Cult of Tarot Forum

This is an invitation to work with one card deck for one week in a group reading.

You can pick any deck: tarot, Lenormand, Kipper, oracle or playing cards. From this deck, you'll draw one card per day - i.e., seven Daily Cards from your Deck of the Week that allow you to get to know the deck better, to hone your reading skills and get new insights about your life.

In a Planetary Week reading, we don't only draw a card per day but also give it a topic. We focus on motifs, topics, patterns in our lives, inspired by the planetary ruler of every weekday (for background information, look here).

On Saturdays, ruled by Saturn: Obstacles and Blockades,
on Sundays, ruled by the Sun: Inspiration and Goals,
on Mondays, ruled by the Moon: Dreams and Fears,
on Tuesdays, ruled by Mars: Conflicts and Challenges,
on Wednesdays, ruled by Mercury: Interactions and Change,
on Thursdays, ruled by Jupiter: Power and Influences, and
on Fridays, ruled by Venus: Love and Attraction.


The focus words I chose for each planet/day are not binding. Please don't limit yourself to the two short words if you feel other aspects of the planet are relevant to your reading.



There are different ways to perform a Planetary Week reading.

Traditional: draw a card per day and use the prism of the planetary influence to connect the card to your day and life.

Selective: select a card that suits the topic of each weekday and use it as affirmation and empowerment to improve your life.

Day-by-day: draw or pick your daily card one by one through the week.

Summarily: draw or pick all cards together before the week starts and treat them as a complete reading.


And what about those who just want to have a Deck of the Week, Card of the Day reading? They can just jump in and leave the planetary lore away.


Share pictures if you can or want to.

No matter how we do it - by reminding ourselves of the planetary regents and their influence, we re-connect to the sevenfold cycle of time that our ancestors established, with their eyes to the sky.



Participants:

Nemia - Celestial Tarot
Flaxen - The Sibyl of the Heart
Shadowrose - Llwellyn Tarot
CharlotteK - Druidcraft Tarot
Stronglove - Guided Hand Tarot

I’m in this week with The Sibyl of the Heart.

Saturday - Obstacle and Blockades - Caution
The image on this card shows a winged heart on the back of a snail. The snail moves cautiously over a narrow bridge which spans a gorge.

This card urges me to be cautious. Now is not the time to start moving but instead it’s time to consider all the risks and consequences of my actions.

In the position of ‘obstacles and blockades’ it could signal that I’m being overly cautious about something today. I’m overstating the risk.

The Sibyl of the Heart ist such a wonderful deck! Oh why am I so poor....? Good question for today for me!


And here is the answer of the Celestial jury:




Why am I so poor, i.e., what are the money obstacles in my life? (I had readings about that problem already but here is the concentrated answer) It's a foolish question because I know that foolish decisions in the past have lead to this idiotic situation, and if I were to take it a bit more easily and have more trust in the future (risk-taking, future-planning Uranus), if I approached the problem more rationally (Uranus) - then I wouldn't even have to ask this stupid question.

Still, I long for a Berti deck, ANY Berti deck, but won't be able to afford it. Just another thing in life that I know I won't reach. And that's okay. I made other decisions that I have to take responsibility for.

Oh old Saturn! I like him and still think he's a friend. And now I'm off to re-read the book about the Celestial tarot. I must say that I like her astrology and it makes sense. She re-associates the court cards to other modalities and it makes sense. I always feel that the queens should be fixed and the knights mutable, sorry...

Her associations of minors and modalities (Ace, 2, 3 cardinal, 4,5,6 fixed, 7,8,9 mutable) also makes a lot of sense - because of the 4. I never feel that the Four is right as "mutable cardinal", i.e., the last card of the cardinal trio 2,3,4 in the Golden Dawn system.

I like that.

The Tens are elements, the Princesses seasons (with the fixed signs - very logical since the fixed signs are the strongest seasonal signs) - I'm not so sure that's the ideal way to see the Tens, I'd probably have chosen something else, don't know what. Well, elements might make sense, let's see that. But otherwise I feel she has straightened out some little stumbling stones - the Four is definitely such a stumbling stone for me.

