My Planetary Week #7: July 7 - 13 - so many 7s this week!

[Nemia]

This is an invitation to work with one card deck for one week in a group reading.

You can pick any deck: tarot, Lenormand, Kipper, oracle or playing cards. From this deck, you'll draw one card per day - i.e., seven Daily Cards from your Deck of the Week that allow you to get to know the deck better, to hone your reading skills and get new insights about your life.

In a Planetary Week reading, we don't only draw a card per day but also give it a topic. We focus on motifs, topics, patterns in our lives, inspired by the planetary ruler of every weekday (for background information, look here).

On Saturdays, ruled by Saturn: Obstacles and Blockades,
on Sundays, ruled by the Sun: Inspiration and Goals,
on Mondays, ruled by the Moon: Dreams and Fears,
on Tuesdays, ruled by Mars: Conflicts and Challenges,
on Wednesdays, ruled by Mercury: Interactions and Change,
on Thursdays, ruled by Jupiter: Power and Influences, and
on Fridays, ruled by Venus: Love and Attraction.


The focus words I chose for each planet/day are not binding. Please don't limit yourself to the two short words if you feel other aspects of the planet are relevant to your reading.



There are different ways to perform a Planetary Week reading.

Traditional: draw a card per day and use the prism of the planetary influence to connect the card to your day and life.

Selective: select a card that suits the topic of each weekday and use it as affirmation and empowerment to improve your life.

Day-by-day: draw or pick your daily card one by one through the week.

Summarily: draw or pick all cards together before the week starts and treat them as a complete reading.

And what about those who just want to have a Deck of the Week, Card of the Day reading? They can just jump in and leave the planetary lore away.

Share pictures if you can or want to.

No matter how we do it - by reminding ourselves of the planetary regents and their influence, we re-connect to the sevenfold cycle of time that our ancestors established, with their eyes to the sky.



Participants:
Nemia - Pagan Otherworlds Tarot
CharlotteK - Tarot de Marseilles Madenié

[Nemia]

This must be a lucky week! It's our seventh week with the Planetary Week reading - it's the seventh day of the seventh month - and for me, it's the return of an important day. On July 7, 1976, I was twelve years old and started writing my diary. It was the day my childhood ended, in a creative and positive way, because I started reflecting on what happened to me and the decisions I took and the influences I absorbed. I thought about these things before, of course, but I didn't write them down so they're connected only with stories I told or paintings I made. But since 7.7.1976 I have a written account of my life. More precise: I wrote it down but the diaries themselves are gone, I threw them away some years ago. No regrets. But the practice itself was good for me. I still journal. Nowadays, tarot journaling has taken a place of prominence.

How does that connect with Saturn? Thinking about it... well, writing everything down has sometimes hindered me doing what I had to do. I wrote it down, let's say my thoughts about a confrontation that was very necessary - and having written it down, I didn't feel the need for the actual confrontation any more. And let things go. I have been let go from workplaces because of false accusations that I never defended myself against, simply because after journaling the whole story, I was finished with it anyway. And that might have been an escape.

It's also easy to get wrapped up in the drama of one's own life. Saturn plays with such long term projects I guess....


I chose for this week the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot, a deck I wanted very very much... can I say it left me cold when I had it? No, it's beautiful, even gorgeous, and I connect to the Northern worlds. I was born at the Baltic Sea and bear a Nordic name with pride. But somehow... I don't know. I'll have to do a deck interview and i need this week with the deck.

It's another Ten - yesterday, I had the Ten of Cups. Now the Ten of Swords. The fear I just wrote about - that everything could be taken from me. The skull, connecting me to the Death card on Thursday. I think of the skull and I think of the Justice card in the Idiosyncradeck.

All this is strongly connected to my shadow work and I can't write more about it, I don't really have words for it. There is a chain of losses in my childhood and youth that I have to get to terms with. Pushing them away into the recesses of memory doesn't work very well. It did for decades but now i'm slowly, slowly letting the light into the shadowy corners.

A powerful card for me, especially when I see it as part of a pattern.

[CharlotteK]

I will participate with a TdM this week. I choose the Madenie by Yves.

[Nemia]

Oh, that's a beauty! i added links to our decks as service to the happily-enabled

[CharlotteK]

Saturday - ruled by Saturn - Obstacles and Blockades

Today I drew the 9 of coins.

I'm drawing on both Yoav Ben-Dov's meanings and also Lee Bursten's method to interpret this deck.

Ben-Dov has this card representing motivation, planting a seed for practical attainment, looking forward to perfection. Lee's system leads to this card being about enjoying the rewards of your efforts and obtaining those things you have provided for yourself. There is a coin in the middle surrounded by flowers but rather than being isolated it feels as though it is centre stage. I am reading this as an overcoming of obstacles to achieve something tangible through effort.

Well today I achieved my first martial arts belt and it has been hard work indeed. So an achievement I can certainly enjoy but it's the first step to the ultimate, the black belt, so still a seed as YBD suggests. And yes, I am definitely motivated to continue!

[Nemia]

CharlotteK, you truly are Wonderwoman Is there anything you CAN'T do? Career woman, mother, martial artist. Wow.

My card for today is the Page of Cups. Beautiful card but the page is a bit too mature and self confident for my taste - I see the Pages as really young and immature and starry-eyed. And this Page implies more dynamic energy than I usually see in this card. There's even something fiery about him.

The Pages turn up often when I have interaction with my children. And I had today a long, intense, very personal conversation with one of my daughters. We touched upon matters we don't usually talk about. That's one thing.

