Rachel’s DoW 27 John Bauer Tarot

[Rachelcat]

Hi all! This week, and maybe for a few more weeks, I’m going to be looking at Lo Scarabeo’s decks created from Victorian book illustrations. I have Tarot of the Thousand and One Nights, illustrations by Leon Carre, the Harmonious Tarot with the flower fairy art of Walter Crane, and the John Bauer Tarot. Also now available are the Edmund Dulac Tarot and the Rackham Tarot. Maybe this week will help me decide if I need them for my collection. I had the Ring Cycle Tarot from Schiffer, created with Arthur Rackham’s illustrations for the operas, but I just couldn’t connect with all the greedy, selfish, lying gods and heroes (male and female), so I passed the deck on.

The one that appeals to me most right now is the John Bauer, so let’s start with a deck interview.

Well, this went downhill real fast.

Most important characteristic: III Empress
The deck’s most important characteristics are its beauty, femininity, and mysterious depiction of the natural world.

Strength: Queen Swords
It’s well thought out and also beautiful. Pregnant with meaning?

Weakness: I Magician
It has too many weird gnomes. But this is a powerful one.

What can I learn from you: 5 Wands
Sometimes life is a struggle. There’s not a story unless there’s a conflict.

How can I learn it: XVI Tower
Don’t be afraid of the negative stuff. It might seem overwhelming, but it might bring a flash of insight. Stand up to it.

Outcome of our work together: 3 Swords
I’ll learn how to let go. It’s very sad that the swan is dead, and it’s right to grieve, but it’s troubles are over. Her true pain is that she’s sad for herself. She knows she’ll miss it. Maybe it will enable me to observe others’ pain? What good will that do? Unless I can help them with it.

See you tomorrow!

[Rachelcat]

Monday All-Purpose Spread

Me: Ace Wands
Today, I’m intrepid. I’m the princess who enters the enchanted forest without fear.

Issue: 8 Wands
Things will be happening quickly, but I’ll be flying with them, or on them.

Outcome: X Wheel
Although it might feel that all that quickness and swift movement is only in a circle, there will be an organization and purpose for it, if I look at the bigger picture.

Advice 9 Coins
In between the hustle, I should be sure to take time to appreciate what I have and enjoy it. And spend some quality time with my cat (because I don’t have a bird!).

Have a happy week!

[Nemia]

Wow, I love your work with the Bauer Tarot! I have it, too, and love the Nordic beauty, but didn't really read with it yet. You do a great job making it look accessible. Thank you!

[Rachelcat]

That's very kind! I think I've been reading with pips for so long, that I'm really having fun trying to read the pictures. And they are very meaning-filled. I like how they put me in the fairy tale mindset even though I don't know the stories. So I can make up the stories!

And it has very pretty backs!

[Rachelcat]

Tuesday All-Purpose Spread

Me: Queen of Wands
I will enjoy all the growing, living energy around me. I’ve taken off my crown to feel more at one with the flowers.

Issue: Knight of Swords
In my MBTI system, I’m a knight of swords. I will be true to my personality, and try to organize and figure everything out.

Outcome: 8 Swords
And that will be overthinking things until I’m tied up and immobilized by my own thoughts. But nature’s beauty, the flowers and the majestic moose, will protect and look after me if I get too tied up.

Advice: King of Swords
I should be in charge of my thoughts, don’t let my thoughts be in charge of me! Listen to the wisdom of age and real-world experience.

[Rachelcat]

Wednesday, My birthday! How will I grow over the year to come? Elemental star spread.

In health: 8 Wands
I’ll refine the physical activity portion of my health regime.

Emotionally: Knight of Cups
I’ll open up and allow myself to feel more. I’ll feel a greater connection with the natural world. And maybe do something about it all instead of bottling it up inside.

Intellectually: XVII Stars
Yes! This could be the same guy as the Knight of Cups, still out under the big sky. He’s not looking up at the stars, but maybe he’s just integrating his overwhelming experience. I will be blessed with insight into the big picture of things and will be able to share it. This is what I was hoping for when I was shuffling!

Energetically: 6 Coins
I will put some generosity into action, not just giving money, but giving of my time and energy to really help someone in need. The nun is not just handing over clothes to a naked person, she’s also smiling at her benignly, understandingly, even if she doesn’t know how she got this way, it seems like she will understand and care when the story is told.

Spiritually: 8 Swords
I’ll be able to work my way through some of my intellectual confusion and blocks to spirituality. It has to make sense to me because just trusting what someone else says, although it is often praised, is a big step on the way to destruction. For people and societies. But I have to look at the other side, that spirituality isn’t an intellectual proposition. Eventually you have to have some kind of faith, but only I can figure out what I should have faith in and which way lies a dangerous giving away of my power. The thousand-pound moose is in the room, but I still can’t see it right now!

