Left to right, starting from bottom left corner: Anna.K Tarot indie second edition, The European Goddesses and Spirits Oracle Deck, Heartwood tarot, Förhäxa Tarot (aka The Enchanted Förhäxa Tarot), The Slavic Legends Tarot

Nudity and salaciousness portrayed in the cards ahead. So much for a G-rated Holidays draw!

This December I want to really slow down with my decks and focus on doing thoughtful readings. It is very dark, and a stuck-indoors time of year here, so I wanted that to be reflected in my deck choices. I’d say the theme of this month is “cozy and introspective,” perfect for the winter season! So, grab a warm cup of tea and hunker down for a looong winded reading!

The Anna.K Tarot, despite its huge feelings and emotions, is a very cozy deck to me! It is a straight shooter, uncomplicated, honest, and kind. If there was a deck that had “hobbits of the shire” feel, it’s totally this deck. I also get strong feelings of family and community from this deck which I think are on point with the holiday season.

European Goddesses and Spirits Oracle Deck is a bit of a wild-card choice I made for this month. I didn’t have a deck dedicated to Goddesses (seeing as it isn’t something I intentionally practice or utilize when I use Tarot), but I backed this on Kickstarter because I LOVED the art and I loved that the author made a full sized book covering myths about these Goddesses. For a month of slowing down, I figured it might be worth taking the time to learn about a few of them! Sadly, I am traveling and I forgot the big book, so I’ll have to rift off of the smaller guidebook that partners with the deck.

The newest deck from the fantastic Three Trees Tarot indie creators and publishers, the Heartwood Tarot is very moody compared to their other creations, and I haven’t had the opportunity to use it much. I’ve been waiting in anticipation to really dig into it! This deck definitely fits the “introspective” part of this month! It has a dark fairy tale vibe, almost haunted house (well, cottage) feel. Except, all the cards are from the point of view of the critters that live in the abandoned cottage! This is a very unusual deck in my collection.

The Förhäxa Tarot has been an old-faithful deck for me since it first came out. It definitely has some strong matriarchal vibes and an intuitiveness about nature that really draws me in. The art style is very different from anything I have in my collection so it does stand out as rather unique on my shelf. It’s very busy with a lot of imagery, so it isn’t an “easy” deck to just pull out willy-nilly, but the cards all leave a very strong impression! It is one of those rare decks that even though I’ve used it a lot, every time I mindlessly flip through the cards, I see something new and different. I do tend to pick this as a winter deck because the seasons are represented, but more importantly the bright colors are uplifting on grey days.

Did anyone read Jan Brett books as a child? I did, and I still have several of them. I bring them out for the holidays and page through them, and like magic they bring me back to being a kid on a cold winter’s evening looking at the beautifully illustrated images under the colored lights of the Christmas tree! The Slavic Legends Tarot deck reminds me of those beautifully illustrated books. Not only is the art folkloric and intricate and colorful and gorgeous, there is a story told with each image. Slavic Legends is the perfect deck when you want to really sit with an image and think about it!

Enough reminiscing, onward with the draw!

So, I drew this in a different order than I am going to read it. I drew an oracle first, then the Anna.K, two jumpers from the Slavic Legends, a card from Heartwood, and two jumpers from Förhäxa. Given what the oracle card is, I decided to read this in a wheel form (center, 12oclock and clockwise).

I knew when I drew The Norns that this was not going to be the monthly draw I was hoping for (but lets be real, are they ever?!?). The Norns are Nordic Goddesses who, similar the Greek three fates (Moirai), decide a person’s destiny and path in life. In a way, it’s a very fatalist point of view–the fates, or Norns, have total control over a person’s life so your individual “choices” have little to do with the outcome of a situation. The guidebooks key word is “Acceptance” or in other words, accept that there is a whole lot out of your control. Your situation isn’t necessarily a direct relation to your own actions. The way the art is done here (have I mentioned I absolutely DIG the art of this purple edged deck???) it also makes me think of the three cycles of women–Maiden, Mother, Crone–of the cycles of change, and the three graces (or, at least their foil!).

XV The Devil and the Five of Cups—OOFTDA! So, I almost always think of The Devil as control, or desire for control. Ah, makes sense following the Norns. To control ones destiny (which we are preemptively reminded we don’t have control over that), to control by manipulation others, to have control over getting one’s desires, etc. This particular Devil really seems to heavily lean into the excess of desires with lots of lust going on; lust for others, for wealth, for food and drink, for battle, yeesh. I think these actions are misguided attempts to control one’s life, but ultimately become lack of control when done in excess, which in turn can lead to addiction. Interestingly, there’s actually a lot of people in this orgy of desires card, usually The Devil is portrayed with three figures in a card.

And followed up by the beautiful but pensive Five of Cups. I have to admit, I get some Star energy out of this Five of Cups! I love how the Maiden seems to have a gown made of moss that is growing out of the forest floor! She’s stuck in her wallowing! How long has she sat here mourning the loss of her cups? I also like how though the maiden has lost three out of her five cups, the reflection of the cups in the water make it appear like the loss is far worse than it actually is in reality. I can’t help but wonder if she disentangled her gown from the forest floor if she could just, you know, wade into the pond to get her cups? Maybe because they are filled with swamp water she doesn’t want them any more, I dunno.

