One thing that I don’t see too much of, is run-of-the-mill daily tarot draws. Perhaps I’m just looking in the wrong places. I tend to find draws that are seasonally focused, formal traditional layouts, or larger, general-viewer draws on the YouTube. I can’t say I see many “I just I want to practice my tarot skills, but I don’t want to spend an hour reviewing thirty different cards” draws. So! I thought I’d share some of the common ones I use! Please let me know if you find this at all interesting.

Decks used in this draw: Liminality Oracle, Asphodelon Mythos Tarot, Wild Unknown Animal Spirit oracle, Wild Unknown Archetypes oracle

I find dreams and dreaming fascinating. Of course, Tarot fits nicely into the various archetypes we might see in dreams, so I’ve developed a typical structure I like to use when delving into cartomancy to help think of my dream in a critical way. Before I get into the actual cards, let me share my dream with you! Please be kind; this is a real dream I had and there is a great bit of vulnerability when sharing it into the internet abyss. Also, be mindful that while this is a bit of a silly dream, it was quite a scary when I was having it, which is why I chose to delve more into it through the cards:

21 Feb 2024

I’m in this mall that has a glass ceiling. There is so much commotion happening outside. The ceiling is shattered as something huge come flying into it. I run, seeking shelter from the glass. I look out at what looks like an airport tarmac and see massive monsters. They are so big I can’t really even tell what they are.

I run, trying to find a safe place, but there is no safe place. I’m shockingly swift and don’t seem to become winded easily. I see this group if kinda “alternative” looking people, taking on a monster. They are so strong and fast it is like they are savage animals!

I join them—I don’t want to be a passive bystander! I try to help topple the monster too. I bite it and hit it and kick and do everything I can. I get knocked violently aside and I hurt from it. The monster doesn’t topple but runs away.

The leader, who I am acquainted with but don’t know well, pulls me up. I’m so tired I feel limp at this stage. He commands me to stay with the wolves, that we’re going to figure this out. I’m so puzzled, I tell him that I don’t know what he’s talking about. He’s puzzled then tells me I’m a wolf, don’t I know? I don’t. He takes my left arm and says we’ll see if the sign sticks.

He draws a finger down my left forearm on the top, from elbow to wrist and draws some sort of simple symbol. The area he touched first looked like water drawn on my skin then turns black as if tattooed or cauterized into the skin. “See?” he says. “You have the mark already.”

I go trailing after them. We run into a parking ramp to regroup, then we split up into smaller groups to try and secure a certain area. I cannot stop staring at the black mark on my arm!

I should start out that by no means do you need a ton of decks to do this dream draw; you’d be perfectly fine with just one tarot deck or well-rounded oracle. I just had the excuse to pull out some fun deck, so I did! When I typically do a drawing for a dream, I’ll pick one, two, or on rare occasion three cards to represent the main characters in the dream. I used Kim Krans’s The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit oracle for my two characters, my dream-self, and the “pack” leader:

For myself, I drew the Mouse, an earth sign, and for the leader, the Hawk, an air sign.

A mouse is notable for it’s small size. It is a relatively weak animal that is at the bottom of the food-chain, and of course a staple for hawks! Despite it’s timid nature, the mouse is know for its resourcefulness, and its ability to get into spaces its not welcomed and cause havoc. In numbers, mice can be very troublesome indeed. I should note that in my past month of reading Lenormand, the card “The Mice” has repeatedly appeared over and over, and we recently in our own home were losing the battle with a particularly clever and fit little mouse. I can see myself feeling small and fearful in this dream, unsure of myself, but I do not wish to be timid! I want to join others and help them out! Though I am marked as one of them, I do not feel it.

A hawk is considered a bird of prey that is either a buteo or an accipiter (so, not falcons). They have large wings, hunt open spaces and forests, use the wind to their advantage, as some can soar! They are powerful animals that are often viewed as being regal and proud. They have incredible eyesight and must develop deadly accuracy in hunting to survive. The leader in this group is perceptive and sees “the mark” of the “wolf” on me, which I cannot see myself. He comes across as strong and powerful, and somewhat intimidating.

