Criteria for Favourite Tarot Decks

One topic of conversation that’s been coming up between colleagues and me these past few months is the tarot decks we enjoy using and why we like to use them.  Even this morning, a man who’s a fellow member of a Facebook tarot group and I had a chat about decks that really work for us.  It turns out that we both honour the Feminine, so we like decks that have a sense of respect for Goddess, female teachers, and the Earth.

In addition to that, I find myself using countercultural tarot packs more often.  That is, packs of cards that depict a way of living in our world that’s different than our culture’s current status quo.  The cards of the Medicine Woman Tarot by Carol Bridges, in her words, “depict women of power and men of love living a life in balance”.  The Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert aims to provide images that “help create a culture of strong and gentle women and men, working together to create a beautiful, peaceful and just planet.”  We’re inundated with images from the advertising industry that tell us we’re not good enough, smart enough, sweet-smelling enough, cool enough, or _______ enough.  These exploitative advertisements, whether on TV, online, in publications, or on signs as we walk up the street, encourage us to consume, consume, consume without thinking about or thanking the source/s of these products.  To spend time with healing imagery such as that in the decks mentioned above (and many others!) is an antidote to what we’re generally told.  To contemplate and be inspired by tarot pictures that show people interacting with the more-than-human communities respectfully and create success in their lives while giving back to our planet helps us to wonder how we, too, might contribute to such a balanced culture and world.

                     

I also enjoy decks whose court cards have been revisioned to take us out of hierarchical relationships (e.g. Page, Knight, Queen, and King) and show us a process instead.  In Rachel Pollack’s Shining Tribe Tarot, these are called Place, Knower, Gift, and Speaker.  The Gaian deck has Child, Explorer, Guardian, and Elder.  Carol Bridges has revisioned them as Apprentice, Totem, Lodge, and Exemplar.  All of these remind me that our relatedness with one another and with the larger world is not about power-over.

With regard to the Major Arcana, the big universal theme cards of the tarot, it doesn’t particularly matter to me whether a deck’s creator/creatrix groups them in any particular way.  For me, life’s Larger Mysteries are beyond any particular grouping and each Trump stands on its own.  However, I do like the Minor Arcana, the four suits that represent the everyday experiences of life, to have a sense of progression.  One of the first serious tarot books I read many years ago, and which is still one of my primary texts, was/is Choice Centered Tarot by Gail Fairfield (now entitled Everyday Tarot).  I also use her Choice-Centered Relating and the Tarot a lot.  From Gail, I learned to think of each suit as a process, a journey from conception/beginning (Ace) through completion/releasing (King or its re-thought equivalent).  So a pack of cards whose Minors progress logically, even story-like, through the fourteen values, make me a happy camper.  As Carol Bridges says in the guidebook that accompanies the Medicine Woman Tarot, “There are fourteen stages (cards) through which every idea can evolve if it is to be taken to its highest conclusion.”  In the Gaian Tarot, Joanna Colbert envisions each suit as having three mini dramas plus a transition point, then the people cards.  You can see this sense of progression in Qabalistically rooted decks such as the Tarot of the Spirit by Pamela and Joyce Eakins, too.  They follow the path of the Tree of Life as understood in the Western Mystery tradition.  All of this to say that if a tarot deck’s suits/elements of life depict a natural flow or progression, it makes me (and my clients!) happy.

In short, if a tarot deck helps us to envision a life-sustaining culture, depicts process rather than hierarchy, and has suits whose order tells us a story that makes sense, it will likely end up living with me.

How about YOU?  What are YOUR criteria for helpful tarot decks?

What’s the Next Circle?

I’m a member of several circle-based groups, which is to say groups that do their best to practise attentive listening, intentional speaking, and curious, compassionate witnessing in consciously woven time and space.  Most of them are in person and one of them is online.  Many of these groups meet once a month.  All of them have nourished me in some way.  In one of the circles, I get to try out different rituals and offer a variety of soul-inviting questions with people.  Two of them embrace my passion for teaching and learning processes with the tarot.  In one of them, we often sit quietly and allow what is truly required that day to emerge from the space within and between us.  I’ve called one-time circle gatherings to watch mind- and soul-feeding DVDs and hold respectful conversations about them.  I’ve co-hosted retreats whose activities are rooted in circle process.

Another circle, a new one, wants to be called, but I need to sit with that energy to discover what it is.  It feels like it might be short-term, but necessary.  Let me ask all of you the question that I’m asking myself:

What is the next life-honouring circle that I need to call into being?

Please leave your responses in the comments section of this post.  I look forward to the next circle letting us know what it is.

Solstice Tarot Circle Game on Youtube!

Last year at this time, I created a Winter Solstice Tarot Circle Game, blending two of my favourite soul-nourishing things, circle process and tarot cards.

