If you hang out on this blog for any amount if time, you will learn that Val and I take our Tarot very seriously. We would never revert back to our pre-teen giggly selves and never ever ask any dumb, stupid or insipid questions.
Enter this beauty! This Cupid’s arrow which pairs up two individuals (or hey, more if you want to add additional fletching at the top), and lays out their romantic path! Perfect for your secret ship, crush, D&D characters, you name it.
1. Person 1
2. Person 2 (add additional persons as needed)
3. Foundation of the relationship
4. Spark of the relationship
5. Choice that must be made
6. Death of the relationship
7. Life of the relationship
8. Tip 😉
Stacy’s Draw
Fyodor Pavlov Tarot, mass market
1 Person 1 (Page of Cups) considers their art their LIFE! They are here to live for the experience! They are looking for a muse.
2. Person 2 (Two of Cups) wishes to meet others and establish relationships–they are people persons and wish to find connection.
3. The foundation of their relationship (Ace of Pentacles) is one of similar entrepreneurial pursuits. Their worldly goals can further each other and are complimentary.
4. Their spark (Queen of Pentacles) is they are both extremely giving persons, willing to help others by sharing their resources. They are fertile individuals ready to make the most of what they have.
5. Ooooohh! They will have to choose (Nine of Pentacles) a life style of comfort and means, or accepting their love as it is! XD!
6. The death of the relationship (King of Swords) is relying too heavily on logic, being too black and white, letting one’s ego get too big, one insisting on being the top dog, not remembering your emotional side (seeing as person 1 and person 2 are both cup cards).
7. What brings this relationship to life (XI Justice) is seeking fairness and balance. Doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do rather than based off expectations. Being brave and seeing the truth of matters.
8. Tip: (Eight of Pentacles) Making something beautiful takes time and practice. Use your hands, be crafty. Manual labor may be required ;-).
Full disclosure, I “draw” cards from the deck by choosing jumpers, and usually only single jumpers at that. I am astonished at how pentacles heavy this draw became! This couple clearly is really rooted into the earthy material world and may be business partners, even though they themselves are rather emotional people.
Here’s a big ol’ Love Draw! Feel free to word this as it suits your situation! For example, you an ask “How to keep alight an old flame?” or “How to alight an old flame” or “How to stomp out an old flame?”
What self-love can I practice?
What toxic love should I be rid of?
What or whose unrequited love lingers in my life?
How to keep alight an old flame?
How can I help fulfill another’s love?
What will help my fantasy come true?
What sudden Cupid’s arrow of infatuation will strike me?
What new love (person or otherwise) is entering my life?
How can I nurture true love (person, yourself, hobby)?
How can I invite more love in my life?
Stacy’s Draw
The Victorian Romantic Tarot, 4 edition standard. Also used the 4 edition special large.
1 What self-love can I practice?
Ace of Pentacles: Be your own entrepreneur! Take a financial opportunity and run with it!
2 What toxic love should I be rid of?
The Magician: Be rid of the romantic idea that working late and working yourself to death is going to lead to success (can we just talk about that creepy skeleton leering at the magician?!? This is what happen when you pull all-nighters!).
3 What or whose unrequited love lingers in my life?
Two of Pentacles: There is a person who loves you only when you perform–they only love what you can do for them, and only love an imagined version of you rather than the authentic you! They command, you respond.
4 How to keep alight an old flame?
Nine of Swords: Get out of your comfort zone! Take a risk, go out on a limb, try something you’ve never done before!
5 How can I help fulfill another’s love?
Six of Pentacles: Help another by being generous–see things for how they really are and give the resources you have a plenty.
6 What will help my fantasy come true?
The High Priestess: Follow your dreams! Trust your gut and intuition. Remember Beauty is as Beauty does. Be an active player in your life. Embrace your femininity.
7 What sudden Cupid’s arrow of infatuation will strike me?
Eight of Wands: The need for speed! The desire to move and act. A partner in action. A partnership of the man and beast.
