Category: cartomancy

Dame Darcy’s Mermaid Tarot Deck Review

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, tarot, tarot symbolism27 Comments

Dame Darcy - Mermaid Tarot Deck 2

I should tell you something. I’m not that into mermaids, or sailors, or ships, nautical imagery, or 18th century colonial dress (you’ll see– like in the Two of Wands, Nine of Cups, Page of Cups, Page of Swords, Ten of Cups, etc., pictured below).

And yet I’m VERY INTO Dame Darcy’s Mermaid Tarot deck. My fingers and my head are bursting with excitement as I type this. I don’t know how she did this, how she can get someone like me to be so enamored with this tarot deck.

I first saw the deck’s vibrant images in a vlog deck review by The Four Queens, and while watching, didn’t realize it was called the Mermaid Tarot. I just saw the images and said with quite a bit of conviction and brattiness, “I want that. Now.”

Then I watched Elora Tarot’s vlog on it and, learning more about the deck, realized it’s all about mermaids and sailors and stuff. I kind of thought to myself, “but I’m not that into mermaids and sailors and stuff.”

Whatever, it didn’t matter. There was something drawing me to this deck. I don’t know what kind of spell Dame Darcy put on this deck but hey, it worked on me. It was a bit pricier than most commercial decks out there and with self-published tarot decks you don’t always know what you’re getting into, but you don’t understand– I needed to get this deck.

Dame Darcy - Mermaid Tarot Deck 1

So I got it, and now I don’t know whether to be a good Samaritan and use it as a professional reading deck to share the beauty of Dame Darcy’s artwork with everyone who gets readings from me or be selfish and horde this deck all to myself and not let anyone else touch it, ever.

Usually with tarot decks I hear word of it buzzing about for months and then at some point, I buy. With Dame Darcy’s Mermaid Tarot, it went from “I’ve never heard of it” to clicking “Add to Cart” in, like, I think less than an hour.

The above photo shows what I got with my purchase order. Two extra cards came–an extra Ace of Cups and an extra Wheel of Fortune, which is why they’re set off to the side like that. More on that later. No box, but that’s totally okay with me. I love the black velveteen drawstring bag. It’s even got a sailor’s anchor on it, going with the theme. *Love*

As she noted in her review of the deck, Kelly-Ann of The Four Queens got a stunning handwritten, hand-drawn page with a vegetarian recipe while Elora Tarot got one on seed sprouting, so that kind of got me excited about the prospect of a freebie, but alas, I guess the freebies only go to the VIP. I, however, non-VIP that I am, got no handwritten, hand-drawn page. Aww. Shucks.

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A Review of the Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, tarot20 Comments

01 Radiant Rider Waite deck

The Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot is aptly named. The colors are brighter and there is a wholly modern feel to this deck. The deck is laminated, glossy, and is printed on relatively sturdy cardstock. Holding the box, there’s a cheery vibration I get from it. The deck has a lot of great energy to offer a tarot practitioner.

I purchased the Radiant Rider-Waite because it comes highly recommended by some of the most acclaimed tarot professionals of this decade. I was looking for a professional tarot reading deck in the RWS tradition, one that would strictly be a Rider-Waite-Smith clone. I’ve started to get antsy about having too many random folk fondle with my original Rider Waite deck and my Golden Universal has been getting a lot of mileage, wear and tear as well. So I need a new professional reading deck I can use and let people play around with.

I was really, really hoping the Radiant Rider-Waite would be it.

Unfortunately, no.

02 Cartoony

Why not? It has nothing to do with the artwork, by the way. The artwork by itself is lovely. Compared to the original art by Pamela Colman Smith, this version, which are updated, vibrant recreations of Smith’s art by Virginjus Poshkus are superb. Poshkus thinned out the harsh black outlines from the Smith deck, added subtle shading, and recolored the deck so that now the images pop. There’s a bright, positive energy here, and I can see how it’s a great energy for young beginners in the RWS tradition to be working with. (And I do mean young beginners. I’m doubtful how well received this deck would be to mature beginners.)

03 Vivid

See, there’s also a cartoony vibe going on that I’m not sure works for me in a reading deck. The cartoonish renderings are distracting to me. Yes, Smith’s art isn’t fantastic, but the original RWS serves its purpose. The two-dimensional imagery in the original RWS and austere lines help me tap into my intuition. The vibrant cartoons in the Radiant Rider-Waite? Not so much.

