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This forum is officially closed. It will however remain online and active in a limited form for the time being.
I think I'll take up my daily card habit again, and I like the option also to make longer readings with the same deck. The week starts for me on Sundays, so Sunday I'll start.
I like making stuff so I made a little seven pointed star - for a geometrically-challenged person like me this star was quite an effort! but now I have it, and the planets, and the days of the week. I can't see the days of the week in any other way now than through the planet prism, this is so deeply embedded now, but I'll use the planetary influences loosely. I might also make some experiments with the Deck of 1000 Spreads, let's see how I feel with it.
The Little Prince Tarot is one of my latest buys and I'm really curious how it will work for me.
Your star is lovely! (I'm completely geometrically challenged, so I just snag a septagram from the web and use it!) I've kind of started week 14 early, but I'll officially start on Sunday (tomorrow) with you!
Please join us in This Week's Deck!
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
It's the Empress, a card I have always loved. I'm a Taurean so it's obvious why I don't really know this deck yet and I shy back from re-reading the book because every time I did it moved me deeply... and I don't know that I can deal now with any emotional impact.... but from what I read in the lwb, the majors show the tarot archetypes and the Little Prince meeting them. In the minors, there is more concrete content from the book.
You can see the style of the deck is lovely - warm colours, gentle water colour, and the artist didn't try to imitate Saint-Exupery's style. I'm really grateful for that.
I hope this daily card habit which used to give me much joy will do so also now - will nurture me and support me in days which are apocalyptic and terrible for humanity. The card also tells me that this is my role now - to nurture and support the people around me. And I'll try to do that, and keep my fears to myself, it won't help anyone.
And it's Sunday - I should take heart and rely on the powerful light, the life-giving light, that will continue to shine long after we're all gone. Sunlight is an ancient symbol of the divine, and I mustn't neglect my spiritual practice because it will keep my spirit up.
The Aviator protectively carries the exhausted Little Prince across a barren desert toward the well. The Six of Swords represents safe passage from one state of mind to another, sometimes aided by powerful forces that exist beyond the realm of the mind (the spirit, the soul).
Now this is exactly why I dislike some of Lo Scarabeo's lwbs. Let's get that off my chest first! Look at the last part of the sentence, and now tell me whether the writer meant a) that spirit and soul are synonyms of the mind or b) that spirit and soul are the powerful forces beyond the realm of the mind.
The first sentence does what it should. It tells us which part of the story the creators of the tarot had in mind when they decided upon the scene to use. They took of course (of course?) the RWS reference of the person in the boat and interpreted it as "safe passage". Now that is only one nuance to take the Six of Swords, this card offers many other nuances, but okay, they had to take one. The Aviator is the boat, the Little Prince the sad figure/s huddled in the boat, and the well is the unknown destination.
But before the text gives us the opportunity to see how this connects to our situation, because minors are about life situations, dilemmas, decisions etc, it takes off to lofty heights about mind, spirit and soul - so vague that we can't even detect what concept of mind, soul and spirit the author adheres to. Are they all the same? or are soul and spirit beyond the mind, but why? and what's the difference between spirit and soul?
In short, the lwb is absolutely not satisfactory. I just need to think about the Liber M, or Benebell's tome that goes with her deck, or the books Barbara Moore writes about decks - oh well.
The card itself is lovely though. It relates to the chapters 24, the way to the well, and the well is also important in chapter 25.
Just reading these chapters again, I'm overwhelmed again by the love for the little Prince and the total need to protect him, to keep him near. You know you cannot hold him and it just breaks your heart, well, mine at least. For me, the little Prince is everything that is dear and precious, innocent and wise, it's childhood itself, my own children and all the children and all the good in the world, and it's never "ours" and even the illusion is just for a time, and we'll be alone and longing for it. Oh dear this book.
To read this card, I disregard completely the fragile thread connecting it to the RWS. It's Monday, the Cosmos Tarot and Oracle card that represents the weekday on my tarot calendar gives me the keywords: Secrets, Mystery, Cycles.
Isn't that gorgeous?
Now I understand it all. On Sunday, I had the Empress, the sunny side of motherhood - love, nurture, give what you have in radiant light. On Monday, I get the dark side of the Moon of motherhood (there is of course no dark side of the Moon but let's leave the metaphor alone). It's this dark, dark, darkest fear of losing what you carry through the desert. It's the regret of cutting short stories the children tell you because something else is more important. It's simply the worry, worry, worry that is eating my heart up today more than ever.
I had another little thing happening to me some days ago. There's a young mother I like very much, and we whatsapp regularly. We talked about children's music and the musician Fredrik Vahle whom my children loved and she loved him, too, when she was a child.
