Welcome to the first fruits of the harvest (especially if you live closer to the equator in the Northern Hemisphere). I’m looking forward to having my own harvest again next year when we will hopefully have a house and garden of our own. In the meantime, I am enjoying the locally grown produce here in southwestern Oregon, USA.
I think we all have various philosophies about how the cards “work” which inform to a certain degree the way we treat our tools. Wiccan readers probably have special rituals for cleansing their decks, while New Age intuitives may want to make sure they prepare their internal energies in a certain way to keep energetic integrity with the cards.
I’m pretty flexible with my deck rituals. I believe that the cards are in fact pieces of cardboard and that any energy that influences them comes from the people around them (reader and querent) in their interpretations of the symbols on the cards, with maybe a more distant influence from the collective consciousness of the planet (or the entire universe, for that matter).
I do like to keep my decks in cloth bags (see really cool handmade ones here) rather than boxes or tins. Just feels nice to me (velvet!!!). I do always light a candle when doing formal readings, and I would “cleanse” a deck by holding it in my hands and giving it my energies if I thought it had absorbed negative ones.
One possibly more unusual way that I give respect to my decks is to work with the traditions of the creators. Some deck creators don’t have a specific philosophy or even a little white book, but for those for whom the theme or world of the deck is part of the method of reading the cards or otherwise infuses the images with special meaning, I try to respect the deck creator’s viewpoint.
For example, I use the Mary-el Tarot for deeper psychological or spiritual readings, and I review the often long and ranging stories of where the images came from for Marie White and how different mythologies contributed to her connections among the cards. Same with the Thoth Tarot: I don’t read it like it’s RWS, but with the meanings given by Crowley (and analyzed by Duquette). I also don’t try to read Tarot de Marseille decks using RWS meanings; I use Lee Burton’s system of numerological, Platonic, and elemental associations to read those cards.
The most difficult deck that I love but have a hard time “respecting” the book on is the Wildwood Tarot. I find the environmentalist mission of the deck creators a bit intrusive in some of the cards, so far off the RWS system that I have a hard time giving an interpretation based on the book. It’s the one deck where abandoning the book and just going with traditional and intuitive nature-based symbolism (especially for the animal court cards) has served me better.
The Lazy Daisies Tarot Spread
To lighten things up and give you all something fun to do, I’m reprising this spread from Lammases gone by:
I know daisies have more than five petals, but I got this vision of sun-drenched fields, lying therein, with grass and daisies all around. It’s been a warm and busy summer, so, time to relax, I’m thinking. So, I asked the tarot these five questions to get reconnected to my happy holiday, relaxed self:
Card 1: What do I need to let go of to relax?
Card 2: And what else do I need to let go of to relax (there’s always more than one thing!)
Card 3: Where’s my field of daisies?
Card 4: How should I get there?
Card 5: What will I bring back with me besides daisies?
I got 8 Pentacles—4 Cups—Judgement—3 Wands—High Priestess. So, let go of work (that fits!), and a sense of there being nothing interesting to do that’s fun; find my field of daisies at a spa or even a cemetery where I can meditate and start anew; find a creative way to get there (probably not the car—boat or on foot?); be prepared to bring back a renewal of my intuitive powers. Let’s go!
Reply with your reading in the comments if you’d like. I’d love to hear about it!
Oh! I never even considered bringing in the deck creator’s intention as part of the ‘respect’. They did give their time in making artwork! I have read some of the books that come with but more often than not they half speak to me. I’ll start considering this aspect a bit more…
Glad you found some insight. Yeah, lots of decks don’t have a specific philosophy or mythological background with a long companion book, but I like to ‘get into’ the history of the symbolism. I just feel more connected to the deck’s art and ‘intent’ that way.
I struggle so much with the Wildwood! I’m glad to have found a kindred spirit. I couldn’t agree more with your reading philosophy and with the idea that you respect a deck by respecting the vision and intentions of its creator. Very well said.
I was going to make a separate comment, but JoW hit the nail on the head: Tarot decks are tools created for a specific purpose, and imbued by their creators with a particular emphasis. This is the primary reason that I prefer to read with playing cards and Tarot decks with non-illustrated pips and minimalist trumps: I’m free to use the tool as I see fit. Or, why waste my time with an angel trumpet when what I really want is a devil trombone? No matter how I blow into it, an angel trumpet will always produce the same range and quality of notes.
Yep, no trumpet, no day of judgement, although the trumps in Tarot are always illustrated in some fashion. I do find a certain freedom in reading Tarot de Marseille Minor Arcana. I like to have a system to work with for consistency, so I work with traditional meanings for numbers and suits that help me give a set of consistent interpretations. I’m actually afraid of playing cards, though. I envy you, James, your ability to work with such a stripped-down set of symbols. 🙂
As an artist and a writer, I occasionally will look at a card and wonder what was going on in the mind of the artist when they created a card. “Why is there a turtle in this card?” (Ten of Cups–The Secret Tarots–Marco Nizzoli) is an example.
Damn, why didn’t I think of mentioning bags? LOL
Oh yes! Considering the tradition and intention of the creator is a geat way to show respect! Reading Marseille with RWS meanings should be a crime. 😀
Thank you for the spread Joanne, I will have to try it!
Oh, Kati, not sure I want to put anyone in jail, but yes, I don’t see the point in putting meanings from one system onto another. As James says here, if there’s no trumpet then there’s not point in introducing one.
Right, Ania! Actually, your shop is on my to-do list for bags for the decks I won from the TABI conference raffle. I do like to get certain colors and designs to “go with” the themes of my decks. Just a thing…:)
Ooooh… deck creator’s viewpoints… Now there’s an area where curiousity got me into a whole new realm of cray cray… Ah! You live and learn… 😀
Karen, I hope to read more on your own blog about this new cray cray. 🙂