Tarot Blog

Was recently sent a new addition to the Pop Culture Tarot by tarot reader Anna Murphy. It features the Strength card reimagined through the actress Kate Winslet. Interestingly enough, this card came up rather significantly for me last night during some readings I was doing with friends. And a few nights before that I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with Kate Winslet as one of the leads - reminding me in many ways of a relationship I am currently in myself.

So it’s always quite wild to see how these connections run their course. Thanks Anna!

Also on the topic of divination, I highly recommend checking out my recent experience having a shell reading (dilogun) done for me by a Santero, or priest of Santeria. An excerpt:

Spread out on the table was a straw mat with eight white lines drawn on it and a cross marked in cascarilla. Next to that sat a small head representing the Orisha Eleggua, trickster god of the crossroads, mediator between humans and the divine. Also on the table were a multi-colored seven-day candle, a bowl of water containing the sixteen cowrie shells, and two other implements shaped like small heads, one white and one brown which I would use later in the reading.

After giving us a basic overview of what would happen, the santero began the ritual. He started by sprinkling Florida Water (an old perfume which became popular as a tool in Santeria) on the mat, in order to “sweeten the reading.” He encouraged us to apply a little to ourselves as well. Then began a long prayer in the Yoruba language. One by one, he pulled the cowrie shells from the bowl, dowsing each one with water from the bowl, and calling down the blessings of the Orishas, of spirit guides, of our ancestors, of all those who have died, of priests both living and dead. The list went on and on rhythmically. I began to feel myself fall into the rhythm of it all, my head nodding slightly almost of its own accord. I felt the distinct sensation too of a heaviness pushing slightly but not uncomfortably down on the top of my head, perhaps the beginning of a trance.

And can be read in full here.

A reader sent me a really interesting piece they put together on why the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck should be expanded from 22 to 24 cards. The theory seems to revolve around the associations between the Major Arcana and the Greek versus Hebrew alphabets. Very thought-provoking stuff. Go check it out!

Thanks for the link!

I wanted to save for posterity a tarot reading that I recently had done for me through the mail. The topic at hand was related to finding a spiritual path and a teacher, and practicing “magic” (whatever you want to take that to mean):

This reading was done with Lon Milo DuQuette’s Tarot of Ceremonial Magick, but using a more Mathers-tradition interpretation of the cards.

1. Present position - Knight of Swords. Rushing without fear into the unknown.
2. Immediate Influence - Empress. There is a very strong feminine influence in your life.
3. Goal or destiny - Prince of Wands. The Prince of Wands is an honest and trustworthy messenger. It would seem those are the qualities you are looking for.
4. Distant past foundation - Nine of Disks. In this situation, I would intpret this card as representing skepticism and caution with regards to magical practice.
5. Recent past - Six of Swords. Some sort of positive journey, or success in a difficult goal. Whatever it is, it seems to have encouraged you to forge ahead dispite your history of caution and skepiticism in these matters.
6. Near future influence - Knight of Disks. Dependable, confident spiritually, patient. While the knights generally are portrayed as male, the disks are a feminine suit. I have the feeling this card represents your teacher, but I’m not sure of the gender. So keep an eye out.
7. You - Chariot. Hastily persuing a goal. Embolded by whatever the Six of Swords represents, you’re charging ahead perhaps a little too quickly.
8. Environmental factors - Hanged Man. Change not yet realized. This position generally refers to things you cannot change. So what this tells me is that there’s something you’re resisting in your circumstances that you need to accept.
9. Inner emotions - Four of Wands. Peace, prosperity, and relaxation after a long struggle.
10. Final results - Two of Cups. Love, happiness.

Overall: The basic theme is this, you’ve been emboldened by something that’s pushed you past whatever blockages you’ve had in regards to practicing magic in the past. But you’ve reached a point where action needs to be replaced with a more observational and introspective period, or you might miss the opportunity that you’re waiting for. Based on the Hanged Man card, it could actually be that what you’re seeking is right under your nose. Go with the flow, and you’ll find what you’re looking for.

Looking at it, the reading I think could be taken rather more broadly to refer to some more personal aspects of my life not covered in the original question’s phrasing. But that leads me to believe that solving the spiritual path issue involves solving these larger life issues first. Very interesting stuff.