8 What new love (person or otherwise) is entering my life?
The Knight of Pentacles: What a wonderfully puzzling card! I feel like there’s many ways to read this–a steadfast, knight in shining armor who will protect me, a steady eddy, a person of underrated skill, someone who is indifferent to me, OR a person I save who I am indifferent to that lavishes their affections onto me.
9 How can I nurture true love (person, yourself, hobby)?
Five of Cups: Accept your loss, process grief and move on. I love in this card how the woman is clearly moving past the fallen cups. Only then will you have space to nurture true love.
10 How can I invite more love in my life?
4 of Pentacles: Be willing to wait and save your resources for those special moments–do some “house cleaning” and get rid of the unnecessary people and things in your life. Keep what matters and allow it to grow!
And then for fun, I drew one card from the large edition of this deck asking for advice:
Ah! The Magician makes a second appearance! I’d say that this is reiterating that while some aspects of The Magician I could and should discard, the general spark and individuality of The Magician should be preserved! Be your best self!
There’s plenty of sites out there that explore the various pagan and related festivals of Imbolc. For me, it means that the worst and darkest of winter is over (supposedly!). While it’s too covered in snow to start thinking of planting here, I do get out and “garden” in the sense I trim our fruit bearing plants and the roses. In the home, it’s the time to take down any remaining holiday decorations and do a serious deep clean of my pantry and refrigerator.
Le Tarot de Marseille-Waite and Slavic Legends Tarot special edition
Of all the celebrations in February, I personally really enjoy the French festival Valerie introduced me to which, on Candlemas or Fête de la Chandeleur, they have crepes! While I don’t go to the mass, I 100% am on board with Crepe Day!
Imbolc: In the Belly of the Mother, by Valerie
1. How does this winters’ blank slate invite me to start afresh?
2. Which seed should I prioritize under the grow light?
3. How should I help it grow?
4. Which seed should not be discarded?
5. How to gently nourish it?
6. Message from Brigid
Stacy’s Draw
I’m using Le Tarot de Marseille-Waite seeing as it has such a good growing spring vibe, along with The Nameless One Oracle
1. How does this winters’ blank slate invite me to start afresh?
6 de Coupes: You should embrace the child-like spirit, good fond memories, and an innocence in the belief of human good. Don’t take things so seriously, take the time to notice and enjoy life (stop to smell the flowers, for crying out loud!)
2. Which seed should I prioritize under the grow light?
IV L’Empereur: The authority! It’s time to be the emperor of your life–you’re the boss, make yourself rules to follow and practice discipline to find your success. Take the wheel, baby!
3. How should I help it grow?
Valet des Epees: Follow new ideas to see where they go! Slack that thirst for knowledge by finding out for yourself. Again, be disciplined, but don’t be rigid–sometimes you are meant to follow this side tangent. Be enthusiastic in following your curiosity. Nurture the mind.
4. Which seed should not be discarded?
10 de Epees: The pain and defeat of your past should not be ignored nor attempted to be forgotten.
5. How to gently nourish it?
4 de Batons: Celebrating your current successes, even if small, will help heal the past pain and wounds.
6. Message from Brigid: XXII The Poised and Patient Ones (Reversed)
Affirmation: I am poised and patient.
Especially when you are impatient, fearful and angry is patience required. Nothing worth having or doing happens suddenly or quickly. Wounds take time to heal, wrongs take time to right. Take a breath, do one thing at a time.
This draw seems on-point with my healing journey. You need to embrace the good things, be your own boss and leader, heal the old pains and be patient with yourself.
I will openly admit that while I don’t make a *big* deal about it, I really like celebrating Valentines Day, and I like to imagine February as being the “romance” month. Part of it is February here at least is cold, grumpy, and generally hung over from January so any excuse to make it better I’m on board with. I have a real romantic streak in me that goes out of it’s way to try and find excuses to make things more lovey-dovey for lack of a better word.
