Alex

  • Elisabeth posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    I am falling in love with the Tarot in a way I never thought I would. Thanks to this group I’m just at a really good place with it right now and that is making me really happy. You all are awesome!

    I was really inspired this morning by Dani’s article about Pride. I really liked her journaling questions and decided to use them to do my…[Read more]

    • This is awesome – I love that your used Dani’s pride prompts. What a good idea!

      Also, my reaction to the Knight of Cups once was “don’t be that guy!” Lol.

      • Thanks!!!
        I know right?! But the Knight of Cups is supposed to be what I’m proud of. I am actually kinda like that, but I’m definitely not proud of it.

        • Way to invent a new spread off that article! I’m gonna try this one out later tonight.
          Re: “I am falling in love with the Tarot in a way I never thought I would.” – It’s addictive, isn’t it? For me, dabbling in tarot was a gateway, and the cards have totally gotten under my skin since then. Now I find I think about them all the time – I’m…[Read more]

        • This page has some great positives (and negatives! to balance) about the Knight of Cups. Maybe it’ll have something helpful?
          Knight of Cups @ LearnTarot

          • That was really helpful! A lot of that is me. That website also says that two Knights in a reading can be two conflicting sides of the self or enhanced aspects of the Knights in general.

          • That website also has some great stuff about the 4 of Pentacles! Trying to control a situation too much, not letting go, resisting change…yep.

  • Alison posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    It’s been one week, and I was so excited and inspired by everyone’s posts on the Ace of Swords last week!

    So this week I’d love to hear everyone’s take on the Two of Swords:

    (Pictured: Herbal Tarot; Wildwood Tarot; and Rider-Waite-Smith)

    This card’s always been intriguing but initially difficult to understand for me. Some meanings I’ve read…[Read more]

    • Hmmm, I’ve never seen this card interpreted as a healthy balance, but rather as an unhealthy one, the kind of false balance or stasis that results when you refuse to make a choice. Maybe the artwork is more neutral in some specific decks? If so that’s a decision on the part of the artist to tweak the traditional meaning (which is of course totally…[Read more]

    • Left to right: Tarot of the Magical Forest, Dreaming Way

      Yay! I was excited to see your (now weekly) post.

      I really love the image in the Wildwood Tarot! That has a lot you can read into.

      A brief interpretation from Greer’s 21 Ways with the Dreaming Way:
      (Stating the obvious may seem silly but I was surprised at what it can bring out,…[Read more]

      • I just wanted to add that that is obviously my own story and that I don’t think that that interpretation applies to everyone.

      • I think that this person needs to put down the swords (or arrows) in order to take that blindfold off.

      • It’s interesting that the Dreaming Way character is the only one not balancing her swords. At the same time, this card makes it a lot easier to see her indecisiveness. I agree that she seems very vulnerable, and I like your story behind it a lot.

        The book for the Wildwood tarot also makes the point that the bow underneath her foot is broken…[Read more]

        • I agree with you about the indecisive quality in the Dreaming Way, and I find the previous bad decision making element in the Wildwood very interesting! That led her to the position she is in now. I just looked this card up in my Pollack book and I’m left with a feeling that this card can go a couple of ways. Pollack writes that this card…[Read more]

          • I love hearing everyone’s insights on this card! I’ve always had trouble interpreting this one beyond just needing to re-examine your decision making. Also love the ties to justice/injustice in the Wildwood card – what a gorgeous image!

          • This is totally it. There’s so much duality in this card/ in the two swords that it still feels impossible to pin it down to one meaning.

    • Oh man, when I first drew this card, I felt immediately connected to it. I was pretty sad to learn that it had such negative connotations, but there’s still part of me that really identifies with it. There is a certain power in this card (in my eyes)- when I first saw the Rider-Waite version I expected it would be a card about inner strength and…[Read more]

    • I just wanted to toss Anna K’s 2 of Swords into the ring – it looks so different!

