Summer Tarot, The Botan Tarot (2nt edition), Great Lakes Oracle, Trail of Mind Tarot, Peter Rabbit Tarot
After a fiery May deck selection, I started to feel nostalgic and wanting to slow down a little. It probably doesn’t help that the world feels unstable and in flux right now, so I’m craving something reliable, light hearted, and fun. Schools are finishing their season and kids are ready for summer vacation. Schools Out for Summer! is my theme this June and I picked decks that hearken back to the feelings of my youth when I absolutely LIVED for summer vacation!
The Summer Tarot is reminiscent of a slice of life anime, and I am doing this deck a bit of disservice because when it is read with a multi-card spread, it does really give the impression of being a manga! It’s a very sweet, modern, uncomplicated, loosely RWS deck that really is very underrated in the Tarot community. The Botan Tarot (Botan, or 牡丹, is the Japanese word for peony), while somewhat similar in “style” to the Summer Tarot, is rather serious, a bit in the weeds, somewhat prickly, and drop dead gorgeous. June is rose and peony season where I live and I feel as if this deck exemplifies my two most favorite flowers I look forward to all year, even as a kid. Growing up, my family spent a significant part of the summer on a lake, and the Great Lakes Oracle is perfect for my favorite place in the world! The quirky Trail of Mind Tarot is an art style that looks like old 8-bit video game images and as a kid I often played my Game Boy when I couldn’t be outside. I wish my old Game Boy Color (yes I’m dating myself here, leave me alone) had such beautiful images as this deck! And finally, I was raised on Beatrix Potter, which perhaps explains my irrational love of British Isles literature. I’m not one to get franchise based tarot decks, but this is an exception to my general rule as its so whimsical and cute!
The Magician and Temperance! This Magician is clearly an artist–he has many varied ideas and he is capturing them into reality! From the practical to the nonsensical, he doesn’t care, all creative thoughts deserve attention from him. He is in his flow zone, letting all the creativity come out and making it real so he can look and interact with it.
Temperance has been haunting me since last winter and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Interestingly, the Magician has his back to Temperance who also has her back to him. She sits on the shore of a calm dark sea and holds a black bowl and a white bowl. This makes me think of the yin-yang, a balance. She is totally unhurried unlike the frantic Magician. Are these two supposed to be two sides of the same coin, or does this Temperance need to temper the Magician? Is it a warning that though there seems an endless creative potential it must be measured and paced?
Aw! The Great Lakes Oracle gave me the lovely Forget-Me-Nots card. A card of recalling, remembrance, nostalgia, memory, endurance. Temperance is looking at this, keeping my creativity seated in my memory and nostalgia.
*Sigh* Y’all ever ask your Tarot deck a question, like for example, “What should I balance in my life?” and then it tells you “Balance.” Thanks Tarot. I love the Trail of Mind Tarot’s rendition of Temperance as a shishi odoshi fountain. What flows in, flows out. What goes up must come down. As above so below. Patience, rhythm, peace. With the Forget-Me-Nots flanked by two Temperances I get the sense that I should carefully use what I remember and know–not everything in the past was totally good nor was it totally bad. Remember both in equal portion.
Then we end with dear squirrel Nutkin and his friend working on a project together in the Three of Pentacles from The Peter Rabbit Tarot. I’ll need assistance with a project if I wish to build it up. Paired with Temperance I see this as while I need to dedicate time working with others I need to balance that with other aspects of life, like peaceful solitude watching a shishi odoshi, or enjoying the pleasures of life.
All together, I see this a month of grounding myself in the realities of the past, and harnessing this into creative endeavors, dividing my energy into personal projects and community work with others. A lovely June indeed!
What does your month look like? Do you like to slow life down a little in the early summer?
Trigger warning:very unflattering nudity and disturbing images ahead. You have been warned.
Lo Scarabeo Sola Busca Museum Quality edition (acquired 2021) alongside the book The Game of Saturn
So. I considered not reviewing this deck. I suspect many Tarot enthusiasts have some edition of this deck in their collection and do not talk about it probably for the same reason as I am hesitant to write about it in a public sphere. I am by no means equipped to speak about this deck with any authority as I neither have the education nor research background to attempt to summarize such a historically significant deck that has perplexed countless people and clearly had such a profound affect on legendary Tarot artists, like Pamela Cole Smith. But. I do think that this deck is not talked about enough. What I can share is my personal experiences owning and using and falling down rabbit holes with this deck, and some musings I have in general about the importance of historical artifacts like the Sola Busca. I won’t be “scoring” this deck like normal, other than the production quality, as this deck has more than proven its worth as a social artifact in the Tarot and historical community.
3 of Swords (look familiar?), 8 of Batons, Queen of Cups
Overall: I think this deck is an incredible object because, I personally believe, it sums up the Tarot. It is strange, it is an amalgamation of imagined esoteric images from a past world, and wrapped in (for it’s time) contemporary references while also completely undermining the establishment. And it’s clearly making an attempt to pass knowledge about profound truths into the future. It has a specific niche audience that seems to be of the occult “in group,” though at it’s core it is a card game, but clearly due to the effort of the artist, it is also a representation of how humans understand life in 78 condensed, critical images. It is sacred, it is profane. And, many people try to explain it but no one really knows what is going on. In other words, it’s completely unhinged and baffling and so, so intriguing which is what I believe Tarot, at the end of the day, is.
While there isn’t concrete proof that Pamela Cole Smith saw the Sola Busca Tarot on display in a museum, we know pictures of it were at a museum near her at the time the Rider-Waite Tarot deck was created and it is generally agreed upon that the Sola Busca was a muse for Smith. I would also argue that this deck affected decks throughout history, as you can see The Fool here is an image most related to the classic Marseilles Tarot which came almost 200 years after the Sola Busca. The 10 of Swords looks a whole lot like the Rider Waite 10 of Wands, the 6 of Coins (er, shields?) looks a whole lot like the 8 of Pentacles, and the 3 of Batons as well as the 3 of Swords seen above look very much like the RWS 3 of Swords, don’t they?
I don’t have a particular laundry list of Tarot pet peeves like many collectors and Tarot enthusiasts tend to have, but I do have one thing that really gets under my skin. It has nothing to do with decks actually but rather a purposeful misinformation in Tarot literature. There are SEVERAL well known books about Tarot that I have purchased (as they are the books everyone reads), but there is a critical statement that makes me put the book down, scan the back of the book for any reference marker for the Sola Busca, and ultimately has lead me to giving the books away without further reading. And that common lie in the tarot community, typically is along the lines of “The minor arcane ‘pip’ cards were not fully illustrated until (more modern date associated with a particular Tarot artist who illustrated the pips).”