So no surprise, I wanted to bring out some of the most romantic decks I got!
First, we typically don’t see any signs of spring here for another month or two. The quirky Le Tarot de Marseille-Waite by Emmanuelle Iger and Alice Laverty has such a bright, happy spring tones that really soothes the soul. This French mass market deck, as implied by the name, is a hybrid of Marseille majors and RWS minors. It’s imagery is set in Europe, high-medieval era, and is just a wonderfully Hollywood romanticized (see the Medieval Europe Tarot for a not-so-romanticized version). So chivalric, much quaint, very wow. This deck gave me the Reine des epees (Queen of Swords). I guess despite my imagining that all’s going to be fru-fru, I’m going to have to be a discerning bad ass and cut the shit out of my life. ;cries;
Next, we are really still in some short, dark days, and I wanted to put to use my much beloved The Nameless One tarot and oracle deck. This underrated, sigil including masterpiece from Xia Hunt has such wonderful gothic-romance vibes. It’s beautiful, it’s lush, it’s dark. What more can you ask for?!?
I drew the Queen of Cups from this one–so maybe there’s some hope yet for the idealized February! This queen of cups is rather cold, but she has Cancer in her crown, reminding us to embody the best of this zodiac by being the caregiver to ourselves and others–to be a devoted and emotionally stable partner. To practice empathy and trust our intuition. I tend to see the Queen of Swords and the Queen of Cups as opposite sides of the same coin.
Of course I had to include The Victorian Romantic Tarot by Baba Studio. There’s little point in me even explaining this one. This deck gave me the Four of Cups, which is probably my favorite four of cups ever (my god, the poor man’s expression!). I’ll have many options, but I won’t like any of them. What I have isn’t perfect, and I’ll turn my nose up to it in dissatisfaction (omg!). I’m going to keep searching.
And finally, I wanted to bust out and use the mass market edition of Fyodor Pavlov’s Tarot. I have the indi version, but the mass market is so beautiful I want an excuse to use it! It’s perfect for the month of romance with all its various expressions of love. That, and it’s just saucy as all get out.
This deck gave me the Queen of Wands! Three queens??? This queen is a total bad ass as well, focused on her goals, the boss, a lady that knows what she wants and how to get it (thank goodness, because apparently I don’t), and she has a little magic luck on her side too.
And for an oracle deck, I wanted to use Xia Hunt’s companion oracle to The Nameless One tarot. I drew the card XV called The Victor’s Blade, with the tl:dr of “I rise victorious; I overcome all hindrances and defeat all opponents.” This is a very Machiavellian card that feels like a hybrid of the Six of Wands and the Five of Swords. It’s the ‘do anything to win’ card, the ends justify the means, but it also means standing up and defending that which is meaningful or precious to you.
Phew! Well, taken all together, I’d say this month requires me to wear many hats of my feminine persona, none of which necessarily fulfill me, but together get the necessary job done!
January is probably the toughest month for me. It is not that it is particularly more dark than December (December and February here are really miserably dark months) but it historically becomes bitterly cold. It gets so cold that I don’t want to be outdoors, and I suffer when I cannot be outside.
I find it is natural when you’re trapped inside swaddled in sweaters to end up spending quite a bit of time doing retrospective thinking, and planning. To stave off some of the seriousness that is involved with this rumination, I usually indulge in reading a fantasy book or two, the likes of which I used to read as a kid. This month I wanted to actively focus on treating the inner child with kindness. It’s been a rough couple years and said inner child has been neglected, and boy oh boy can tarot help with that journey.
To that end, I think I picked a set of decks to use for this month that are actually perfect, and I must say that the month’s reading is also right on point! I set the intention to be kind and loving to my child-self and the cards did not disappoint in our first read!