      This is her description of the card: “The two of swords depicts the unpleasant doubts that creep over us if we have lost the connection with our center, our intuition. With intellect alone we can’t make decisions that satisfy, that feel right, even if they are…[Read more]

      • Whoa. So different from all of the other cards! It’s interesting though that this one is still about being disconnected from our intuition. And I feel like I can see some self-doubt in this as well as in the other cards.

    • the two of swords has always been a card that comes up for me often and that functions as a warning for me — to me, especially with the rider-waite deck, it’s always represented closing oneself off in an unhealthy way, kneejerk reactions of self-protectiveness that don’t actually serve. i find myself really noticing how her swords are held in a d…[Read more]

  • Corinna posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    So, I was doing a little daily reading for myself, and guess what card I pulled on this here Friday the 13th? THE MOON! In honour of the full honey moon tonight, I thought we could discuss the card a little bit. It made sense in a literal way,in my reading, but not as much in its interpretation. Generally I see it as a card of both dark and light,…[Read more]

    • I love this card. I’m a Cancer in, like, all the planets (by which I mean four of them), so I’m very governed by the moon, and happily so. I therefore have many romantic feelings about this card. Here are some of them: If you want to understand The Moon, comma, the tarot card, put down your deck, go outside, look up at the moon, and observe your…[Read more]

      • woowww, thank you for the amazing insight! I think I know what the Moon was trying to tell me now. What a powerful card.

    • I feel very much what Hazel Blue wrote about the tug! When I look at this card I feel the tug of that most inner part of you that is the real, total, genuine you that pulls you toward what is real for you in life, or what you need or desire to be fulfilled. It’s like a calling to fulfill yourself. Like dogs who howl at the moon. Does anyone…[Read more]

    • I agree with everything everyone’s already posted, but i think the card has another facet as well. The moon represents the unconscious (which many of you touched upon, talking about how it may represent feelings instead of reality), and thereby it also represents other worlds (i.e., the dream world, worlds/realities created by alcohol,…[Read more]

      • That’s very interesting. I think the two canine’s are important and maybe represent two aspects of the self, the tamed and the untamed. Also, I feel that those pillars in the distance are important. I think they are about a path, and we can see a winding path leading through them from the unconscious to the horizon. I think the winding path…[Read more]

        • Yes – definitely – the dog is the ‘domesticated’ version of ourselves, and the wolf is our wild side. I kind of consider the pillars to be the gates to the ‘other realm,’ that we need the wolf and dog to guide us through.

          • Interesting and mysterious! Do you have any other thoughts about the ‘other realm’? Perhaps I’m dense but I’m not sure what that means.

        • I guess my idea of ‘other realms’ is any mind state that differs from what is generally accepted as ‘reality.’ I don’t know if that makes sense, but I think I also mean any place that the mind can travel to. So, like I said above, dreams, drug induced hallucinations, etc.

      • Good point, Alison! I never thought of the dog and wolf in the card that way.

  • Potter posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    Elisabeth and I discussed this a ways back, but are folks interested in sharing their journaling process? I don’t journal every time I run a spread, but I try to do it for most of them. Beth had some great journal ideas in her last article!

    It is in a physical notebook, or computer, or online? What is your journaling process? How do you record…[Read more]

    • cool idea! I currently have two physical old school paper type journals – one I started about a year ago. I have a page for each card, and I write down what I learn about that card each time I do a reading (if there’s something new to add of course). The second journal I just started a couple of days ago for readings themselves. In an ideal world…[Read more]

    • I had every intention of starting a new journal that was totally devoted to Tarot but then it quickly became totally enmeshed with my regular life stuff. I can be organized enough to write the date on top of the page, the name of the spread, the deck used, and the question. Sometimes I do a rough drawing of the spread. After that any rules, if…[Read more]

    • Alright, so I’ve got some time to respond to my own post, lol.