These two “pips” look pretty darn fully illustrated to me. The surviving example of the complete Sola Busca deck was finished around 1491. That’s not actually that long after the Tarot craze hit Italy earlier in the 15th century. But the reality is, after countless historians have researched this deck, it’s card “meanings” and purpose largely elude us even though its clear that this deck is truly steeped in the esoteric, occult references of its day. What really gets me is when these same books which seem to not give attribution to the Sola Busca, also tend to mention later in their text that Pamela Cole Smith likely SAW photos of the Sola Busca on display at a museum which explains the similarities of much of her art (like the fully illustrated pips) with this deck. I find this infuriating.
Dothese not feel like cards you’d draw out of Ussi’s Pagan Otherworlds Tarot?
Card Quality: 2.5/5 Perhaps one day I’ll invest in a higher quality version of this deck. They’re okay, glossy, thin, flexible. Prone to chipping. Slightly wider than a standard Tarot and quite a bit taller, these cards feel big in my small hands but not completely unmanageable. The colors on the card are fantastic and do feel “original,” though I’m sure much work has been done to reproduce the images of the museum specimens to an incredibly high standard. The speckled backs feel rather lackluster when given the startling images, but it seems these are the actual backs to the cards, so points for historical correctness.
For anyone who has never looked into the Sola Busca before, itis notable in its extremely pagan, alchemic, and heretical imagery in the cards, which at the time were typically illustrated with Renaissance Roman-Catholic imagery.
My understanding is the historic Sola Busca is a complete deck of colored 78 cards; the Sola Busca was a deck made with etched metal plates, and later painted. These cards look exactly like I’d expect cards made this way to look.
It’s beautiful…
It’s uncomfortably ugly and shocking…
It is gratuitously violent…
Readability: Oh Boy/5. Imagine making a Tarot deck for your friends that is comprised of memes, but these memes that have taken on specific meaning to just you and your friends. But also, you and your friends probably are in a weird cult of memes and you do some really odd and not socially acceptable stuff on Friday nights. Oh and you and your friends are probably fabulously wealthy and have a lot of political clout. Now image someone 535 years later finds your deck and has decided they are going to do a Tarot reading with it. That’s what it’s like trying to read with the Sola Busca.
The book that comes along with the deck is…almost practically useless. Peter Adams in his book The Game of Saturn attempts to tackle the Sola Busca card references. He has some pretty solid historical evidence for many cards, and also make some conjectures, some guesses, and frankly I think he must’ve gone mad in his research (I would’ve) because there some pretty wild conspiracy theories in this dense book. I have slogged through the whole book (which took me several years). It’s one of those things where the more you learn the more you understand how little you know. I certainly cannot say that I “get” this deck, but rather I have come to have an appreciation how Tarot links art, history, literature, politics, culture, and our deep personal understanding of the world, together. Is The Game of Saturn book worth getting? If you are like me and so enamored with the Sola Busca and are willing to read some of the most off-the-charts weird, and dry, history, then yes it is. If you want to be able to “read” with the deck, then you might want to save your money. Or maybe not. Here is a great review of the book: https://www.thequeenssword.com/the-game-of-saturn-decoding-the-sola-busca-tarocchi-review/
An excerpt of Fiore dei Liberi’s grappling with the sword techniques from his 1409 fight manual Fior di Battaglia, juxtaposed with Sola Buscas 1491 Ace of Swords.
Art: There is almost nothing that can compare with the Sola Busca’s historic art as it clearly inspired many other Tarot decks, and it seems to be the first of its kind. It’s difficult for me to relate to it, as I don’t know the characters inside and out and I am not a part of that culture, but all characters are incredibly human feeling, even more so than many modern decks with “perfect” people. There’s also a density of the images in the cards and its easy to really get lost in the sauce of what is happening, who is named, why is this happening, etc. That being said, I really enjoy looking at this deck compared to other examples of art from that time. Above and below are some images from a copy of a historic fight manual and you can see the consistencies with the Tarot imagery as well!
This card (The Knight of Swords) gets me. At face value it looks like the hairy Knight is protecting his exposed quarter (the back, rear left) as one would practically do when fighting from the saddle. But. His strong hand should be under the crossof the sword, but we see he is actually left handed, then we look again and see that it isn’t clear which quarter he is defending, or perhaps he is about to deal a rather ham-fisted blow to something in front of him, but THEN we see he has no reins! Nor a saddle. It’s not a great idea to ride into a fight with no reins, norto be wielding a weapon two-handed from the saddle, and THEN we notice that the sword scabbard is on the left which means he’s right handed and isn’t holding the sword as we expect and THEN you go look at the other knights and they too don’t have riding tack and you are left wondering why, as knights and their livery would have been well known and understood by the artist so what do they mean about it, and frankly this is how the whole deck behaves.
Favorite Card: It changes, but this King of Cups really makes me feel like the person is gazing out at me and I wonder if its a portrait of the artist.
Boxes it Checks: Renaissance, Historic, Occult, Graphic, Alchemical, Pagan
Similar Decks: Any of the historic Italian decks that are reproduced on the market, Alchemical based decks, decks that have a niche in-group with deep historic lore; the Nemeth Tarot comes to mind, Terra Volatile, Tarot des Ambiguïtés
Far right deck is Botanica: Full Bloom, which is a Tarot with an additional oracle mixed in.
May this year really started off with a BANG! Not only did the full flower moon land on Beltane/Mayday, but we will also have a blue moon at the end of this month as well. In that spirit, I chose decks this month that have serious chutzpah! I know it’s not exactly the deep theme I typically search for (kidding, kidding) but I felt the need to get decks out that have BIG personalities and bold artwork. You might recognize a couple, but largely these are decks I’ve used very little of so it will be a learning month for me! Also, in all honesty, I should perhaps call this the month of great guidebooks as all these decks have superb guidebooks, even the LWBs!
The oracle in the center, Mystic, Augur & Sage, is relatively under-represented in this blog as I reach for it very often. I’m honestly not a huge fan of oracles in general as I struggle with lack of structure, but this one is a gem in my collection.
From this deck I drew 22: The Tree of Life. To me this gives strong, Grandmother Willow/Hierophant vibes. There’s a troll or goblin hiding in it’s roots, a crown of blooming flowers, and it holds a celtic style coin with three running critters. When I see this image I think of the interconnection of everything, from abstract ideas to the physical realm of nature to even humdrum economics. The books speaks to ascending spiritually from being grounded in reality. It speaks to cycles of nature and rest and growth and seeking enlightenment.