Then, if there are big “themes” or “ideas” or “concepts” that appear in the dream, I might draw a card for those as well. In this dream, I had literal BIG monsters, and also the group of people dubbed “wolves” so I drew a card each for them from The Wild Unknown Archetypes deck (a deck I have a love-hate relationship with):

I pulled for the monsters LXXVII Aletheia. A Greek term that literally means “truth or disclosure in philosophy,” it is also described as “being unconcealed…(i.e) evident,” or relating to disclosure, revealing, factuality or reality (from Wikipedia). The not-so-little white book describes this card representing “truth” or “act of truth.” We see how the same rose looks in both black and white, no matter what way we look at it, it’s the same rose. These “Monsters” are showing me a truth–that there are some big problems that need to be tackled! They exist and affect everyone, whether we want to deal with them or not! And, it will take a group of people to get them to retreat, you cannot do it alone.

For the general group of monster-fighters called “Wolves” I drew LXX The Thread. This image seems both very tenuous but also strong! That person is hardly gripping a thread–its a huge cord! We see a splash of rainbow and color after the stark former Aletheia. The image says to me hope is thin, but not weak, you must grasp it hard and hold on! The LWB speaks to finding the purpose and meaning in the chaos and anchoring to it, which seems very fitting in this draw! We can see the “wolves” as giving us purpose to protect ourselves and attack back at the monsters in an organized way.

Then I decided to draw some tarot. Because I typically draw from jumpers, I usually will shuffle until I get at least three cards, but this deck (the all-new Asphodelon Mythos Tarot) seemed to have a lot to say and gave me six jumpers on the shuffle-through so I lined them up in the order they came leaping out.

In the past, I’ve read the tarot as a separate spread from the oracle cards, but after doing a month of Lenormand, I had a Galaxy Brain moment and realized I can read where the cards are placed relative to the oracle cards (okay, I know you seasoned veterans do this all the time, but I’m still learning, bear with me).

According to the cards, my dream-self in this dream has all the agency and tools at my disposal by which to act upon the world. I can make sudden decisions, and have the power to heal with my actions. I have a great amount of empathy and emotional soundness and security that allows me to love and feel deeply. Also, it’s interesting that with the “angel” like image combined with the two lovers, these two cards look strikingly like the traditional Lovers card which speaks of choices: I have a choice–what do I choose?

Okay, I’m not gonna lie–this is the first serious draw I’ve done with this deck and now I’m really bummed that I already have my monthly decks planned for several months because the Asphodelon Mythos Tarot is totally rad and I need to use it, constantly, for some time. This is an interesting combination of cards for our hawk character–if I saw a RWS clone pairing of the ace of cups with the devil I’d read it as a relationship for the wrong reasons, or a selfish emotional motivation. But in this ace of cups we see two intimate figures, Nix and Erebus. It reminds me of a ying-yang, two side of the same coin, darkness and light. The water out of the cup seems to be cascading down and trying to snuff out the raging Cronus. Perhaps we can say that our strong leader is representing the struggle between balance and selfishness? Maybe his role is to extinguish the threat. Maybe while he is a new person to me that has something to offer, there is a darker aspect that remains to be seen.

So if we take the two tarot under Aletheia (the Monster) we see the Ten of Swords and Death. Easy enough, there was a profound defeat/failure that was a definitive ending. But from that end is the beginning of something new.

Flanking The Thread (the “wolves”) is The Magician and the Ace of Cups–you have surprisingly found a new place–do you belong here? There’s a strong connection here, that is very empowering.

If we take the tarot together on their own, we see someone very assured and strong who was flying high took a terrible downfall and met a proverbial death. There is a rebirth that is more balanced, but the core problem still lingers and rages on (after all, the wolves and I did not kill the monster, it fled).

So, I asked the Liminality Oracle “advice about what can I do?” And drew:

Wow! Those are definitely very wolf-y creatures, aren’t they? Change first starts with you. Be the change you want to see. To change the course you have to take action. Work actively towards what you seek. Be dogged in your pursuit!

Hm, food for thought, eh!

How ’bout you? Do you ask your cards about your dreams?