Came across a really cool website called Voice of Thoth. It is written by a guy who is involved in the Santeria religion out of Baltimore, Eric K. Lerner.

There is lots of great content related to both Tarot and to an African divination system called Dilogun. And he also has a page of great links related to tarot-inspired artwork.

Well worth your time to check his work out. I think he also may do tarot readings online for a fee.

Also see his excellent introduction to the tarot and the Tree of Life.

Just pulled the Three of Wands card on Facade, which it describes as meaning:

Personal fortitude and strength of character. Accumulated power set in motion towards a distant goal. The initiation of an enduring partnership based on absolute trust. Honor maintained in a time of desperate struggle. Taking full responsibility for a decision, and bearing the solitude of leadership.

And their physical description of the card is fine too: “A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff’s edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.”

I can definitely identify with certain aspects of this card and some of the struggles I am going through in my personal life to do the right thing and keep on the right course despite how people are pulling me.

Just did an I Ching reading on Facade and got Hexagram 1 - Ch’ien (The Creative):

That which is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm. In the fourth line, undivided, we see the dragon looking as if he were leaping up, but still in the deep. There will be no mistake. The situation is evolving slowly, and Yin (the passive feminine force) is gaining ground.

I thought that part about the dragon leaping up was perhaps relevant to some recent energy work I had done on me and maybe shadows some kind of kundalini experiences?

I want to start learning the I Ching as well (even though I’m falling behind in learning all the tarot cards). Oh well, both systems are so big that I will just have to pick them off piece by piece as I have spare time to do so.

Anyway I just did this reading on Facade and pulled hexagram 45, which they describe like this:

The king will repair to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to meet with the great man. Then there will be progress and success, though the advantage must come through firm correctness. The use of great victims will be conducive to good fortune, and in whatever direction movement is made, it will be advantageous.

I’m not sure what all that stuff about victims necessarily means, but the stuff about repairing to my “ancestral temple” makes a lot of sense, since next week I go away to a family reunion on the East Coast. Then I’m gonna also go to Baltimore and meet up with some old friends I haven’t seen in ages as well. I guess I will have to figure out what this “great victims” thing means though…

Another website has an alternate translation:

‘Gathering, creating success.
The king enters his temple.
Harvest in seeing great people.
Creating success, harvest in constancy.
Making use of great sacrificial animals, good fortune.
Harvest in having a direction to go.’

I guess their use of “sacrificial animals” probably replaces the “victim” thing and makes more sense - offering a sacrifice in recognition of the bountiful harvest you receive…

Last night I found a really cool site called Trionfi which is all about the Tarot. Among other thing, they have an absolutely incredible section which allows you to browse through dozens and dozens of historical variations of each card in the deck.

The reason this is so great is that you can see how symbols and imagery associated with a card morphs for various people interpreting these things at different times or places. Seeing how somebody else interprets the same energy signature is extremely interesting and sheds all kinds of new light on the meanings of the cards.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Just pulled the Page of Swords for tonight. Items that jump out at me about this card:

From Facade.com:

The use of reason or eloquent speech to penetrate the veil of confusion and cut to the heart of the matter.

And the key points from LearnTarot.com are:

1. Use Your Mind
2. Be Truthful
3. Be Just
4. Have Fortitude

They refer to him as a messenger bringing (often unwelcome) challenges and an “opportunity for growth may come your way in the guise of a problem or dilemma”. Aeclectic.net seems to offer roughly the same meaning.

Not enough time today to elaborate on this too much, but I will try to get back into more regular posting here soon.

Via Facade’s Tarot readings, I pulled the Star today, which only seems appropriate:

New hopes and splendid revelations of the future. Insight, inspiration, courage and enlightenment of the spiritual self. Body and mind and converging towards the light at the end of a dark time.

I don’t have enough time to really delve into this in more detail, but just wanted to keep this series of readings going. Will try to come back and build on this at some point in the future.

