There's historical precedent for seeing the King and Queen of a land as metaphorically the father and mother of all their subjects. (Think about "sire" and "madam," as forms of address as artifacts of this idea.) I tend to think of Emperor and Empress as the divine masculine and ...

What a delightful reading! My spouse and child are indeed both great sources of joy in my life. :) The one thing that struck me as not exactly aligned with my experience here is the take on the 5 and 6 of Pentacles- we did some assessment this year of our financial situation and realized that actual...

I have found that I really appreciate deck creators who try to excavate some of the gender essentialism and hierarchy from the tarot. What do we mean when we say that something is masculine or feminine? What do we mean when we say that something is king-like or queen-like? De-hierarchy-ing the court...

Hi Dodalisque- I read for you using the Spacious Tarot by Carrie Mallon and Annie Rugyt.I like this deck because of the way the images invite the reader or seeker to imagine themselves into the scene, and it seems to me that as you stand on the cusp of retirement, that imagining yourself into whatev...

When the Tarot just gives us a mirror of our situation, I think it's because we haven't asked the right question. We ourselves are seeking more confirmation than advice and insight. That's been my experience anyways. The formulation of the question is so important. I... don't think that's a reasona...

Oooh, this looks like a fun pool to wade into... :lol: I will only say that occasionally, when I have done a reading about a situation I've been wrestling with, contemplated my spread, meditated on my question, pulled my spread, and looked at it, what I've found is the cards restating my situation b...

I love this deck. I love how it invites me to imagine myself into the scene. Sometimes I default to imagining the people in the cards as advisors asking me leading questions, so I love that this deck doesn't lend itself to that. Instead, it suggests the question, "In what ways am I The Hermit?&...

Hi there! I'm looking forward to reading for you. Did you have any particular question in mind, dodalisque?

Hi, sorry to disappear. A General reading would be lovely.

I'm in. Probably using either The Spacious Tarot or The Light Seer's Tarot.

Since the crossing card represents things that oppose or are a barrier to you, in some ways, it's kind of positionally reversed, no? I spend less time wondering if I should read the meaning of the card as upright or reversed, and more thinking about the ways in which the thing the card represents co...

The questions I ask tend to be less predictive of events and more "how to bring my best to this situation" questions. Like, we've just had some personnel changes on my team at work, so I ask about what to focus on doing and what to be watching out for. Or in a situation where I had some co...

The four winged figures in the corners also correspond to the four Evangelists, symbolized in the book of Revelation:
- St. Matthew's symbol is an angel
- St. Mark's symbol is a lion
- St. Luke's symbol is an ox
- St. John's symbol is an eagle

https://www.christianiconography.info/evangelists.html

(Similarly, I've taken up axe-throwing as a hobby. I had to buy an axe to join a league. I bought a particular kind of axe with an integrated steel handle, because beginners do a lot of banging axes into the wall instead of landing them in the targets, and they're more durable. But I didn't spend a...

I think there's an element of practicality to consider as well (there I go, with my Queen of Pentacles schtick again...). My favorite decks are indie decks printed in small runs and shipped by hand- they're EXPENSIVE and difficult to replace. I can't run through a ton of those to see which ones I'm ...

Somewhere along the way, the dam broke, and decks either recently delivered or in various states of Kickstart for me are: Lacey Bryant’s Slow Tarot Chris-Anne Donnelly’s Lightseer’s Tarot Way of the Panda Tarot Lisa Sterle’s Modern Witch Tarot The Spacious Tarot (The Kickstarter for this one is stil...

Just jumping in here to say that... I haven’t been around much lately, but I stopped in today and have absolutely devoured this forum. This is right up my alley. Thank you, Nemia.

Some of you have mentioned interest in The Numinous Tarot, the deck that appears in almost all of my readings posted here. The deck was wildly successful in its first Kickstarter, and the extras sold out rapidly after the artist made them available. There's now a Kickstarter under way for a second p...

I almost never interpret court cards as representing a specific person. I usually find myself interpreting them as either archetypes I could be leaning into, or as trusted advisors who are asking me questions I need to consider. I like decks that rename the courts for that reason too, it helps me th...

I'm still kind of developing mine- what I'm finding is that the more detailed the art is, the better I connect with it. For example, I recently bought the Kaleidadope Tarot, which I like and enjoy as an expression of the artist's perspective, but the pictures are intentionally very simple, and I jus...

The Queen of Pentacles is kind of my homegirl. I tend to see the courts, and particularly the Kings and Queens, in terms of service to their community; the idea that any ruler's proper role is to promote the flourishing of the community they govern. The Queens I tend to think of as, not reactive, si...

I've always thought of this card as a funhouse-mirror inversion of The Lovers, where instead of a love that blesses and frees, it's a need or a dependence that enslaves. I haven't spent much time at all thinking of it in relation to the Hierophant, though of course now that I look at them together, ...

Not to belabor the musician analogy, but there are plenty of experienced musicians who improvise; still others don't read music at all because of a learning disability or a physical disability and have to play by ear. Memorization isn't the only path to musical excellence, and I think that's highly ...

I recently bought Krystal Banner's Kaleidadope Tarot, a contemporary deck with a simplified, hand-drawn style, using a lot of clever contemporary references. Here's my deck interview, using the deck interview spread found in Autostraddle's Fool's Journey column. IMG_0002.jpg 1. Tell me about yoursel...

I finally broke down and bought the Kaleidadope Tarot. Very excited.

And I’m not sure how much longer I can resist the Marshmallow Marseilles. It would be my first Marseilles deck.