Right to left: Black Violet Tarot, A Divine Feminine Tarot, Endless Oracle, Tarot of the Abyss, Ephemere tarot

Nudity warning for several card images ahead! I guess I have a lot of decks with naked people (face palm).

Like most of North America, we’re having a very weird winter. It’s astonishingly warm. But the strange light of January remains the same—its either very very bright, or very very dark. While we are out of the darkest month (thank goodness, dark at 4pm is really early! I don’t know how folks even further north do it), January still has days that are bleak. But, the strange flip-side is that when its cloudy, its warmer! And when the sun is blisteringly bright, it’s very cold. The thick clouds act like a blanket.

Usually for January I like returning to the stories I know and love. There’s comfort in my favorite stories, and I especially need this when we are trapped inside due to cold. Usually, I will reach for my Tarot of the Divine, a perfect deck of myths and stories with bright happy colors I crave in the stark white. However, its above freezing today, the snow’s almost melted, and frankly I’m missing winter. So, if I can’t have it outside, I’m going to try to have it in my Tarot (though, I’m not complaining *too* hard, it’s nice that my skin doesn’t get frost bitten!)!

My experiment this month is to use decks that are black and white, stark decks, with minimal color; let’s see what happens!

I’m kinda digging the various back textures and colors! I get some major mix and match tea set vibes from this one!

The Endless Oracle, by the same artist of my beloved Ink Witch Tarot (Eric Maille, https://www.ericmaille.com/store), is a deck I’ve been waiting for what seems an age to really dig into! As a myriorma deck, all cards appear to flow from one to the other due to the black bushes and trees at the edges, as if you’re walking from meadow to meadow in a thick forest at night. With little pops of color, and the same rough, charming unfinished style of the Ink Witch, this oracle seems like it will fit with most other decks. The keywords and images do invoke rather mythic and storybook settings, so perhaps my regular January theme still exists!

The Tarot of the Abyss I’ve used extensively since I first purchased it, and I typically use it in winter or darker days. I find this deck is very profound in its readings where it can tap into the inner child, and it can really get into sensitive subject matters with me. I usually save it for personal readings only for that reason. Ana Tourian (https://www.anatourianart.com/) is an incredible artist who clearly understands the Tarot system and also has a deep artistic understanding of human psychology. I suspect that this deck will really stand the test of time and continue to be a deck people buy many years down the road from now.

I really enjoyed last year getting to know The Black Violet Tarot (by Heidi Phelps, https://www.blackviolettarot.com/), a uber minimalist tarot deck that is also very earthy, grounded, prudent, and dare I say, grandmotherly? I found the experience last year very novel using such a simplistic deck, but I haven’t reached for it all that much since. I actually find I rely on lots of “stuff” in a card to read, so using this deck is a challenge, but one I’d like to revisit seeing as I really adore the quirky, almost folk style art. Despite the lux cardstock and stark imagery, I find this deck very gentle and humble. I’m excited to get it back out again and see what I can learn from it.

If The Black Violet Tarot is the humble country grandmother, then it’s fabulous youthful city sister would be A Divine Feminine Tarot Deck by Cocorrina (https://www.cocorrina.com/). This deck has been around a hot minute, but I didn’t acquire it until I added it on when I backed Cocorrina’s Book of Whispers. The black and gold is so glamorous, and the nude figures are so dramatic, this whole deck is over the top. I have barely used it but I can tell we’re going to have a fun time together!

And then, last but not least, my project deck for this month, the Ephemere tarot, by Arthur Wang (https://trueblacktarot.com/), the same artist who created my much beloved True Black tarot. I feel I have exercised great restraint in using this deck almost not at all and saved it for a New Year’s treat. Wang’s done it again and made a stunning, gorgeous deck. But, not only that, this deck’s majors are a new take on the tarot system; instead of the Fool’s Journey, we take the Hero’s journey. He has a whole web series that is being produced right now that delves into this new system structure and I’m SO EXCITED to be learning along!

Okay, all major arcana–what the heck does January have in store for me???

A group of revelers, or perhaps some sort of religious ceremony, go marching up the mountain side, their wreaths and banners bouncing merrily along. A bloodmoon, an auspice lunar eclipse, rises in the sky. Are they welcoming in the new year? Then, a lone fisher-person sits quietly along the calm banks. Do they need of space to think and reflect? Are they idle? Do they come from the procession or do they await them? Then our little creek flows into the mighty waterfall. Though you cannot see it, even single drop of water makes a difference in is ever constant progress. Strong, it ever pushes forward and waits for no one, quite the contrast of the still fisher-person. We also see no people in the waterfall, complete solitude. I see a trio of balances, social time, alone/idle time, and time to focus and get stuff done. There’s also this sense of movement, movement in a crowd, stillness, and pushing forward with purpose. Hmm, lets see what the tarot say to give us some more context.

Usually I read right to left (except when I don’t, lol), but my eyes were really caught by these two bright white cards so I had to look at them first. We first have the Seeker, (or traditionally, The Hermit). The moon is almost nothing but a sliver, and she is cloaked in a veil, but she carries a lantern and a mirror. What she seeks is both an external observation and an internal examination. What you know about yourself, you also know about the world, in a sense. How you internally project onto the world shapes how you see the world. To truly understand something profoundly, you have to look beyond yourself but also be mindful of who you are and how that affects your perceptions. What is it that you seek?

Ah, the lovely Temperance! I really love this take on XIV, so simple and truthful. Fire and water, earth and air, passion and emotion, grounded-ness and imaginative thinking, you need all to be complete and feel whole. Balance is key. Do I seek balance? You bet I do! The struggle is real!

Though I thought these two simple decks would clash with one another, they are actually rather complimentary!

I like how The Black Violet Tarot’s High Priestess is praying. She is listening to her internal consciousness and intuition. Gut feelings are a gift to us to keep us healthy and alive! They are not to be ignored, and sometimes when we are repeatedly told otherwise, we forget how to listen to ourselves. The LWB says “The High Priestess urges you to trust your instincts as you move forward–your path will become clearer as you go.” For some reason, I get major Princess Mononoke vibes from this Priestess. Between the Fisher and the Seeker, there’s a lot of internal retrospect in the draw thus far!

Well, this is truly a very dramatic Judgement! Again, we see another sliver moon. This herald also has a lovely messenger dove. A year is done, and now we move on to the next. What have you learned that will help you this coming season? How can you grow and become a better person despite your shortcomings and flaws? Even an imperfect person can have grace and move forward with their life.

Taken all together, this months draw seems to acknowledge the end of a busy year! It has a heavy emphasis of balancing of activities with others, with myself, and towards my goals along with balance in my life, rather than the “success” focus I saw last year. There’s the concept of knowing one’s self, being honest and true with oneself, and using the outside world to learn and teach me to become a better person. In a way, the only measure of one’s life is what a person has already done (you are your own yardstick), so I see this as a call to use what I’ve learned to become my best person this year! This seems like a yearly thematic draw, to be honest!

From The Book of Whispers, my January draw is concluded with the advice “Walk boldly and excitedly towards something new.” It better mean a new year, cause I have zero spoons for a new hobby!