You’ve heard of Poker Without Cards, now try it using the Tarot deck. This website raises the interesting possibility that the tarot deck actually originated from an older system of divination using dice. From the website:

there is circumstantial evidence that the Tarot derives from an earlier system of divination using dice or astragali (knucklebones), both of which were used for divination in ancient times. Although there is no surviving set of correspondences between Tarot cards and dice or astragali, I have reconstructed a system that works quite well. The dice and astragali correspondences for the Major Arcana were given in the Introduction and in the commentaries on the trumps. The correspondences to the Minor Arcana are given in the following charts. In the remainder of the chapter I present a number of techniques for doing Tarot divination without Tarot cards by using dice, astragali, tokens and similar objects.

Pretty cool (and rather heady) tarot article over on the website of the Fraternity of the Hidden Light. Excerpts from the introduction to it include:

What the Tarot is, is unique, complex, cyclic, a complete revelation of Power, Love, and Wisdom. It unfolds at the Heart of the Cube of Space with its roots in Malkuth and its uppermost point in Kether, dynamically balanced between the pillars of Force (Fire) and Form (Water). In short the Tarot is a portrait of who we are meant to become.

Created entirely of a universal language of number, color, and proportions the Tarot speaks the Law of Hathor, of Nature. It is one of the precious remaining complete symbol sets bequeathed to us of the ancient initiatic traditions. It is a guide through the path of darkness into light, from death to resurrection, leading us forth into the light of the Eternal Day: All poetic ways of saying that the Tarot is a science of personal transformation.

Each Key of the Major Arcana symbolizes true initiatory forces that describe the hidden mechanisms behind the manifest universe. They apply equally to the Microcosm as they do to the Macrocosm. Their initial appearance did not coincide with the evolution of the Hebrew Language but correspond with the Letters of the Flame Script because they were created along universal patterns as signposts that could guide humanity on the journey of consciousness we refer to as the Path of Return.

Go over and check it out!

I just pulled the Hermit card,w hich Facade explains succintly as:

Withdrawal from events and relationship to introspect and gather strength. Seeking the inner voice or calling upon vision from within. A need of understanding and advice, or a wise man who will offer knowing guidance. Personal experience and thoughtful temperance.

It depicts an old man in a gray cloak with a lantern in his hand and a staff in his other hand. He seems to be standing on a mountain top amidst clouds. LearnTarot describes it with the keywords of introspection, searching, guidance, solitude. Seeing as I just quit my job today, this card makes a certain kind of sense. I like this bit from the LT description: “He can also indicate that withdrawal or retreat is advised for the moment.” And how!

And Aeclectic has this great bit to add:

Like an artist who hides for days then emerges to paint a masterpiece, this quiet time allows all the pieces to fall into place. So go ahead and encourage them to go on late night drives, long walks, hide in their room or go on retreat for a month. When they come back, they’ll see everything in a brand new light. It’ll be the best thing for them, and for everyone else in their lives.

Let’s pull some results from Google New for “solitude”, shall we?

1. Finding one’s rightful place in the solitude of the Alps
2. Love of solitude

Well, I had some more, but you get the idea. This seems like a pretty straightforward reading about withdrawing in one sense, but also venturing out in another, being guided by your own inner light along the way.

One other thing I wanted to include in these readings is etymology of terms, such as hermit:

(h)eremite, from L.L. ermita, from Gk. eremites, lit. “person of the desert,” from eremia “desert, solitude,” from eremos “uninhabited.

Pretty cool. I like that whole “uninhabited” aspect of that.

Somebody sent me a link to an interesting website called the Taroscope. I haven’t yet looked through the whole thing, but it seems to be worth a visit. Unfortunately, I’m not able to quote any text from this website, without re-typing in passages myself because their text is all in graphic format, which annoys the heck out of me as a web user (and developer). Anyway, see if there’s anything you like on their site and get back to me!

The ten of cups depicts what looks like a family. A man with his arm around the waist of a woman. Each of their free arms is uplifted towards a rainbow above them. Two children dance holding hands off to their side. There is a home or village in the background with trees and a nice stream. The rainbow is filled with ten cups.

I actually saw a really magnificent rainbow just a couple days ago, so this card seems very noteworthy for that reason, as well…

Aeclectic explains what ten cards mean, generally:

As the aces were the pure, elemental spark of the suit, the tens are the element of the suit complete. Not as in the nines, which are physical completion, but in a transcendent fashion. It is the ultimate good or bad of that element.

LearnTarot describes it as joy, peace and family, and “a symbol of what our emotional life could be at its best [since cups have to do with emotion]. The feelings represented here are an ideal that is within the reach of each of us.”

