My thoughts on The IG Tarotspective Experience

my setup and six decks that might play along

In less than three days July has come to an end, so several new tarot challenges for August are promoted on IG. Among them is the Tarot “Experience” called  #tarotperspective   created by Kelly from @thetruthinstory and Patrick from @inthe78cards The fact that they call the Tarotperspective an experience was the reason I wanted to find out what this was all about. I’ve come to realize that I am not that good with IG challenges. Such a challenge is often a collection of 30/31 prompts to draw your daily card with. It puts too much pressure on me and when I am not able to complete a challenge it feels a bit like failure.
This Experience is supposed to be different. The goal is to choose one core deck and two additional decks. From the core deck you’ll pull, after shuffling, a card and from the additional decks you'll find its counterpart. When you sit with these cards you’ll experience how your understanding of the card you've pulled will grow and  become more layered. There are no prompts or questions. You don’t have to show up every day and you're free to tailor this Experience to your own liking. Some people  chose more than two additional decks or some will rotate them weekly.

Example with the Death card

For me it is certain I will pick the Original Rider Waite Tarot  as my core deck. The Rider Waite Tarot is the deck I started out with many years ago. It is a highly trusted, well read, and deeply loved deck. I want to broaden my perspective of the archetypes in this deck. I want to deepen my relationship with its characters and I want to add some fresh insights to the mix of meanings I have for each card of this deck. The more I think about it the more excited I become to participate in this challe… no, experience!

I am not sure which additional decks I will choose. Perhaps I will choose several and let

empty beds

my intuition guide me which decks want to enlighten me about my daily draw. Or I might just end up using two of the ones I’ve picked; we’ll see.

If you are on Instagram maybe you would like to join in and if you’re not, you might like trying to do this for yourself

Child of Earth - Slow Knitting

Today’s card is the Child of Earth from the Gaian Tarot. After a two well deserved Four of Air days, it is time to start engaging with the world again.  Last weekend I was away to attend a family weekend for my mother’s birthday and you all know how straining these social events can be for me. I always need some time to replenish afterwards but today I almost feel like my old self again. This child’s energy is definitely helping me. The first things that came to mind  when I drew this card were: knitting (green sweater), cuddling with Jofee (little rabbit), eating fresh fruit (apple) and spending more time outside. After some longer consideration this card also reminded me of being mindful and experiencing the outside world with our senses. Life can be felt, seen, tasted, heard and smelled. This give us such an more balanced understanding of life than by only thinking about it. The Child of Earth invites us to embrace our beginners mind and approach our day with an attitude of eagerness and openness and without preconceptions.

As you all know by now I am crocheting and knitting a lot lately. I have to say I can do both things very rapidly but and one thing that helps me to really be present is to watch closely how I knit very slowly, stitch by stitch, and how my fingers lead the yarn and how very gradually my knitting grows larger. This is such a sensory activity. I smell and feel the yarn (whool), I see what I do and I hear the ticking  of my needles and no, I don’t taste it;  that part  is taken care of by my coffee and biscuits.

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

Five of Water – Some things can’t be fixed

 

Today’s card is the Five of Water from the Vision Quest Tarot. The caption of this card is “Loss”. This card is all about loss and grief and how we deal with it.  In the beginning stages of loss, the only pots we are able to see are the broken ones  and  we feel like life is slipping away and there is nothing we can do to prevent this. But gradually things are going to shift and we notice the two pots that are still whole. Now this is a crucial moment in our grieving process: are we going to keep focusing on what we have lost; trying to hold on what is forever gone and are we going to let those wounds fester and  devour our energy or are we trying to be grateful for the pots which are still standing upright. This process can take a lot of time  and it is often an ongoing  back and forth movement but if we are willing and unrelenting, we will notice the time we are spending with the two pots filled with water will increase. What will happen if we keep focusing on these pots?. I drew the Ace of Earth. This tells me that we will be able to embrace the energy of the Ace of Earth again and of Life itself.  After our dark night of the soul a new day is waiting eagerly for us. Look at this multicolored corncob. So many possibilities and so many dreams still to come true. We will able to focus one new projects find new passions and become whole again. Not the same person as we were before but whole and maybe a bit wiser…

Mother of Air – Who are you really?

