Miss Fiona's Tea-break Tarot School

I’m doing some classroom admin today.  The windows and doors a wide open, I’m sweeping out the dusty corners and clearing the crumpled bit of paper from the corners of the room.

I realise that I don’t know exactly where certain lessons and resources are so I’ve been through to have a little tidy.  If you’re starting now, welcome, I hope this is helpful.  If you’re a long time student I hope this will be of use in tracking where you’re at :-).

• Lessons 1 – 8: Introductory lessons and preparing to read the cards.
• Lessons 9 – 31: The Major Arcana
• Lessons 32 – 47: The Suit of Pentacles
• Lessons 48 – 63: The Suit of Swords
• At this point there are some additional lessons and two initial lessons for preparing for the wands (I’ll need to go back and renumber!)
• Lessons 64 – 77: The Suit of Wands
• Lesson 78ff (this is where we’re up to as of today!): The Suit of Cups

That’s it for today.  Hope you’re having fun with your cards…keep shuffling xx

Here we are, beginning our journey through the final tarot suit!   Stand with me.  Face the west.  Call upon the spirits of water; mermaids, dolphins, kelpies and selkies.

Before we begin looking at the cards we will take some time in this lesson to connect to the element of water.

Use this spread for starters:

Exercise 78:

For your “practical” spend some time with water:

• drink it
• bathe in it
• splash in puddles
• swim
• paddle in the sea
• have a water fight
• water your plants.

Watch how it moves, flows, sometimes gentle, sometimes with enormous force.

Reflect on its power to wear down mountains over time, to be shaped as snow or ice, to float, almost weightless, in the clouds.

The King of Wands.

We have explored King energy before.  You may see a throne, a male figure, a wand in some form in your cards.

Here we are combining the energy of Wands and the fire element with an outward energy, what can be seen in the world from creative endeavours?

Rather than describe this King our lesson today is practical.

Exercise 77

Time to get creative!

Grab your paintbrushes, pens, glue and old magazines.  Grap your whittling knife, warm up your vocal chords, tune your instruments, mould the clay.

Mastery comes through practice.  The outward sign of creativity comes through creating.

Embody the energy of the King of Wands in your sacred play 🙂

Come over to the group and share the magic you make.

 

 

Ladies and gentlefolk, please be upstanding.

When she enters the room you can’t help but be captivated.  It’s as though she sparks with intense energy, a fiery sexy siren in killer red heels.

The energy of this Queen in our classroom is overwhelming, we all want to talk to her, and if she catches your eye you feel the crackle of her unique synergy; it’s contagious.

She’s a fire brand, creative soul, a dancer, a campaigner, glamourous, fierce, unconventional, strong, passionate, alchemy in action.

She reminds me of an artiste.  Perhaps an Angelina Jolie or the super-glam Jonny Woo.

This Queen’s energy can help us with our creative projects, our passions, our dreams, her fire helps us transform situations, gives us the energy to bring ideals into reality.  You may recognise someone in your life in her, or know this energy in yourself.  In a reading she points us towards calling our dragons and using them to fly high and free.   It’s time to get in touch with that fire in your belly and shine.

Exercise 76

1. Listen to This Girl is on Fire and sing at the top of your  voice.

2. Follow with this…

3. What makes you feel confident?  What lights you up?  Wearing heels?  Your “witch please” T shirt?  Dancing the night away in clubland? Painting? Writing?  Singing karaoke?  Do more of that.

4. Spend a week with your Queen of Wands card.  Put her somewhere prominent in the house, she’s your mentor this week.  What has she got to teach you about dragon taming and lighting your own freaky fire?

 

Welcome class; how have you been?

Notices first.  There’s a free Facebook group to accompany this class.  Here you can access additional information such as deck review videos, ideas for practice and free spreads.  Come and say hi.

