Roses and Sun and Lions, Oh My!

Lioness Oracle Tarot by Alejandra Léon Wolfe Rocha

Just a short post to keep my foot in the blogging door. I've been working with the Lioness Oracle Tarot lately (available here) and really loving its feminine vibe, its depictions of the marriage of strength and receptivity. Today's question focused on a work-related proposal and the cards def came through. Seeing the Sun card my heart just sang. With its unapologetic claiming of vibrant space it elicits a similar response when looking at it. Radiant, strong, receptive and beautiful.

With Autumn just around the corner I imagine some of my more somber decks will make an appearance but for now this luminous beauty takes center stage. Leaving y'all with the blessings of The Sun.

Touchstone Tarot ~ Soul Work

Touchstone Tarot by Kat Black

This morning as I surveyed my decks I felt a restlessness. Not really interested in reading symbols, imagery, doing a spread for the day and so forth and none of my decks were calling to me. What was it I really wanted? And then came the words, an encounter with Soul. Yes, that was it! Something deeper than a surface reading, than using the usual map. And no sooner had this aspiration arisen than the Touchstone Tarot ,with its portraiture of soulful, evocative figures, leapt out as the deck to use. And oh my, it did not disappoint. 

From the top of the deck I drew The Hermit, from the bottom of the deck I drew the Three of Cups. The Hermit is both my soul and personality card according to Mary Greer's formula for calculating your cards using your birthdate. I also happen to be in a Hermit year based on the same birthdate calculations so seeing this card come up felt juicy, real, magical. I felt heard. Which is what we all want in the end, isn't it.

The Hermit ~ Touchstone Tarot

This particular Hermit is full of earthy and ethereal magic. I immediately noticed how his hand seems to be gently releasing the women in the Three of Cups, with the graceful kind of touch that we see in da Vinci's Hand of God painting. And sure enough he meets them, transformed, into Owl, Stag and Cat. His eyes are closed here suggesting a different kind of vision is needed to navigate the inner realms. And his yellow lantern swinging by his midsection speaks to me of third chakra work, the solar plexus, seat of power, will and mental acuity. No coincidence that yesterday I drew a card focused on this chakra in relation to body work I've been doing. 

What this card speaks to for me, is the necessity of acknowledging the animal body, its instinctual wisdom, its strength, its intuitive knowing. There is such movement here with the tilt of his head, the gesture of his left hand, the swing of the lantern and drape of his robes. And yet there is presence in that movement, awareness and receptivity. 

This is precisely where I find myself. Working with the body in this slow, quiet, receptive way. Opening to its language, a different kind of listening is being asked of me. It's new territory, to be attentive, gentler to this body. I'm pulling from several different traditions and teachers as I find my way, often in the dark but with the will to know, to learn to really want to inhabit it more. Solar Plexus energy is fire, it's digestion and assimilation. Mine has been compromised for various reasons and this is an area I really find myself needing to dig deep. The number Three of the Cups card underscores this chakra work for me. It's definitely inner work, a pulling in and back from things. 

Three of Cups ~ Touchstone Tarot

These three women here feel very inclusive in their communion. There is a place for me here to participate in their quiet joy. Those three feminine bodies within, Maiden/Mother/Crone, feel welcoming. Their gazes are full of the mystery of what it is to be human, to share, to be a woman. They're not giving much away and yet what they o offer is full of presence and depth. Just the kind of energy I wanted to meet today. Quiet, unassuming and powerful. All the blue suggests throat chakra energy, giving voice to connection, to joy.

It's not as though this pair of cards are the arrival, more that they are part of the process, that of listening in to what is being asked for, what is needed in the moment and moving from there. Rather than giving me concrete answers it feels as though the cards have gathered round me, have offered me a container, a mirror and way in. And they've done so with beauty, with grace and with gravitas. 

I shall be sitting with them for a while, working with them, listening to their guidance, their mysteries and poetry. Sometimes it's not about the answer but more about the question that begins the journey. 

Ophidia Rosa Tarot

Ophidia Rosa Tarot by Nicole Rallis

A new deck has found its way into my sub-collection of botanical-inspired decks. I love these kinds of decks both for their artwork and the energy that the plants bring to readings. Perhaps the most well-known is The Herbal Tarot by Michael Terra. This is a lovely deck that is very RWS influenced but with the addition of plant medicine for each card. The colors are bright and bold and the illustrations have a simplicity and purity to them that makes them easy to read.

This latest deck, the Ophidia Rosa Tarot is done by the same artist, Nicole Rallis, who did the Pythia Botanica Oracle which came out last year and there is even more attention to detail in this Tarot deck. The packaging is gorgeous. The box is sturdy with lovely white ink drawings on a black inside. From the moment you open this deck you have the sense of its refined, elegant feminine energy.

