Tarot Etc. Thursday No. 21

First things first: Happy May 26 birthday to Timothy J. Lambert (and birthday nods to Stevie Nicks and Lenny Kravitz, who share the day with him). I stole that photo right off his Instagram; nobody tell him. =) This is one of the good dogs he pet-sits for a friend. I’m grateful every single day for the events and times that brought this amazing man into my life, as friend-to-family, writing partner, neighbor, and creative inspiration. No birthday party here tonight; we’re celebrating dinner and cake with him at the Hall next week; tonight he’s seeing other good friends.

I’m trying to regain my equilibrium after the past couple of weeks. May has been quite a month in my own life, the lives of people I know, and in the world beyond me.

I’ve talked about Tarot cards off and on through my 18 years of keeping an online journal/blog, and I created Tarot Thursdays after Mark asked me how many decks I have. I didn’t know.

A recap:

 
Akashic Tarot and Art Nouveau Tarot

Celtic Tarot and Color Your Tarot

Crow Tarot and Egipcios Kier Tarot

Enchanted Tarot and Lovers Tarot

Medieval Scapini Tarot and Muse Tarot

Rider Waite Tarot and Tarot of the Spirit

Voyager Tarot

The only remaining Tarot deck I haven’t shared is The Good Tarot, although its creator, Colette Baron-Reid refers to it as an Oracle deck in the booklet that accompanies it. The deck does have the seventy-eight cards of most Tarot decks, twenty-two major arcana, called Trumps here, and 56 minor arcana, with the elemental suits of Earth (Pentacles in other decks), Air (Swords in other decks), Fire (Wands in other decks, and Water (Cups in other decks). The court cards are the page, messenger, queen, and king.

The illustrations by Jena DellaGrottaglia are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and I picked eight to share here.

If you’re comfortable with the layouts of other decks, you could use the spreads you like to work with, but Baron-Reid advises that the cards are best used to put you in the moment. She recommends pulling one card if you’re feeling confused or lost and wondering what you might not be seeing. If you still lack clarity, a second card can be pulled for more insight about the message.

She suggests a three-card reading to discern the energies of a situation that’s evolving. The first card represents where you are now. The second card represents what will be influencing the situation. The third card shows where you’re headed if you continue on the same path. Once again, she says if you need clarity, drawing a fourth card can give you more information.

For me personally, this is a deck where I pull a single card without any questions/situations in mind at all, just the willingness to let my imagination run free for a while. Then I consult the book to see what Baron-Reid says about the card.

Next week, I’ll recap the other systems that I’ve shared here, plus include two or three things I haven’t posted yet. As I’ve said before, I’m no expert aboout any of these things and rarely use them in the traditional ways others do. For me, they’re tools for introspection, meditation, and as part of rituals with scents and stones, often in connection with celestial events like eclipses, full and new moons, and where our planet is in relation to other planets. They’re also helpful to me as tools in my writing, including structure, plot, character development, and the ways characters relate with each other.

Tarot cards can be calming in a stressful world. They offer perspectives I might not have considered. And I am often awed by the art and creativity of the decks and their creators and illustrators.

So Mark, the short answer is: fourteen Tarot decks!