tarot

Welcome to your weekly Tarot forecast! For this reading, I’m trying out a wonderful early birthday gift from my lovely, intelligent, and talented daughter. She gave me The Alice Tarot from Baba Studio, a deck I’ve been wishing for, but one whose price tag made me hesitate (a little over $100). I’ve bought self-published decks that cost up to $60, but Alice stopped me. However, now that I have the deck and the companion book, I have a much better idea as to why the price tag. But I’ll save the details for a proper deck review. Let’s just see what it’s like to read with the Alice stories in mind.

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

The week starts with an opportunity to take a break. The Dormouse looks ready to take his usual nap, at least as long as the Mad Hatter and March Hare don’t decide to torture him. The Alice Tarot companion book reminds us that the name “dormouse” might have derived from the French for “sleeper” (dormir means “to sleep”). But in keeping with the ever-challenging suit of Swords, there’s also a message of resting with one’s eyes open (like the Dormouse here), because Hatters and Hares may be nearby.  And actually, there they are in the next card! Your period of pause looks like it will be interrupted by folks wanting to party, which is fine if you are in the mood for fun, but by midweek, you may want to set some boundaries.

Midweek provides another opportunity to take a break from the “madness” and find comfort in the grounded realities of home and hearth. Indulge in a relaxing activity at home, knowing that you will eventually need to try on the next adventure. (This scene in the book is from the very beginning of the Looking Glass story, so the adventure is about to start.)

As you move on toward week’s end, it will be time to get out and deal with some kind of world again (knitting sheep?). This is the Two of Swords, which usually indicates a defensive posture that may be unjustified because the figure in the RWS image is blindfolded with swords crossed in front of her. Here we have the Sheep and her knitting needles, along with her rather grumpy and critical personality (sort of like a reversed Queen of Swords). Alice looks a bit unsure of the situation, but if she keeps on rowing, she’s bound to reach the other shore and get closer to her destination, in the case of Looking Glass, the end of the chessboard and the opportunity to be a Queen herself. So, be patient with the critical knitting sheep in your life and go with the flow, because at the end of the week, you’ll get to rest in the Six of Cups, where cuddly kittens of fun and home await. This is the same rug, the same room, as in the Nine of Coins in the middle of this draw, so don’t let the Sheep get to you; you will soon be home.

The Mirrored Tarot Pairs

Now let’s pair the outer cards up to see how they might inform your situation. The nice thing about The Alice Tarot is that it is based on two stories with the same protagonist in similarly insane dream-worlds. So we can see a connection right away between the Dormouse in the Four of Swords and the kittens in in the Six of Cups. Both represent periods of rest and comfort either before going out to the challenges of the world, or coming back home at the end of the adventure. Adventures almost always have these rest and action cycles, so you can count on the idea of rest being a theme for this week, especially since the center card, the Nine of Coins is also focused on rest.

The second pair, the Ten of Cups and Two of Swords, represent your challenges and action for the week. Looks like between rests, you’ll have an opportunity to socialize, perhaps with some wacky people (Ten of Cups) and deal with a difficult person where you’ll get to exercise your ability to be patient and go with the flow. In both cases, eccentricity may be the order of the day, with that lovely Nine of Coins moment to balance things out.

The focal point for this view of your cards is that Nine of Coins moment at home with your own thoughts and comforts. Know that whether you are active or taking a break this week, you can always return, if only in your mind, to the sense of home and hearth.

Cosmic Tarot Whispers of the Week

Alison Coals, of Alison’s Alembic, always has cool stuff to write in her Tarot-and-often-astrology blog. I was intrigued by her post the other day, largely because Margarete Petersen’s deck was used. It really feels like a inner-self deck, with muted images that exude calmness. Alison gives a great interpretation of the Son of Coins.

I love the honesty in the journey that Lisa Eddy presents in her writing and her life. She has recently “come out” as a Christian Tarot reader, and I applaud her for seeing a way to be both, in spite of prejudices in certain parts of the Christian community and corresponding prejudices on the other side from Tarot readers who are busy leaving the restrictions they perceive in traditional Christian hostility to divination. Traditional Tarot cards are filled with Christian symbolism even as they show that this symbolism is also one aspect of the human archetypes that inform all Tarot decks and interpretations.  I love Lisa’s honesty and her reminder of where the Tarot comes from. Check her take out here.