All the cards are tea stained (as is the case with her Pythia Botanica Oracle) and the pen and ink drawings are beautifully subtle with just the hint of color here and there in deep roses and dark teals. The hand drawn borders just right, card stock is a good thickness and she's gone the extra mile by having it edged in matte gold. This last detail gives such a graceful, vintage feeling to the deck.

The overall effect is one of quality, subtlety and beauty. It arrived on the Full Rose Moon and this synchronicity was not lost on this Rose. I worked with her for a full Moon reading that night and the simple three card spread has stayed with me.

Full Rose Moon reading ~  Ophidia Rosa Tarot

A beginner would be challenged by this deck. And even seasoned readers might struggle with the lack of obvious symbolism. There is not much of an LWB, just a small pamphlet with a few poetic lines hinting at the essence of the card's energy. The plants aren't identified and at first I was put off by this. But a wonderful thing happens when you are forced to rely on a different layer of intelligence to receive the message.

Ophidia Rosa Tarot Majors

You can see the some of the Majors to the right here and how they are quite intuitively rendered. The creator describes it on her website like this :: The Ophidia Rosa Tarot came to be over a year-long period, cared for and pondered through four seasons of natural change. While framed by the tarot's ancient tradition and structure, my botanical world―full of such transformation, from the soil to the seedling, the sprout and the bloom―placed an emphasis on change bursting forth all around me. 

Something more intuitively tangible was born of the tarot, where even the phases of the moon and the mysterious, serpentine movements of creatures in the garden brimmed with a power for prophecy, contemplation, redemption and a quest. Each of these 78 cards―the full Major and Minor arcana―draws on the tarot's timeworn truth carried closer to home. There's always something growing in our hearts, transforming ourselves and our visions, from the soil to the stars.

Her description very much conveys the atmosphere and energy of the deck. It’s a bit like coming upon an old wooden gate, covered over with trellised roses and vines and pushing it open to step inside a wild landscape that lives according to the ancient rhythms of light and shadow, rain and wind. I've been working with the deck for a couple of weeks now and am very much enjoying my readings with it. They are definitely not traditional interpretations of the cards, and yet something of the energy of the card remains.

Morning tea with the Ophidia Rosa Tarot 

It lends itself beautifully to intuitive readings, guidance that one wouldn't normally get from a traditional deck. For example last week I was feeling fairly off. I'd taken a Tylenol earlier for a headache that was hovering around the edges but it wasn't really doing it. I had an event of my son's to attend later that night and I needed to feel my best in order to support him. So I decided to consult the cards on what might be needed in the moment.

Looking at this Five of Pentacles I was immediately drawn to the flower at the base, it's roundedness and solidity. I had the sense of pulling my energy in and down, creating a little haven to sit and breathe in. 

Root chakra yoga came to mind and so I closed the door to my office, pulled out some root chakra singing bowl music and spent a bit of time breathing into the earth of my body, drawing the energy away from my head.

It worked beautifully and isn't the guidance that I'd normally get reading this card with its image of a church and two ragged and destitute figures struggling to get by in a cold and unforgiving urban snowscape.

All in all I'm very happy with this deck and feel it will be one that will be in regular use...as regular use as is possible with a lot of decks in one's collection. Further information on the deck including how to purchase it can be found here on the artist's website, LeilaOlive.

Four of Cups ~ The Borderlands

Tarot of the Hidden Realm by Julia Jeffrey

Several weeks ago the Four of Cups swam into my awareness as one of those conundrum cards. You know the ones I mean. You understand the symbolism, you grok the traditional interpretation no probs but you feel like you're missing the deeper themes it speaks to. It's been my experience that holding the misunderstood card as a question and letting it live at the edges of my awareness without the need to analyze it eventually yields the kind of resonance I'm looking for. It's as if it takes on a kind of somatic reality that gradually trickles up to my mental reality.

Universal Waite by Pamela Coleman Smith
recolored by Mary Hanson-Roberts

And such was the case with the Four of Cups. Traditionally we see a figure seated at the base of a tree, arms crossed, three cups before him, one being divinely offered. On his face is a look of several possible realities, boredom, daydreaming, self absorption, disinterest, contemplation. It never really rang true to leave it at that surface level. But I was never able to get too far with it beyond this, at least not into something that felt resonant.

Tarot of the Hidden Realm by Julia Jeffrey

Enter this version from the Tarot of the Hidden Realm with its gorgeous and lyrical depiction of a selkie at the moment she is leaving behind her human body to transform into a seal and suddenly there it was, the deeper message. The level of her apprehension at taking up full embodiment in either realm is palpable. Leaving behind the riches of her Fey world is as daunting as not being able to swim freely in the ocean's currents. And it's this ambivalence that I think speaks to the heart of the card.