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Scot Slaby’s The Cards We’ve Drawn, Tarot Inspired Poems

On By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, tarot3 Comments

Slaby_TheCardsWeveDrawn_BookCvr

Poet Scot Slaby sent me a copy of his chapbook The Cards We’ve Drawn (Bright Hill Press, 2014) to read and I want to share it with all you tarot enthusiasts out there. I very much enjoyed it and read it through cover to cover several times. These are poems that can really tug on your heartstrings, even more so for the tarot enthusiast who can truly appreciate the depth of Slaby’s lines.

The first part of the book consists of 11 poems, each poem expressing one card and position in the Waite Celtic Cross spread. Of all signifiers, it’s the Knight of Cups. What is it with poets and the Knight of Cups? =) No, seriously. The Knight of Cups frequently appears in readings I do for poets.

If the first 11 poems of the book were to be configured into an actual CC spread, here’s what it would look like:

Slaby_CelticCross

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Tarot Reading in Taiwan

On By benebellIn cartomancy, professional tarot, tarot, tarot symbolism7 Comments

This is so cool. I stumbled across some fascinating home footage of a professional tarot reading done in Taipei, Taiwan. There are no subtitles, so for those who don’t understand Mandarin, I’m going to provide a recap. I found the reading session quite fascinating, mostly because it’s cool to see how other practitioners approach readings, especially from other cultures. (Well, for me, it’s the same culture in a way, since I’m Taiwanese, but you know what I mean.) The practitioner did this reading for 250 NT, which is about $8.00 USD. That is cheap! Holy cow!

He started by telling the seeker, who blogs as The Chindian Chronicles that she could ask four questions. Each tarot deck can answer four questions at a time, he tells her. (Interesting!) She chooses her Studies, her Family, her Health, and Love. He’s also using the RWS system, though not any reproduction of the RWS that I’m familiar with. Actually, from some of the screen shots, it looks like a version of the Universal Tarot (which closely follows RWS and is considered an RWS clone) by Roberto De Angelis. I love that there’s the dharma wheel on the backs.

I also think it’s cute how the girls are nervous about the reading, though I love that he reassures them and is really overall doing a great job at this. I’m going to do my best to translate the reading session, since I’m sure my practitioner friends are very interested.

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A Tarot Reading Technique: The Eta Method

On By benebellIn cartomancy, professional tarot, tarot4 Comments

The Eta Method - 00

I refer to the following tarot reading technique as The Eta Method. It’s not a spread exactly, but rather a process, a method for divinatory reading. “Eta” refers to revelation. It is believed that the decoded esoteric meaning of the Greek letter H (Eta) is that of revelation. Read more here. It fits with my understanding, my intentions, and the purpose of this reading procedure. Hence, The Eta Method.

In a nutshell, The Eta Method is this:

(1) selecting a signifier,

(2) performing a modern (and my personal) adaptation of the First Operation,

(3) reading and interpreting cards in certain positions in the First Operation,

(4) considering the degrees and thus numerology, and

(5) considering the elements.

The following explanation of the method may imply that it’s exhaustive, but I swear to you it is not. Granted, while it is not impossible to do it in 15 minutes, it will come across as rushed and I wouldn’t recommend it. However, it is absolutely doable within 30, so long as the practitioner limits the seeker’s questions and personal stories to the very end of the reading (because you know how that goes). The best practice for The Eta Method is for 1 hour sessions, but again, suitable for 20-30 minutes. It’s most definitely not like The Opening of the Key.

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My Earliest Foray in Cartomancy

On By benebellIn cartomancy, personal, tarot1 Comment

Journey_to_the_West_Cartomancy_01_PrettyCards

In Chapter 33, the final chapter of my forthcoming book Holistic Tarot (coming out January, 2015; you can pre-order now!), I talk about how I got started in tarot.

In elementary school I acquired a standard 54-card playing deck from Taiwan that depicted the characters of one of my favorite classical Chinese novels, Journey to the West (西遊記). While writing that chapter, I thought back fondly of those early memories, that large deck in my hands, shuffling carefully so that none of the cards would fall out (as the deck was large for my hands), fanning the cards out and selecting a couple to study, like maybe the characters on each card that had been drawn out into the spread held some meaning to my life. You could say it was my earliest foray in cartomancy.

As I wrote, I worked from my memory of that Journey to the West deck, figuring it was still back on the east coast in my childhood home, if not lost for good. Recently, the Hubby and I cleaned out all our old storage boxes and I stumbled across that Journey to the West deck I talked about in my tarot book. I couldn’t believe it! I had managed to save it all those years and not only save it, but for reasons now lost to me, I bothered to bring it with me when I moved out here to the west coast!