      As I was taking pictures for this and reading your responses, Corinna & Elisabeth, I realized that I don’t really do a couple of things: write down the question itself or the relevance of the notes I do write. If I’m writing up a reading to post here, I go more into that, but…[Read more]

      • Also, I might add that this is an old journal I made back in college from draft copies of my senior thesis and my friend’s thesis, lol. (I made one for her too!) I’ve had this thing for 5 or 6 years, and it’s served a number of purposes, which is why I have no qualms about taping and adding things. I’ve beat it up enough during disaster response…[Read more]

      • Wow, this is awesome in so many ways! I really like seeing other people’s journals. I wanted to post a pic of mine but I felt a wee bit embarassed.
        The retreat sounds really fantastic! I would love to go to something like that! I see that you got two of the same cards that came up in your spread about the job issue, the 4 of pentacles and…[Read more]

        • Just wanted to say, don’t be embarrassed about your journal, no matter what it looks like. Everyone organizes their thoughts differently, so as long as it makes sense to you, then I’m sure it’s amazing! Also, seeing your thought process may help others understand how to read the cards better! Just a thought!

        • I agree with Allison – don’t be embarrassed! This is why I love Maggie’s column about journaling here on AS; she’s all about encouraging a “whatever works,” creative attitude towards it.

          Also, re: King of Cups and 4 of Pentacles… yes, lol. I’m pretty sure the last time I got the 4 of pentacles, I wrote “I’m starting to you,” especially since…[Read more]

          • Ok. :) Here’s two of my journals. You can see how anything goes. The funnest part of getting new pens for me is drawing them.

            And I can be neat at times (on the right):

        • I love these! I especially love the drawings! Looks like you’ve done a lot of work as well!

      • I really like the highlighting as well – and the sticky notes, which I think are an artist/writer’s best friend! Or, for that matter, the best friend of any one working with multiple ideas at once! I have one online journal that basically everything goes onto because I am addicted to pictures and basically, my computer. I’m also really visual, so…[Read more]

        • Just wanted to say, I’ve been reading your entries while feeling like a total lurker since I don’t use tumblr and can’t comment there… but it’s been cool seeing your thoughts evolve so far!

          • Thanks, Mary. No worries on lurking at all. If I minded lurkers, I’d have made it private. I’ve been lurking on your blog as well! And really enjoying all of your explanations of court cards. I need all the help with those that I can get!

        • Awesome Alison! I missed a lot! And I have no idea how to use tumblr but created an account to follow your blog. Totally as an aside – I was basically born into a Handmaiden’s Tale kind of cult. Luckily my parents decided to leave when I was a toddler. Now I’m a raging feminist. Well…feminist anyway.

          • Tumblr is a bit weird to use. I think just to read everything you don’t need an account, but since you have one, you should be able to comment! Which I’d love! I think you have to follow for two weeks before it allows you to reply (not sure yet how to override this), but eventually it should work.

            About the cult – that is a pretty unique (though…[Read more]

          • Yes, I do have memories of the cult. Bad ones. It was a Christian cult thing. Are you out to your parents? I can’t imagine what they would think of that if you were like a baby-eater as a feminist.
            In hindsight I’m pretty sure that I came out to my parents in a sort of spiteful way because I knew deep down that I would never hear from them…[Read more]

          • Yes, I am out to my parents. I came out as a feminist first, which I think was more shocking in part because they had this preconceived idea of who I was that got shattered.

            Also my dad was really understanding about my sexuality because he understands that it’s not a choice. (Whereas… I guess being a feminist, however illogical it may seem n…[Read more]

    • Lately I’ve been doing both a paper journal and an online one, and the blog has been a really useful addition for me… basically I do free-write style entries in the notebook for most readings I do, and sometimes I draw out the full spread in there. When I think to, I take a pic of my spreads as well in case I want to document them on le blog.…[Read more]

      • I really enjoy your blog posts! They always make me think about the cards from a very different and usually much lighter position that I had been. I think reposting is good because of the scrolling issue and lack of organization.

