Category: divination

Red Tarot by Christopher Marmolejo (North Atlantic Books, 2024)

On By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, divination, tarot, tarot community, tarot symbolism4 Comments

“When rationality runs dry, it’s Red that will reconcile this world, a hue vibrant and vital inside its brown.”

And so opens Chapter 1, Zero, of Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy by Christopher Marmolejo. This is going to be a tarot book like no other. I can tell already. :: hearts for eyes ::

“To be born, this work broke open my heart, and so let this reading be opened by my blood offering, a requisite pound of flesh…”

Marmolego’s writing is going to draw out your feels, that’s for sure. Either you will be fully onboard this train or you will be left scratching your head. You’ll see what I mean. Let’s continue.

Red Tarot is not an easy read, but it’s not intended to be. It’s filled with dense layers covering symbolism, mythology, history, present day politics, literature, and so much more. This book is about shedding red light on each card in the tarot to reveal it as a prism of political praxis, inspired after Prof. Sandy Grande’s Red Pedagogy.

Each tarot card entry draws from four key disciplines:

  1. literary fiction as political expression,
  2. gender studies and theory,
  3. anti-colonialist philosophy of education and decolonizing pedagogy, and
  4. performance studies, whereby theatrics, divination rituals, ceremonial rites, and social expressions are revelatory of core truths in the human experience.

This is achieved by weaving in the teachings of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Paulo Freire, and José Esteban Muñoz.

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I Ching Oracle Cards (Free Printables)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, create your own deck, divination, free download, Fu talismans, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), oracle deck, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism12 Comments

Download the digital files to a text-driven 64-card I Ching oracle deck for a free companion tool to my book, I Ching, The Oracle (North Atlantic Books, 2023).

This is a serviceable everyday personal divination deck that also doubles as an easy, accessible introduction to the I Ching.

It makes for a great study tool as flash cards and for learning the Ba Gua trigram and Wu Xing alchemical phase correspondences.

For your convenience, I’ve also uploaded the files onto makeplayingcards.com. External link and info below.

The listing is $23.20.

  • $22.95 of it goes to makeplayingcards.com, not me.
  • Only $0.25 of it goes to me.

Yes, that’s right. A quarter.

But if you are on a tight budget, you can download the printables file and crafty craft your own DIY copy of the deck.

Apart from the six-line hexagram images, the card faces are text only. No one is trying to wow you with artistry here. =P

This deck is intended to be a functional beginner’s tool for learning the I Ching, to be used in tandem with the book, I Ching, The Oracle.

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I Ching and the 60-Year Lunar-Solar Calendar Cycle

On By benebellIn astrology, divination, holistic horoscopes, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Tao of Craft (book), Taoism11 Comments

My Instagram post from five days ago noted that 2024 (or more accurately, year of the Wood Dragon) corresponds with hexagram 43. Some have been describing it as a forecast or prediction. That’s not entirely accurate, so I thought I’d clarify.

It’s not so much a forecast as it is an application of I Ching theory.

Continue reading “I Ching and the 60-Year Lunar-Solar Calendar Cycle” →

Frater Setnakh’s 72 Angels Talisman Coins and Cards

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, free download, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality, promotional, tarot3 Comments

I previously showed the above in a #54321tarot tag. Whether you get the coins or cards, if you’re interested in the 72 angels correspondences, there’s a free download from me at the very end of this walk-through.

The download is so you can do a direct comparison between the 72 angels and tarot correspondences per Christine Payne-Towler’s Tarot of the Holy Light and the tarot correspondences per Frater Setnakh.

This post is a photographic walk-through of the 72 Angels Talisman Coins and Cards created by Frater Setnakh.

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I Ching Divination with Moon Blocks

On By benebellIn divination, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Taoism5 Comments

I’ve covered moon block (Jiao Bei, 筊杯) divination before here in a past Tinkering Bell video. And this downloadable PDF linked here is a quick reference sheet for using moon blocks.

