Warning: nudity portrayed in the cards

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.