    • Right now I’m keeping two books, one paper and one online. I’ve been using the online one for readings, so I can put a picture of the spread (and any other relevant pictures, like if I worked from a template for the spread) and then type as much as I want. I’ve noticed that I write more and do more analysis if I’m typing, because my hand doesn’t…[Read more]

  • Gill posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    Hey all, I’d like to post an image of my most recent reading to discuss with you all, but I have no idea how to post pictures on here! Any pointers?

  • Rachel posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    This isn’t a serious tarot question or observation, but I was referencing Greer’s Complete Book of Tarot Reversals for a reading for myself, and she mentions that an old/traditional reading of the Knight of Cups Rx was that it referenced/represented homosexuality. The more you know!

  • Elisabeth posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    I just got Mary Greer’s 21 ways to read a tarot card and it is amazing! The process is a bit time consuming but it is helping me to see an incredible amount in one card and to make it really make sense to current circumstances. I started doing this 21 step process for one card in a three card reading and so far I have about three pages written…[Read more]

    • Oh this sounds amazing! I really want more books, but I’ve put myself on bookbuying hiatus until I find a job. Sadness!

      How are you enjoying the book and journaling process?

      • I’m really amazed at the stuff that is coming up. That first card (The Lovers), when I drew it I had this one really simplistic interpretation, and then after doing the excercises in the Greer book I literally started to cry once when I was journaling about it. It brought up some deep emotional issues. It was really amazing. I haven’t even…[Read more]

        • I am also on a book-buying hiatus right now, and man, it is hard to find tarot books at the library. Any library. So, therealpotter, I feel your pain.

          • I’m so tempted to drop the $10 for the kindle version since someone has the library’s copy, but I’m standing strong…! Ha. I grabbed another book to tide me over and they put me on the waitlist for 21 Ways.

            I just really like having physical books for things like this.

        • It’s fantastic that you’re getting so much out of this book. I think you’ve got me convinced!

          My library card desperately needs to be renewed (and I’m sure there are some *fines* to pay, lol). But I looked at the online catalog, and a pretty close branch has a copy! And I can make it over there before it closes for the day!

          I hope the ongoing…[Read more]

          • I’m glad you can get a copy. I’ve been really spoiled with my college’s library. It’s really small but I can get ILL for free which is awesome! My local library really resents doing ILL and they ask for “donations” if you request them. They even called me once to “ask” before they would do any ILL for me.
            I really enjoy journaling, scribbles…[Read more]

          • Ugh, that’s annoying re: ILL. I live in a pretty big city with libraries all over the place, so that makes me happy. And my school’s ILL programs have been so helpful…though I am glad that I don’t need them anymore, lol.

          • I’ve been reading more of this book and I feel like this is a book I could spend the next year studying. It is packed with info. and exercises! I’m curious if you will find it as helpful as I do.

      • I don’t know if this is kosher or not, but I thought I’d post screen shots of the Appendix where Greer lists a reminder worksheet of all the steps.

      • The repeated as an I statement parts is what really got me.

        • I’m not sure I understand that part. Does she give an example?

          • So, for #2 you would give a literal description of the card and what is being done, etc. Then you would repeat that saying it as if it was you in the card. It’s just like what I did in my response to the two of swords. Same with #3, you name the emotions, feeling, etc. present in the card and then repeat that as if you were experiencing it. I…[Read more]


  • Jane posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    Tarot Schoolers, I could use some help with a card. I drew the Page of Pentacles as my card of the day, today. The Anna K tarot emphasizes patience with this card; other descriptions emphasize going out and seizing opportunity. I feel like I can’t get a coherent sense of what the darn thing is supposed to be about. Comparing images from…[Read more]

    • I find the Collective Tarot to be pretty helpful for interpretation “If you pull this card in a reading it is an indication of a quest, a search for something, a need that may just be coming into your consciousness, or something you have always known you wanted. You are in the process of embarking on that quest. Enjoy the thrill of the search!”.…[Read more]

      • It makes sense with the patience interpretation – getting what you want takes time, and the process is just as important (and magical) as the outcome.