Journey_to_the_West_Cartomancy_02Size

In my memory, the cards were huge and required careful maneuvering. However, now that I have the actual deck in hand, they’re quite small. Gasp. The cards shrunk! That or I grew up.

Journey_to_the_West_Cartomancy_07Cards2

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Tarot Fortune Telling Fraud in Chinatown

On By benebellIn cartomancy, divination, Magical in the Mundane, personal, professional tarot, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, tarot, tarot community, traditional witchcraft4 Comments
Image source: Oakland Chinatown, www.oakland-chinatown.info
Image source: Oakland Chinatown, http://www.oakland-chinatown.info

I recount this as calmly as possible. That is said more for my frame of mind than yours.

I had stumbled upon a fortune teller in Chinatown sitting at a makeshift tabletop. The chairs were miniature and when sitting, your knees would be up next to your ears. What had intrigued me to stop and listen in was her method of fortune telling: the tarot. You don’t see tarot divination that often among the Chinese, so of course I had to observe. A young woman about 20-ish years of age and her friend sat across from the fortuneteller. From what I overheard, the question was about love.

The fortune teller used what appeared to be a Marseille-based deck. I couldn’t figure out a discrete way to take photographs, so let’s assume my memory is good and go with the below reenactment, using the CBD Tarot de Marseille.

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Your Tarot Spreads Repertoire

On By benebellIn cartomancy, professional tarot, tarot3 Comments
A deformed Celtic Cross due to space constraints. The Mary-el Tarot.
A deformed Celtic Cross due to space constraints. The Mary-el Tarot.

At the intermediate level, every tarot practitioner should have a repertoire of at least 7 spreads. Now note that as an advanced reader, you will have fully developed your personal practice approach and may have only one spread that you always use, no matter the inquiry or situation, or a repertoire of spreads that are very different from the ones mentioned here, or an altogether different intuitive approach to readings. All that is developed with time, however, so at the intermediate level, expose yourself to as much as possible and master a minimum of 7 spreads to empower yourself as the most adaptable and efficient reader you can be.

In my own practice I customize and design new spreads on a case by case basis. I also employ a variety of techniques to answer questions–operations from various Golden Dawn methodology (or my adaptation of it), card counting, etc. However, I do insist tarot students who have gained a proficient understanding of the card meanings and who know the basics of tarot interpretation to begin building their repertoire. There are 7 spreads you should know by heart at any given time:

  1. A 3 card reading spread
  2. A 4 card reading spread (or a 5 card reading spread)
  3. The Celtic Cross
  4. A yes/no spread
  5. A spread for a 2-party reading
  6. Specialty multi-card spread #1
  7. Specialty multi-card spread #2

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The Mary-el Tarot: My Personal Reading Deck

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, tarot15 Comments

It’s perplexing that I would take so long to acquire the Mary-el Tarot but it did, just over 2 years from its publication date (February, 2012) by Schiffer Publishing. Now that I have it, I’m even more perplexed at myself for the delay. I’ve been hearing about it here and there, reading reviews, seeing vlogs about it, and even articles in various tarot publications.

Mary-el_CoverBox

Get this deck. No wishy-washy preceding terms like “consider…” or “perhaps you might like…” or “I personally suggest…”– No. Get this deck. You should get this deck.

Unless, of course, you only like paintings of pastel rainbows and pretty little kittens and unicorns, absolutely cannot tolerate nudity for whatever reason, or you can only use the straightforward Rider-Waite tradition or you can only use the Marseille or you can only use the Thoth. If any of those are true about you, then yeah, forget it. Stick with what you know. Otherwise, Get. This. Deck.

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A Tarot Reading for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

On By benebellIn cartomancy, divination1 Comment

2014.03.12 2.12 pm Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - 1 Signifier

I did not want to post about this. The tragedy hit a bit close to home for me and both Hubby and I have been on top of the updates about the situation in as real-time as it can get. This afternoon I spent some time concentrating on the matter and had my trusty Robin Wood tarot deck on hand. I went through the deck to select a signifier and from the Robin Wood deck, the Eight of Wands leapt out at me as the signifier to read with for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Quietly, and what was going to be privately, I drew a single card for the matter. What happened next took me by surprise.

2014.03.12 2.12 pm Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - 2 Reading

I drew Key 15: The Devil. If that isn’t compelling enough, look at the imagery on the card. I happened to select the Robin Wood tarot to read with, which is a deck with a unique take on The Devil card, different from the traditional systems.

And I’m just going to leave the posting at that. I wasn’t going to share, but wow, just wow. I may not be a mathematician, but I believe the probability of me drawing that card for this reading is about 1.2%.