Category: Blog Hop

Tarot Blog Hop: Odd Associations

Welcome to the Imbolc Blog Hop.  Our fearless wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein, has tasked us to come up with the oddest associations we have for tarot cards.  When I first read this topic, I had no clue what I was going to write about, but then I started realizing that some of my associations aren’t quite normal so here goes.

Once upon a time there was a sad and pathetic little pagan who had just been dumped by her husband of 22 years.  Desperate for some kind of help and to cheap to hire a therapist, she turned to tarot.  As she started playing with–and accumulating–decks, she realized that there were certain cards that she had an absolutely visceral reaction to that didn’t match the explanation in the little white books that came with her cards.  Undaunted, she kept exploring and soon came to realize that the meanings in the little white books were mere suggestions and not dogma.  Eventually, as she healed and acquired more decks and did more readings, she found that some of her definitions had been “found” by other people, but others were uniquely hers.  And more importantly, she realized that was okay.

So with no further ado, here are my odd associations:

Six of Pentacles

The six of pentacles is a card of balance and it is a card about opening your heart to give and to receive.  However, the first six of pentacles image that I saw was from the DruidCraft tarot and my gut reaction to this card was that the gentleman was being asked to give everything he had.  In hind site, I realize that this reading was a reaction to where I was in my life.  I had been raised to believe that women were to sacrifice everything for their loved ones and keep nothing back for themselves.    This also perfectly described my marriage where I was expected to give everything and my husband gave nothing.  While I still don’t like the image on the DruidCraft Tarot, as I’ve grown and matured and explored a lot more decks, I’ve come to realize that the card truly is about both giving and receiving.  It is about receiving gracefully and not giving more than you have to give.

Six of Cups

Another card that gives me a visceral reaction is the six of cups in the RWS deck.  While the little white book says this card is about childhood memories, happiness, joy, and new opportunities, this card has always struck me as a little bit creepy.  It feels as if the older boy us luring the young girl somewhere with the flowers.  Just like with the six of pentacles, there is a clear imbalance of power here and when I first started reading tarot, I would cringe when I pulled this card.  However, I’ve started to see the more positive aspects of this card as I’ve started to realize that if the person with the power behaves with respect, the imbalance of power can be a positive experience for both parties.

Four of Cups

While the six of cups is a traditionally positive card that I put a dark spin on, the four of cups is a more negative card that I put a more positive spin on.  I have always viewed this card as refusing something that I don’t need or that is not in my best interests.  To me, it is all about someone shoving something down my throat and not taking no for an answer.  As I’ve dug into my past and started to explore how my worldview got so F*ed up, I’ve realized that this is another perception that goes back to my young adulthood.  When I was first starting out and I wanted nice things, my extended family members would buy junk from garage sales and expect me to be grateful and happy with it.  My mother expected me to take it no matter what it was even if I was seething inside.  If I tried to politely decline, I was labeled as ungrateful.  So for me, the four of cups is me crossing my arms while my relatives try to shove garbage into my hands.

Seven of Swords

The seven of swords in most decks is read as someone being sneaking and taking something that does not belong to them.  However,  over the last few years I’ve read that card as reclaiming instead of stealing.  For me it represents, reclaiming  my self worth and my dignity.  The stealth is taking it back from people with no boundaries and who will do anything to undermine me.  Reclaiming my dignity has been hard as I’ve become estranged from my mother who cannot accept that I am a whole person all by myself and who believes that I exist only for a partner or my children.  It has also been about reclaiming my dignity from my ex who flat out said he thought I “needed to be taken down a few notches.”  In a perfect world, I’d be a knight and storm the castle for my dignity and self esteem, but I’m not quite there yet so I’m satisfied with sneaking in and reclaiming myself.  Outside the den of insanity, I can grow my self esteem and one day I will be in a position to storm the castle instead of sneaking in as the Seven of Swords

What I’ve come to realize as I’ve acquired more decks (some would say too many) and deepened my understanding of Tarot, I’ve come across some sources whose meanings for the above cards are similar to mine.  I’ve also realized how deeply personal Tarot truly is and that the meanings are depending on the deck, the situation, and the person doing the reading.