This year, my friend Joanna Powell Colbert took it up a notch by creating a Youtube video that explains the solstice game/process with beautiful visuals.

Please gather your loved ones, watch the short video, then sit around a candle with your cards.  You’ll know yourself and each other so much more intimately.

You can enjoy Joanna’s lovely video at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAE-a0ytv_A

A blessed dark womb time of the year to you!

Making Friends with XV

I was recently asked to offer some thoughts on tarot Trump XV, traditionally called the Devil, but also known in some modern decks as Bindweed, Trickster, Error, Illusion, etc.

Some of my favourite key words for the Devil card are structure, limits, and boundaries.  I believe that every card, even a “scary” one like the Devil, is neutral; it’s up to us how we live any card’s concepts.  Does structure feel like a prison sentence or is it more like enjoying time in a sandbox?  Is a limit something you require to get things done or is it an enforced shut-down?  When is a boundary a border that contributes to segregation and when is it a necessary guideline for respectful interaction?  Does reining you in stifle your creativity or does it prevent you from making a huge social gaff?

 

There’s a strain of thought in certain circles that “the devil is merely the divine as seen by the unwise/uninitiated”.  It’s reassuring to think that the divine has a shadow side.  Knowing this liberates us from the obsession with perfection and transcendence that pervades our culture.  It’s OK to be flawed.  And it’s OK to use that flaw as a start point to be, do, or have something better.  To recognise Trump XV as the divine in disguise encourages us to honour our demons, addictions, and unhealthy projections (remember that the Devil is an invention of certain religious sects who were unwilling to claim their own “stuff”) as red flags that something is ready to shift or evolve.

 

The Devil card asks each of us, “What in your life feels like a flaw or saboteur, and what container will safely hold you as you commit to the process of remembering what is divine about it?”

Proud to be Among “2011′s Best”!

Theresa Reed, aka The Tarot Lady, writes a very good blog.  At the end of each year, she creates a “best of tarot” list with different categories.

Imagine my great delight to discover that my book, Tarot for Manifestation, is listed under Most Creative Use for Tarot on this year’s list.

It’s an honour to be mentioned alongside the other wonderful tarot practitioners and publications.  Thank you, Theresa!

You can read The Tarot Lady’s 2011 list at http://www.thetarotlady.com/best-of-tarot-2011/

15 Tarot Tips

Brigit, of BiddyTarot, asked 15 of us who practise tarot for a living what our favourite tips are for people who want to learn how to use the cards.  The variety of responses is helpful and refreshing.  You can enjoy the contributors’ wit, wisdom, humour, and humility and learn something about reading tarot by going to

http://www.biddytarot.com/blog/how-to-become-a-tarot-expert

 

 

 

 

 

Where “Non-Circle” and “Circle” Converge

Since spending time with Christina Baldwin, Ann Linnea, and 17 other colleagues at Lifebridge Sanctuary in the Catskills at the beginning of this month, I’ve been wondering how circle process can be planted in more settings in our culture.  One thing that comes to me is to listen to people’s stories about good conversations, gatherings, and meetings that they’ve experienced to discover the components of circle that were in place even if they didn’t realise it at the time.  Then, we can introduce components of circling to them in their language before giving them circle work language.

For example, someone might say, “My boss didn’t interrupt me.  She just let me talk for 15 minutes.  That felt good.”  In PeerSpirit circle language, this would be the practice of attentive listening.  When another person tells me, “Everyone just pitched in and did their bit.  Tom grabbed chairs, Marcy swept the floor, Amir made sure the windows were locked, and Mai washed the dishes.  Nobody needed to be told; they just saw what needed doing and did it.”  In this description, I hear the PeerSpirit principles of rotating leadership and shared responsibility.  Someone else says, “It was so helpful when the facilitator had us pass the microphone to each other.  We knew whose turn it was and we could hear them really clearly.”  This is most definitely the use of a talking piece.

What is a memorable spontaneous conversation that you’ve had?  What components do you feel made that conversation possible?  Please share with us and help us to find circle in the world.

How Might We Create Personal Change?

Friend and colleague Andrew McGregor interviewed me in his series about why some people change, some stay stuck, and how we can create change in our lives.  While there’s something of a tarot focus, anyone can get something out of our conversation which you can listen to at

http://www.thehermitslamp.com/Interviews/TheHermitsLamp_JamesWells.mp3

 

Please Pass the Candle

On Friday, my friend Sharlene hosted a birthday party for herself.  Some of us knew one another and several of us were new to one another.  Of course, an excellent pot-luck meal began the process of getting to know one another.  After the meatballs, penne, chicken curry, and salads, something deepened the connection.