Afterwards, I was reminded of a lesser-known song of his from his cycle about Grimm's Fairy Tales.
For those of you who know German, go and listen to it. It's the very sad story you ca find here - one of the most poignant Grimm tales and very little-known. I have always loved this tale, it's one of my favorites (together with The Grandfather and the Wooden Bowl) and of course the Star Talers).
The Unke or snake are the things our children love, their secrets , their inner life, their privacy, the place where we have no right to stick in our adult noses. It's the kingdom of the children's world which we have to protect and cherish (just as we have to cherish the grandfathers and the poor, actually, these three fairy tales sum up my view of the world perfectly!).
When I listened to the song after my conversation with the young mother, I started to cry. For everything I did wrong as mother, for the fact that the time is up and I can't make up for it, for the fact that my time as young mother is over and I'll never be as important to anyone as I was for my children when they were young. And for fear that my wrong decisions may impact them terribly.
I'm all alone at home, yes, I do pamper my family when they come home, and yes, I'm still mother of my adult children and maybe one day, I'll have grandchildren to pamper. The Empress and the Aviator are the happy and melancholy side of parenthood, the joy of Having and the fear of Losing. For both, I have re-assembled my Black Madonna altar (this time protected from the bad bad kitties).
The Black Madonna is the side of the Mother that the Empress doesn't show us. It's very fitting that the Six of Swords brought me this side. Right now, with all the world in the grip of fear and worry for everybody we love, old and young, fragile and healthy, near and far, these two cards are very poignant to me. I want to protect, and to be honest, I can't.
Wow, this has become longer, more rambling and more personal than I intended. I can't believe that for so many years, I'm struggling with the transition from hands-on motherhood to benevolent-audience-motherhood and the worry, instead of slowly fading out, is just getting more urgent. Of course, i can't protect my darlings.
If all this seems crazy to a daring person who reads all this - two months ago, I lost a dearly beloved young niece under the most tragic circumstances you can imagine, a freak accident in front of her husband and very young children (all babies actually). I knew it bevore but know it better than ever now that no happiness is set in stone, one can lose everything, any time, and who knows how often we escaped Fate and didn't even say a prayer of thanks. When I returned from her funeral, there were people already wearing face masks on the plane, it was the beginning of the epidemic. That's why my worry buttons are pressed non-stop now and that's why these cards and everything else speaks to me so powerfully.
Now I know I can't protect the world, I have to let things happen. I can't even do a good walking meditation which always helps me most. And the rest of the world is exactly in the same position.
Here's to the Aviators of the world, carrying precious loads to unknown destinations. May we all get through this time undiminished and undamaged.
Today is the day of Mars, the fighter, the impatient.
In the last weeks, there is a beautiful spectacle on the Eastern morning sky. That's how it looked this morning from my point on our good old Earth:
"The boys", as I call them, play catch-up in the morning (and for some evenings, Luna and Venus danced in the evening sky, after the New Moon on March 24). Mars passed Jupiter and is now about to pass Saturn, rushing Eastward. You can really see how fast Mars is - not as elusive as Mercury, but his red colour and fast movement, especially when seen against slower-moving Jupiter and hardly-moving Saturn, is impressive.
So it's not only his day - it's his sign (Aries) and only today we have left the decan ruled by Mars (starting today, it's the Sun - I changed my tarot calendar yesterday). Lots of Fire! cardinal Fire! It's Mars time.
And what card do I get? the Ace of Wands.
Interesting - this deck assigns the fox to the suit of Swords, where I met it yesterday. I had so many personal associations that I didn't write about the fox as symbolic animal. In the Badgers Forest Tarot, the Fox is associated with Cups, emotions, intuition - an unusual but convincing association when explained by the artist (as she did on AT). In the Shadowscapes, the Fox is in his natural flame-coloured role and is associated with Wands, running and jumping around. And here, the fox belongs to the swords.
And the snake to Wands - shedding its skin, starting out on the spiritual journey of the Wands. (The lwb explains that Wands are the suit of Spirit - I have it a bit differently but I accept each deck as it was intended).
After the cards explored the sunny side of motherhood (and my general role in life) on Sunday and the dark side on Monday, we have the challenge of shedding my skin and making a new start on the day of challenging Mars.
I have done daily readings for years, and they often made great sense, but rarely as much as this one. this is great. I hope it won't go down from here! (how typical to expect the worst!)
Yesterday, I pulled a card but didn't have the nerve to write much about it - so today, I write about both cards.
My seven-pointed star filled up nicely, I'm content.
On Wednesday, I had the Ten of Cups, and today, the Queen of Swords. I hate that I photographed her with the magnet on her head, please believe me that I fixed all the magnets! The fridge where I put up these readings is in my study (my tarotorium), opposite the window, and it's tricky taking any photographs there so we'll just have to go with it.