January decks starting from the upper left clockwise: the Monsoon Tarot (Kickstarter edition), Tarot of the Abyss, The Brady Tarot (second edition), Tarot of the Divine, center The Drifting Moon Tarot (Kickstarter majors edition). Reading cloth is from The Tarot of Sorts Kickstarter.
The first deck is the new Kickstarter release of the Monsoon Tarot by Woh Studios. This is certainly a dark horse deck, and I was really on the fence backing it, but man-oh-man am I glad I did! This sweet yet eerily surreal deck seems to take on the premise of what would the world look like if there was a great flood. It’s very loosely based on RWS but really has its own internal workings and is a stellar emotional reader. I haven’t had it long, but I’ve been using it quite a bit already and I really like how gentle, yet stern and serious it’s artwork is. There is an uncanny depth to this deck that I just love. It has a pale, pastel sort of coloration that seems to be very dream-like. For January’s fruition, this deck gave me the Six of Air (Swords) where a little girl that is floating helplessly on her bed finds a cheerful rabbit family–finally you have found safety.
The second deck is Tarot of the Abyss. I bought this deck last year because it immediately spoke to my inner child. I’ve actually found myself avoiding it because it really stirs my emotions, but now is the time! The deck agrees with me because it gave me the stunning spiritual metamorphoses XX Awakening card for January’s Inspiration, and that really warms my heart.
The third deck is the Brady Tarot–an animal deck of wood cut beauty, it’s hard not to fall head over heels all the details and inspiring images and homage to nature and wild life. I must admit though that I find this deck very challenging since it does not sugar coat the harsh realities of life. I can wax on about this deck, but the art speaks for itself. As a child, I loved (and lets be real, I still do!) all that is the natural world and this deck invokes that sense of wonder. For my monthly obstacle I got the Three of Feathers/Vantage (Wands). The leopard is planning its next move. Yes, already we’ve been struggling to see ahead and plan for our next five, ten years!
And, as I planned from the very get go of monthly decks, the fourth deck I’ll be working with is the famous Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine. All children love stories and I’ve always loved telling and writing a good yarn! The colors are wonderful and images so clear yet thought provoking, and I love relearning or learning for the first time new tales from other cultures. Perfect for the cold days of January. For ingenuity of the month, I drew XXI The World–the world awaits and you have everything you need to figure it out. This fun world card also suggests partnership–I can share my adventures with my husband and loved ones!
Finally, in addition, I’ll be using the majors tarot The Drifting Moon (from a recent Kickstarter) as a supplement deck–the sweet story book images seem to really fit the feeling of the rest of the decks.
What decks are you using this month?
PS also, my tarot challenge of the month is I am going to read ONLY upright cards! I want to try it! Maybe I’ll continue a while with uprights only, we’ll see how the month goes.
While traditional Chinese new years fortunes and the 12 (year) animal zodiac correspondences aren’t exactly related to tarot, we can still have plenty of fun doing a lunar new year reading! This year, we are in the year of the rabbit!
Rabbits are no stranger in the tarot world, nor is the imagery of rabbits and the moon.
Right to left, The Oriens Tarot, Star Spinner Tarot, Oak, Ash & Thorn Tarot
Ever heard of the man in the moon? Well, in many eastern myths there’s a rabbit in the moon (can you see the bunny in the dark lunar maria?)! Of course, if you own a yard that is frequented by rabbits, you will also be well aware that most of their antics happen at night, when the moon is out. I know my local bunnies have disco parties under the full moon!
Draw suggestions: Lay out the draw in a circle. Like a clock, place the first card on the one o’clock space position, second card in two o’clock, etc.
1. Productivity: Rabbits are notoriously fertile creatures and their species’ success relies on their shot gun approach to reproduction–ask yourself, How will I be wildly productive this year?
2. Creativity: Along similar lines, how can you channel creativity this year? Rabbits are clever creatures and owe much of their success to solving problems creatively.
3. Concerns of the Family: Rabbits have large families, what is a concern your family will face this year?
4. Concerns of the Home: Rabbits burrow and can create complex warrens to live in with or without their families. What should I pay attention to in my physical home space?
