the event. Supernovas are my most creative entities, since they make the heaviest chemical elements right when they go off. Without them, we wouldn’t have gold, silver, or lead, for example. It takes great mass and great focused energy to pull this off. And now, all the ingredients for a brand new creation! In addition, at the center, there’s a pulsar, a neutron star as massive as the Sun but so dense that it’s only the size of a small town.

Metaphysics and Myth

The Fool began life as a pretty wild character, literally a wild card character in the original use of the Tarot as a playing card deck.  He looked like the village idiot with an animal nipping at his heels. But the Golden Dawn esoteric shift in the deck thanks to Pamela Colman-Smith and Arthur Waite gave him a whole new function as the initiate into the realms of magic. He seems to have taken on the role of the innocent going on the hero’s journey (only more like Don Quixote going off to tilt at windmills) or a version of the court jester; foolish and clever at the same time.

In this image, depending on how one looks at the lines, there could be just the little dog (facing right), or the Fool himself towards the right side of the shape, standing upright and maybe looking down and to the left at his hobo bag.

In the universe, the Fool represent the singularity at the time of the Big Bang. Even smaller than the neutron star at the center of this Crab Nebula. Much smaller. He is the Cosmic egg, holding all of the universe in potential and just about to expand into existence, into particles like these that will organize eventually into stars.

For the Reading

Your Self, like the universe, won’t be built in a day, and will include many spirals of creation and destruction. Life may look like the primordial soup when everything is in probability but not actuality. Take a small step in the direction of your passion; it may not look like more than the unconnected particles at the beginning of the universe, but the combination of expansion and the gravity of your intent will coalesce into beauty. But you have to give that intent; you have to say, “Let there be light.”

The Story

I’m just sitting here on this wall,
The sun is beating down,
I wonder if I’ll fall.

What am I waiting for?

Could be a true blue norther,
A major avalanche,
Or a world to be born.

What am I waiting for?

You’re standing in the doorway
With shadows on your face,
And longing in your eyes.

You hesitate; you stop,
You bend and tie your shoelace.

What are you waiting for?

Could be a windblown kiss,
The light from a lantern,
Or gateway to bliss.

What are you waiting for?

Lying here among the stones,
With hearts in our eyes,
And songs in our ears,

What are we waiting for?

For stars to fall, the sun to die,
The earth to quiver,
Clouds to vaporize?

What are we waiting for?

Now’s the moment and here’s the time
To be, to do, to live, to shine.

What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?

Rebirth—Cosmic Whispers Deck

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20_rebirth_cwBusy, busy, but finding some time to add cards to my deck. Here’s a new one that I thought really illustrated the Judgment/Angel/Rebirth card. Here’s the info that’ll be in the companion book (all the Major Arcana cards will have a poem):

Keywords

rebirth, judgment, inner calling, absolution, forgiveness, second chances

The Physics

The Snowflake Cluster and the Cone Nebula

Strange shapes and textures can be found in the neighborhood of the Cone Nebula. These patterns result from the tumultuous unrest that accompanies the formation of the open cluster of stars known as the Snowflake Cluster (NGC 2264,). The Spitzer Space Telescope used two colors of infrared light to bring out the details in this image. Bright stars from the Snowflake Cluster seem to be strewn through the field of gas. These stars will heat up and destroy the gas and dust mountains in which they formed, so, like all formations in the universe, this one is a temporary piece of cosmic art. One such dust mountain is the famous Cone Nebula, visible in the lower left of the image, pointing toward a bright star near the center of the field. This region is located about 2,500 light years away toward the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).

Image credit: NASA

Metaphysics and Myth

Traditionally, this card is called Judgment (as a reference to the Last Judgment in Christian mythology) or the Angel (in many pre-Golden Dawn historical decks). The angel awaits the risen beings as they float up toward the center of light. Traditionally, this is the card of second chances, of forgiveness, and not just judgment, and that’s the way I’ve chosen to read it. All souls are welcomed by heaven, their inner selves shining like stars as they move into new lives beyond the clouds of their incubation as humans.

For the Reading

You are forgiven. Stop dwelling on past losses. Go forth, internalize that forgiveness, and begin your transformed life. Here’s your second, or third, or infinite chance to refocus on your calling, to awaken to your passion and try again. That’s great for the spiritual reading, but in a more practical spread, this card would also indicate more grounded second chances, like another opportunity to learn a new skill, take a new direction in your business, get a second opinion on a medical diagnosis, or a second chance at making a relationship work. Clean that slate and hear the call to start anew.

The Story

Forgiveness
The longer I live,
the more I give.
The more I forgive,
the happier I live.

A longevity of giving;
a giving for-ness of living.
A love remembered;
a mistake forgotten.

Why loss in life?
Why will to live?
Why, this means
life is to forgive.

Loss is the deal.
Meditate on memory.
Fill in with love.
Nowhere else to be
when life is a flood.

Thanks for checking this one out, and please let me know how the image strikes you as far as the card’s meaning and traditional symbolism.

Princess of Cups—Cosmic Whispers Deck

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cups_11_princessI’ve been working on the images for my deck and thought I’d profile the Princess of Cups today. These NASA images will be a bit abstract, but our Princess has a pink billowy cape flowing out over the waves of space, and she’s holding a shining bowl filled with new stars at her middle.

I’m staying with the color themes for Cups from the Thoth Tarot (pink and green, mainly). Princesses will correspond with Pages in traditional decks.

In the companion book, I’ll include keywords, the actual physics description of the image from NASA, and a message giving the meaning of the card as I see it. For this card, the guidance will look like this.

Keywords

invitation, new love, warmth, attraction, creative imagination, emotional sensitivity

The Physics

This view of one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

At the center of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346. A dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounds the cluster.

 A torrent of radiation from the cluster’s hot stars eats into denser areas creating a fantasy sculpture of dust and gas.

The dark, intricately beaded edge of the ridge, seen in silhouette by Hubble, is particularly dramatic. It contains several small dust globules that point back towards the central cluster, like windsocks caught in a gale.

The NGC 346 cluster at the center of this Hubble image contains dozens of hot, blue, high-mass stars, more than half of the known high-mass stars in the entire SMC galaxy. A myriad of smaller, compact clusters is also visible throughout the region.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (STScI/ESA)

The Metaphysics

Light up your heart! New heat and light of love is ready for you to experience.

Darkness is only absence of light, they say; just—turn on the light! Well, with new stars, that takes a lot of energy, actually. And that’s what this young princess has to give you, the energy to begin your love world anew and shine the light of attraction for a fresh partnership or a new feeling about life in general.

You’ve always had the power, as Glinda said in the Wizard of Oz; just close your eyes, open your soul, click your heels three times, and say “Let there be light.”

So, let me know what you think of the image match for the Princess and the message. Thanks!

© 2013 – 2020 Joanne Sprott