Q7: What is your favorite card (both in terms of the deck’s artwork and divinatory meaning)?
OK, so I can only narrow this down to three favorite cards and three favorite decks. There’s a theme, though. Let’s see where it goes.
The Star (XVII)
The Mary-el Tarot deck started out by intimidating me completely. It is a Thoth-based deck, so meaning patterns, particularly in the Minor Arcana, are quite different from the RWS interpretations (with tens, for example, being way too much of whatever the suit qualities are rather than being the pinnacle best). I love Marie White’s artwork now that I’ve read her book, which is rich in multiple mythologies and in-your-face realities of the energies working in our manifested world, with the unmanifested haunting us underneath. Deep myth, deep psychology.
Marie’s Star lady is, unlike the RWS version and unlike a lot of other figures in her deck, clothed. Also, the operative color is orange rather than white or blue, so the element of water seems missing and replaced by…blood perhaps, for this Star shows the open wounds of Christ on hands and feet. If you look at the whole Major Arcana progression, this all makes sense. The seeker has just come from the Tower experience, has gone deeply into her vulnerabilities and emerged released from her cross. The wounds represent her freedom, her belief in the power of surrender. Her third eye is open. She is ready to be guided by her inner star to find home.
I still find this card to be the most “spiritual” card of the Tarot deck.
Ten of Cups
And…we’re home! One of two places the Star will guide us to. First, home here on Earth, with love all around us. Ciro Marchetti’s art is a favorite of mine in any case, and I really love this cozy rendition of the Ten of Cups from the Tarot Grand Luxe. Could be Pentacles, too, but this is one generation, not focused on material wealth but emotional wealth, human loving connection, and…kitties!. Also, we see a hint of world peace and love in the undisturbed pet mouse in the scene. Ciro has a gift for these small symbolisms that add to the meaning of a card.
The World
Understanding the whole picture with curve and grace; that’s Stephanie Pui-mun Law’s artistic view of The World in her Shadowscapes Tarot deck. This deck has become one of my daily use ones; don’t even need the poetic descriptions; the meanings flow easily from her detailed faery-and-elemental-nature world. I think I just love all the curves she uses. 🙂 This particular card is about the Knowing. The main figure in the card is not suspended in an egg-shaped wreath in the sky; she is in some fantasy world of green, with the globe of another world above and beyond among…the stars! It is the inner world and the energetic reality of the outer world in one focus, one spherical vision of light that she holds. She is home within herself.
Home
This is where the Star was pointing us to, through the deepest surrenders of our lives, through the temporal completions of human love and natural peace to the universal Knowing of inner peace, to our own inner garden of delights, with the stars shining both within and without. Look within, look without, follow your own Star and feel at home.
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I found the questions for this series at a Tumblr account that no longer exists. A lovely person named Rhee started the thing. These are great prompts for telling stories about one’s journey through the world of Tarot, so I’ve started the series again on a weekly basis so you all can get to know me better, and also share your own answers to the questions in comments or links to your own posts. I’d love to hear from you!