I like the art in spite of its strange colours - but I HATE the borders. That strange blue hue doesn't work for me at all. And the Italic fonts with the superfluous flourishes even less. I'd love to take my scissors to this deck but there is too much information on the borders so I don't.

Why did I swap the Holy Light away? Would love to compare the alternative astrologies! Well, well, this deck played well until now, and I had it as Deck of the Week some time ago. Have nice week!

Using my Llewellyn Tarot, I drew the six of swords. I need to acknowledge what is blocking me and move forward instead of letting it hold me down.

Sunday - Inspiration and Goals - Prison
This card shows a temporary restraint or block from achieving my goal. What is it that is keeping me from moving forward? My am I finding it hard to feel inspired?

In combination with yesterday’s card, it would suggest that it is my cautious nature which is stopping me. I’m being too cautious and this is the chain keeping me trapped.

Saturday, ruled by Saturn: Obstacles and Blockades.

The High Priestess

We are at a festival and yesterday was our first full day. My son makes any kind of stillness and connecting with mystical depths phenomenally hard. He never stops and his humour is rather scatological. So I headed for the healing fields and half an hour of reiki with a lovely therapist. At one point I had a strong sensation of someone stroking my brow (even though I knew she was not near my head) and towards the end I had the strongest sense of pressure in the third eye area though she did not have her hands on me. Afterwards I felt hugely calm and last night I had vivid dream about trees (in a spiritual sense).



Sunday, ruled by the Sun: Inspiration and Goals.

The Lovers

Our second day at the festival. I have no idea what this card means other than perhaps a good opportunity for me and the husband to have a few romantic moments with each other, noisy five year old permitting.

My card for this sunny Sunday is the Hierophant:



This is maybe the Hierophant card that I can most easily identify with. I must confess that since my childhood, I have never been able to identify with male figures. In most books, the hero was male, so I always looked for a sister or friend who would be "my" figure. I can't find myself in male pages, knights or kings, even if their characteristics suit me quite well. No, it has to be a female figure I know that the Hierophant is my Taurus card and I like the old chap well enough (sorry, reading Wodehouse does that to me every time, I'll recover soon enough and all that rot), but I can only see him as my road or journey or challenge or anything else - not as really depicting ME. Well, here we have the nice feminine figure of Europa, and the Taurean bull who grabs her and takes her to Crete. Not Zeus' best hour, if you ask me (but don't ask me, ask Jeeves), but she seems to accept her fate.

Then, there are the Pleiades. Who doesn't love the Pleaiades? When I see them through my binoculars, I hear beautiful music. It's the most synesthetic experience I have. Here, the Pleiads are depicted. In the background, some long-haired chappie blesses and teaches, and let's think for a moment - Rhadamantys. He was the son of Europa and Zeus, and a famous judge. A judge for the dead, according to some accounts, and his name has become synonymous with wise judgement. Now is it far-fetched to see in Rhadamanthys the connecting piece between the Taurus motif (the bull with Europa) and the wise figure of the Hierophant?

Europa will have three sons from Zeus: Minos the King, Sarpedon the warrior, and Rhadamanthys the wise judge. Interesting stuff, these archetypes, they crop up everywhere.

Now here it's obvious that the Bull motif is lunar and thus, according to the rules of Western thinking, feminine - although a bull as such is hyper-masculine in outlook and function in life. His horns, his association with the Moon, explains why he is lunar - I've once read a whole book about it. The white bull in the sky, letting an incarnation of the spring maiden ride on his back - Europa was picking flowers, I think, a bit like Persephone, when she was robbed. In the card, she wears a flowered dress. The colours of spring, Taurus season.

According to myth, Io was an ancestress of Europa - the nymph Zeus turned into a heifer.

Oh, this deck is great. Weird colours, strange compositions, much room for thought and association.

But what does this feminine hierophant, this Europa figure, this lunar symbology mean for me on this day? First of all, it gives me the idea (that I should have had ages ago) to take a picture of my weekday card and my daily card together. For a year now, I have changed daily the Mantegna Tarot card that tells me which day it is, why not put my planetary card next to it and see what happens?