The Ten ine of Cups - radiant joy and completion, a bit like in the World card. Harmony. The Little Prince has returned to his planet and everything is good. Now that's what I need - what we all need - I long for the life we had before the corona - and I hope we will all heal from fear, worry and everything else. This is a lucky card. It appeared on the day of Mercury, of communication - meaning that I'll have to give to others every healing, reassuring goodness that I can find within myself.
For today, majestic Jupiter's day, the Queen of Swords tells me to look reality in the eye. Queen of thought, queen of clarity and perception.
I won't get into the depths that I could go with the first few cards because they were diagnostic, and that's always hitting home - these cards are recommendations, affirmations, and I can only take them on board and say: okay, I'll be positive, I'll help others to overcome this time as good as possible, and I'll try to find the right balance between seeing reality, but not fearing reality.
It is a good deck. It does stretch the Little Prince a bit but I accept it as created in the spirit of the Little Prince. And that's the best spirit that can be.
I just read your earlier post about motherhood.
The story from Grimm's is beautiful, as is your interpretation of it.
It reminds me of something I read by Proust, that no one should ever make a child hurry, what a crime it is to break the spells they are under as they learn about this world.
But what parent hasn't done that, had to do that?
Just sending you a big warm hug.
I was texting with my son this morning and we were having a really nice exchange, but then I wrote something that I meant as a compliment of sorts but got no reply. Then I started to think maybe it came across wrong and I apoligised. Then I followed it with 2 more texts, finally saying "Maybe I'm over-thinking everything."
Nemia wrote: ↑30 Mar 2020, 10:25
Now I know I can't protect the world, I have to let things happen. I can't even do a good walking meditation which always helps me most. And the rest of the world is exactly in the same position.
A friend of mine, a yoga teacher, was the victim of a bad traffic accident. And spent many weeks in hospital unable to get up from his hospital bed. He did yoga in his mind. All the postures, he imagined them as if he were really doing them. I've heard frequently that visualising can be very helpful. One goes into one's quiet space... and if one wants to do walking meditation for example, one chooses the countryside that one fancies and start walking... in one's mind. Body, mind and spirit are all connected and they can help each other out when one seems a bit fragile.
Rumi was asked “which music sound is haram?” Rumi replied, "The sound of tablespoons playing in the pots of the rich, which are heard by the ears of the poor and hungry." (haram means forbidden)
Dear Diana, I really try to walk with my eyes closed in my mind, but it's not the same......... I have an elliptical trainer and will try to find some routine with it. I've been at home only for a month now, only twice went to the post box, and spent some time in the garden, that's not enough.
Well, my week turned a bit crazy when I developed an ear infection. I didn't go to the doctor, the last place I want to be now!, but decided to wait a bit, drink a lot, and my husband brought me ear drops from the wise old apothecary. And I feel better now. But now I know why our babies cried when they had otitis! It's unpleasant!
My week is full, and I got a lot out of the first few cards, they were so spot on - wonderful.
Now I had on Friday, Freya's day, the Knight of Pentacles - the ruler of my decan on the weekday of Venus who rules my sign - and it's a nice guy but all he tells me is work! work! work more!!! And what does the lwb say? hard work and dedication.
So on the day of love, I learn that I have to work hard. And I do. I express my love right now through work. Like any good little housewife who puts all her worries into her muscles while scrubbing floors, baking cheesecakes and making beds.
It also means that I should do work that I love. After this Corona chaos, I don't know whether I have a job to return to because my line of work depends on masses of older people getting together. And I'm not sure they'll do it. I may have to change career at 56. and I should choose what I like. The lambs on the card make me think that one of my educational expertises might come in handy. Let's see.
By the way, Venus stood in the pleiads - I couldn't see it (clouds!!!) but I know it. So on the day of Venus, Venus had a little girl party in her sign, Taurus (the pleiads are the body of the bull, that's at least how I see it - a swimming bull, his eye is Aldebaran and his shoulders - the pleiads, beautiful sisters).
Today, on Saturday, the day of dreary old Saturn, I have the Five of Cups. Loss, grief, and a need of perspective is needed. I do hope that I always have this other perspective, and that I can give it to others, too.
I had a lovely week with this gentle deck. Now I have to choose a new deck. I'm not sure yet which. Oh, an oracle, that would be nice. Yes, an oracle!
I don't really know this deck yet and I shy back from re-reading the book because every time I did it moved me deeply... and I don't know that I can deal now with any emotional impact.... but from what I read in the lwb, the majors show the tarot archetypes and the Little Prince meeting them. In the minors, there is more concrete content from the book. 