For some more Odd Tarot Associates, hop backward to Arwen’s Blog or ahead to Joy’s Blog by using the links below.

Tarot Blog Hop: Finding Balance




Welcome to the Mabon Blog Hop.  I’m super excited to be participating in this hop because Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year.  Our wranglers,Jenn Waltner and Louise Underhill, have challenged us to post on the theme of balance and how it can be restored. I’ve decided to use a spread I created to ask the elements for guidance on how I can bring more balance into my life. I’ll be using the Tarot de St. Croix for my spread as this deck always makes me think of Fall.

North: Message from the Bones
The seven of swords, as interpreted by Lisa de St. Croix, tells me that I need to clear space in my life for what is important and I need to focus on my goals. These are important messages as I am getting ready to embark on a serious effort to lose weight and I need to really focus on this goal and to make time in my life to exercise and pay attention to what I eat. The more traditional meaning of the swords, stealing or retrieving something, is also valid in this reading as I’m taking back my health. This card also dovetails with an emotional journey that I’ve been taking to heal from ancestral damage. I grew up believing that my weight was a function of genetics and that there was nothing I could do about it. However, when I look back at my mother’s eating habits, I realize that she was trying to lose weight while eating cookies, soda, and other unhealthy foods. In hindsight, the messages about not being able to lose weight because of genetics, do not match up with the eating habits she demonstrated.

East: Message from the Mind
The fool tells me that I need to let go of my need to know my destination and to just trust that I will be taken where I need to go and provided with what I need. This is a very apt reading for me as I am a control freak and it is hard for me to embark on journeys with uncertain outcomes. It’s very interesting that I pulled this card as the message from the mind, because I’m applying for a graduate program in Spirituality, Culture, and Health and the rational part of my brain that I have always relied upon to make decisions is telling me that there is no return on investment in this program and that I will be wasting my money. However, my heart is telling me it is right for me and that it will lead me someplace amazing. This card is an affirmation that I need to just leap and trust that the path will unfold.

South:  Messages from the Spirit 
My initial read of the hermit was that the cards were telling me that I would never have anyone in my life and that I would always be alone. However, as I have taken time to reflect, I’ve realized that that is the interpretation of my all or nothing mindset. The more gentle message from the cards is that I am a person who needs a lot of alone time and that I need to learn to balance my need for solitude with a relationship. I need to make sure to make time for myself no matter what the circumstances. It is a reminder to myself to not get so caught up in someone else that I lose myself. Messages from the Emotions

East:  Messages from the Emotions
The World is telling me to embrace all of my emotions and to not segregate them based on what I believe are good or bad emotions. All of my emotions can help me to grow and to become my best self. The world is also telling me that by opening my heart to embrace my own emotions, I can be connected to the all of my brothers and sisters in spirit around the world. This message is incredibly timely for me as I am someone who shields herself and doesn’t like to open up to the world around me. I need to be like the world and stand naked in the middle of my own world and own it. I need to own who I am and what I feel.

Message from the Source 
The four of wands has many messages for me. The first is that I will find my own personal power by creating a life of ritual. I need to live in sacred space as that is where I find my own sanity and healing. This card, like the World card, is also telling me to be naked and vulnerable as I move through life. I need to be open with other people and to stop hiding who I am. Lastly, Epona is telling me that I am at a crossroads and I have a decision to make as to where I am going moving forward.


Summary
Overall, these were incredibly powerful cards to draw and provided a lot of guidance as to how to move forward with my life over the next few months.

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Tarot Blog Hop: Don’t Fence Me In

The theme of this Blog Hop was taken from the title of the old Gene Autry song “Don’t Fence Me In.”  While our wrangler, Joy Vernon,  gave us some suggestions for how to approach this prompt, she also gave us permission to let the prompt inspire us and take us wherever it would take us.  This is one of those prompts that has been bubbling in the background since I first read it and I wasn’t exactly sure where it would take me.

