Cosmic Whispers Tarot

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Weekly Tarot Forecast: 18 March 2018

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Welcome to your weekly Tarot forecast! Daffodils galore in Oregon, while my buddies in the UK seem to still have snow. Crazy! Happy New Moon in Pisces from yesterday. Listen to that inner voice; it’s speaking a bit louder at present.

I’m using my own prototype Cosmic Whispers deck this week. It’s on the abstract side, but it’s been great fun finding NASA images that have good shapes to represent the Tarot cards. I’m currently fine-tuning the images and writing the companion book to be ready for publication by the end of the year.

Since there is no specific question or area of concern for these readings, my interpretation will be very general in nature, based on my sense of what the Tarot itself is addressing and the general energy potentials for the week.

We have a confluence of court cards and Majors this time. Should be a week filled with interesting personality energies.

Let’s do a chronological look first, and then we’ll use some mirrored pairs to round out the message.

The Timeline View

We begin this week with adventure and trouble, which often do go together if we don’t maintain awareness. Relax your eyes and scan the whole card to find the shapes that speak to the Tarot symbolism. The Knight of Wands is facing right, seated toward the left of the card, with his rearing horse’s head outlined in smoke in the upper right. It looks like he’s off to the rescue of the little star people in the bottom left of the Devil card, where the Devil’s fire eyes peer out from the upper right of the card and his bull-like face dominates the chaotic scene. Not sure whether fighting fire with fire in this case will be a good idea; it might be best, given the usual message from the Devil card, to realise that the challenge may be an illusion, and it might be best to rein in that Knight-of-Wands energy to avoid the temptation of engaging in what might end up being a regretful ego trip.

At midweek, whether you gave in to temptation and joined the fray with the Devil or stayed under the radar and flowed on through, you’ll have a respite to heal and find the silver lining in any storms you had to bear on Monday and Tuesday. The Star (lots and lots of those to choose from for this deck!) is here to shed its light on your situation and give you emotional sustenance with which to move forward.

Moving toward the end of the week, the Page of Disks has some practical news for you (he’s leaning down from upper right to lower left to offer you his message), probably a little financial boost or business invite. And you can take best advantage of that gift by putting your ever-logical and clever King of Swords energy on. Communicate clearly here to ensure the best result.

The Mirrored Tarot Pairs

The focal point for this view of your cards is the healing power of the Star. No matter how the rest of the week goes, know that there is always an option for a positive solution; just keep looking and stay open.

Now let’s pair the outer cards up to see how they might inform your situation. The Knight of Wands’s impulsive energy needs the more mature and rational approach of the King of Swords to manage this week’s challenges and exercise discipline in relation to the Devil card. It’s OK to move forward, but keep any hot-headedness out of it. Let the King of Swords energy keep you from taking anything personally.

The inner cards show you the virtue of passing through the Devil card without engaging; it looks like good news (Page of Disks) awaits, and you don’t need to be distracted by others’ attempts to restrict your options.

Weekly Tarot Forecast: 29 July 2017

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Welcome to your weekly Tarot forecast! Oregon is getting some real heat (90sF) for longer than usual this summer. Almost miss the morning fog these days, but the rains will return soon enough.

Today I’m using a deck that I created, the Cosmic Whispers Deck. I’m using the first prototype printing and it is a very cool feeling to have cardboard in hand, I have to say. I still have some tweaking to do to make call the cards work well, but I am pleased overall. And I found Make Playing Cards a great service to do the printing. So, let’s give these a try and see how they read.

Since there is no specific question or area of concern for these readings, my interpretation will be very general in nature, based on my sense of what the Tarot itself is addressing and the general energy potentials for the week.

Let’s do a chronological look first, and then we’ll use some mirror pairs to round out the message.

The Timeline View

We start this week with a well-defined structure to use moving forward (Four of Wands). This is an image of a proto-planetary nebula, which just means the leftovers after the “death” of a star. The energy radiating out from the star forms a nice four-point structure we can count on to carry us forward into new creations. But before we get too far, looks like we need to deal with those leftovers. The Ten of Swords (an infrared view of two energy jets from the dark and cold Carina Nebula, multiplied by my collage into ten jets) reminds us that new beginnings start from the cold and dark of endings. We’ll have to take the little lights from those jets with us to light our way through the rest of the challenges for this week.

By midweek, we start to see the illusions, optical and psychological, that may be keeping us trapped (Eight of Swords). This is Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster that is trapped in its own energy. The elliptical galaxy at the center is “sloshing around” within the limits of the other galaxies around it so it can’t get any bigger. We may need to be a patient until things evolve to allow us to expand later in the week.

As we move on toward week’s end, we get one more illusion to break through, the Nine of Swords. The image is part of the huge and depending on the type of energy used to look at it, colorful Orion Nebula. If you look carefully, you can see the person sitting up in the left part of the image, with weird and ghostly images looking down on him (or are they emerging from his head? You decide). It’s all a trick of light and dust, my friends, so stop your worry and move into the light of the Star. In this case a Cepheid variable star (changes its brightness) blasting through its cloud of uncertainty dust to show us a clearer path forward for next week. Be patient this week, then and you’ll be rewarded with illumination.

The Mirrored Tarot Pairs

The focal point for this view of your cards is the Eight of Swords, a card that focuses on the perceived restrictions on your ambitions for the week. Let’s see what energies we have available to break through and start growing again.

Now let’s pair the outer cards up to see how they might inform your situation. Four of Wands and Star. Nice! These are your positive framing posts for a challenging week. Open your eyes to the light and the structure that you already have available to expand beyond the restrictions of the Eight of Swords.

The inner pair of the Ten and Nine of swords emphasize the illusion of loss or pain that you may feel this week. Although some influences this week may seem dark and cold, or as if unknown threats are looming, you can blow your dusty fetters away and be free to move on.

Cosmic Whispers of the Week

The TABI Tarot Blog has a wonderful spread for making decisions this week using the intriguing After Tarot. Check it out here.

Not strictly Tarot, but everything from Olivia Destrages at First Earth Tarot is worth reading. In this case a very powerful “I am” poem. You should write your own. Read hers here.

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!

 

 

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.

© 2013 – 2020 Joanne Sprott