The constellation of solar cards on a Monday and lunar cards on a Sunday has happened quite often. It's Tif'eret and Yesod, and the next station is Malkut, the Earth. I really like that juxtaposition of Sun and Moon. It's harmonious to me.

But let's see. My aspiratoins, dreams, everything I connect with the Sun - btw also the wish to be seen, to be acknowledged (which some Lenormand schools see expressed in the Moon). It's an assertive card. Assert yourself, says the Sun, but beware of hybris (poor Hyperion falling from the solar chariot). Listen to my spiritual authority and wisdom, says Rhadamanthys, but wait for the unexpected.

Again, I can't tell here the personal significance this has for me today. But I have to reconcile myself with anger and frustration towards a person who has wronged me, whether he intended it or not, and his death, which is a loss. First I felt only the loss, then anger and frustration bubbled up. I have to let it all go, like Europa who accepted her fate, abducted (in modern language: raped) by Zeus, a fate she didn't choose. But she became queen of Crete and raised her sons and became the mother of Europe. She didn't choose the role of victim, she built up her own life after Zeus brutally re-arranged hers.

I didn't suffer what Europa suffered, just a little scuff to my ego.

So this is for today, when the different feelings fight in me and Europa reminds me that accepting one's fate has its merits.

Then, there is the traditional Hierophant aspect. Where do I stand spiritually? With the religion of my childhood, Protestantism, which still feels like home to me although it was hollowed out by its own representatives in my native country who seem not to believe a word of what they say? Or am I carving out a way on my own? I'm definitely carving out a way of my own. Will I ever have the courage to identify with the old world witch, am I on that path? Probably I'm a Pantheist Astrolate half-witch.

Hierophant, I don't fit into any smooth tradition. I have taken over the parts of my family's religion that seem right to me (directly from Jesus' words), I find spirituality in the movement of the stars and nature, and I believe that I have to fit into this world best I can.

Wow, so much text, but it's my day and it's my card.





This is the short text from the book - it's the "real" hierophant and not Rhadamanthys, nevertheless I'm so happy I found the connection. (LIke the link between Saturn and Bina: Rhea, the Great Mother and wife of Saturn the god, moon of Saturn the planet)

And here are the Sun card and Celestial Tarot's Hierophant together.




That's where I will put my daily cards from now on.


ETA: I have to add something. Tomorrow, Aldebaran and the Moon will get close and cosy.




I will celebrate that meeting tomorrow night and make a ritual of forgiveness for the person who died without reconciliation with me. Forgiveness will include forgiving myself for my part of the alienation, and forgetting myself for keeping a grudge when the other person has suffered and died. I'll take the card with me.

Today I drew 8 of Pentacles. I need to enjoy the process and not discouraged by how long it may be taking to reach my goal.

Monday - a nice Monday, all in all. I do like Mondays, days of the Moon, days of Yesod. Yesod means foundation and that really suits the association with the Moon. You don't see the foundations of a house but they're important! And we don't see or perceive our unconscious but who would we be without it?





Here we have the card as I put it now - next to the daily planet card. (I'll have to find a better place but right now, I want them together). Luna/Selene/Artemis/Diana in her chariot, and the Princess of Swords prepares for winter. Now this comes in late summer so there is no connection to the actual season. But there are other messages and oh yes, they're right on the money.





I'm in the middle of a conflict within the family, a conflict that has been brewing for some time. It touches me directly and I have to prepare for an open, fair discussion. I can't rely on emotional appeals or expect brownie points. I have made mistakes, well-meant but nevertheless mistakes, and this discussion will have to be not like a family quarrel but more like finding a new modus vivendi. (It all sounds much more dramatic written down than it actually is). And this cool lady is exactly the help I need.

The sword of justice, the ravens of death (death of a cycle), the coming of winter, the need for total honesty but also preparation for winter and spring.