It ended up taking me back to my roots in DeKalb, IL, which is the home of barbed wire (there’s a museum and everything).  I knew that somehow I wanted to incorporate barbed wire into my prompt and also the theme of breaking free from the things that keep us fenced in.  When I sat down in front of my computer to put together a layout, it all came together into the Don’t Fence Me In Spread below.

The deck I chose to use for this reading was Leeza Robertson’s Animal Totem Tarot because animals should be free and not fenced in and because animals are much better at not overthinking things that we are.  I also love this deck because it is a reminder that the deep lessons do not always come cloaked in darkness, sometimes they come through loud and clear from playful and happy decks.

The swan lovers tells me that it is my own lack of self worth and self love that is keeping me fenced in, especially where love is concerned.  I do not believe I am beautiful enough or sexy enough for love.  Leeza Robertson says, “During this phase of outer evolution the swan must trust that there is nothing missing it its life and that who it is, is perfect by natural design, regardless of the outer reflection others see.  This element of inner beauty and 
inner wholeness is crucial to the power of the Lovers card.”  This is powerful stuff indeed and tells me that it is not truly something physical keeping me fenced in, but my own beliefs about my physicality.

The dragonflies on the seven of cups tell me that it is my lack of alignment between my emotional wants and my intellectual thoughts that is keeping me caged.  Leeza says, “The Dragonfly connects the energy of the air with the creative power of water, letting you know that thoughts and dreams really can become real.  But first you have to use the energy of the Dragonfly to align your emotions with your thoughts.”  All I can say about this is WOW! because when I am really honest with myself, I can see that this is true.  Emotionally, I want to find the love of my life, but when I think about the reality of marriage, living together, etc., I find myself not wanting to share my house, my bank account, etc. with someone else.  I really like my independence and having a relationship would cut into that to a certain extent.  I think the truth of the matter is that I need to let the relationship that is right to me come to me and not get all caught up in the restrictions.

 The pigeon is telling me that sometimes we need to accept that we are down and bloody and that staying in the same situation will just result in people continuing to drive swords into us.  Sometimes, we have to cut our losses and  move on.  Leeza says, “Your supply has run dry and it’s time for you to face it and move on.  Staying where you currently are is only going to bring you more misery.” This is an interesting read on the ten of swords and it makes me wonder what emotional place I’m supposed to move on from.  My best interpretation would be that it is time for me to move on and let go of the pain of the past.  I need to stop being a victim and stop expecting that people who have never given me validation in the past are going to suddenly start validating me.  That is not going to happen and I need to let go of that need.  Part of me is staying small because that is what they expect of me and moving out of my little fenced in area will make it that much harder to reconcile with them.

There are multiple ways I could read this card.  The first is that this represents where I am right now as literally two days ago I decided I would start each day by meditating outside in the morning to receive the sun.  I would actively make time to open myself up to receive.  However, the lesson of the lemur may be that I need to balance my receiving with pulling back.  Leeza says, “Sun literally transforms the energy of those things in its presence so they can be luminous.  But the sun can also burn, kill, and destroy, for it is nothing more than a contained ball of fire, spewing its energy throughout our galaxy.  Lucky for you, the Lemur is here to teach you how to deal with this unpredictable force.”  I read this as telling me that I need to be cautious about going from all the way closed to all the way open or I will get burned.  My other, and immediate, interpretation of this card is that I need to start sharing spirituality with others instead of always making it a solitary endeavor.  I guess the reality is that both of these are valuable lessons for me.

The message here is that I need to actually pick a destination and not let the tides decide where I want to go.  The message of Stingray is, “Gracefully I make my way through the sea.  Far and wide, near and far, but always with a destination in mind.”   This is a powerful message for me because while my life looks successful on the outside, I haven’t fully committed to what I want and taken steps to go after it.  There is a part of me that is afraid that if I do commit 100 percent to what (who) my heart desires and I don’t get what I want I will be devastated.  Stingray is telling me that I need to commit and that while I may get blown off course, I will know that I have committed.

