Writing with the Tarot
It feels like we all need to be the Giggly Squad for our own self-preservation lately.
One of my favorite escapes is watching podcasts. Yes, this sounds like an oxymoron and it is.
Podcasts could be considered to be ruled by the suit of Swords which represent ideas, intellect and communication. However, you’ve probably noticed that few of the cards in this suit look happy. The mind can create such beauty but also stir up all kinds of conflict — real and imagined — as well.
Enter Amy Poehler, my sister Virgo sun with a Leo moon. I call this combo HOT and ANAL when speaking of myself, but would NOT apply this to Amy Poehler.
Her new podcast Good Hang epitimizes what I what I want what I REALLY REALLY want from the Tarot.
“All I ever wanted was a really good hang.”
Think about it. When you hang out with your friends, are you constantly asking for advice or predictions?
Well, maybe, sometimes…but overall, no, right?
Recently I attended an IRL Tarot salon at Haus Witch for the season of spring and the suit of Swords (Air) to which it corresponds. Melissa Neirman, owner of the fantastic NowAge Travel, designs original Tarot spreads that are more conversational than predictive. They feel less extractive and more generative. I might even call them anti-capitalist for this reason.
These Tarot Salons are like speed dating in that you have 5 minutes to do a reading for your parter. After you both do a reading with the same questions, you switch seats and repeat with the next partner with a new spread. This practice keeps me on my toes because everyone has different decks with unfamiliar imagery.
I adored Melissa Nierman’s spread regarding mental patterns, a very Sword-related theme.
What is your go-to mental pattern in your daily life? Queen of Wands
Where did this mental pattern stem from? 10 of Swords
How does it affect your experience of life? 3 of Wands
While I don’t typically recoil in horror when I pull the Ten of Swords, this one featured a dead fox with ten swords in their back. While we’re inundated with images of violence every day, I found this one cut through my usual defense mechanism of emotional numbness. For refererence, my partner was using the Foyer’s Daughter Tarot.
It lacked the antic quality of the Pamela Colman-Smith Rider Waite deck in which the figure is holding his hands in a mudra that suggests that he is, impossibly, still alive.
The Ten of Swords is a tragicomic card. You’ve got to laugh or you’ll cry.
There’s no way to deny that something is over and you have to let it go. Yet the mudra suggests rebirth.
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