The whole setting reminds me of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich. Especially this one:




Good work until now, Celestial Tarot.

really excited to use my brand new long awaited guided hand tarot!
i spent my weekend out with friends and extended family members, drew cards but so had no time to write about them
today is completely mine, empty diary, so plenty of time to contemplate what my tarot tells me.....

saturday - obstacles and blockades - four of cups
hah! i draw this card just after i traveled with the dogs to their weekend ‘hotel’ and on the way back the bus driver didn’t want to allow me to take my mobility scooter on the bus..... i was so shocked and felt so victimized that i started to cry.... in the end he let me get on the bus but he didn’t help me with anything, he left that to some passengers who got very angry on my behalf.
anyway, this card so completely represents how i felt after that busride home.... utter desillusion, disappointment, disgust even. this is what happens when i venture outside my safe, isolated and protected circle, is what i thought. there always is someone who chases me off and drives me back into isolation. and it always seems to come out of nowhere and it totally floors me.
then i thought of the guidance i got from my oracle of initiation.
offer curiosity, receive adventure.......
ahhh, yes, of course! adventure doesn’t automatically mean it will be a positive experience. somehow i forgot about that
then i thought of the sweet support i got from the bus passengers, and immediately felt a lot better!



sunday - inspiration and goals - seven of cups
ohh i love this deck! just look at the face of that woman, savouring all the alternatives on offer...... i can see how that is me.
went to visit a really close friend saturday and told her how i have had to completely leave behind who i was three years ago, when my sweetheart suddenly died, and how i now have to re-invent myself, which i find a really hard and sad process, but i know at the same time that my world has been blown wide open, everything is possible and imaginable right now. there are so many options, paths to follow, it is almost mindblowing. so yes, i sometimes feel just like that woman in the card......


monday - dreams and fears - the empress
and what an empress she is..... a true royal dame, totally aware of her worth and importance.....
i feel really wobbly today, sad, down, listless, so i think: ok, let’s try to embody that empress today.... i know i have her inside me somewhere...
but my day is filled with household tasks, as a consequence of my weekend out, so instead i start washing and cleaning. then i find a ticket for the last concert my sweetheart and i went to, three weeks before she died. and i collapse completely. spend hours crying on the couch. this too, always comes out of nowhere. the grief, the missing, the memories.
not much room for the empress today, i’m afraid.....
still, i keep thinking of my re-invented self, the person i am now becoming. maybe the empress is trying to remind me of her, giving me a sneak peek of how i might turn out eventually. i’ll keep that in mind in between my crying spells

Stronglove, if you ever write your memoirs, I'll read them. I'm sorry some people are disgusting to you, and I hope they're a minority - about to become extinct.

Monday: Dreams and Fears -- I drew the four of wands. I need to celebrate my dreams and accomplishments as they happen, Seize the Day as it were, and not let fear or disappointment rob me of those celebrations. Today I will celebrate family and just enjoying them.

Nemia wrote: ↑03 Sep 2018, 15:17 Stronglove, if you ever write your memoirs, I'll read them. I'm sorry some people are disgusting to you, and I hope they're a minority - about to become extinct.

hihi, thank you nemia, for being interested in my adventures. i have some stories to tell...... might want to write them down eventually.
i am really glad i am better able to deal with stuff like this now, on my own. it is just another obstacle thrown in my way and i have learnt how to get around them and not let them stop me. when i told the people at the dog ‘hotel’ what happened they said: oh we can pick up and return the dogs when needed, no problem... so for every nasty bit of stuff that i encounter i tend to get at least twice as much warmth and support in return.

Monday - Dreams and Fears - Clarification
This card brings clarity and the need to investigate or research. It suggests to me that I need to do some further work on properly reasearching and clarifying my dreams. Have I done enough investigation or in fact, am I bogged down in detail? The previous cards would suggest than I’m not acting on my dreams because of fear. I don’t want to leave anything to chance and am looking at all the detail to avoid moving forward.

Mondays, ruled by the Moon: Dreams and Fears

Yesterday's card was Ace of Pentacles. The whole day was consumed with packing up our tent and camping gear and travelling the 6 hours home from where we'd been staying. I knitted much of the way home and made sure husband (who was driving) and son were fed and watered. I cant imagine a day of more mundane practicalities where the main concerns were not forgetting anything and getting home safely.