Today’s card is Mother of Air from the Vision Quest Tarot. Since I identify with the Queen of Swords so deeply, the interpretation of the artist of this card is very important for me. In this deck she is truly a feast for the eye. As a matter of fact it was this card which convinced me to buy the deck after all. In my post about Medicine Man I was pleasantly surprised by the substantial content of the guidebook, so of course I had to look for her little paragraph in there too:

“This image depicts your strength to be who you truly are. Not who you are supposed to be, should have been, or what others would like you to make you become. Your self-confidence has been awakened and with it awakens the courage to drop your masks once and for all. This is the only way to return to your own inner center”

I love her soft and caring  but also the determined and inquisitive look on her face. An eagle is flying high above in the sky, representing clarity and being able to see the bigger picture. Even the clouds seem to be influenced by her deep sense Self. As  a Mother, she is not only looking out for herself but also for her tribe (tipi’s in the background). This reminds me of how I need to find balance between taking care of myself and of my family. Maybe one day I will be able to let go of the distinction between these two forms of love and maybe after I’ve rediscovered my own inner center, I will realize that Love includes everyone all the time.

Two of Water - Kinship of Souls

This morning I felt like blogging again and I pulled the Two of Water from the Vision Quest Tarot. My initial thoughts were: “What a perfect energy for a great weekend!”and I immediately pulled another card on how to find and hold on to this feeling of harmony and bliss; of giving and receiving love without any conditions…. And I got the Son of Air …mmmm.

 

He is not an aspect of us that is selfless and peaceful. More the part that wants to be right all the time and wants to be heard at any cost, as long as he gets the message across. And then it struck me. These two cards can also be interpreted on a global scale. Because we all know what happens if we cannot let our inner Son of Air rest in the stillness of unconditional love…

Everything that happens around us starts somewhere on this earth on a personal level: the proverbial drop in the pond. So for today I want to mindful that my small droplets are filled with love and kindness, not only in word and deed but also in thought and prayer

Maybe one day soon we will realize that separation is an illusion and that we are all one.

Hugs  

The magician - I am good enough!

Honestly, I am not feeling it lately. While reading and commenting on the blogs of my online friends, I am lost for words when it comes to writing about the cards I draw myself.  And if something comes to mind, it feels empty and shallow. I miss it and it feels a bit lonely….?

So this morning I thought, let’s try it again and I drew the Medicine Man from the Vision Quest Tarot. My first reaction was: “Oh no not this card!. I am in no place to manifest anything!” So I put my deck aside and didn’t give it another thought. But this afternoon I got this pressing feeling to check out the guidebook from the deck and I read:

“The Medicine Man tells you that you already are what you seek. As soon as you turn your attention away from 'wanting to become' to the awareness of 'WHAT IS,' you get a taste of the meaning of this card. Once you focus on 'SIMPLY BEING' and renounce the mind's addiction to complicate everything by thinking about it, a new understanding arises”

And that is exactly the message I needed to hear today. Maybe my intuition didn’t pick up this idea when I looked at the card but it sure did listen to the nudge to read the guidebook. Often when I don’t feel so good I tend to aspire the things that are currently out of reach for me and even feel more poorly because of it:” I want to knit but it is too hot, I want to paint, but I don’t know what, I want a new deck but I don’t know which one.” Yes it all sounds all very whiny doesn’t it but it is what it is for now.  So again, trying to be a very upbeat, active and creative person, when I am  obviously not right now, isn’t very helpful and criticizing myself for it neither. But accepting who I am today and love and care for myself, will help me  move forward step by step.

“Waking up to who you are, requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” -  Alan Watts

Strength - My lion is running wild!