Well, would you look at that. I normally do my monthly draw the night before the new month begins and I write it down in my notebook so when I have a free moment I take pictures and write up my notes for this blog. It was quite the surprise to see an actual Hierophant come out of the charming Four Courts Tarot, and even more so when it’s in another tree form. What about trees am I needing to learn from this month? I am planting several trees this month to replace my long gone apple trees, but there seems to be something important here. In this tree, I see a strong teacher, a sleeping knowledge that is old, old, old. What story or practice of old must I turn to this month?
And, to add to this theme, from the Botanica, I drew one of the oracle cards, and the final card of the deck, Anachronistic Fruits & Megafauna. “Everything good comes to an end, but there is still more on the other side,” says the key quote. Seasons and cycles again. This image features an extinct megafauna with some fruit from that time which we still have today thanks to luck and human cultivation. These ancient fruits relied on the megafauna to disperse, and many have gone extinct when the megafauna went extinct. These “anachronistic” fruits had their dispersal methods drastically interrupted, so had to do something new and innovative to survive. This is such an interesting card to pair with the two Hierophant-esque trees! What tradition of old needs to adapt to the new? Something good in my life is coming to an end, but I can take important things from this experience and apply learned knowledge and traditions to move forward to something new and good. Wow, this is really hitting some key notes for me after my challenging April month!
The Wonderstruck Tarot was a Kickstarter deck I backed at the very last minute and am I glad I did! This deck has a modern focus on femininity and strength in very mundane senses, but it packs a wallop! It has extremely colorful images overlaid with glittery foil but the art itself really steals the show. This may be my favorite 7 of Cups in my entire Tarot collection. She is grocery shopping, and there are an overwhelming amount of things to choose from but she has a limited budget–what is best for her needs and how can she tell? Not everything hold something worthwhile. What does your heart truly want? See things as they truly are, not how you wish them to be. The book, while simple, is perhaps one of my best Tarot guides I have.
And we end with the impressive and uniquely on-guard King of Swords from the incredible Bohemian Cats Theater Tarot out of Baba Studios. This King is a leader who sets aside his emotions to act rationally, justly, and fairly. He has high standards and is incredibly self disciplined and always uses rational thinking. He knows when to attack and when to defend and when to do nothing. His crown is also a helmet—he lets his accolades defend him. Unlike many traditional RWS King of Swords this one has his sword drawn and is ready! He isn’t afraid to get off his throne and do something! I have many choices in front of me right now, some of substance and some not so much. I need to channel my King of Swords to see the deep truth of these choices and use rational thinking to discern the reality of the situation and I need to not be afraid of taking action to move to the next step!
Together, there is a cycle coming to and end, things to be learned by those that have come before me in order to grow beyond this ending and ascend to the next stage of my life. Ahead there are so many different things! But I need to chose to have a clear head, integrity, and a willingness to act! I also see the King of Swords defending the Tree of Life—what profound connection and truth needs my defense? Woah, what a month! Anyone else’s cards say something similar for this May?
Clockwise from noon: Tarot Yokai: le voyage de l’ame et les espirits japonais, Seasonal Fox Day (bronze edition), Tarot from the World Behind the Veil, Oracle Lumi Air, Victorian Faery Tarot, Seasonal Fox Night (bronze edition)
April is consistently one of my most challenging months, and this one has been no exception. I also have always thought of April as a month of tricksters, probably because the weather where I live has a tendency to be swinging between extremes during this time–the flowers are starting to bloom but we still get snow! The sun is finally becoming intense but then we get days of showers. Its a roller coaster month. So I wanted to return to my roots and have a good old theme this month of tricksters. I’ve done it before many times but I always have great decks to use for this theme.
The two Seasonal Fox Tarots are old hats in this blog and I continue to adore them as the years pass. The Victorian Faery is also a deck that has popped up a couple times in my monthly decks, and though I often feel quite ambivilant about it, it does deliver good readings. Tarot from the World Behind the Veil is a new Kickstarter release from an artist I adore (she made the Yōkai Tarot, yet ANOTHER trickster-esque deck!) that I’m looking forward to using. And both Oracle Lumi Air and Yokai: le voyage de l’ame et les espirits japonais are both French decks I’m looking forward to really delving into!
We open up with the 1 Le Goupil, or The Fox. But, rather, the old french variation of Fox. His key words are Action, Energy, and Will. This gives me strong Magician vibes doesn’t he! We see the fox mid-pounce, we do not know the result of his action. This month is defined by the first step, the action of agency. Exerting ones self in the world.
Paired with le goupil we have II The High Priestess. She makes me think of Queen Titania, the fairy queen from A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Above her dangles a pomegranate, a throwback to Persephone’s story and a nod to natural cycles. She is marching away from us as if she does not know we look on, but she holds a book open to a page so we can see what is written. We now know what we need. The High Priestess usually is about inner intuition, knowing things innately and being in tune to the rhythms of cycles and nature.
(Fun note, the Magician in The World Behind the Veil is a fox man!)
Together I see this as having faith in one’s self, to think and to act accordingly. To know that there is no such thing as permanence and all things are constantly in flux and now is the time to take action with what we know. Trust my gut and if I have doubts, seek the written form and additional wisdom.
Wow! I pulled from from The Seasonal Fox Tarot Night the Fool Card with a rising sun. Then from the Day edition, the Sun card! I feel together these are a reiteration of the first two cards–do not fear striking out boldly on a new journey even if it seems on its face foolish and you are not sure of what will happen, you are heading in the right direction!
I then have two cards of tension ending my draw. From the Victorian Faery I have the Five of Winter/Swords—but this is an interesting Five of Swords isn’t it? This hedgehog is standing up to the fairies beating it, while the other goes on defensive mode. Certainly this is a card of “stand up for what is right even in the face of overwhelming adversity” but I also see that the hedgehog in the defensive position is not going to easily escape this situation. Use action rather than defensiveness.
The Tarot Yokai gave me The Moon card. This moon is sooo interesting to me. The story in the guide book is about Katsura Otoko, or literally the man in the moon. He is a handsome man that looks at those who gaze upon him and enchants them. The moon card speaks about trouble discerning truth from reality–here with the handsome man, it makes me think delusion, illusion, anxieties, a situation where the truth is hiding.
