Articles

December 2013 Tarot Scopes featuring Steampunk Tarot

Wheel of Fortune

ARIES: Wheel of Fortune

You seem to be standing on quicksand within a situation that keeps changing.

Try to gain a sense of balance for yourself within this and don’t lose any of your power by trying to follow what others are doing or not doing.

If you find yourself trying to extricate yourself from the situation which is swinging from good to bad and around in circles take a look at the 4 figures trying to balance at the bottom of the card.

What looks like strength is actually a bit precarious when you look closely and see they are all looking and/or facing in different directions.

Each of these directions gives a different view of what you are facing.

Each of these directions gives you a different answer to what you should do next.

And each of these directions only shows you a glimpse of the whole situation.

Stay still and wait for things to settle down so you are not being thrown off your balance.

 

Ask the Tarot: Will My Lover Return?

This past August, my client Karen* was blind-sided (her words) by a breakup with her long-term lover Paul.*

They had been together for six years and had discussed marriage. But she started to feel him pulling away after a business trip in the summer and even went so far as to accuse him of having an affair. It turns out her instincts were right. Paul is now seeing the other woman and Karen is struggling with the emotional backlash.

While she’s still reeling from the breakup, and still dealing with a variety of uncomfortable emotions (feeling angry, hurt, confused and betrayed), she realizes she still loves him.

Decisions, Decisions — the Lovers Card

the Lovers -- Mary El Tarot

If you’ve ever found yourself in the uncomfortable position of being torn between two lovers, you’ll know exactly how difficult it is to make a choice.

You may have looked at others in that situation with disdain — only to find yourself later on in the exact same predicament.

You may have been on the painful receiving end of your loved one being tempted by another, or — even more painful — having given in to those temptations.

The lovers card, for all its exciting-sounding prospects, is a card of difficult (and sometimes next to impossible) choices. It doesn’t generally refer to the kind of passionate love affairs that you read about in romance novels. No. Someone usually gets hurt. Sometimes that someone is you.

This card refers to choices that must be considered, sacrifices that must be made, and consequences that must be accepted.

It can also refer to the union of polarities, as in the Mary-el version of the card.

The figures here are about as opposite as they can get: male and female, young and old, black and white. The female figure is strong and aloof, the male passive and vulnerable, Yet they flow together in an intimate embrace.

Even so, there’s an apparent emotional disconnect in this rendition. The female figure stares off into the distance while the males gazes downward.

November 2013 Tarot Scopes featuring Deviant Moon Tarot

Deviant Moon Tarot -- 2 of Pentacles

ARIES: This month you’re going to be weighing different options and opportunities as you work toward manifesting your goals. If you’re feeling pulled in different directions, you’ll be working on bringing the divergent areas of your life back into focus.

You may be juggling funds, career options, or even relationship choices, and are called upon now to find a middle ground. Moderation and balance are integral parts of satisfying the dual desires of this archetype.

In this version of the card, we see a Gypsy fortune-teller performing an exotic dance ritual under a crescent moon. Her movements are fluid and effortless; in fact she almost appears to be in a trance.

She holds a pentacle in each hand — the light of the moon balanced between them.

Pentacles relate to mundane areas and material concerns. Therefore you may find yourself juggling funds this month, or you may be torn between saving it up and spending it on something you just don’t need.

You could also be trying to decide whether to make a major purchase or hold off on it until a later date. With Mercury retrograde until the 10th, your best bet is to hold off.

I always liked the idea of “one hand feeding the other” with this card: you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket as you risk coming up empty handed. It’s best to keep some of your options afloat, until you’re clearer about the direction you want to go.

 

Ask the Tarot: Where is this Relationship Heading?

One of the most common questions that psychics, astrologers and tarot readers are asked is: ”Where is my relationship heading?” This usually comes in the early days of a new relationship, when things are still relatively undefined — but can also come later on in established relationships, after there’ve been a few bumps in the road.

There are so many nuances to this question — just as many as there are to any given relationship, but if you distill it down to its purest essence, the answer to that question boils down to three things: what person A is bringing to the table; what person B is bringing to the table, and the “table” (i.e., relationship) itself.

The Temperance Card — Finding your Center

Temperance

So many of us struggle with finding balance in our lives, whether it’s between head and heart, career and family, or material vs. spiritual progress, etc.

The Temperance card encourages us first and foremost to seek that balance and to find our personal “Center.”

In the Archeon Tarot, we see an angelic figure: youthful, graceful and innocent.

She stands watch over two totem animals, a lamb and a tiger.