One other word this card calls to mind for me is pleroma, a term used in several gnostic gospels, I believe. It means essentially “fullness” and indicates the “totality of God’s power” which is pretty cool sounding.

The heavenly pleroma is the totality of all that is regarded in our understanding of “divine”, the Pleroma is often referred to as The Light existing “above” (the term is not to be understood spatially) our world, occupied by spiritual beings who self-eminated from the Pleroma. These beings are described as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes as archons. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent, along with his counterpart Sophia, from the Pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the divine origins of humanity and in so doing be brought back into sync with the Pleroma.

And a few different news items I pulled from Google News using the term “satisfied” as my query:

1. Less than half of Americans satisfied with 9/11 investigations
2. Pujols thrives by never being satisfied: Cardinals star focuses on the negative to avoid complacency
3. Survey Finds Most Residents Very Satisfied With Chattanooga Life

And a quote from the Shelbyville Times-Gazette:

“I’m perfectly satisfied to let history judge me,” outgoing Sheriff Clay Parker said in the courthouse during the committee meeting which concluded with Commissioner John Brown’s comment to Parker; “God’s speed to you.”

[…] “You can look yourself in the mirror and can say you fought the fight and didn’t take yourself out. The people did.”

Parker replied; “One door closes; another opens.”

It seems then that satisfaction is something we judge ourselves about whether or not we have it. Maybe in being so critical with ourselves (like Pujols above) we are able to propel ourselves forward, but there’s a good chance that it also cuts us off from our own source, and the possible peace and joy which are near at hand at all times.

Just pulled another card for tonight (as opposed to the rest of the day, which is already behind me) and came up with the Eight of Wands. Interesting that the meaning of this card is swiftness, quick action, conclusion or news. While the seven of pentacles, which I pulled earlier is all about sitting back and assessing. In one sense, the cards are total opposites, but in anothet it only makes sense that a burst of action should follow a time of assessment.

Pertinent info from LearnTarot:

In readings, the Eight of Wands is often a sign that now is the time to declare yourself. All the elements are ready and will work for you as long as you don’t hesitate. The iron is hot - so strike! If events are in motion, they will proceed rapidly. You may feel caught in a whirlwind, but soon the dust will settle, and you see how your plans have fared.

The Eight of Wands also stands for the arrival of news or information. You may see or hear something important. The news could show up in a disguised form, so stay alert. Pay attention to everything that comes your way for a while.

I like that idea of “declaration”, so I will throw that into Google News and see what further unfolds from articles there:

1. Montenegro is voting to declare separation from Serbia
2. Bill would declare English as official language
3. Nepal has recently declared itself a secular state

And an interesting quote from an LA Times article:

When Mao made his famous declaration to “destroy the old and establish the new,” everyone was thrilled at the prospect of a revolution, including myself. “Born in the old society but grown up under the Red Flag,” my generation was too young to have shared in the excitement of the country’s founding in 1949. But now Chairman Mao said that we would have a revolution every seven or eight years, so I thought myself lucky, calculating that I could experience several of them during my lifetime.

From the above, it seems like it’s mostly nations and governments that make “declarations” and they tend to be pretty bold moves, for the most part. Mixed up in that is a lot of power, and potentially some hubris as well. But more than anything there seems to be a commitment to change. A revolution as a turning over from the old to the new. This card doesn’t seem to speak about what happens after that, but is all about that moment of upheaval, of moving forward.

The first card I pulled for today is the seven of pentacles. The card features a man leaning on a staff. He looks like some kind of farmer or something. He is looking at these seven pentacles which seem to be growing on a vine or some kind of bush. He looks like he is admiring his work and also thinking about the future. There is kind of an air of day-dreaming in this card, and maybe thoughts towards a future harvest and the rich sweet flavor these fruits will yield.

The classic definition of this card has to do with assessment, reward or a change of direction. All of which are very pertinent towards my life and which have been on my mind a lot today. So for that reason it seems very appropriate. Also interesting is the explanation Aeclectic gives about the sevens in general:

The sevens are about finding yourself in a situation where you are not in control. Sevens relate to the Chariot, a card about finding and maintaining complete control and mastery over wild or opposing forces.