Together, I see as my action lead-journey being fraught with having to defend myself and also needing to see through illusion and seek truth. Lets take a larger look at the whole draw:
The Fool is juxtaposed with the Five of Swords–my leap into the next journey will not be appreciated by some and I should expect a reaction and possibly attack. The Sun is juxtaposed with the Moon–interesting! I think “illuminating that which is existing in the dark.” All together, April is a month of upheval, of taking action with what I know is truth, and working through the friction I will face when I take the first steps on this journey and shining a light into a place that has been hidden.
Active month! How about all of you? What did your April draw say?
The Broken Mirror Tarot (4th edition)The Hero’s Journey, or If Stain Glass was Anime, 2021, out of print, 5th edition available currently but has altered images and colors. There is also a Marseille style available (coming in a future review)
Overall 8/10: This deck is one of the quirkiest Tarot decks I have in my collection while still, imo, remaining a true “Tarot” in the sense it adheres to the basic Tarot 78 card structure. This deck has a charming lack of cohesion when calling itself the “Broken Mirror”, because it is actually trying to replicate traditional European stain glass. The box also describes the art as being “modern art deco” based on architecture. The internal logic of the cards makes sense in the world it builds, and it produces interesting multi card draws.
I love that this deck is both cool and silly. It feels like its really trying to be RWS but it refuses to totally commit! There’s a witch hanging out in a gazebo in the field and eight wands bouncing away like they’re brooms out of Disney’s Fantasia. It’s masculine whimsy.
I was completely obsessed with this deck for the first two years I owned it and since then I’ve not picked it up nearly as often—this is why I wait a while before posting reviews. The Broken Mirror 4 ed was one of my first decks with very nice linen cardstock, holo-edging, and a black core, so the tactile feeling was much better than most other decks I’d had up until this point. And, the premise of this deck was mimicking stain glass windows. I really love stain glass, so it was an easy sell for me. There have been many stain glass themed decks on the market and I still think this one is a great rendition if you can manage to get your hands on this edition. There are many editions available, and I think they are all different (differences range in coloration, to complete art overhaul as this deck has changed ownership hands several times), but this 4th edition with it’s rich colors and simplified art, is for me, the best.
I love the incorporation of song and dance in several cards through this deck–its not something you see much of when looking at fantasy/myth decks(notable exceptions that jump to mind are Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine, and Law’s Shadowscape deck).
The deck is themed as if you are progressing past a series of stain glass motifs–but the images are supposedly reversed to the RWS, as if you’re looking at your own life story in a mirror. There’s so much play around this concept you can quickly get lost in all the extraordinary things going on in each card. There’s also a theme of time of day in each suite (and the majors), that adds a very interesting level of interpretation.
This deck feels particularly masculine without being broody, or in-your-face male. There’s a strong theme of the Hero’s journey, and there are many images grabbed from myths surrounding that journey. Its elegant, beautiful, bright, playful, and somewhat non-traditional but still approachable to the person who isn’t a confident reader. There are giants, maidens in distress, witches, heroes, figures of myth, musicians, all feeling like a 80/90’s “kids” movie pipe dream. It’s fun!
Card Quality: 5/5 The card stock is shockingly thin–feather light, but it is incredible quality! High flexibility, amazing linen texture, satin finish, great layout and structure, rainbow edging—I honestly wish this was the industry standard. Best of all worlds, and they jump out without hesitation. The back design is…not to my usual liking, but it’s consistent with the oddness of the rest of the deck.
I will say, there’s something about the texture of these cards that make them hard to photograph clearly.
Readability: 3/5 This deck reads quite differently from almost all my other decks, and is a good (and playful!) deck to pick up once you’ve got your basics down. Given the design of the card image there is a bit of a story-board flow when you lay out a spread of multiple cards and it’s easy to let your imagination run with it. For me, this is not an inner-focused reader, nor does it tend to go where you think it ought to. This deck in my readings feels very unpredictable, so it’s not a deck I use to read for others, but it is a deck I bring out when I really want to mix things up.
The little white book is…interesting. I don’t find myself relying on it, but it gives prompts to think beyond the RWS structure.
The puzzling swords.
I will say a word of warning: the suite of swords is highly metaphorical–the red ribbons representing the thoughts that tie you down. This kinda blindsided me in my first few readings, but after working with this deck for several years it feels right in its own strange way.
Art: 5/5 I mean, it’s definitely a “style” so if you’re not feeling the art, there’s nothing to be done. But hot dog, I do (still) think this a beautiful deck.
The art is simplified compared to how stain glass would be designed, and it feels more like what I’d imagine stain glass would look like in an anime film. But there are frequent suggestions of broken glass, and also some interesting imagery that is flipped as if in a mirror. The setting of the cards is all over the place. There’s a strong theme of Greco-Roman images, medieval Europe, Christian, and then some Chinese myth imagery as well. At the risk of sounding nerdy, I get strong Hyrule vibes from these cards! It brings me back to my N64 days slogging through Zelda: Ocarina of Time and especially the highly stylized Legend of Zeda: The Wind Waker.
Favorite Card: Justice, The Wheel of Fortune
Least Favorite Card: The Empress, The Hierophant. There’s nothing wrong with either of them, they’re more standard RWS than most of the cards. Given the rest of the deck, I wanted something with a little more personality.
Card I Identify As: The Hermit
The deck Identifies me as: The Chariot
Boxes it Checks: Masculine, Classical, Heroic, Medieval, Roman, Mythological, Story telling,
Similar Decks: The Revelations Tarot, Il Tarocco delle vetrate – Tarot des vitraux by Luigi Scapini, Tarot of the Cloisters, Tarot of the Eastern Ink, Fantasy Garden Tarot, Crystal Tarot, The Stain Glass Tarot, The Lucid Tarot
Seasons: I get major spring vibes from this deck, but not in a gentle way
From left to right, Apothecary Spirits Oracle, Lilith Tarot, Ink Witch Tarot,Transformation Tarot, Cosma Visions Oracle
March, despite it feeling still plenty wintry here in the north, is the month we see the Spring Equinox and there is a significant increase of sun and daylight hours. It’s also the month when garden work starts, which inspired this month’s theme of sow, as in, ‘sow seeds.’ In the past I’ve done strictly botanical themes for spring, but this march I thought about what I want to sow in the world, what did I want to see come to fruition in the future, and I picked decks to represent these ideas!
I went ahead and added a rune coin to this month as well for fun.