Kim and Jerry had taken a lovely beeswax candle as a birthday gift.  Kim asked the group, which was already circular in shape, to receive the candle one at a time and offer appreciation and good wishes for Sharlene.  The chit-chat slowed down and we became more focused as each person took a turn holding the long piece of fragrant beeswax, spoke words of appreciation about their relatedness with Sharlene, then offered specific blessings for her for the coming year.  The stories and wishes told us a lot, not only about the one being honoured, but also about each other.  To be in this spontaneous council was to witness the core of each guest.  Then the guitars came out and we sang and enjoyed music.

Imagine having the courage and creativity to call such spontaneous conversation circles more often.  What if folks concerned about local food stood in a supermarket using a baguette as a talking piece to respond to, “How might we engage this store in conversation with their local farmers?”  What if the cleaning person said to the room full of executives, “What can we do to ensure safe and green products are used by this company?”  What if a five-year-old girl delivered an autumn leaf to her parents and asked, “When will stop yelling so you can hear each other?”  What if the first 15 minutes of a holiday dinner became an opportunity to respond to, “In what way are you a gift to the world?”

Who knew that such musings would be called forth from a birthday party!  What spontaneous circles of conversation and listening have you been in?  What spontaneous circle of conversation can you see yourself calling next?

Report on “Listening to the Earth” Retreat

For a long time, you’ve heard and read about preparations for Listening to the Earth: A Gaian Tarot Retreat.  Last weekend, October 7 through 9, it happened!  Twenty-seven of us gathered at Canterbury Hills Conference Centre in Ancaster, ON to engage in intentional circle-based conversations, nature-honouring ceremonies, deep exploratory workshops, and self-generated entertainment.  We humans were joined on numerous occasions by the more-than-human beings: deer, falling black walnuts, luminous autumn sky, a variety of splendid trees, swooping hawks, and a bubbling stream in the ravine.  The Canterbury cooks ensured that we had full, happy tummies.

Friday’s opening ceremony included poetry by our own Andrea Mathieson and by Alice Walker as well as an invocation to the Seven Directions, asking for their support.  The heart of this ritual was each person, one by one, stepping into the circle, stating hir name and where they’re from, then placing a sacred object in the centre with a brief story of its significance to hir relationship with Gaia.  Joanna Powell Colbert’s keynote talk was simple and meaningful.  What still vibrates in me from Joanna’s talk is to combine our bloodline ancestry with the bloodline or spirit of where we actually live and to fall in love with where the two converge.

During Joanna’s Saturday morning workshop, each of us had a soul encounter with a being in Nature.  A dead and fallen blue-beech tree called to me, so I sat with it, noticing what was right there, listening to its essence, and asking occasional questions.  That seemingly dead, grey trunk was so full of life; pale green moss and rich brown mushrooms abounded on and in its body.  A chipmunk enjoyed the tree’s shelter for a while and fallen leaves made their final resting place in its curvy crannies.  I loved the sensation of being with this more-than-human being and of the breeze and leaves touching my head, hands, and legs.  After sharing our soul encounters with the group, we learned and performed a Dance of the Four Directions, a series of tai chi-like movements that honours the earth, sky, and elements.

Saturday afternoon was dedicated to breakout workshops with Bev Haskins, Andrea Mathieson, Jeannette McCullough, and me.  They were offered twice so that participants could experience a variety of wisdom ways.   Whether people took part in my “We the Ancestors”, Bev’s “Life Choices”, Jeannette’s “Celebration of the Sacred”, or Andrea’s “Repairing the Bridge”, they had direct Knowing of their connection with Earth and her creatures, their own feelings of grief and joy, and with one another.  Any veneer of separation fell away as people recognised that we’re all in these times together and that all of us have life-sustaining powers to contribute to Earth’s survival.

After dinner, we enjoyed an evening of drumming, singing, and sharing stories and jokes in the Fireside Area.  Immense fun!

On Sunday morning, people pulled out their tarot decks and gathered in small groups of four or five to do this three-card reading:

1. What profound and simple truth is Gaia giving us this weekend?
2. What allows us to live this truth in the world?
3. What gifts can emerge from living this truth?

Each group summarised its findings to the assembly in a single sentence, a few in entertaining ways.  This led to a council of summing up what was in people’s hearts and minds from the retreat.

After lunch, Joanna shared a few words about each card of the Gaian Tarot being a portal into the heart of Gaia and every card essentially saying, “Get outside!”

Over the course of the weekend, folks had written their reponses to “Having listened to the Earth, we now declare…” on sheets of paper.  During the closing ceremony, four people read these declarations aloud.  We enlivened the statements with drumming, rattling, and vocal sounding.  People retrieved their sacred objects from the centre as they completed the sentence, “As I return to my community, I leave here ready to _______.”  We thanked and released the Seven Directions and hugged one another good-bye.

Many participants want another Gaia-related experience next year!  Let’s notice what Life whispers to me.  It might happen