And the seven of pentacles specifically:

Ultimately, the sevens share that message, the farmer’s message: hold out, be patient, don’t rush, go around. Be in control of yourself and you can be in control of this situation.

Might be interesting to pull some results off Google News for “farmer” and pull some relevant quotes and bits into our discussion:

1. A farmer in Japan who doesn’t have a lot of space to deal with is coming up with some technologically innovative ways to produce more crops: by growing lettuce on the walls!
2. A 69 year old farmer in upstate New York seems to have gone totally missing completely randomly
3. And a short article from Belgium:

A Belgian farmer discovered a new species in his herd after one of his cows mated with an American buffalo.

The result is Kobi, a mixture of the Belgian Blue Cow and the buffalo reports Het Nieuwsblad. Jos Rutten from The Flaming Star ranch in Hamont said: “It has the head and the shoulders of a buffalo and the back and the neck of a cow. And it makes the same sound as a buffalo calf.”

These articles, combined with the card itself and it’s classical meanings seem to indicate that a creative solution needs to be found, to avoid total dissolution. Luckily, it also sounds like that creative solution may just appear on its own, like in the case of the Belgian farmer!

Thought it would be fun to put together a regular series of tarot card interpretations here on this site. I hope to go through the entire tarot deck and put together thoughts on how each card might be interpreted in a pop culture context. Maybe I will include different celebrities or everyday situations, quotes or even news items which seem to somehow relate to the card being discussed. Should be pretty fun and will be a good way for me to bone up on my tarot card knowledge. I tend to know a lot about certain cards, but not that much about others.

I’m going to use the standard card names from the Rider-Waite deck and do one individual post for each. I’m not sure if I will just go through the major arcana first in order or if I will just pull cards randomly until I’ve gone through the whole deck. That might be more interesting. I’ll do that!

I’ll use Facade.com to pull my cards and then create a basic interpretation from LearnTarot and Aeclectic, both great tarot sites.

Just in time for the Da Vinci Code movie, I just found a pretty cool tarot deck called the Da Vinci Tarot. From the Aeclectic website’s description:

An art tarot in homage to the great Renaissance painter and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci. The images in the Da Vinci Tarot are mostly inspired by Leonardo’s art, but do feature some of his well-known pieces. First published as the Leonardo aa Vinci Tarot a stand-alone deck, it’s now available as the Da Vinci Tarot kit with a book by Mark McElroy.

I wonder if there is a tarot deck that deals more exclusively with teaching you symbols and artwork from the movie though. Anybody knows of one, drop a comment here!

Found a couple of tarot blogs and something else related:

1. Daily Tarot Blog
2. Rhianna’s Groovy Tarot Blog (though I don’t see a lot of tarot-related content here)
3. Tarot Card Image Generator

I thought I’d post some links to old pieces I have written which relate to the tarot on my other websites.

1. Tarot & Synchronicity
2. Tarot Pope & Papess
3. Chaotic Patterns in Divination
4. Return of the Peanuts Tarot
5. Tarot Symbols Glossary
6. The Four Horsemen & The Tarot
7. The Pepsi One Tarot

Been browsing through the tarot portion of the blogosphere and came across a few small items - mostly posts from LiveJournal and MySpace:

1. Turns out there is a What Tarot Card Are You? quiz floating around out there that three LJ’ers responded to, getting Death, the Lovers and the Star
2. One real person seems to have gotten a tarot reading and one spammy looking blog also talks about it.
3. A “real” Wiccan on MySpace mentions briefly studying the tarot and another MySpacer recommends the Revelations Tarot by Zach Wong
4. While we’re on the topic, here is a review of the Revelations Tarot and an interview with Zach Wong
5. Another MySpace blogger debates whether or not she ought to start charging for tarot readings…
6. Speaking of which, via another MySpacer, I found a cool-seeming online tarot reading site that appears free at first but then tries to slam you with a dollar fee plus get you to sign up for a bunch of junk.

Man, reading through all of these is kind of a bummer. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places, but it looks like there is sort of a lack of cool stuff in the blog world when it comes to Tarot. I guess I will have to keep looking!

Welcome to the Pop Culture Tarot Blog. We’re just getting set up, but will start posting news and items of interest related to the Tarot within the next few days. Thanks for stopping by!