Tuesdays, ruled by Mars: Conflicts and Challenges.

Today I have the Magician. In the position of conflicts and challenges I suspect I may find it hard work to get done what I want to and may end up clashing with someone. It's my first day back at work after being on holiday for over a week and I have a lot of meetings. A conflict is feasible.

It's Tuesday, and like nearly always, a very busy day for me. I dislike confrontations, hassle, hidden aggressions and open aggressions... I'm simply not very good at it. Instead of battling for my rights and feeling strong, I retreat into my hurt feelings. Bad strategy.

I write that down, and then I look at today's card.



It's the Six of Pentacles. And it's a double image. On the outside, I see the charioteer of Auriga (which is beautifully visble at night right now), and nestled within, a woman. I don't understand what she is doing, I have the association of Cancer and the Chariot with this double meaning of tough outside, soft inside... and I look at the book.



It's Amaltheia, the caregiver of Zeus. I didn't know there was a tradition of seeing Auriga as nursing a goat, I only know it as charioteer (better: the charioteer's helmet - and this is one of the cards where Kay Steventon doesn't look at all at the traditional iconography of the constellations, what a pity....).

I noticed before how Mars confronts us on his chariot, different from Luna and Sol who are up in the sky. Mars really nearly will drive all over us if we don't run away quickly.

So there's a speedy charioteer in a background, and a vulnerable woman. There is assertiveness and nurturing. A very very fitting image for the Six of Pentacles with its Tif'eret-like balance. There's a Saturn influence which makes the card a bit more melancholy than in the GD tradition but that's fine, it gels with the way I see Saturn (with Rhea in the background and Bina on the Tree of Life, there is some potential for goodness).

And this is exactly what I need to remember in an ongoing conflict. Neither assertiveness nor empathy alone are enough. We need to give and expect both.

Again, I don't want to tell all my private stories here but, dear people, this card is again a spot-on, and so is dear old Mars. I might get used to that grumpy guy who's pushing me to become stronger and no longer run away from every confrontation.

Great deck, great deck.

Nemia wrote: ↑04 Sep 2018, 11:36 I

It's Amaltheia, the caregiver of Zeus. I didn't know there was a tradition of seeing Auriga as nursing a goat, I only know it as charioteer (better: the charioteer's helmet - and this is one of the cards where Kay Steventon doesn't look at all at the traditional iconography of the constellations, what a pity....).

What Kay Steventon ignored does not matter near as much when YOU explored it for us, Nemia. TY again.

tuesday - conflict and challenges the five of swords
what a day... i wake up feeling like one of the wounded birds in the card. i have had a bad dream where my sweetheart got lost, and when i am awake i realize that yes, indeed, she is lost to me forever......

the birds also remind me of the song i am learning to sing in my singing lessons. it goes like this

birds falling down the rooftop
out of the sky like raindrops

yes, i can see them fall. in the card and in my life right now.
challenges being dropped on my doorstep unexpectedly. and i feel in no state to deal with them.....
so i start considering the possibility of evading them.
then another song comes to mind
one day as a lion is worth a lifetime as a mouse
is that really true? and do i want to be that lion? or am i better of embracing my uneventful mousey existence......
am i going to take flight, with the risk of being shot at and falling down?
i am not sure yet. but the prospect of staying home is getting more alluring by the minute.....

I Sunshine wrote: ↑04 Sep 2018, 15:43

Nemia wrote: ↑04 Sep 2018, 11:36 I

It's Amaltheia, the caregiver of Zeus. I didn't know there was a tradition of seeing Auriga as nursing a goat, I only know it as charioteer (better: the charioteer's helmet - and this is one of the cards where Kay Steventon doesn't look at all at the traditional iconography of the constellations, what a pity....).

What Kay Steventon ignored does not matter near as much when YOU explored it for us, Nemia. TY again.