Taken together, I’d say that so far this is a warning that excess on one’s part can lead to a loss on another’s. This can be one person (or persons) lusting and taking too much and a different individual loosing out (and perhaps blaming themselves when it was out of their hands) OR this could be read as a self reflection; I have taken excessively in one part of my own life, and now I feel loss in the other, or if not loss, a lack of wholeness and feeling like I’m missing out. The feeding of the lust doesn’t fulfill the soul. The loss is real but also part of an illusion–it is made out, or felt, to be greater than it actually is, and perhaps I am lingering in the loss too much and not being proactive enough. The relation between the Devil and the Five of Cups might not be apparent given how we have a determined fate seen in The Norns. Or perhaps this rise from the high in The Devil and fall into the Five of Cups is predestined? Lets keep looking:

Ooooh! Two Tens, the Ten of Fire (Wands) and the X Wheel of Fortune. I could not help but at this point in my drawing of the cards think of a cycle, hence the desire to have this read in wheel-fashion. With the XV and the 5 we had twenty, and now twenty again which brings about thoughts of Judgement–how are these two situations judged? How are they both related to Judgement? Hmm….

This fairy in the Ten of Fire is (according to the delightful book) saving dragon’s eggs. It clearly is a thankless chore, and it is an active card! The fairy looks over-burdened, tired, and we are unsure if they can get back up. It seems like dire straights, with volcanoes in the background, burning dragon eggs, and too much in the basket all at once! But I remember in the five of cups, how the water makes the cups and loss greater than it actually is. What can this fairy do? Will they solider on, give up, or something else? Must they bear this burden all on their own? What will you do when your feet are to the fire? At least we have some movement and action after the immovable, lamenting Five of Cups. What is your end goal with this toil? Does your work and suffering define you as a person?

X Wheel of Fortune: this is a very passive and quiet Wheel of Fortune. It is perhaps a good reminder that things change, even with no one to see, while mice sleep. Change is the only sure thing in the world. Is there Karmatic destiny after all the struggles in the first cards? Or is life just a teeter-totter of ups and downs? What change will happen?

I’d also like to take a moment and compare the XV The Devil to it’s opposite card, 10 Wheel of Fortune: The actions in The Devil are short lived and unsustainable in the long term. Change will happen no matter what! That for sure is a safe bet if one is considering that all is predetermined and out of ones hands! Also, if we take the fifteen from the devil plus the five of the Cups minus the ten of the Fire and minus the ten of the wheel we land at 0, or the Fool, the beginning, much like the clock striking midnight or 00:00 in the Wheel of Fortune card. Perhaps this is a marker of starting over?

So now I’m thinking of the path I tend to take when I myself succumb to my own inner Devil: self pity, followed by throwing myself into my work excessively as if this will be my penance for my shortcoming! But there is change, what happens?

What a beautiful Two of Water! I love this take on the Two of Cups; with true authentic relationships there is little that can’t be done. Though these mermaids’ seem to flow from different sources and they are pulled in two different directions, they still can make a real connection and celebrate the beauty in life! They can share the same lovely pond in harmony and not be in competition for its resources. How can I cultivate my sense of space to ensure everyone has enough? (As juxtaposed with the excessive Devil?)? How can I cultivate my relationship with others to ensure security for all?

And with the lovely Six of Coins I feel as if we’ve come full circle to the Devil. Rather than spending our wealth on desires, we are now giving it to others in need, or conversely, receiving wealth when we feel we have nothing. The winter landscape is beautiful but barren–there is nothing to be had, and the man has nothing to offer, but a queenly lady in an ornate house thinks nothing of giving. How do we combat lust and greed? Perhaps to give without expectation–without a direct idea of investment but rather as a means to change (perhaps to create safe space for all to exist like in the Two of Water). There is something here that does catch my attention–they lady gives but it seems to affect her not at all with all her wealth. Again, we go back to the “actual vs perceived loss” and I should ask myself how much have I actually lost? How much does one really need to live a good life? How do I see myself in this card as the giver and what can I give to others? How do I see myself as the beggar? What do I need others to give me for me to feel satisfied and fulfilled?

Seeing as my goal this month is to be more thoughtful in my readings, lets go ahead and go the extra mile and compare the cards on the left and right edges. The Six of Coins we can compared to the Five of Cups, maybe we can think of it as generosity vs sorrow. Well, we know sorrow doesn’t “solve” generosity, but being generous can help heal sorrow (especially self pity). Then we have Two of Water and Ten of Fire–harmony with others vs an arduous solo task. Asking for the help of others (which is seen in both the Two of Water AND the Six of Coins) can relieve the burden of trying to do a difficult task by one’s self. Where in my life do I need to ask others for their assistance? This vulnerability and honesty can cultivate secure relations with others.

Well, I guess this draw came closer to A Christmas Carol than I had intended! Perhaps one way to read the whole spread is the realization of actual wealth vs perceived wealth. When you are in possession of actual wealth it is easier to give rather than take. Rather than describing wealth as something that fulfills desires, instead we can think of it as the ability to better our world. Wealth is found in the cultivation of good, wholesome relationships and connections and the understanding that change is ever constant even if we personally don’t feel its immediate effect.

Wow. What do the cards say you all are working on in December?