She appears to be tending equally to both of her charges.

The lamb represents peace, harmony and gentility.

The tiger represents passion, strength and a wild ferocity.

Her manner of tending them is different for each.

She keeps a cautious hand above the tiger at all times while watching over the docile lamb.

She maintains her sense of balance and equilibrium, all the while staying present in the moment.

Ask yourself in what ways taming the inner beast and activating the inner lamb can most benefit you now?

Ace of Wands — Following your Bliss

Ace of Wands - Thoth

 

Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that, you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid,
and doors will open where you didn’t know
they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you
that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.

                          ~ Joseph Campbell

October 2013 Tarot Scopes featuring Shadowscapes Tarot

Ace of Swords

ARIES: Ace of Swords

The Ace of Swords stands for intellect.

It gives you a fast paced way of thinking and is good for study, thinking ideas through thoroughly and making plans.

You may experience a myriad of thoughts this month and who can tell where they will lead you but one thing is certain if you keep your wits about you and think clearly you will come up with new ideas for old problems along with a different way of executing them.

Words can cut like a knife, they can also heal when applied correctly.

If you have anything you have been wanting to say to someone and have not been sure of how to say it you may find that this month your thoughts lead you to a new conclusion in how to best present your argument in a way that it will be heard.

 

 

Ten of Swords — a New Day is Dawning

“What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

What do you do when you come to the end of as arduous journey and find yourself facing a very painful reality?

Perhaps a relationship has run its course, and you’re forced now to finally put it to rest. Or maybe a dream you held onto for far too long is proving itself to be impossible to achieve.

You know that you’ve given it your all — you’ve fought a worthy battle — but you realize it’s time to let it go: once and for all. You just don’t have any more “fight” left in you.

So what do you do? Do you lay down and die, or do you surrender to the knowledge that the Universe has something entirely different in store for you?

Most renditions of this card are somewhat harrowing to look at.

The imagery is often full of scenes of danger, fear, bloodshed and defeat.

A man is beaten down to within an inch of his life, 10 sharp daggers plunged into his back. Or a Christ-figure hangs limp from a war-ravaged cross, a pool of blood collecting at its base.

Five of Cups — Everybody Hurts

Five of Cups

Today we’re going to be looking at the Five of Cups: arguably one of the most challenging cards in the Tarot. Challenging in the sense that it’s not easy to find much ‘positive’ about this card — which is precisely the point.

The Five of Cups — this version from Timothy Lantz’ wonderful Archeon Tarot — speaks of sadness, disillusionment and discontent, even at times when things are not as bad as they seem.

As someone who speaks every single day with clients who are unhappy in their relationships, it came as no surprise when I pulled this card.

I even wondered if it wasn’t such a good idea to start with something so “negative” right out of the gate. But there are positive aspects to this card too, and important messages—even if they’re not readily apparent. We’ll start with the not so good:

I remember telling someone once that everyone I knew was either in a relationship and trying to get out, or not in a relationship and trying to get in. And while this may have been a slight exaggeration, the 5 of Cups turns out to be an appropriate representation of that sentiment.

It describes a sense of unhappiness or disillusionment in your current state of affairs, whether you’re involved in a relationship or not.

September 2013 Tarot Scopes featuring the Archeon Tarot

Seven of Swords

ARIES: The Seven of Swords — like all sevens — speaks of difficult choices and moral dilemmas. There are temptations disguised as opportunities, which could turn out to be more than you bargained for in the end.

In this rendition, we see a raven perched before the light of a full moon, a glowing sun time-piece dangling from his beak. A legend is told in Native American traditions of a snow white bird who steals the sun and moon and places them in the night sky. The sun is so hot that it chars his white feathers, rendering them permanently black.

There are four swords piercing the moon and three penetrating the earth below it. As the moon represents mystery, illusion and the depths of the human psyche, we can see this as a need to penetrate the veil that obscures our motivations.  We’re reminded that all that glitters is not gold, that there are consequences for our actions. The concept of time is also relevant here, as in keeping track of time, not wasting time, and making time for things that are most important.

There are elements of mischief, trickery and even thievery in this card, You may be tempted to engage in practices that are not aligned with your principles. Or you may be the recipient of someone else’s duplicity. But these same elements can be used to your benefit. The seven of swords represents skill and ingenuity as well. You must have a sharp mind and a vigilant approach if you’re to navigate through some of the obstacles before you. Opportunities come your way, but there’s always a catch. Just like the raven whose cunning and prowess has rewarded him with the fiery sun, but whose feathers have become permanently charred in the process.