    • I struggle with this card a bit, too, but here’s how I try to think about it: In general, pages are students, people who are just starting to dig into a new skill, relationship, or project. So the Page of Pents is starting out on a new endeavor that’s related to their material life – home, work, physical needs. This theme for the card runs…[Read more]

    • Thanks so much, guys! That definitely helped. I’m so glad you referenced the Collective Tarot, Corinna; I don’t have a copy, but I’ve been comparing card images from it online for all of my cards lately because it’s so gorgeous. Even without the text, it helps a lot with interpretation sometimes – for instance, yesterday I drew the 9 of Swords…[Read more]

      • How many times can I say “guys” in one short comment? Sigh. You can take the girl out of NJ, but…

      • hooray! amazing. I don’t actually own the Collective Tarot – a good friend of mine does, but I sent them an e-mail asking if they’d be willing to send me a pdf of the interpretation booklet (which comes with images of the cards in it) and they said yes! So I have this nice little booklet to supplement my Rider-Waite deck. You can also e-mail them…[Read more]

        • I’m hoping they do a reprint too! I emailed them to ask if there was another kickstarter coming but didn’t hear back. I really want this deck!

          • They posted on their Facebook page a little while ago saying that the Collective itself was having some trouble, so they weren’t able to reprint presently. I’m crossing my fingers that things work out for them!

  • Elisabeth posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    I just saw an awesome post on littleredtarot.com about getting yourself out of a rut and finding your mojo. It looks awesome! Thought I’d share.

  • Alison posted an update in the group Group logo of Tarot SchoolTarot School 9 years, 4 months ago

    Hi everyone! I’m really excited so see how quickly this group is growing. As some of you know, I’d like to use this space to pool our collective feelings/intuitions/observations/experiences to analyze each card, one at a time.

    I know that it will help me a lot, in understanding individual cards, especially numbers and court cards, and think that…[Read more]

    • I like this plan. It would be really nice to see this group stay active and grow! Just read Beth’s article and loved her insights. Swords represent the element air and are often associated with the mind and with intellect. Personally, they call up imagery of weather. The swords can be so tempestuous, I think of wind and storms, and the ace would…[Read more]

      • Great addition about the tempestuous nature of swords. I think some decks depict clouds on this card in the distance as dark and kind of looming as well as casting shadows on the mountains in the background. I think that speaks to what you wrote.

      • I love the idea of a jolt or a wake-up call for this card!

    • Thanks for getting this rolling Alison. I hope we can keep it going!
      To add to my reply to Hazel, swords do represent something new, new beginnings and with swords there seems to be a danger more than any other suit of negative aspects of the suit manifesting themselves. Hence, the double edge of the swords, which is really a very clever play on…[Read more]

    • Alison, what deck is the middle card? “The Breath of Life”, that is interesting and something to think about!

      • The middle deck is the Wildwood Tarot. I still have not read the explanation for this card in the book that comes with this deck… but I thought it was very interesting that the smoke in this deck, unlike in the others sees to be coming from a fire / campfire/ signal on the ground.

    • Love this idea too! Elisabeth, my interpretation of aces is that they are the suit in their purest form – they represent the potential of the suit (and perhaps in that way they are a gift)- the aces are some of my favourite cards. I usually think of them in a positive light, but it’s interesting to think about the dark side of that potential. The…[Read more]

      • Corinna, yes, the suit in it’s purest form…in the Dreaming Way Tarot so many of the sword cards have people dressed in white which the creator says in the booklet refers to purity of intention. In this deck there seems to be a purity of intention even when things get a bit difficult.

    • This is pretty awesome:

      “ready to cut through bullshit, resolve conflict and seek the truth. This is the ‘take no shit’ card, I love it.” littleredtarot.com

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