The Ink Witch is one of my favorite Tarot decks, and to me it is a deck that tells truths with well known stories. So this is typically a deck I reach for when addressing universal truths, or when I need to see things as the actually are. The Transformation Tarot is a new deck from Kickstarter I backed because while I was very much a tom boy growing up I LOVED vintage fairy tale books and the images in this deck really bring me back to being a little girl. This deck to me represents making space for children to exist safely in the world, and for giving my inner child space to live and dream as well. The Cosma Visions Oracle is such a beautiful deck that after I wrote it’s review I really remembered how wonderfully artistic and dreamy it is. This month, this deck is reminding me to make space for creativity and romanticism. Apothocary Spirits Oracle not only is on theme with plants and spring right around the corner, but it also speaks to science, ancestral wisdom and diversity, everything I think we need a whole lot more of in the world right now. And then, the sharp Lilith Tarot. This green, blockprint-esque deck speaks very blatantly of the wrongs done to women, and demands justice for them.
Oftda! Well, the Ink Witch does not pull punches, that’s why I think of it as my “Truth Teller” deck! We open with “The Devil” and it could not be more on-point. When you lust for something because of the desire to possess it or dominate it, it is no longer love but something perverse that twists the soul. I know I can see examples of this all over, and especially in the news. What things are my “devil”? In what ways do I participate in negative reinforcing behavior? (Maybe I have a Tarot deck buying problem…)
The sweet Transformation Tarot gives us the Seven of Cups. This deck is very close to the traditional RWS so it’s an easy deck to pick up and run with, but the imagery is just delightful, if lacking diversity. It really makes me think of paper dolls. There’s many things to choose from in this image, some are more realistic than others, but there are choices to be had and need to be made! This makes me think what choices can I make to not participate in this Devil card? What are options I have on the table today?
The Cosma Visions Oracle is very similar to a Tarot deck except the majors are re-imagined from the point of death until rebirth. VII is usually the Chariot, but in this deck is The Spirit Plane, a liminal space of calm and peace for the spirit before it takes the big leap towards rebirth, is the opposite of what I think of as momentum forward. It’s a space of reflection, a pause, a moment to think and collect oneself.
Lily of the Valley speaks to Obsession (hello Devil reference!), and smelling the strong sweet smell of the Lily of the Valley to ground yourself in reality. Both of these cards are demanding pause.
From Lilith we draw the delightful Knight of Wands, a woman riding a lion off into the wilderness! The Lilith Tarot on its face is a RWS deck, but once you start delving into the details of the image and the guidebook it becomes apparent that this deck deviates quite a bit from what we consider the traditional meanings. We can see this wild Knight simply as reclaiming one’s “wildness” or ones’ natural courage. In conjunction with the devil I maybe would say harnessing one’s inner animal and using it to help propel yourself forward. Or perhaps riding on your honor???
And the rune I drew this month is Eihwaz, a rather esoteric rune related to the Yggdrasil tree of life, host of the various worlds (human’s world and the spiritual realm), and wisdom of knowing your place in the universe, and the cycles of life and death. The Yew, which is what Yggdrasil was imagined to be, is a long lived tree and we can see idea of endurance and resilience being reflected in this rune. It feels connected with the Cosma’s VII Spirit Plane.
It’s funny, sometimes when I do a draw I see cards I’m familiar with and I think “I know where this is going” and in reality it becomes very deep and complex. Other times, like this monthly draw I look at the cards together and think “How in the world am I going to make any sense of this?” and it turns out it all fits together nicely and concisely. I’m faced with a challenge of the Devil this month (whether my own personal vice, or someone else’s). I have many choices at hand to face this challenge, but first I need to ground myself and ask what is it that I’m desiring? How can I assure I move forward with honesty and integrity for myself? This is a “follow your heart/inner wisdom” act, and once I do it will be easy to stay true to my actual self!
What do the cards say you have in store for March, dear readers?
Happy Lunar New Year my friends! We are entering the year of the Fire Horse, so needless to say this ought to be exciting (haha)! Horses are an integral part of human’s civilization and exist in many many cultures with various symbolism attached. Today most of us are quite removed from our equine partners, but there remains a romanticism linked with horses. But, I wanted to make a draw that gives us a more, lets say, realistic view of riding off into the sunset. I always enjoy making these prompts, so I figured I’d share what my Tarot bestie and I came up with this year:
Today I’m using, IMO, the sweetest horse Tarot deck out there, The Riderless Tarot by Nakisha. If you are a horse girl too and love this deck, you can find it here in her etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RabbitTarot?ref=nla_listing_details.
Here are our prompts–I’m starting 1 at the 1 o’clock position:
1 Where do I find the strength to stand on my feet?
2 What is one of my roles in my herd?
3 Who is helpful in my herd?
4 What skill do I have to offer to strengthen my herd?
5 What unexpected delight makes fairy-knots in my mane? (Fairy-knots are when parts of the mane is twisted almost braid-like from playing and horsing-around.)
6 What pile of sh*t do I need to joyfully roll in? (Or: what do I need to indulge in?)
7 What’s my plastic bag? (What’s my irrational fear?)
8 What fire makes me leap into action?
9 Where can I find a moment of wild freedom?
10 What is something I need to work on, but don’t want to?
11 What horse-fly bite (i.e. annoyance) do I need to ignore?
12 Which sunset do I need to gallop off into?
Okay! 1-3:
1 Where do I find the strength to stand on my feet?
Eight of Wands, I find my strength when taking action and in movement! Doing something rather than sitting around and worrying about it is very good for the soul and relieves anxiety. That is quite a horse answer, tbh.
2 What is one of my roles in my herd?
Six of Pentacles, I am the person who allocates resources, helps those in need, helping send things down the proverbial line, bringing others the resources they need, mediating.
3 Who is helpful in my heard?
King of Pentacles, those who are well established and are willing to share resources and knowledge, and have a kindly, caring nature.
4 What skill do I have to offer to strengthen my herd?
Judgement. I can speak the truth loudly and clearly! I can hold my peers and myself accountable. I can demand change. I can use my knowledge of the past to help shape the future. I can be the change I want to see in the world.
5 What unexpected delight makes fairy-knots in my mane? (Fairy-knots are when parts of the mane is twisted almost braid-like from playing and horsing-around.)
The Empress: My well-spring of creativity brings me delight as does my ability to nurture and care for others. This nurturing is reciprocal too!
6 What pile of sh*t do I need to joyfully roll in? (Or: what do I need to indulge in?)
Ace of Swords: New ideas! And the freedoms I have. New ideas are needed to shape the world and should be indulged in, even if they don’t end up useful, its always good to be brainstorming and constantly thinking of how to make the world a better place.
