Tea-break Tarot School

Good morning.  Settle down with your mug and take a few deep breaths, phew it’s crazy out there…

Notices first.  Someone raised this in the group (for which I’m really thankful, because I had forgotten to mention it…) reversals.  Reversals are where you read cards when they are upside down.  So if you turn up three cards and one is reversed it’s possible to read this.  It’s not exactly the opposite of the card meaning, more like a contrary energy.  This post tells you more.

I am still making my mind up about reversals.  To start with I didn’t read them at all.  I currently don’t read them when I read for other people.  But I am starting to read them for myself.  I did a course with Colette Baron-Reid a couple of years ago and her oracle card systems use reversals as a key part of they way the operate, so when I use her cards I read reversals.  In short you can read them if you want to.   If you’re just starting out I would say get confident with the deck and reading “right way up” before you shift your practice to include reversals but it’s completely up to you. Some days you might feel like reading them some days the dynamics between the cards in your spread will feel like more than enough.

Secondly a note on this journey through the deck.  I’m not using guidebooks when writing about the cards.  You can, of course, and I have used guidebooks in the past and will in the future.  There are loads of great books out there and I will pop a list up of my favourites at some point, however for the purpose of this class I’m just sitting with the cards and seeing what comes up.  This might be something generic, or it might be how much that character’s cloak makes him look like a Jedi.  We’ll see how it unfolds…

Exercise 10

For today I looked at five different Magician cards and these were some of the words and phrases which came out and things I noticed:

• The elemental tools on the altar/ table
• Eye contact
• Focus
• Determination
• Intention
• Hands
• As above, so below
• Infinity symbol
• Energy
• Creating
• Power
• Clothing

Reflection:

Gather, a cup, a wand, a bag of earth.  Light the candle and raise your hands to the sky.  This is the beginning.  Draw in, the power of the earth, of the oceans and stars.  Create the space, the place, where heaven and earth meet with you, meet in you.  Clear in you mind, clear in your vision,  you birth your magic into the world.

Some thoughts:

• Where can you embody focus and intention in your life today?
• What helps you to create the space to weave your own “magic”?
• Who do you know who captures this sense of focused power?
• Have you thought about using the four elements in your daily practice?  What would you choose to represent them?

[Decks used today: The Gaian Tarot, The Green Witch Tarot, The Textured Tarot, The Wayfarer Tarot and The Wildwood Tarot).