Reading and Understanding the Marseille Tarot by Marsucci and Aloi

On By benebellIn book review, tarot, tarot card meanings, tarot community9 Comments

It’s not as easy to find good foundation primers on the Marseille system of tarot, so I’m pleased to share Reading and Understanding the Marseille Tarot by Anna Maria Morsucci and Antonella Aloi first published in 2018 by Lo Scarabeo and distributed by Llewellyn.

Morsucci is an Italian writer, former journalist, spiritual and life coach, who has organized numerous astrology and tarot conferences throughout Italy. Aloi is a psychologist, counselor, and director at the Italian Humanistic Counseling Center, with a background in communication sciences.

This is a comprehensive beginner’s guide to the Marseille Tarot that begins by defining what the tarot is: a deck of 78 cards grouped into 22 Major Arcana numbered 1 to 21 with an unnumbered or designated 0 Fool card, placed either at the beginning or end of the Major Arcana sequence, plus 56 Minor Arcana cards subdivided further into four suits– Wands, Swords, Chalices, and Pentacles.

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Secrets of the Rose Tarot by Nigel Jackson

On By benebellIn deck review11 Comments

Upon my first walkthrough of this deck, Nigel Jackson’s Secrets of the Rose Tarot skyrocketed immediately up to my top faves. This deck is beautiful. Steeped in Christian mysticism, Cabala, hermetic theosophy, and alchemy, the Rose Tarot is a seamless tapestry of Western esotericism. Not to mention the artwork is just beautiful.

There’s a Paul Huson Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot vibe, meets an echo of the card layout design from the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg in the pips, with the color palette of a William Blake painting, all rendered in a reconstructed medieval illuminated manuscript art style. The Rose Tarot is totally my aesthetic.

Click on image for enlarged view.

In the Preface of the guidebook, Jackson opens by describing the tarot as “a language of symbols, an emblematic poem, an oracular device, a game of chance.” Surviving from the European Middle Ages, this deck has truly evolved over the centuries into a diversity of refractions. The Rose Tarot takes it back to the cards’ medieval paradigm as revelations of eschatological mysteries.

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The Incidental Tarot by Holly DeFount — A Must-Have

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot9 Comments

I’m completely flummoxed at myself for not having posted a deck review or walk-through of Holly DeFount’s Incidental Tarot before. I’m still fairly sure I have, somewhere, and it’s simply a matter of me unable to find where I’ve posted it. =P

This is going to be a walk-through of the card images and sadly, at the time of this posting, I believe the deck is out of print. My main purpose for posting this is for you to discover how amazing this deck is and reach out to the deck creator with pleas requests for a reprint!

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Shades of Gold Tarot by F. Nathan

On By benebellIn deck reviewLeave a comment

The Shades of Gold Tarot (or Oracle– we’ll talk about that–) is a 59-card gold and black deck that reads intuitively and with precision accuracy. When I say “intuitively,” I mean that you don’t really need to bring all that much prior knowledge to operate this deck. On its own, it’s got a way of inspiring the messages to download straight into your thoughts and feelings.

If you want to bring in a more psychology-based, case in point Jungian approach to the tarot, or you like to use the tarot in free association exercises, then you’re going to love Shades of Gold Tarot. It’s perfect for that.

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21-Card Spread from Joseph D’Agostino’s Tarot: The Path to Wisdom

On By benebellIn Sightsee the Tarot, tarot, tarot exercises1 Comment

Download the Worksheet (PDF)

INTERPRETING YOUR 21-CARD SPREAD

For even more “training wheels” support, download the following quick reference table of keywords (DOCX file):

Download the REFERENCE HANDOUt (DOCX)

Tarot Keywords Quick Reference Table

After noting the card drawn for each position in the 21-card spread, write down the keywords from the reference table onto your worksheet pages. The keywords themselves will support your arrival at the divinatory significance of the reading.

Tarot: The Path to Wisdom by Joseph D’Agostino was first published in 1976. A second edition was released in 1994, which is the copy of the book that I have.

I’m not sure whether this book was intended for beginners, but I’m guessing so, since it devotes most of its pages to card meanings, and gives the obligatory opening chapters on what the tarot is.

As a beginner’s guide to the tarot, it starts you off with instructions for two divinatory methods: the Celtic Cross and this 21-card tableau. . . . Beginner tarot books have come a long way since then. =)

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The Eights: Tarot Card Meanings

On By benebellIn Learn the Tarot, tarot card meanings1 Comment

The Sevens were posted back in July of 2020, so it’s been a while. =)

Heck, between the last video I made in this series and the making of this one, I re-illustrated a whole new edition of the SKT, now in full-color, released the first printing, and sold out of the first printing.

I’ve made the decision to just focus on the full-color Revelation Edition of SKT going forward and keep the videos centered on the TdM, RWS, and Thoth comparisons. I figure you’re not watching these videos for SKT, and if you do want more info on the SKT card meanings specific to how I’ve illustrated the cards, that’s in the Book of Maps.

Rather, the SKT cards are included in the series so you can do a visual comparison of the SKT to the predecessor decks.

Download the written Video Transcript

The Tarot Eights

PDF

The transcript for every video lecture is provided. You can go to the Video Series Homepage, scroll down to “CONTENTS LISTING,” and download the PDF transcript notes for each installment.

If you’re working off the digital docs, you can open up the navigation pane and jump between the bookmarked sections.

New to this video lecture series?

Start Here

The above-linked Introduction page will give you an overview of what this series is about and provide a course contents listing.

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Check out the lineup of self-paced online courses offered.

To support free content like this video installment on the tarot Sevens, please consider purchasing one of my independent study courses. A listing of all online courses offered is provided here: Independent Study.

Court Card Self-Reflection Exercises with Esoteric Tarot

On By benebellIn Sightsee the Tarot, tarot, tarot community, tarot exercises, tarot symbolism3 Comments

I had the incredible opportunity of meeting Dr. Yolanda Robinson in London a few years back, where she gifted me with a copy of Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards, published in 2013.

Sourced from Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards (2013) by Yolanda M. Robinson

Robinson is a professor of transformational psychology and a member of BOTA, the Builders of the Adytum, a western mystery school tradition dedicated to the study of Qabalah and the Tarot. Studies on Mystical Tarot explores the tarot courts through a Rosicrucian lens, contextualizing the courts through Hermetic Qabalah and modes of inner alchemy.

Download the Workshop Handout

PDF

This Sightsee the Tarot video installment will guide you through two self-reflection meditative exercises with the court cards in your favorite tarot deck. The first will focus on the four Kings to reaffirm your personal power and the second will be working with the Page of Pentacles.

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Reflecting on My 2021, A Judgement (Key 20) Year

On By benebellIn personal, tarot community10 Comments

I’ve been working through my Tarot Year Card for 2021 and 2022, per Archetypal Tarot (2021) by Mary Greer. I did a Sightsee the Tarot video on it, linked here.

I’m tickled by the coincidence of 2021 being the year the Revelation and final edition of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot was released and it also being my Key 20: Judgement year. Traditionally this card was named Last Judgment and depicts prophetic scenes from the Book of Revelation.

My birthday is September 24 (9 + 2 + 4 = 15), which you then add to the digits for the given year (2 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 5) for the sum 20.

Major life shifts happened to me in 2021. What feels universally true about Judgement moments is that the past flashes before your eyes in an instant. Meanwhile the present is happening in slow motion, and your sense of the future is exciting yet uncertain. If Tower events are when you feel like the world you had built is crumbling down around you, then Judgement events are when you feel like you’re hydroplaning.

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