7 What’s my plastic bag? (What’s my irrational fear?)
Nine of Wands. My irrational fear is that I’ll forever be tired of never ending work and battle, hyper-vigilance.
8 What fire makes me leap into action?
Justice, seeing injustices!
9 Where can I find a moment of wild freedom?
Five of Cups, even in sadness I can see beauty and the path that I look forward to, imagining a future past the hard times.
10 What is something I need to work on, but don’t want to?
Three of Cups. Establishing meaningful relationships, keeping friendships alive and active, finding time to socialize for fun and enjoyment. I’d be a homebody if I didn’t make myself get out.
11 What horse-fly bite (i.e. annoyance) do I need to ignore?
Six of Wands—I need to keep things in perspective and realize that little wins and losses must be measured all towards my end goals. Don’t get over excited due to one small victory or failure, there’s a lot more going on.
12 Which sunset do I need to gallop off into?
Strength, I need to ride into strength! I must own the quiet strength I have and form partnerships with unlikely friends who can enrich my life!
Uh oh, the mini manager came to check on me.
Lets see, three wands, two pentacles, a sword, two cups, and four majors. Seems like a very complex year ahead for me! What about you? What are you seeing ahead in this fiery equine year?
And, I’ll end with some real horse wisdom: Carpe Diem, always roll in the poo when you have the opportunity to!
Overall: 8/10 First, let me say that I think its one of the coolest, most beautiful decks I own, and after composing a review I think I need to bring it out for exercise this next month. I will be reviewing this as a Tarot deck, NOT as an Oracle as its labeled. It is not exactly RWS, or Marseilles, or Thoth. It has its own complete system that shares many similarities with the various traditional Tarot, and I use it in the place of a Tarot deck. That being said, this for me is not at all an easy reader and even after using it for years I still rely on the book. It’s easier than say, the Mary-El Tarot, but its still a challenging deck.
Some of the challenging major cards—say goodbye to all your fools journey, we’re on a metaphysical journey to life!
This deck is deep—it’s concerned with the process of rebirth into life (as seen with it’s progress through the majors) and the key players and processes through life. While the imagery is more grounded in the minors with lots and lots of beautiful earth based paintings, the supernatural portrayals in the majors can at times feel a bit jarring, and odd with all the birds (we’ll get back to that). I suppose if you are vehemently unwilling to entertain the idea of this sort of belief system, this probably isn’t the deck for you.
Throughout, the concepts are highly abstract and beyond the standard Jungian imagery I tend to associate with standard RWS Tarot. This makes the deck a) difficult for me navigate without it’s big companion book, and b) ensures that this is only a deck that I’m going to pull out when I have time and a serious enough query. These things mean that I do not reach for this deck often, and thus that slows my learning process. On the other hand, the art work is some of the best in my collection, and I do find that this does read very well when you have the book in hand with you to help guide you along the journey, and the characters in the courts are absolutely enchanting.
Some of the “court” cards, which are represented by these portrayals of various roles. Some roles, like The Peacemaker, The Entertainer, The Commander, make sense to me as I see this in everyday life, but others like The Weaver, The Wanderer, The Pathfinder, and The Geomancer I have no personal experience with and therefore feel like their meaning eludes me. But, it’s an intriguing take on the traditional courts! I see some idea of the Jungian Archetypes being portrayed in these court choices. Also, you can see all the courts will line up in a paneled story like the minors.
The general feel of the deck is highly innovative, sensitive, artistic, and introspective, but it doesn’t come off as overly serious nor full of its self. It also somehow manages to be whimsical without being “silly.” There is something very romantic about the imagery, even in the rather nebulous major cards, that invite you to really sit and enjoy the reading. But expect reading it to take a good degree of time.
At the end of the day, I’ve had this deck nearly five years, have used it extensively, and I still struggle to feel comfortable with knowing all its ins and outs, but I very much enjoy using it and continue to learn its system!
Even after years of aggressive shuffling the edging has retained its integrity.
Card Quality: 5/5 Stellar. Matches its 6th edition brother deck. Flexible but still stiff enough to retain its shape, the colors are rich and printing is sharp, and the edging is probably my favorite with its rich blue-black rainbow holo. This is a sumptuous deck for sure, and the extra card isn’t the wrong size!
The minors also when laid out will make a continuous scene! It may feel a bit to “picturesque” but look closely and you will see hints here and there that give more meaning to the card (check out the skull-clouds in the Five of Trees).
Readability: 2/5 I’d say this is an intermediate deck edging into advance reader. You can see how this isn’t a traditional Tarot in any sense (especially in the majors) but I’m hesitant to call this an oracle deck because its natural progression amongst the majors and minor suits feels very much like a Tarot deck. It’s basically a Tarot without the modern systems’ interpretation encumbering the card meanings. It’s far more spiritual, and feels a lot like The Witches’ Wisdom Tarot, except its more expansive of the collective experience rather than the individual’s journey, and there’s the heavy metaphysical, cycles of rebirth themes. I had to skim the entire little white book and delve into the Big Book (which is sold separately) to really start to “get” the deck and its system, so this is a hard one to pick up and run with.
The “cycle of birds” as I call the early major cards. I am an avid birder so I really love this, but it is certainly quirky and can feel a bit removed as the imagery becomes more abstract in the later major cards.
Art: 10/5 It’s glorious, even more so than its older brothers. Obviously the style of art isn’t for everyone, but its beautiful even if you don’t jive with the deck otherwise. Using many bright, pastel colors contrasting with deep dark colors the images really pop off the card with warmth.
Favorite Card(s): The Romantic (Knight of Cups), Four of Embers (Four of Wands), these two images really stick with me!
Least Favorite Card: I don’t have any, but I personally feel a bit sad that the art often in this deck views birds as challenging subject matter having birds in the early majors of this deck, and “The Suit of Birds” is a stand-in for the sword suit. I personally think very positively of birds, so some of the challenges of the swords are amplified (Five of Birds hits me hard) and others are blunted (Ten of Birds I see as a positive act of nature rather than a complete ending I typically associate with the Ten of Swords). This is perhaps why the artist chose to call this an “Oracle” verses a “Tarot” as there are these hard deviations.