Today’s card is Strength from the Original Rider Waite Tarot. This is a card of compassion and surrender, of emotional control and patience: of all kinds of Strength. As with many cards in the deck this is a card of seeking balance. Here it is about balance between the maiden and the lion. With a gentle touch the maiden subdues the strong instinctual urges of the lion. Most of the time this is perfectly doable for me but when I am really tired and overwhelmed my inner lion starts running around aimlessly, trying to find anything which could ease his mind. Radical solutions are tempting. He is highly impressionable for how others find their way out of the forest.  Also he susceptible for enabling on social media.

When my lion  is behaving like that my first instinct is to catch and lock him up in a dark corner of my mind. My inner Queen of Swords wants to pull the strings at all time.

But since this card is about patience and compassion, it is more wise to listen to my Lion’s needs and find a way which suits us both. Most likely this will be the Middle Way. It won’t be the easiest road to travel but for now it will be the kindest and most loving one to follow.

New moon in July : Theme - Four of Pentacles

For this new Moon I’ve only drawn one card for the theme of this lunation and it happens to be one of the same cards as in yesterday’s spread: the Four of Pentacles from the Original Rider Waite Tarot.  Since it is a Theme for the month card I thought it would be wise to view this card from various angles, using my Daily draw exercise:

Some keywords are: Structure, greed, protection, hoarding, frugality

What is the gift ?Being grateful for the abundance of your belonging and resources

What is the challenge? Not to become over possessive of your stuff, which can easily turn in to greed and hoarding

What  are you grateful for? I am grateful for having enough resources to live without concerns for lack or scarcity.

Journaling prompt: In what ways am I aware of my own worth and how do I acknowledge this?

I remember a time when  I got my first piggy bank and how I cried when I wasn’t allowed to get my money back. I was a “big spender” when I was a kid.

Affirmation: “I use the abundance in my life wisely and compassionately” James Ricklef.

Quote: We make ourselves rich by making our wants few.” H.D. Thoreau

Naming the Goddess: She who bestows her blessings freely and without restraint.

What stands out the most and why? He only has four pentacles to guard. I think the more we have, the more energy it takes to take care of our possessions. This card today fits well in my longing for a more simple and decluttered lifestyle. Just this morning M and I have brought a carload of  stuff and rubbish to the dump. It felt so freeing to let go of it all and make our home more spacious. This card is also a warning not to replace this pile of junk with other stuff. Ah all those temptations… I know they won’t make me more happy in the long run.

Also I want to be more aware of my own fluctuating energy levels and not to feel so guilty if I keep some of my energy for myself when I need it. Saying "No" is still very difficult for me....(see journaling prompt)

All thing considered I think the Four of Pentacles will prove to be a great theme for the coming weeks.

Seven of Pentacles - Permission to take a step back

Yesterday I asked for my daily draw: “what do I give myself permission for?” and I got the Seven of Pentacles. What a welcome card it was. I am not feeling too well lately and I this card is telling me not to get worked up about the things I think I need to do but rather take a step back and see how far I’ve come already; to really appreciate what I have accomplished. Also this card grants me permission to think about how to move forward

Since the Seven of Pentacles really hit home for me, I decided to make it a part of the three card spread:

Where do I come from? The four of Pentacles. No wonder I am so tired lately. Clinging to what energy, time and resources I have left is energetically draining me. This is a card of fear for scarcity, the inability to let go of controlling everything and the lack of trust that the Universe will provide what I need the most.

Where am I now? the Seven of Pentacles. A perfect card for after the Four of Pentacles, because we all know what will happen when the Four of Pentacles becomes a Five of Pentacles !!! So taking a step back during whatever you are doing, to find out how your are doing is always smart thing to do.

Where am I going? The six of Pentacles. The flow of resources. It is not important what our position is in this flow as long as the resources are flowing from one to the other. Sometimes we are giving freely and sometimes we have to ask  for help. Maybe that is a good thing to consider too when we are taking that step back; do we need help in any way? So hard to ask but such a gift to our loved ones because how will they know what we need if we don’t speak up? And how will we know what we need if we don’t take a moment to find out?

These pentacles are giving me a lot to think about but not without wishing all my American readers a happy Fourth of July!