The Page of Swords and Holiday Truths

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Welcome to the Yule Tarot Blog Hop 2014. For this turn of the Wheel, or wrangler, Arwen, has asked us all to perform the same spread with the deck of our choice, and share our results.

The spread Arwen designed is about the gift-giving nature of the winter festival season, regardless of the holiday or holidays you celebrate.

Each blog hop participant (there are twenty-four of us this time around) will perform the same spread, and share their results here, for the blog hop. You can try the spread, too!

The Joy of Gifting

1. What gift would you give the world if you could?
2. What gift would you want from the world?
3. What gift have you gotten that has brought you joy?
4. What gift have you given that has brought you joy?
5. What is one last thing you would like to share about this season

I’m using Ciro Marchetti’s Gilded Royale Tarot for this reading.

When doing this sort of reading, two things can happen. One possibility is that every card will make sense, and the reading will be immediately accurate and understandable. The other possibility is the cards drawn won’t easily fit the question. What do you do when the Three of Swords comes up to describe a gift you’ve given that brought you joy, for instance? When these things happen, the cards aren’t wrong, they just require you to dig a little deeper to understand their message.

Happily, my reading is of the first variety. The five cards I received fit the questions so amazingly it is hard to believe they came up at random.

The gift I would give the world if I could is the Knight of Cups.  Yes, I want to give every person on the planet the ability to know love, to feel loved, to be empowered by love and to understand the nature of love. That, indeed, would be my gift to the world.

The gift I would want from the world is a gift I have already received. That is the Three of Pentacles, the ability to work at my chosen craft, along with the skill and tools to do it well and receive recognition for my work.  My desire for the future is to keep receiving this gift for as long as I breathe!

The Nine of Cups is the traditional “Wish Card”, and appears to describe a gift I have gotten that has brought me joy. To me, this does not describe a particular tangible gift as much as it describes my general satisfaction and gratitude for the many, many blessings in my life. I will say, though, that one Yule I wished for a guitar. That guitar has brought me years of joy!

The gift I have given that brought me joy is the Knight of Wands. Outside of traditional holiday giving, the gift I give most regularly is the teaching of tarot. I hope that the Knight of Wands indicates that I am able to inspire other tarotists, and to nurture their passion. This brings me a great deal of joy.

The final card is meant to describe one last thing I would like to share about the season. The card I received is the Page of Swords. To me, the Page of Swords is the messenger of the truth. What truth would I like to share about this season?

The Page of Swords can refer to a smart child. Christmas is, in many ways, a children’s holiday. I don’t like that we celebrate this holiday by lying to children. The spirit of Santa, the energy of Santa, holiday miracles – these are all real, true things. Why do we have to darken them with a lie, when the myth and the truth of the holiday spirit would certainly suffice?

My children wrote letters to Santa, received gifts from Santa, and baked cookies for Santa. Never did they think Santa was a real person, and never did that make Yule any less special to them. As soon as they were old enough, they got to be Santa, too. We had wonderful holidays, and I never had to lie to them.

When I perform a tarot spread, I always like to look at the trends present in the cards. You will notice there are no Major Arcana cards. That doesn’t surprise me. As much as I like the holidays, now my kids are grown, the season is not as big a deal as it once was. Frankly, that’s a relief. I am happy to keep my holidays Minor Arcana style.

Of the five cards, three of them are young Court cards, two Knights and a Page. That really reminds me of my own precious childhood memories of the holidays. I’m pleased we were able to give our own kids some great holiday memories, too.

I think, too, the greatest gift of the holidays is spending time with friends and family, the people around us. It doesn’t surprise me that three of the five holiday cards are “people” cards.

Now let’s see how the other bloggers’ holiday readings went. If you are working backwards, visit Machelle Earley and wish her a happy holiday. Or, follow along to visit  Arwen's blog, and see how her reading unfolded.

Happy holidays, and thanks for stopping by.  We’ll see you at the next turn of the Wheel, for another Tarot Blog Hop!

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Yule 2013 Tarot Blog Hop: Turning Darkness into Light

Welcome to the Yule 2103 Tarot Blog Hop.
Perhaps you are joining me from Shauna Aura Knight’s blog.
When you finish here, hop over to Morgan Drake Eckstein’s “Gleamings from the Golden Dawn” blog.
If you find a break in the chain please visit the Master List.
If you want to learn more about the Tarot Blog Hop please visit our Facebook page.

This Tarot Blog Hop celebrates Yule, the Winter Solstice - the reason for the season. This time our wrangler is the intrepid Joanna Ash. In keeping with the traditional theme of Yule, Joanna has asked us to write about “turning darkness to light.”

I love Yule. I love the many ways we have to celebrate the return of the sun. I love drumming and chanting and eating cookies shaped like suns. Sometimes I incorporate the Sun tarot card in my Yule rituals. We pass the Sun card around the circle, filling ourselves with the energy of the card, and of the returning sun itself, while chanting, "We are one with the infinite sun, forever and ever and ever."

When we celebrate the returning sun in ritual we are celebrating that the darkness is turning to light, and we are working to shine that light into the dark places within ourselves.

As above, so below.

As the sun returns to the land, so light can return to our souls.