[Rachelcat]

Thursday, partial Celtic Cross
What is going on or will go on with my I Ching studies? (I wanted to try this spread adapted from Waite, so I came up with a somewhat innocuous question.)

Me: XII Hanged One
So I wonder if I’m the girl in the tree or the boy looking up at her? There’s a lot of ways I feel suspended with this issue. I’ve tried to study before and just ended up confused and frustrated and then bored. I also feel like it’s an avoidance activity, substituting for something I actually should be working on. And I know I’m far from a satisfactory conclusion to my study, but I am making some progress. Slowly, which is actually a big help.

Cover: XVIII Moon
Well, the situation is all about divination and woo-woo stuff, right? So I might just be deluding myself completely. On the other hand, the princess is definitely making progress, even though it’s at night under the moon.

Cross: 6 Cups
Waite says “If it is a favorable card, the opposing forces will not be serious, or something good in itself will not be productive of good in this particular connection.” I’m going to read the card as love, so maybe my affection for tarot and cards may be a drawback to my serious study of anything else.

Crown (my aim or ideal): IV Emperor
I want to understand the power of I Ching and be able to use it as a way of controlling my life. On the other hand, the princess is offering up her crown to the gnome king. For this round of study, I have consciously decided to go with an expert in the traditional teachings instead of what I’ve tried in the past to make my own understanding of it by comparing a dozen (ok, an exaggeration) different translations and commentaries. So that’s an aim of giving up my autonomy for more detailed understanding.

Beneath (foundation or basis that I have “made my own”): 5 Wands
Same as I said above, there are SO MANY competing translations, teachings, and theories, that I decided to choose one and stay with it for a while.

Behind: 6 Coins
I already have all the books, marbles, cards, etc. (physical items) that I need for study and research. So the study doesn’t turn into a shopping spree. Been there, done that, that’s why I already have everything!

Before: 5 Swords
I will have to deal with the competing ideas problem again later, after I concentrate on one for a while. This is an issue that will never go away. And maybe I’ll have to declare a winner and a loser, at least in my own mind and life.

[Rachelcat]

Friday, Questions Wield, Soon Truth Revealed

What do I need to know about deck collecting and my collection? Again, an innocuous question because I want to try out the spread. It’s a fun one! And helpful, too! And easy to remember because of the rhyming.

What led me to where I am today? I Magician
I am a collector because I want to know, but I also want to DO, act on what I’ve learned, and see how that works with many decks.

What obstacle blocks my way? 10 Swords
This guy is definitely blocking the rainbow. Beware the end of THIS rainbow! Disapproval and small mindedness, outside and within the tarot community, can keep me from reaching the collection pot of gold: that I’ll have everything I want, and that everything I have, I’ll love!

What is hidden from my view? 3 Wands
Where I’m going next. I don’t have a collecting goal in mind now, and don’t really feel like I need anything. Until I do.

What work do I have left to do? VII Chariot
I saw the huge pack on the ram’s back and thought, I need to pack up the decks I don’t want and take them somewhere to give them away where they will be appreciated.

What now should I leave behind? 3 Swords
I should leave behind any regret for the ones that got away. Or that I’ve given away.

If I do, what shall I find? 6 Wands
Victory! I’ll be the best collector ever!

If I don’t, then what’s my fate? Page of Wands
I’ll feel like I’m lagging behind, that I’m not doing everything I should to be successful.

What must I know before it’s too late? 2 Coins
Let my going out equal my coming in. I can be generous and still have everything I want.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

[Rachelcat]

Saturday

Sorry if this is too political, but I’m feeling a need to read for my country on its birthday. There’s much to celebrate, but so much more left to do.

This poem https://poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again was written in 1935, but it could have been written yesterday.
This song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4 was written in 1964, and its promise is still unfulfilled.

Is a change gonna come?

For money, environment, and health: 7 Cups
I see nightmares and fears driving the witch away. All the boy has to do is wait until all the scary things have gone by to go about his business. The lies and manipulation of the ultra-rich will eventually turn against them, and soon we can go about the work of fixing the broken economy and stressed out natural world.

For unity and true patriotism: VIII Strength
Expressions and acts of true love and compassion might be surprising to the bear that is public opinion, but it will have a softening, taming effect. It’s just taking longer than we thought.

For TRUTH and understanding: 3 Cups
Gnomes and princesses will travel together in true fellowship through the scary places. And it might not even be that scary once they find out what is really lurking in the forest.

For action and effort to make the changes: IX Hermit
This is such a beautiful card, and appropriate for a fire position. Effective action can only come from each individual’s enlightened mind. Political expediency might get us so far, but only individual conviction can make the changes stick and become part of our core values.

For conviction and living out our beliefs: IV Emperor
People need to be willing to give up some personal gain and power to the ideal of what our country can be. And there has to be some top down commitment to our values and beliefs in order for it to become more a reality.