Being uncaged and free means that I and I alone am responsible for my actions.  Being uncaged means that I have to take responsibility for myself and can no longer play the victim.  I have to grow up and work with people to find a solution that works for everyone versus having my own way all the time.  Crane tells me that “Balance is not just about being even.  Balance is about finding the middle path or making it back to one’s own center.  In order to find true balance, one must make sure that one’s center is not corrupt or contaminated by the ego.”  Letting go of ego is difficult because it means I have to find balance within myself and balance in the larger world and sometimes those things seem impossible.

This card for me is about being comfortable in my own skin and accepting myself as I am.  It’s not about watching my weight or torturing myself into anyone else’s idea of what a woman’s perfect body should look like.  It is about loving myself and my body just the way I am.  It is about accepting I will never be a size six and reminding myself that anyone who cannot accept me just the way I am can just go F* themselves.  That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be healthy and take care of my body, but it means loving myself just the way I am.  Although the book meaning for this card is all about intellectual appetites and consuming a lot of information before making a decision, Leeza does have this to say, “The great Panda likes to eat–a lot!  In fact, it spends most of its life eating.  You don’t get that cuddly by restricting your calories.” 

The simple answer to this is to play like children play and to let myself be free to trust other people and myself.  The message of Otter is, “Everything we experience i this physical form is part of a game we call life.  yes, the biggest play of all is the life you came here to live.  But you didn’t come here to play alone, as this particular game is not a one player game.  You came here to play with others.  Playing with others is not only good fun, but it’s what the soul came here to do.”   This is a powerful reminder that I need to get out there and start making friends and start making time to play.
This was an amazingly powerful and deep reading as it reinforced some new behaviors that I’m working on, like meditating in the sun and making time for others, and gave me so new things to think about.
Thanks for stopping by!  Please take some time to hopalong to the next blog or back to the previous blog.

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Tarot Blog Hop: Musical Guidance from the Cards

For this Blog Hop, our wrangler Jay Cassels, to “Unleash your inner Gleek and stand on the balcony and sing for forgiveness as you explore your relationship with Tarot and Music.”



I decided the best way to unleash my Inner Gleek was to go to the cards and pull out the cards that reminded me of songs, arrange them into a journey of sorts, and ask the cards for guidance on each of the songs. I used the standard RWS deck as my guide for each question and the Golden Rider for guidance.

One of the most interesting things about this exercise was that for three of the songs, the song I was originally thinking of for each card turned out not to be the song that inspired my readings, the original song was simply a stepping stone to the song that had meaning and that I was meant to read on. As I googled lyrics, the songs that were meant to inspire me found their way onto my screen. I’ve included both the song I ended up reading on and the original song I’d chosen.



The Fool: Leap of Faith (Lionel Cartwright)

Original Song: Can’t Stop Believing (Journey)
Question: How can I take a leap of faith?

The dashing Knight of Cups tells me that the time for protecting my heart is over. I need to open my heart and wear it on my sleeve. I need to be open to love and to the warmth it brings to me. I also need to be open to love coming in unexpected ways and through unexpected channels. The Knight of Cups also tells me that I might need to think about taking a quest to find the love I want instead of quietly waiting for it to come to me.

The Seven of Wands tells me to believe in myself and what I want out of life. This is not the time to slink of quietly into the night. It is the time to stand firm and believe that what I want will come to me. This is not a card about physical aggression or about looking for a fight, instead it is a card about believing in myself and knowing that I am worthy.

The Hermit tells me that all the knowledge I need is within my own soul.  I need to take time for myself and take time to listen to the wisdom of my heart.  I need to calm the chatter and to trust that my heart is wise and right.  I also need to be a beacon of hope for others in how I live my life.  However, this is not telling me to go out and seek students or actively live my life for others.  It is simply telling me that the way I live my life will inspire others.

All told, this was very good advice on how to take a leap of faith and trust that the universe will catch me.  I think the thing that we sometimes forget is that taking a leap of faith doesn’t mean going into the wilderness unprepared, it means taking time to prepare and when you are ready taking a leap of faith.



Three of Hearts:  When the Broken Hearted Love Again (Danielle Bollinger)
Original Song:  You Give Love a Bad Name
Question:  How do I love Again?