5. Health: Rabbits rely on a healthy diet and regular exercise to be their best bunny self. What can I be mindful of regarding my eating and exercise?
6. Goals: Rabbits are fast little critters! What will speed me towards my goals this year?
7. Self Improvement: There’s many a story out there about the quick, clever rabbit who became arrogant about his speed and ends up losing the race to someone much slower! What is something that I’m arrogant about that I should be careful not to over look?
8. Introducing Novelty: Rabbits have fast, ever-growing teeth! They constantly need to be chewing them to wear them down. What is something new that I can “cut my teeth on” this year?
9. Conflict: Rabbits are masters of Freeze and Flight in dangerous situations–what is a situation that would be best to run away from?
10. Releasing Old Energy: On the flip-side, rabbits can run away without reason as a type of escapism that prolongs the inevitable. What am I doing that is practicing unnecessary escapism? (For example, I scroll through my phone rather than take care of a responsibility)
11. Social Habits: Rabbits are incredible social creatures–what is something I can do to liven up my social life?
12. Live in the Moment: Here’s our “full rabbit moon”–rabbits live short lives, but they certainly know how to live it up! What can you do to let your hair down and have some fun and live in the moment?
Stacy’s Draw
The Star Spinner Tarot, by Trungles
While I didn’t have the perfect deck for this draw (but Val sure does!), I wanted a deck with a bit of mythic flare and sensibility with a good dose of celebratory bright colors to perk up the stint of grey we’ve been having, and what better deck than the Star Spinner?
1.Productivity: 7 of Chalices I can be productive by choosing projects that speak to my heart, and eliminate the others.
2. Creativity: VI The Lovers Channel creativity with love! Do what you love, with the ones you love.
3. Concerns of the Family: 7 of Coins Its time for your family to consider long term investments. You need to plan how and when and where to do this. “Cultivate resources responsibility” says Trungles. Be prepared for the moment you need to take action.
4. Concerns of the Home: Knight of Wands Your physical home is your oyster! Have fun, show personality, be bold!
5. Health: Page of Chalices Remember kindness towards yourself–you’re body is always changing and growing. Approach change with curiosity! Also, if you take care of your dogs’ physical needs, that will take care of yourself as well.
6. Goals: 10 of Chalices Self love and general emotional wholeness and wellness and balance will speed you to your goal. People experience success and happy endings differently, there is no single road map.
7. Self Improvement: 4 of Chalices You are determined to do it all on your own! It’s okay to take the low handing fruit and enjoy what you have every once and a while. Be aware of moving goal posts–take the time to celebrate the little victories so you’re not disappointed in your seeming lack of accomplishments.
8. Introducing Novelty: 0 The Fool Try being completely new student at something! It’s time to free yourself of imagined outcomes.
9. Conflict: Ace of Wands Run away from taking on any more passion-projects! You have enough to do on your plate.
10. Releasing Old Energy: XII The Hanged Man I practice escapism by saying something is not my problem when perhaps I should take action! Be more discerning on what is and is not my problem.
11. Social Habits: 9 of Chalices To improve my social life don’t be afraid to take center stage every now and then. Enjoy the fruits of your journey, dance for fun!
12. Live in the Moment: X The Wheel of Fate To enjoy and live in the moment, just accept things as they come and go! It’s okay that there are ups and downs.
And for fun, I did my typical end of a reading draw where I take the top card of the deck as an answer to Where am I coming from? and the bottom of the deck card to Where am I going?
Where are you coming from? Queen of Wands
Where are you going? 10 of Pentacles
I’m going from a young, vivacious woman with a big cat frolicking outside in a field of sun flowers, to an old man with a dog inside a house, looking at a big fucking castle! Just kidding! I’m going from a state of meeting challenges with determination and passion, and being a high achiever to being satisfied and content with my work and their results. I’m living in abundance and stability.