Today’s lesson considers the Knight of Wands.  If we connect our court cards with specific people then the Knight energy is that of the adolescent/ young adult.  Knights are often optimistic, driven, idealistic.  They carry the vibrant, external energy of their suit and element.  In the Wands this is fire.  You can imagine where this is going…

In my cards the Knight is often mounted, usually on a horse, though in one image on a lion (The Texture Tarot)!  They carry their wand like a spear, driving forward, there is movement and energy.

The Knight of Wands is a fiery character.  I have someone like this in my family.  Creative, with more energy than any normal human, sparky, warm, but also quick-tempered, not suffering of fools, swift, impulsive, determined to the exclusion of all else, focused.

When the Knight of Wands crops up in a reading it may refer to someone you know, or to an energy like this at play in your own life.  For instance, if I see the Knight of Wands in a reading for myself I might ask how I can engage more with this forthright, passionate, alchemical energy, and where I need to be aware of rushing in with too much fire…

Exercise 75

• If the Knight of Wands cropped up in your reading, who might it represent in your circle of family or friends?
• What would it be like to spend a day with this Knight?  Would it be fun? Comfortable? Inspiring? Dangerous?
• How does this Knight spend her spare time?
• How can you work with the energy of the Knight of Wands when needing greater energy or creative spark?

It’s the end of the term, and we’re fortunate in class to have a visitor this week. She’s a firecracker, literally; lively, charming, a little bit chaotic and risky.  Welcome ladies and gentlefolks our Page of Wands.

Fire is the element of alchemy and transformation and this page brings with her an energy of change.

In my cards she is a snake curled into an infinity symbol around a budding wand, speaking of shedding skins which no longer fit and the possibility of new growth.  She is a brightly dressed fiddle player lost in her music.  Or a child watching over a fire, eyes aglow with wonder and mischief. She reaches up into stars above a tower of flames with a tiger at her heels. She is a fox, quick-witted and cunning or a stoat, alert, graceful, watching.

Listen to the wisdom of the Page of Wands in the coming weeks.  As I write we’re approaching Yule/ Christmas-tide.  Often this is a time of family gatherings, social occasions.  It is a time often burdened with tradition, patterns, expectations.  The Page of Wands encourages us to bring a little alchemy to this time of year.  To bring the magic of fire, of transformation to our seasonal practices, whatever our faith; to stay open to wonder and the possibility of doing differently.

Exercise 74

• How can you work with the Page of Wands to bring transformation to your traditions and established patterns?
• What can this Page teach you about everyday alchemy?
• Where do you need more mischief in your life?
• If you were to embody the Page of Wands what would this look like for you?
• Light and candle, watch its flame dance, then make a wish and blow it out.  There is power and magic in our childhood dreams and beliefs.

We arrive to class today weighed down.  Some of you come with projects, huge 3D models, A1 size posters rolled beneath your arms, bags full of books.  We are burdened, in seeking to do our best we’ve managed to bring everything but the kitchen sink.  There’s no room in the room, we’re falling over each others bags and props and getting scratchy and ill-tempered.

In a reading this card to me is “too much.”  It’s the card of burn out, fatigue, trying too hard, over-egging life’s puddings.  It’s the card of well-intentioned care for others which turns unwittingly into martyrdom or enabling, it’s the card of over-responsibility and self-sacrifice.

The witch in this picture looks exhausted.  She can barely climb the hill she’s attempting with her arms so full and it looks like only a matter of time before she lands flat on her face, the brooms scattering in all directions.

When you turn it over feel the stifling, muggy heat of a late summer day before a thunderstorm, be aware of the need to pull back and allow the lightning crack, allowing it to release everything you’ve been holding.

As a ten this card is the culmination of the pip cards in this suit, the end of a journey.  Might be an idea to put some of those brooms down before you start anything new…

Exercise 73

1. Stop and take a breath.

2. What are you holding which isn’t yours to carry?

3. Look at what you can set down.

4. Now do it.  Your arms may ache for a while, as you let go of the things you don’t need to carry, but in time you’ll adjust and be able to move more freely as a result, ready for the birth of the next cycle.