This is a TarotTube tag started by @Kelly Bear but I’ll be participating via blog post. =) I was tagged by the lovely and precocious @JessReadsCards. The prompt is to share 5 tarot decks, 4 tarot books, 3 tarot spreads, 2 tarot reader habits or tarot reading paraphernalia, and 1 piece of advice (or alternatively, 1 tarot card you’d like to embody).

Ack. You can see my Invisalign attachments in the above photo. And of course now that I called it out, it went from 50% chance you’d see it to 100% chance you’ll see it. Also, shameless off-topic plug for my new book, I Ching, The Oracle. The first few months after an author has released a book, you’re just gonna have to brace yourself for a lot of promo. =D

5 Tarot Decks

I’m going to share the five tarot decks currently on my reading desk, which means they’re among the more recent additions to my collection.

Earth Magick Tarot

Click on the deck name title for my review of the Earth Magick Tarot: Hermetic Prophecies by Daniel Martin Diaz. Needless to say, the art style is right up my alley alongside the Hermetic Tarot, Nigel Jackson’s Secrets of the Rose Tarot, and Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot by Paul Huson.

The Rosebud Tarot

A friend of mine recently described The Rosebud Tarot by Diana Rose Harper and illustrated by Amanda Lee Stilwell as “a Victorian-esque Voyager Tarot” and I love that! I love the photo collage style by Stilwell and how the cards look like Polaroids. The renaming of some of the Majors and the court cards works for me.

The Little Sister Tarot

I will be posting a review of this deck soon. The story behind the Little Sister Tarot by Ginny Thonson is heartwrenching. All of the art is hand-painted by Thonson. I absolutely love her New American surrealist and muralist art style with strong Pacific Coast influences.

The Myth: Wukong Tarot

The Myth: Wukong Tarot by Thai-based creators Wasu Trakoolmakee and Tariahtah Khn is my inner child deck right now. This is an inner child deck for me because I grew up on the Journey to the West stories. A full review of this deck is also slated. Spotting all the Taoist mythological and Journey to the West easter egg references is so much fun!

Genius Garden Tarot

Like I said, I’m currently all about the hand-painted tarot decks, so of course Jessi Huntenburg’s Genius Garden Tarot is on my reading desk. Click on the deck title to read my review. There’s an earthy naturist and pantheistic vibe I just love. This was a great deck for everyday readings throughout the summer.

I did want to add a bonus study deck that’s also on my desk, but doesn’t fall under the category of tarot:

72 Angels: Talisman Coins & Cards

The “study deck” part would be the deck of 72 angel cards that comes with the talisman coins.

You can order this 72 Angels talisman coins and cards collection from Frater Setnakh here on Etsy. The 72 coins plus the 72-card angel deck together is $168.40 USD at the moment (there’s a limited 20% off sale), which — for what you’re getting is kind of a steal!

The quality of these zamak coins, which you can get in either gold or silver, is top notch and stunning. The cards even come with a guidebook, so you’re getting a ton of starter pack information. I’ve also slated this set for a full review after I’ve had more time to deep-dive into working with the talisman coins and cards.

4 Tarot Books

Funny enough 2023 has brought quite a hoard of books. I hadn’t even gotten halfway through my TBR (to be read) list from 2022, and let’s not even talk about the TBR from 2021, and now there’s more. So it was hard to pick just 4, even for a fun prompt.

The Dream Gate by Janet Piedilato

This isn’t a tarot book per se, but there is a notable chapter in this book titled “Using Tarot Card Imagery to Empower Dream Interpretations.” Plus, the author is the creator of one of my favorite decks, the Mystical Dream Tarot, which I’ve reviewed before here.

This is a book about altered states of consciousness and mind adventures, from ultradian nap dreaming, automatic hypnosis, and shamanic journeying to meditation, active imagination, trance, and so much more. This is also a book about how to capture dreams and archive your mind adventures. And the tarot can be used to amplify dreams, to bring dream-like perspectives to the waking state.

Essential Tarot Writings ed. by Donald Tyson

This collection was released back in 2020. It’s worth a mention here. This book is a box of assorted chocolates, spanning 300 years, from 1781 to 1928. Here compiled in one book is the essentials when it comes to essays on the tarot central to Western occultism.

Tarot, after all, became the centerpiece of the Golden Dawn system of practical magic, and in turn, the Golden Dawn system has indelibly shaped modern tarot.

Terra Volatile Guidebook by Credo Quia Absurdum

Oh hai!~ What’s it read under those big letters “foreword”? Can’t see it from here, can you read it aloud for me? ;-D Ha. That’s right! Yours truly!

This is the guidebook to the Terra Volatile Tarot that has now garnered a cult following. This is just one of the most beautiful, exquisite tarot guidebooks I’ve ever seen. It’s more of an art book than anything else. Page after page of beautiful full-color reproductions of classical art plus well-written reflective short essays on the cards.

Here’s a line from the epilogue: “I dream of all the books we’ve read fighting each other as if they were in a Trojan war, where ideas kill other ideas with great violence.” Just, wow. That’s how the book reads, page after page.

Tarot Deciphered by Chang and Meleen

I’ve talked about Tarot Deciphered before, published in 2021. It’s kind of a must-have in your tarot library. This is a tome for those interested in understanding esoteric tarot. The text covers both RWS and Thoth symbolism, astrological and Qabalistic correspondences, mythology, and Western alchemy. No matter what stage of learning or proficiency you’re at with the cards, this is a great reference book to have on hand.