Card I Identify As: The Romantic (Knight of Cups)
The deck Identifies me as: XXI Life on Earth (The World)
Boxes it Checks: Impressionist, Romantic, Non-standard Tarot, Past Lives, Shamanic, Abstract, Nature Oriented
Similar Decks: Crystal Tarot, Prisma Visions Tarot, The Oracle of Many Paths, The Endless Tarot, The Witches’ Wisdom Tarot
Seasons: All seasons, though I get some major spring/summer garden vibs from the art work.
I recently purchased the Materia Prima from Uusi, an oracle deck based on the periodic table that I’ve been looking at since 2020. I do not know why I waited so long. Though I don’t usually like decks where I find the guidebook necessary, I have been loving this deck and book so much that I knew I needed to use it this month, and I wanted to base my monthly decks off of it. For the theme I chose “Elemental.” To me, this key word evokes thoughts of adhering to basic principles of Tarot (and Oracle) as well as alchemical exploration in the Tarot systems.
The Terra Volatile with its entire fifth suit of Vessels dedicated to “Quintessence,” and its general alchemical vibe seemed a no-brainer companion to Materia Prima. Though I’m far from able to say I know Terra well, I do feel comfortable using it now after extensively studying it last year. I also wanted to bring The Naked Truth Tarot, is a deck I had since its Kickstarter twoish years ago, but never formally included in a monthly decks. This is a cheeky deck of mostly nude paintings is pretty “Elemental” in it’s unabashed portrayal of people. While it is RWS, it also has very clever takes on the traditional card meanings and it’s just a very beautiful deck. The Secret Garden, an absolute lux deck with plenty of accompanying Kickstarter rewards is really fitting my mood as I wrap up the historical fiction novel The Column of Burning Spices, a book about Hildegard von Bingen. This deck centers around very stoic historic figures with dramatic dark backgrounds and brilliant flower motifs. It’s serious, beautiful, and has a historic apothecary garden feel that matches the rather dark mood in the rest of the decks. And finally, The Wild Unknown Archetypes oracle is no stranger in my collection and has been around for a while on this blog. But, it does feel very primal and elemental in its imagery and Jungian themes.
So, full disclosure, I had a totally different draw organization intended for this month, but the Secret Garden Tarot had other plans and very clearly spat out one card that landed face up on the left and two cards face down on the right. It seemed quite purposeful so I decided to let it be and draw my other cards around these three.
Ah, The Womb. This is a card that has a tendency to pop up for me. I personally think of it as “The Source”, its that thing that ties all living things and non-living things together, a place where we came from, where our mothers came from, and their mothers, and mother earth. Its about holding a sacred space, and understanding that when we deviate from our spiritual/moral source, things are out of balance.
Paired with The Womb is Bromine, one of the reactive Halogens. Let me take a paraphrased quote out of the Materia Prima: Reflections on Matter as I cannot do justice to this card with my own words:
His was a simple, productive, monastic life until a bright light shown suddenly on Bromine. Extraordinary attention and false praise inflated him and led him to abandon his natural, established order…The thrill of a cheering crowd!…Bromine began to feel superior and embarked on a steep and forbidden road that brought about a troublesome existence…ashamed of his foul toxicity, he reveled in poisons…And then, all of a sudden his moment of greatness was gone… (page 163)
The rest of Bromine’s story here speaks of falling into shunned oblivion and longing for connection, until Being “politely reopens the door. “
Bromine’s story reminds me of Mean Girls, and any story really about a bully who rises to popularity. The bully may not even mean to be a bully, but whenever a person feels superior to others, they tend to excuse their actions to greater and greater extent until they can no longer deny that they are toxic, at which point they are so invested in their image they also cannot suffer the shock to their ego to admit how wrong they have been. Any one who has ever known a person with a narcissistic personality knows that this sort of person will literally prefer to die than admit their wrongs. When we stray so far from the universal threads of kindness, truth, and justice, we face the same perverted pride that Bromine is dealing with. It will only end in isolation. I feel as if there are many things in the current world reflected in this story old as time.
Together, the womb recognizes Bromine moving away from living in harmony with what connects us all, and we can see not only the destruction Bromine has done to the rest of the universe, but also (and perhaps most profoundly) to themselves.
I’m going to do this reading in a bit of a reverse order as I felt it was important with the position we see in Bromine.
To Bromine’s back, or perhaps we can say “past,” we have some very interesting imagery. First, from the Terra Volatile, which seemed to have gotten the memo about this being an “elemental” month gave us the King of Vessels in reverse. Vessels are a fifth (non-traditional ) suit that represent æther, a spiritual/alchemical element of the soul. He is supposed to represent the alchemical “Great Work” or the ability to create the mythical Philosphers Stone which purifies everything into its most essential form (like turning base material into gold). Or in more practical terms, a rebirth into a new whole self. His purpose is to merge with the Queen of Vessles and harmonize. But turned in reverse, he denies this sacred union. He selfishly keeps his power to himself, but in doing so is unable to accomplish the first step of spirituality. From the Terra Volatile book “…some can call him a cult leader.”
Then Secret Garden Tarot gave both Judgement in reverse and the Eight of Cups reversed. Judgement calls us to account for our actions, to see reality for all its truth and understand how we fit in reality and understand how the ripple of our actions have affected the world. When seen reversed, this isn’t happening, or is somehow blocked. The Eight of Cups in the RWS traditionally means moving away from a relationship, either leaving it, looking deeper, or cutting one’s losses. This image in particular is interesting because upright it seems to invite us to the window to gaze out at the moon, but reversed it is not clear to me which direction we are asked to move. To me these cards together speak of walking away from accountability or being unable to tell that you are being called to account.
With the King of Vessles Reversed and the Judgement Reversed and Eight of Cups Reversed, this feels as if someone, or rather “Bromine” was falsely duped by a manipulative “cult leader” into believing he was better than others but the reality says differently and he is unable to square himself with that past.
Bromine gazes on the Page of Pentacles as they put their faith in a plan and is about to take the first step to plant a new idea. Above them from The Naked Truth Tarot sweeps one of the extra cards labeled XXIII The Enchantress. Clearly a witch, she brings a burning torch down from the dark skies, much like Prometheus brings mankind fire. A special card of the deck, she represents a feminine and heightened counterpart to The Magician. She is a master of her own power and has the chops to harness her outer-world to do her bidding. She relies on no cheap tricks, but rather trusting her personal intuition and embracing the mystical aspects in her life and her own skills. She is leading the charge it would seem.