I was wrong, there are different traditions in depicting Auriga, and one of them is as the whole figure of a charioteer. In my old book, it's a helmet, and it looks like a helmet, but Steventon is absoultely in her right to depict a whole figure (I still think it's a pity about some other constallations but will let that go right now). And today while on my way I rememberd where the kids, the goat babies, come from. Capella, the main star of the constellation, is called goat kid and associated with Amaltheia.

A very clever choice for the Six of Pentacles.

I'm totally falling in love with this deck.

Tuesday: Conflicts and Challenges

I drew The Chariot. The book said that this card is about taking action NOW even if the path is not perfectly clear. I tend to research and think about things a lot -- too much. It really is a way of delaying. I need to start DOING.

Lovely Wednesday today, a day for interactions, communication, travel, commerce... anything that Mercury takes care of.

My card for today is the lovely Princess of Pentacles, here associated with Spring.




This association totally makes sense, even though for some years I associated Pentacles with Winter. No, it's the time of the fixed sign Taurus, Aldebaran, spring, no doubt about it. I even made one of my wheel some time ago where I put all the correspondences in accordance with astronomical facts.



The connection with Persephone is lovely, and the longer I think about it, the Princesses as Seasons really, really make sense. The height of each seaons is the fixed sign, so there we are:

Earth Taurus Spring Pentacles

Fire Leo Summer Wands

Water Scorpio Autumn Cups

Air Aquarius Winter Swords

All the Pages remind me of my children, but this Princess is also my younger self, and Persephone is re-born every year, and I feel right now as though something is stirring within me... and that's a great feeling. New projects, new ideas, something may be moving in my life, I don't know yet.. minute changes but I'm all for it.

Wow, why didn't I buy this deck earlier? It's a very clear and intelligent deck. It's based on astrology but the author/artist had the courage to think about correspondence a bit differently. Not so different that it's really puzzling - you can still work out things on your own - but in an interesting and challenging way. The decans turn out with different planetary rulers but why not? They don't play an important role here as they do in the Tabula Mundi. The constellations and astrology are more important.

The art could look so much better in gray or white borders - this slightly sickly blue really doesn't do it for me. I wish it hard borders like the Shadowscapes. I won't trim it because there's so much information on the borders - not right now at least

Wednesday: Interactions and Change

I drew the King of Pentacles. This card represents the qualities of hard work, practicality, generosity, and common sense. I should be generous in my interactions with others and working hard at my endeavors will bring change.

It's Thursday - day of Jupiter, of benevolent powers and power relationships.


It's the first card this week that doesn't make sense immediately. Canis Major, okay. I see Prokyon at night, it's part of the Winter hexagon, beautiful. Unfortunately, our area has become too bright at night, it used to be much friendlier for star gazing. But I can see Canis minor. And I understand the Uranus/Gemini connection.



Separation, duality and fear - and some healing - i'll have to see how this plays out in the end. It rings a bell, again concerning the inter/family troubles we're having lately, but right now, there is a lot of re-connecting, not only separation.

Wednesday ruled by Mercury: Interactions and Change.


Ace of Swords - well I did a lot of talking that's for sure! Very meeting-heavy day dominated by lots of communication. It was also my first team meeting without one of my teams, which has been moved elsewhere. I worked hard with them and got them to a good place but I'm relieved that they have moved. I feel I've cut loose a bit of a weight round my neck and the change is positive for my other teams who will get more support and time from me.

Thursday, ruled by Jupiter: Power and Influences.


Three of Pentacles - this card suggests growth and creativity and also appreciation for demonstration of skill. Today I had some VERY rare feedback from my boss that was extremely positive and which made me feel valued and trusted.

Thursday: Power/Influences

Today I drew the Ten of Cups. This card represents emotional fulfillment, typically coming from home/family atmosphere. These things are a powerful influence in your life, for positive or ill. And no doubt that home/family has great influence over a person. This is why who is in my inner circle is very important. I have felt like every card drawn this week has been in relation to my tarot journey. So I need to find a "family" to settle into that will encourage me, direct me, and help me find emotional fullfilment in my journey. I feel I'm on the right road being here