This is a card of navigating the liminal realms. Its geography is the borderlands, the edges. It speaks to a deep ambivalence towards incarnation, towards manifestation, towards the present moment. Betwixt and between is the phrase that comes to mind, and with it the suffering and isolation that ensues from such a state.





As I was musing on this very familiar state, on my own sometimes ambivalence at being present, occasionally at being in a body at all, I wondered at the possible reasons for it. The word perfectionism swam up to greet my inquiry. Yes, I imagine that is at the heart of things, an ideal so high that it's impossible to reach and therefore one spends a lot of time roaming, neither in the "imperfect" world of form nor the unattainable ideal world of, well, ideals. I dunno, for me this touches on subjects and themes that feel soul-oriented, that are questions I'm holding this lifetime. How often am I absent from the moment, from life, from myself?

The way the figure is seated at the base of the tree in the traditional depiction of this card gives me the sense that root chakra work would be a wonderful way to begin the slow and steady process of incarnation, of coming to terms with being here, now. Spending time with my back against a solid tree, feeling its roots spreading out beneath me, the ground supporting me. All of these bring the body into the present moment of sensation, of feeling and noticing. Perhaps even spending a bit of time each day connecting this way would go a long way to redress the imbalance between ether and earth. And I think when this card comes up for me now I'll have a much better sense of its message, not only emotionally but also somatically.

Tarot of the Hidden Realm by Julia Jeffrey

King of Cups ~ Wanderer, Worshipper, Lover of Leaving

King of Cups ~ Pagan Otherworlds Tarot

"Come, come whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, it doesn’t matter…”

These lines of Rumi's come to mind while journeying with this embodied king, his dominion the Waters of the Heart. Though the ocean swirls around him his bedrock is firm, his feet large and capable. The water stains on the rock tell of his own emotional experiences, he’s not been untouched by Love’s arrows, he, too, has been marked but he has achieved a perspective, his station borne now of mastery. He may not choose to get involved with the minutiae but he’s aware of it all, sees it all. The musculature of his body tells stories of strength and experience.

This is a king of complexity, perhaps even ambiguity. He’s less interested in answers than questions and process. The ermine fur on his cape speaks both of his royalty and his animal nature, his humanity. And the graceful folds of his robes speak of sensitivity and grace, a refinement that he wears with ease. The luxurious lines and drape of the cloth over his knees echo this, there is a hint of gravitas in their weight, introspection, his body capable of sinking into the more sober qualities of the feeling realm and meeting them with sovereignty, with equanimity.

His upper body, as he leans in to bare his heart which is, after all, a muscle, echoes a particular stage in the whirling dervish ceremony known as the Sema, which means to hear. In the very last stage of the Sema the Sheikh stands in the center of the floor with all the dervishes turning on their own around him in the outer circle. The Sheikh makes exactly the gesture this King of Cups makes, he grasps his robe, lowers his head slightly towards his heart, the only altar there is, really, and he begins to turn very slowly. It’s a tremendously moving sight to witness this expression of sober love amidst the ecstatic turning of the dervishes. And one feels intimately that he is holding space for not only his dervishes but for the hearts of the world. He is the sun around which all the planets spin…Love as centripetal force.

Just so with this King. He leans in, he inclines his ear, he listens for that steady under-rhythm of love, he grasps his robe, his heart is bared and one can almost feeling him turning slowly, slowly, slowly, master of Love. The ocean, the Source, contains and witnesses him. It is both his arrival and return. As it is for each of us.

Five of Swords ~ Travels with the Inner Critic

The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans ~ The Crystal Oracle by Toni Salerno

The month is coming to a close and the Five of Swords, my card of the month, has made itself quite comfortable in my inner landscape. Thanks to this version above I've taken to calling it the Five of Worms lol. When it appears in a reading for me it usually means the inner critic, the inner bully, is on the premises. The rose quartz mala and red jasper oracle card are incidental, necessary embellishments, distractions even to the starkness of this depiction of segmented worms. Though both of these stones with their qualities of loving kindness and strengthening and stamina, are very useful when working with the inner judge.

Tarot of the Sweet Twilight by Cristina Benintende

In WU depiction of the Five of Swords we see a worm's body, surrounded by sharp-edged swords, that has been severed by the largest blade. Those unspoken cutting remarks we make to ourselves, the conditioned responses, this is how wholeness disintegrates, how the Self becomes fractured. When trust has been betrayed the body follows suit in its own intelligent way. And until that trust has been restored wholeness is a concept. It has to begin at a cellular level.

In the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight we see a visual representation of this kind of somatic disintegration. Heads have been removed, bodies are missing parts, the main figure has got several different voices running her rampant, her lower body is at odds with her upper body. This is the inner critic at her finest, creating somatic chaos in a landscape that depicts the wasteland that this voice lives in. Bleak, depleted of life, sere and inhabitable only by those who lack sensitivity. 