The Page is ready to take the first steps into a process in which they are unsure of the results, but there is a lot of hope hinging on this Page’s limited resources. Even so, in the meanwhile there is plenty of other fruits and plants to help support them as their vision takes root, things that have been seeded long ago that are blooming now. I wonder if Bromine and the Page are the same person, and Bromine is looking upon a possibility of themselves. Or is this Page another who is moving on to a better world without Bromine? Is this Page purposefully turning his back on Bromine? Does the Page know they have The Enchantress guiding over them? Preparing to give them her fire and knowledge?
With strong feminine guidance rooted in honest mastery of oneself and connection with the greater world, we see the start of a Page’s hopeful endeavor. This Page has moved on from the struggle we see Bromine is suffering, and uniting back with that Womb–Source. I see the relation of the Womb gifting the Page the Enchantress’s self realized powers while the Page in turn gives back to the Womb.
Anyone who has felt wronged by another I think can relate to this drawing. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say we can see current real life parallels. To me this is a draw about acknowledging where others have gone wrong and tried to exert their superiority, and how they end up on such a corrupted path that is removed from reality, truth, and a balanced living. The world must go on without them, new harvest must be planted, new ideas for shaping the future need to take shape in our minds and heart and we can use old guiding principles of justice and equality and simple intuition of treating others how you wish to be treated. Perhaps one day they will see and walk the road Judgement asks us all to take, but only they can choose to become the change for the better.
The Oracle of Many Paths, Discovering Beauty Tarot, The Yukika Tarot, Conjunction Tarot, Hexen 2.0 Tarot
Content warning: there are several pictures of snakes ahead
Hello 2026! One thing that made 2025 a bit of a “rediscovering” Tarot year for me was starting out with a intensive month of studying the Terra Volatile. This helped put my mind in study mode for the better part of the year. I ended the year in study mode as well focusing on my pip decks which I thoroughly enjoyed and am continuing to study as well. I wanted to keep that open mind feeling I had last January, but seeing as I did intensive study last month, I wanted to channel more fun and free “Fool” energy this month, so my chosen theme is “Beginnings,” or utilizing decks that I really feel I do not “understand” so I can sit with them in bewilderment and awe.
Most of these decks are new to me, with the exception of Discovering Beauty Tarot, which is a deck I’ve used a bit last year but it has a lot of unexplored depth in it’s Notan inspired art by Sophia Litwak. ALL of these decks are difficult, deep, and challenging decks that ask the mind to do lots of work. The lovely Yukika Tarot (by Stasia Burrington, same artist who made the Sasuraibito Tarot) feels the most RWS of the bunch, but it’s still very fast and loose with it’s interpretations and is also a wonderfully profound deck. The Oracle of Many Paths, which is a Tarot with an oracle function, is classic weird and wonderful creation of James R. Eads and is so, so refreshingly new in it’s take on the Tarot system made into a map. The new cool kid on the block, the Conjunction Tarot by Ina Auderieth is a moody, eerie Thoth deck with roots in metaphysics and hermeticism. I don’t by any means intend to master any of these decks by the end of the month, but rather to give myself a big sand box to start this year of my Tarot exploration. I’m hoping as the year goes to revisit each of these decks as a touch stone of 2026.
And then I feel like I need to address the wildly complex Hexen 2.0 Tarot (Suzanne Treister) which I find is far too often above me, and its the only deck I’ve use in which I feel a bit like an imposter when I am drawing cards from it. I’m using it in this monthly draw as my “oracle” card, but I almost did not write and publish this post because of this deck. Okay! Enough talk, let the cards fall! (er, jump, I guess)
Normally I read my Empress as nature or a nature-driven creator, the wellspring of creation, a Persephone entity, a mother, the untamed wilderness to the organized Emperor’s civilization. Underneath that assumption is there are invisible things, almost like magic, at play. Systems built to keep a world working a certain way, much like a natural food chain, the lifecycle of water, etc. Here it seems we see some human created systems that operate unseen in our world. As I said already, the Hexen 2.0 is above my reading level as it were, and I’ll let the reader draw their own conclusions about this card, but I’m keeping my classic Empress in mind as I go on.
Portals oh my!
The Yukika Tarot re-envisions the Wheel of Fortune as a portal to another dimension—goodness, there is certainly a lot of us out there that feel like we’ve steeped into a whole other world! We cannot see what is in front of us, but onward we go whether we want to or not! It’s a great leap into the unknown.
The Oracle of Many Paths’ portal has the great World Serpent in its 17 card (The Star) spiraling into the sky. The lore of the post-apocalyptic deck explains the serpent is considered a magical and extremely lucky entity to see (Breath of the Wild anyone?), and the portal, should you be quick and brave or foolhardy enough to jump into, will lead you to another world. I saw this and immediately thought of Falkor, the white Luck Dragon from The Never Ending Story, who is one of my favorite characters of all time. Snakes, being that they periodically shed their skin, seem an interesting animal to represent The Star, as its the starting over after the fall of The Tower.
So, the unseeable path forward is one of hope.
Snakes seem to be a theme of this draw. I personally am fascinated by snakes, so it’s particularly interesting for me to see the ways they pop up in draws. In the Conjunction’s Two of Disks, it seemed at first glance the snakes are biting the hands, but actually, if you look closely, their tongues are passively tasting the air. Right away I get sensing fear but actually there is none to be had when I look carefully. As with a standard two of pentacles, we see a sense of balance and opposites being able to compliment one another; we have silver and gold, warm blooded and cold blooded, yin and yang, sun and the moon, black and white (honestly I feel this card encapsulates this whole deck in it’s general vibe).
And perhaps the most epic Judgement card ever to exist came out of Discovering Beauty. Here we see Medusa as our Judgement. Though traditionally Medusa has played the role of the bad guy, her story is actually an incredible story of womanhood that unfortunately rings true through the ages; being blamed for the violence done unto her, and rising to become so much more and stronger despite all the gods against her and ultimately portrayed as evil for her survival. This card and deck demands we do better by Medusa and by ourselves. We experience terrible things that ought not to happen, but we find in our resourceful natures a chance for us to heal our scars, find acceptance and kindness for ourselves, and become something awe inspiring and terrible for those who mean us ill.
Together I take these cards to mean the pendulum swings in both directions, now is the time to grow into something stronger than what you were.
Oftda.
I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot these past months.
This is a draw speaking of change, of things unseen happening, of choosing the unknown and going forth with faith and hope, of seeing a sense of balance amidst strong dichotomy and becoming better in a very profound sense. With our strong serpent energy I see coming out of our old skin into a new world—what that will look and act like is yet to be seen.
The Tarot Tarts 