3 Tarot Spreads

Here are three tarot spreads I think you’ll like.

The Dream Gate Reading Method

This reading method is sourced from Piedilato’s The Dream Gate, one of the books I mentioned for this tag.

Draw two cards right before bedtime. Turn over one and let that card be imprinted in your mind’s eye before you fall asleep. Leave the second card face down.

In the morning when you wake, record what you remember of your dreams. Then turn over that second card.

One Rung of Jacob’s Ladder
(Etteilla Reading Method)

This is an Etteilla reading method based on a more complex multi-card spread called Jacob’s Ladder. See the above spread? That’s one “rung” of a ladder. Replicate that seven times for seven rungs and you’ve got the Jacob’s Ladder spread.

It’s an Etteilla reading method because you’re going to need the upright and reversed keywords. See the above center card at 90 degrees horizontal? The “upright” keyword is adjacent to the left-most card, so that keyword (here, it’s “Fulfillment”) modifies the meaning of the left-most card (the Four of Wands).

The “reversed” keyword adjacent to the right-most card (“Delivery”) modifies the meaning of the right-most card (Fortitude, or the Strength card).

You do a general reading with this spread. So, for instance, the Four of Wands upright portends advancement in social status, which is further modified or amplified by the keyword “Fulfillment.” Actually, this is a fantastically positive reading…. Fortitude is “one of the happiest cards in the deck,” predicting victory in a personal war or battle. And that meaning is modified/amplified by the keyword “Delivery.”

The Tell It Like It Is Spread
From The Sirens’ Song

The Sirens’ Song is a Lenormand and Kipper deck set by Carrie Paris, Toni Savory, and Tina Hardt. The “Tell It Like It Is” four-card spread is from the Guidebook. I suppose it’s meant for the Lenormand and Kipper decks, but it works just as well for tarot!

Here’s the spread:

Card 1 helps you to articulate the situation at hand. It pinpoints the issue you need to address. Card 2 is important, because it tells you what is NOT significant in the matter hand. It tells you what the situation isn’t. Then Card 3 tells you what it is. This is a snapshot of reality. Card 4 forecasts the outcome.

2 Habits or Paraphernalia

For the “2” part of the tag, share two habits or two miscellaneous articles adjacent to your tarot practice. I do love my tarot journal and incense and they’re both indispensable to me, but here are the two I’m gonna go with:

Artisanal Card-of-the-Day Stands

The woodcut card stand you see pictured above is made by Jamie Sawyer. Check out and shop all her card stands here. These artisanal standards are perfect for displaying a card-of-the-day or meditation focus card.

Selenite

You know how there’s probably one particular gemstone, crystal, or mineral you gravitate toward, you’re just inexplicably partial to? Mine is selenite. Don’t ask why. I have no idea. I just love selenite. It’s not even about its metaphysical correspondences. Selenite could correspond with door mats for all I care, I would still love it.

I like keeping hefty pieces of selenite near my decks. Back when I was doing in-person events, I would always bring a selenite palm stone with me, tucked inside the silk pouch with my cards. Most of any woo I might do involving tarot will likely also involve selenite’s presence.

1 Piece of Advice
(or a Tarot Card You Want to Embody)

I heard this piece of professional advice in a context outside of the tarot community, but it’s one I think might be helpful, especially to small businesses, indie creators, and entrepreneurs. Heck, it’s pretty good life advice.

Your business will be sustainably successful if your first thought upon waking every morning is to assess how the world has changed since yesterday and how you will adjust to change prosperously with it.

That mindset and daily mindfulness keeps you progressive. It keeps your finger on the pulse of a society that is inevitably changing at a faster pace than you can comprehend. To be constantly, consistently sensitive to how the world around you is changing and how you can flex to change with it – to me – is a beautiful way of living.

The tarot community is changing. The shifts are palpable. Everything from how to navigate the industry as a deck creator, the print, production, and publication process to being a content creator and navigating community spaces– what community spaces look like keeps changing. What’s trending, what’s not, where the people’s hearts are, where it’s not– as soon as you think you’ve figured it out, it shifts again, and again, in a repeating cycle so that where we were 60 years ago is where we are again, right now.

“Change prosperously with it” does not mean to chase the trend of the day. If anything, my position has always been that if you’re chasing the trend of the day, then you’re already two steps behind. If anything, “change prosperously” is more of an internal mindset than necessary external behavior. It’s about taking measures to be in harmony with the new, changed landscape.

It’s a challenge, to agree to live by such a daily mindfulness. Because we are resistant to change. We like our own ways. What’s new is uncertain and scary. It’s a mystery. And so we are faced with the choice: to embrace mystery or to succumb to our fear of it.

As for which tarot card I think that piece of advice embodies…

You thought I’d say the Wheel of Fortune? Hah! (Well I mean I was thinking it…)

Card 6 from the Etteilla Tarot. It’s not a clear, perfect fit in terms of its card meaning, but energetically and intuitively it seems to echo the spirit of that piece of advice. You have to be a navigator, wielding that astrolabe, constantly gauging and triangulating where you are, and what the stars are telling you. The traditional meaning of the card is mystery and secrets when upright, and the revealing of truths when reversed. And so when I see that illustration I drew for Card 6, it reminds me of that piece of advice.

So that’s my five, four, three, two, and one. What are yours?