Then let's talk about the Sun, and this page turns into something else - an inspiration, something that warms me, enlightens me... the power of innocent love and even infatuation, this elusive feeling... which I want to keep alive and growing. Trying the impossible And the dangers of approaching aspirations and goals with the mind of the Page of Cups: dreaming big, doing little.

So many aspects of this card.

[CharlotteK]

I like the way this page is pointing down to the ground with his index finger though, as a way of showing he is still spiritually immature. But he lifts his cup high as if it was the cup of salvation. Lots in the card to like

[Nemia]

Yes, and it's the Earth of Water. Very true. Reminds me a bit of Prof Ronald Hutton turning up with a funny late medieval hat, standing next to Ruth Goodman with a chalice in his hand and calling: hail! hail! wassail! I LOVE their farm series and as Brit, you probably know them

[CharlotteK]

Sunday, ruled by the Sun: Inspiration and Goals.

Justice today.

What can I say about today. My four year old was a real horror all day. Rude, cheeky, naughty, bossy, wilful. It drove me to tears for the first time I can actually remember!

I feel utterly exhausted and I also feel like the 'sharp and critical' Justice in Ben-Dov's book. Not that it did any good at all. I also felt I was very harshly judged by my child. But he's only four for goodness sake. I am the adult! Today I didnt want to be. It was hard.

So... inspiration and goals? Oh I think that's obvious. Striving to be fair and impartial in face of VERY annoying and trying behaviour and a real lack of kiddo respect. Did I 'control the passions? I did not and I need to. Did I act with reason? Hmmm.

Justice says do better next time Mum.

[CharlotteK]

Monday - ruled by the Moon: Dreams and Fears

More coins. Today the four:

To me this is getting back to normal after yesterday's upset. I am back to work this morning, and just getting on with it. In the middle we have three fleur de lys - myself my husband and my son at home? It's a card of out and out practical stability and solidity. Good, it's exactly what I need today.

[Nemia]

My card for Monday - the Page of Wands for yesterday, and how dreamy he looks! So well suited to the day of the Moon, and much earthier than in other decks. This whole deck looks as though it grew out of the soil. I don't know right now how to connect this card either to my day (I had a very quiet domestic day yesterday) or to my life in general. Oh, I remember now, there was a very heated discussion with one of my children, very much a page of wands situation, nearly a rebellion (that ended in a very good and honest discussion). I often see my children in pages and knights but still, I can't connect the dots.

For Tuesday, the day that is leaving slowly, the Four of Swords. And that's a very good card. interesting enough, I notice that my Tuesday cards are often very much to the point, and I feel uncomfortable with Mars and confrontations! Again, the cards reflect how I react in confrontations: I deflect, de-escalate and retreat. And if I feel attacked, I do the Cold Retreat of No Return.

Wow, these minors are breathtaking. Just look at that withered arm/branch.

And for tomorrow, Wednesday, Mercury's day of communication, interaction and swift movement, I have the Three of Pentacles. That's exactly right, tomorrow, I'll be all day long on the move, from one lecture hall/class room to the next, talking all the time. It's work, and it's Mercury's work. The solidity of this card is the work I put into my lectures and lessons when I build them, and Mercury comes into play when I teach and try to keep my audience interested and involved.


I like this deck. Strong atmosphere, strong art, easy to read. This style echoes inner longings I have - Northern, earthy, like a book by Aleksis Kivi and the landscapes I saw as a child when we traveled with a tent through Scandinavia...

[CharlotteK]

Tuesday ruled by Mars: Conflicts and Challenge

Ace of Swords

Very apt today! I have had some fairly challenging conversations to say the least and powers of communication and rational argument have been put to the test!

[Charlie Brown]

Nemia, I just LOVE that deck. I'm not supposed to get anymore since I just spent a ton on Tabula Mundi, Victorian Romantic, and the Tinker's Damn in the space of a few months. I haven't really even explored the latter two yet, but a new edition of that Pagan Otherworlds is due in August and, my word, it's tempting.

[Nemia]

I have wanted this deck very very much and love the art - not to mention the production values Printing, paper quality, the box - it's a luxurious deck, no doubt. And still, there is a little coolness with this deck that will probably melt over time. Interestingly, I have the same feeling with the Tyldwick which I also wanted wanted wanted obsessively. I don't regret getting either of them, they're more than worth their money and are important, intelligent, original decks. But for me, they didn't "get into my bloodstream" as easily as the Meleen decks, the Silhouettes or others. It's not a bad thing if I have to make an effort to make a deck read for me.

I envy you. The Victorian Romantic and Tinker's Damn. Dream decks. By now I'm so broke that I don't know whether I'll ever be able to afford them... and I hope you'll show them in action so i can enjoy them vicariously

Oh, how beautiful. Yesterday's card. Strength was indeed needed and I think I passed a little test. At least I did my best. And what a wonderful idea to make the animal a bear. I love bears, who doesn't?, and they play such an important role in human consciousness, they're so like humans when they stand on their hind legs. Interesting choice, beautifully done. I always love this card. The bear makes it more earthy than fiery. Suits me very well.

Another fiery card for today. The Ace of Wands. What a firm grip. Have to get some things done. In my case, the wand should probably turn into a crochet hook since this is the first thing I'm going to do now, crochet myself warm until I can start the other activities of this day. "Get it done", says this card, and I should.

How was my week with the Pagan Otherworlds? It was actually good. I want to use this deck in reading, it's intriguing and the minors are especially good.