The Ace of Wands lights the way to new love and reminds me that I am a child of divinity who is creative and inventive.  The Ace is telling me to focus on my own creativity and not worry too much about love.  I have set my intentions and prepared for the journey and done everything I could before taking the leap of faith.  Now I just need to live my life and know that good things will come to me.

The next two cards, the ten and nine of swords, would seem to be negative cards in this reading, but I’m realizing that they are not.  The Ten of Swords is telling me that my heart has been broken and that there will be no pain that will be worth than what I have endured.  I have survived this pain and I will survive any thing else that comes my way.  The Ten of Swords is also a reminder not to be a martyr, but to get up and be a survivor.  And the nightmare card, the Nine of Swords, says it is my own fears keeping me from loving again and not anything concrete.  The Nine is also reminding me that there is a certain element of faith to anything that happens in this world and that I need to let go and quit beating myself up.




Six of Swords:  Come Sail Away (Styx)

Original Song:  Leaving on a Jet Plane

Question:  What am I sailing toward?


The World tells me I’m sailing toward my own self completion and being content within my own skin.  I’m sailing toward liberation and letting go of the past.  This is critical for me right now as I’m coming out of a period of letting go of old lessons and hold hurts.  The World is a reminder that I am good enough and that I am complete and whole into myself.


The Queen of Pentacles is a reminder that I am loved and that the universe contains all that I need.  Even though my own mother did not provide me with the firm foundation I needed, the Queen of Pentacles and the Goddess herself will provide for me.  They will nurture me and love me and provide for my needs.  The Queen of Pentacles is all about security and about knowing that there are people in my life who are there for me.


The Knight of Pentacles tells me that I am sailing toward people who will be there and who are trustworthy.  I’m leaving behind people who are flaky and unreliable and moving toward a world with people who care about me and are there for me.  I am sailing toward reliability.


Three of Cups:  Celebrate (Kool and the Gang)

Original Song:   Celebrate (Kool and the Gang)

Question:  What do I have to celebrate in my life?


The Six of Swords tell me that I get to celebrate moving on and leaving my past behind.  I have worked hard to let go of the things and people that are holding me back and that is something I should definitely celebrate.  It has been a lot of hard work, but it is paying off and I am becoming the person I was meant to be.

Although the Seven of Pentacles would seem to be an odd card for a celebration, it is the celebration of the stillness and the ability and willingness to take a pause.  I am a recovering drama addict and even today there are times when my mind would rather be feasting on drama versus stillness.  The Seven of Pentacles reminds me of how far I have come and that I can relish peace and quiet.   Buying a house has really taught me patience as I’ve realized that I do not have the time and money to fix the entire house at once.  I have to be patient and do things as I have time and money.

Life has its ups and downs as the Wheel of Fortune reminds me.  Sometimes life is amazing and wonderful and other times it is not.  The WoF tells me that I should celebrate life in all its glory.  I need to be grateful for all the good things that come into my life.  The WoF also tells me that in the short term, good things are coming my way.


The Sun:  Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles)
Original Song:  Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles)
Question:  What are the lessons of the sun?

The Magician tells me that I have the power to manifest my own destiny.  All the tools that I need are at my finger tips, I just need to choose to utilize them.  The Magician also tells me that I am a channel for power and that I must respect that channel and not take it for granted.

The Eight of Wands is about taking action quickly and not about analysis by paralysis.  The Eight of Wands also tells me there is a possibility of a love connection with someone I know or with someone who is just coming into my life. 

The Three of Cups tells me to celebrate the goodness and wonder in life.  It is time to put aside the worry that is weighing me down and raise a cup to the goodness of life. I deserve to have happiness in my life and I deserve to know that I matter.  I know from experience that even though sometimes it seems that keeping our nose to the grindstone is the right course of action, taking time to celebrate can often feed our souls and make us that much more productive when we do go back to work.

Although I had my doubts when I first read this prompt as to whether or or not I could do it justice, my guides came through for me and guided me to a reading that made sense for me.

Use the links below to navigate to the previous blog, the master list, or the next blog.

Happy Hopping!