Magic Words & Symbols Spotted in the Wild

Tarot in the Wild

Some items of Tarot interest from our main website:

A page of swords as an exterminator

A knight of swords with a night rainbow

A fool in a lightning storm

A page of cups toasts the starry sky

A page of swords greets the rising sun

A tarot party in an old college yearbook

An entire college yearbook organized as a tarot spread

A Review of our Tarot of Portmeirion

Pictured, we're listening to the whispers of a standing stone at Portmeirion, Wales, part of our research for the Tarot of Portmeirion deck and book.  We're delighted by a new review of that project:

The Trump L’Oeil Tarot of Portmeirion is an exciting Tarot experiment that cannot be missed in your deck collection. It’s an invitation to delve into those elements that day by day challenge us to think about the coincidences that manifest the archetypal energy contained in the world of men. Do you dare to find the archetypes that govern your life? You can see them in Portmeirion, that’s for sure.

Some additional snippets from the review:

Any tarot deck is a journey, but Trump L’Oeil Tarot of Portmeirion represents an adventure of multiple nuances and layers. In this card set, you will find a photographic trip through the streets of Portmeirion, a small but very peculiar Village located in the north of Wales. ...

Craig Conley, the author of Trump L’Oeil, is a multifaceted artistic documentarian, with a passion for literature, arts, photography and, of course, Portmeirion. Conley is dedicated to spiritual growth, transformation, and study from the most diverse perspectives.  In some sense, his personality is as baroque as that of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the visionary who built Portmeirion. With great achievements in the world of music and technology, this hard working artist was captivated by the charm of Portmeirion village and fell into the psychic spell of the archetypes that abound in its streets. ...

Walking through Portmeirion inch by inch we will find those little miracles of the collective unconscious that let us glimpse the depth of Jung’s research. Each corner holds a powerful relic that immediately takes us back to think about a Major trump and its important guidance towards personal enrichment.  The statue of a cherub on the verge of falling from a cliff is one of the most touching and impressive interpretations that we can confer to the Fool Major Trump. Usually portrayed as an older man being chased by the intuitive dog that protects him, we can easily connect with the erratic energy of this little angel who sloppily throws himself into the world of mortals in a decision that could change his life, isn’t that a perfect analogy for our dear Fool?  Of course, the Magician cannot be other than Sir Williams-Ellis, the alchemist who took all the elements at his disposal during a construction and reconstruction process that took him 50 years to complete. The minor Trumps are symbolized in relation to the elements with which they have traditionally been associated.

The deck is also available at GameCrafter.  Look inside the book over at Amazon.

Tarot Anagrams

From our guest blog for Thematic Tarot:

At least as far back as ancient Roman times, anagrams have delighted would-be prophets by unlocking mystical hidden meanings in words and phrases.  The names of Tarot's Major Arcana make for some intriguing rearrangements, to be sure.  For example, we learn of The Empress that "she tempers."  The World appears to have "held wort" (plant medicine).  The Hanged Man, not surprisingly, "hated hangmen."  The Fool seems to ask to be allowed to walk on: "let hoof."  The Chariot apparently operates according to a "Torah ethic."  Pictured are all the anagrams we were able to decipher.  You might have noticed that there are no anagrams for Strength or Judgment, as those two left us stumped.   But grab some Scrabble tiles and try your own hand at anagramming the Tarot.  See for yourself whether the Ace of Swords represents a "coward's foes," whether the Six of Pentacles "expels factions," and whether "few pagans do" the Page of Wands

The "Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do" Spread

The Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do spread is for issues of disharmony, feeling out-of-synch, needing a tune-up, or trying to orchestrate a complicated arrangement.  Each note of the scale has a different meaning, according to the mnemonics of the famous song from The Sound of Music:

1. Do is "a female deer," and the card for this note describes the totem for the reading.
2. Re is a "drop of golden sun," referring to a guiding light.
3. Mi is "a name I call myself" and stands as the significator.
4. Fa is "a long, long way to run," referring to the undertaking at hand.
5. So is "a needle pulling thread" and points to elements that need to be brought together.
6. La is "a note to follow So" and therefore the result of the previous synthesis.
7. Ti is "a drink with jam and bread," referring to what will sustain this undertaking.
8. "And that brings us back to Do," which offers a sense of progression from the first to the last card.

Here's a link to a sample spread we did regarding an ambitious music festival that sounds like the recipe for disaster.

The Magic Word AGLA as a Tarot Spread Template

The great alchemist John Dee designed a protective magical talisman under the direction of the angel Uriel: crossed lines, a central circle, and the letters A, G, L, and A.  These letters constitute an acronym (also known as a kabbalistic "notariqon") of the unspeakable primordial name that was lost through the ages.  It's a well-kept secret that this talisman can serve as a revealing template for a four-card Tarot spread.  We explore the how and why in our guest post for Thematic Tarot.

Tarot and Punctuation

See our piece on punctuating a Tarot spread over at Thematic Tarot.

The Bears Suit is Rarely Drawn in Winter Months

"Talcing" the Tarot?

What does talcum powder have to do with little sparkling stars and Tarot cards?  See our guest blog over at Thematic Tarot.

A Picture Book of Life

"The tarot deck is a picture book of life, an answer to the deepest questions of philosophy and history, and sometimes a means of prediction."  A still from Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965).

Two Alchemical Tarot Decks

Here's our comparison of two alchemical tarot decks.