This journey from darkness to light is reflected in tarot in hundreds of different ways.

One way we turn darkness to light with tarot is to find healing within the difficult cards.

We all know which cards are the difficult ones – the Three of Swords, the Nine and Ten of Swords, the Devil and the Tower, amongst others. Typically the images and key words of these cards can be a bit disturbing.

Each one of these cards can reflect the darkness within us and around us, but within each of these cards is the secret to letting the light return.

Sometimes, whether reading for yourself or another person, these cards can cause undue distress. Here are some ways to turn the darkness of these cards into light.

Swords cards are universally viewed as dark and difficult. But Swords simply represent thoughts and words. While thoughts and words can be scary and hurtful, we have a great deal of control over how we experience thoughts and words.

Often the Three of Swords describes a situation where we have let the unkind words or actions of others, or our own fearful thoughts, pierce our heart.

The Three of Swords describes the need for the heart to heal. Often when we see this card we need to think about the things that have hurt us.  There are usually ways to reject the unkind words and actions of others or to reframe our own thoughts to allow our healing to begin.

The Nine and Ten of Swords are similar. Once again we have let thoughts or words injure us, this time even more severely.  These cards ask us to examine what is hurting us. With that, we are empowered to heal. We are empowered to discount the negative voices around us and within us, and find the light of our own true voice.

The Devil often shows human captives who are perfectly capable of leaving their captor. This card shows us our enslavement, and asks us to find the strength to walk away. The path from darkness to light is readily available as we lift the chain off our necks.

The falling of the Tower is painful, but necessary. The lightning that brings the Tower down brings with it enlightenment. From there, all new things are possible.

The next time a dark card appears in your tarot spread, don’t be alarmed. Instead, respond with eagerness and gratitude for the possibility of healing.

The cards that people most fear are often the cards that offer the most healing. Each of these dark cards gives us the chance to be empowered and enlightened. Each of these cards is an invitation to heal. Each of these cards gives us the opportunity to turn darkness into light.

Now you can continue through the hop by visiting the next blog, which is Morgan Drake Eckstein’s “Gleamings from the Golden Dawn” blog.
If you missed the blog before mine you can work backwards and visit Shauna Aura Knight’s blog.
If you find a break in the chain please visit the Master List.

Photo: Andrew Dunn

Christmas Present

Welcome to the Yule Tarot Blog Hop. Our topic this time around is simply this: Christmas Present. It will be great fun to see what each of us does with this!

Perhaps you have come from Chloe McCracken's blog.

When you finish here, proceed to Alison Cross' blog.

If you find a break in the chain please visit the Master List.

In honor of our theme "Christmas Present"  I will share my Tarot Gift-Giving Ritual.  This is something that has developed over time, primarily in Tarot Circle, my informal meetings for tarot fellowship and learning.

We have done Tarot Gift-Giving for fun while drinking wine and eating cake. We have done it in sacred space. A group of my friends and I did it in a very deep Yule ritual last year, complete with drumming and chanting. Global Tarot Circle tried an on-line version of the Tarot Gift-Giving Ritual and it was magnificent.

The idea behind this ritual is that each tarot card carries an energy. This is the basis for all tarot magick. This ritual is indeed a simple form of tarot magick.

Here's how it works.

In a small group, everyon can give an individual gift to each person there. In a large group it is better if each person choses only one person to whom to give a gift. Alternatively, you could have everyone draw names to determine to whom each person will give a gift.

Once each person knows to whom they will give a gift, everyone must look through their tarot decks. Each person must quietly select a tarot card to symbolically give as a gift; one card for each person they are gifting.

Once all gifts have been selected it is time to begin the giving ritual.  In an in-person gathering the gift cards can actually be handed to the recipient. Of course they are returned to their proper decks at the end of the ritual. Gifts should be given one at a time. The giver must explain their intention in giving the gift.

On a magickal level this can be a very powerful thing. For instance, when you hand the Ten of Pentacles to someone whom you know is trying to buy a home and say "I give you the Ten of Pentacles for success in your desire to own a wonderful home" you are bringing all the energy of the Ten of Pentacles as well as your own intentions to the recipient's desire. The other people in the ritual can empower the gift further by holding the intention in their hearts, and perhaps saying together as the gift is presented "so mote it be."

If there are members of the group that are not as familiar with the card meanings they can certainly look through the deck and find pictures in the cards that seem right. A new tarot reader might present a card such as the Sun and simply say "This looks like a happy card and I wish you happiness."

Beyond the magickal benefits of this ritual, this is a wonderful way to foster fellowship. It's also a great tarot teaching tool because it gets people thinking about card meanings and about the magickal uses of tarot.

Try this with your tarot class, study group, coven, Facebook group or friends. You can make your own rules to suit your particular group. You can do this any time of the year, but it surely is nice to do it at Yule.

And so to you, my tarot friends, at this time of returning light I give to you the Sun that you may allow yourself to shine brilliantly and that you may live without fear, delighting in all things.

If you are working backwards it's time to visit Chloe McCracken's blog.

If you are moving to the next blog in line it's time to visit Alison Cross' blog.

If you find a break in the chain please visit the Master List.

Happy Holidays to all!