Tarot of the Hidden Realm by Julia Jeffrey

Perhaps one of the most stark representations of this inner bullying quality of the Five of Swords is from the Tarot of the Hidden Realm. While the guidebook places this figure on the defensive I tend to see her as the face of my own inner bitch. She's got a kind of wild, seductive beauty, her crow familiars whirl around her and the haziness of her realm all feel familiar to me. Once that voice gets going it's hard to stop.

However this is the Swords suit, the suit of Air of the mental realm and it's helpful to remember that all of this is an internal process. 

It's interesting to note her stance, rigid, fight-or-flight response. No equilibrium can come from that, nor can any somatic messages get through. Everything is constricted in almost Eight of Swords like way.

Vision Quest Tarot ~ Crystal Visions Tarot ~ Herbal Tarot

I've included the three cards to the left in my month-long study as they've given me some valuable information and tools. 

The Vision Quest Tarot by Gayan Sylvie Winter and Jo Dosé gives this card the title, Fear. And it's a good reminder to note that beneath all that posturing fear is the foundation. 

When I ask myself the questions, Fear of what? There are several responses that come to mind but all of them come down to love, really, or a lack thereof. 

The middle card from the Crystal Visions Tarot by Jennifer Galasso has a Three of Swords-like feel to it with two of the Swords having been stabbed into the back of the figure with the bully walking away. That this figure is all dressed in white speaks to me of her trusting, innocent nature, that inner child within us who wouldn't suspect anyone of wanting to harm us, to bring us down. A little bird perches on one of the Swords in a poignant attempt at comfort. Thankfully she has looked round and is able to acknowledge it. Someone in her court. Every little bit of positivity counts here.  Finally the Herbal Tarot by Candace Cantin and Michael Tieris offers an herbal ally for this card in the form of Mistletoe. It is a plant of protection and we know it best as something for lovers to kiss under. But it was sacred to the Druids, used in ceremony and vision and medically is a heart tonic herb. This last gives me a clue as to what qualities to bring to the table where the inner critic sits.

Tarot of Transformation ~ J. L. Cori and Willow Arlenea

Looking at the depiction of the WU I sensed this month's focus might take shape around being aware of the somatic effects the inner critic has. More body work, more art, more immersion in the earth realm.  There has been some of this this month, more than usual as a result of this card, I think. The worm is guardian of the Earth, aerating the soil, turning it, fertilizing it as well as being nourished by it. Because they are segmented they're capable of regeneration if their body has been cut in two. All of this feels wonderfully restorative and hopeful. 

There are also a whole host of phrases that come to mind here...'getting my hands dirty', 'doing the dirty work' 'finding my ground' They bring a wonderfully embodied element to this card of the Air. For the place where the prima materia awaits the light of our own awareness. Holding the Vision, the title of the card at right, is key.

Five of Wands ~ Friction Dances

World Spirit Tarot ~ Lauren Onça O'Leary

It all hinges on that annoying Five of Wands which continues to make appearances in my daily draws. So done with seeing this energy show up but apparently not done enough says Spirit. What's interesting here though is the theme of two--two Wands, two combatants, and the two vessels Temperance pours from. In my experience Two speaks to thresholds. The Two of Wands and Temperance mirror that quality and each other beautifully. But that pesky Five stands between them, between the self that is a channel ready to manifest energy and that healing energy going out actively, intentionally into the world.

Sigh. Not only has this card has appeared so often lately but today's draw speaker to deeper themes I'm working with. Fives are all about stagnant energy, energy built up by resistance and fear such that its outlet has been externalized either as friction that radiates outwards as in the Swords and Wands or internalized as victim in the Cups and Pents. Either way the gathering nexus of energy is the ego's contraction, its need to defend/protect itself.

The Dance of Healing

Thankfully Temperance has chosen to step in here to remind me of a deeper/wider perspective. That this is a Major speaks to archetypal energies that are at play within, often times energies that we have less influence over than we might in the Minors.

The two Wands here become two combatants as a result of shadow energy getting hold of the raw potential in that initial card. It's not given any room to manifest, blocking the flow, literally. Step out of the way and allow it, which is to say, let yourself move through the world of earth and water, body and heart, with ease. But perhaps more importantly let that world move through you, through the two vessels of your wisdom and compassion, your intention and manifestation. Sometimes the very movement itself is the healing agent.

My draw from the Devas of Creation deck by Cilla Conway today was the Deva of Spring and its body language mirrors Temperance so beautifully that I couldn't help but notice it. Clearly they are different rays from the same etheric tribe. Spring brings with it new eyes, a vision that is suddenly alive to color, to detail--the pink flame of cherry blossom, the tiny bud. This kind of presence with the wonder of the burgeoning moment is medicine that restores, that heals. And all over the city here the cherry blossoms are alive to remind me of that, sending out their gorgeous song of hope and heart. Pink, pink, pink everywhere...