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?