When you walk into a Buddhist or Taoist temple anywhere in the southern regions of the Mainland, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, heck– just in general the East Asian cultural sphere– you are going to see moon blocks. Baskets full of moon blocks. It’s so you can ask your question of the patron divinity or spirit, then toss the moon blocks and receive an answer from beyond.

Moon blocks can also be used for divination with the Zhouyi (I Ching).

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The Masters of the Tarot Conference at Omega Institute

On By benebellIn cartomancy, conferences, divination, tarot, tarot community3 Comments
2019 Masters of the Tarot Conference. Left to Right: Me, Mary K. Greer, Terry Iacuzzo, Rachel Pollack, and Joanna Powell Colbert

I was first invited to present at the Masters of the Tarot Conference back in 2019. The Conference takes place every July at the Omega Institute in upstate New York, and was founded by Rachel Pollack and Mary K. Greer.

Opening ceremonies and introductions happen on Friday evening, with a starter workshop or master class as your night cap. Then the keynote speaker events begin first thing Saturday morning and go until Sunday noon. Interspersed throughout are discussion panels for Q&As and moderated topical conversations. The event ends with all of us having lunch together.

From the 2019 Masters of the Tarot Conference. Photo courtesy of Joanna Powell Colbert (IG: @joannapcolbert)

I’ve had an incomplete draft of a post-event write-up since July 2019 that I never got around to finishing and posting onto this blog. Sigh. And now the 2023 Conference has come and gone, which was the second time I’ve presented at Omega.

So this blog post is going to cover both the 2019 and the recent 2023 events.

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Fragments: A Grogryn Oracle by Le Page Novembre

On By benebellIn divination, oracle deck, personal spirituality3 Comments

Those who love Renaissance fairs are going to love the Fragments Grøgryn oracle by the artist Le Page Novembre. Novembre describes themselves as “a queer, non-binary, neuro-spicy illustrator and writer” who crafts tarot and neo-medieval art, in the pursuit of “queering catholic imagery.”

They recently launched the brand Grøgryn, an indie sole proprietorship that creates oracles, tarots, and other games. One such artisanal works by Grøgryn is Fragments.

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Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (1870), 12 Prints

On By benebellIn create your own deck, divination, free download, grimoire, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality6 Comments

Download zip file:
Twelve Ancient Egyptian Deities

These twelve images are sourced from an 1870 publication, Bilder-Atlas – Ikonographische Encyklopädie, a multi-volume compendium of reference books in German. The images are formatted to print at 5.0” x 7.0”, but the resolution isn’t the sharpest. Nonetheless, they still printed okay.

Oops! Please ignore the typo.

After you unzip the file, you’ll see four folders for four different versions of the twelve images. I’ve included the originals, a version where I converted the images to a warmer sepia tone, then two versions with borders for printing.

I’m sharing the files here for those who are fascinated by these sorts of finds.

If you want about 3 mm of patterned border to show and you’re using makeplayingcards.com to print your deck, then go with the 6 mm margin files.

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Love Oracle of Eden by Abusua Pa

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, oracle deck1 Comment

The boutique indie publisher Abusua Pa, who printed the Tazama African Tarot, has released an absolutely exquisite and divine oracle deck, the Love Oracle of Eden. This is the second deck by the Black-owned publishing house, whose mission is to increase Black representation in tarot and art.

“Joy is the essence of my being.” – from the Love Oracle of Eden guidebook (2022)

With the Love Oracle of Eden, writes the creators Bjorn Franklin and Chiria Da Luz Fortes, “We had the idea to create a deck about love and relationships, as we did not come across many decks that covered this important subject while including people of colour.”

“To encourage honesty and love with oneself no matter how painful it may be. . . . Even my worst day is a sincere blessing and an opportunity to show myself and those around me grace.” – from the Love Oracle of Eden guidebook

They stumbled upon the art of A.J. and Chantelle Hamilton, the artists of the Love Oracle of Eden. 56 incredible models posed for these photographic compositions, each meticulously curated by the artists for this deck.

Let’s start with the production value. Holy smokes I’ve never seen anything quite like this. The caliber of thought and, like, at this point that deck box is some sort of origami, the level of care that goes into the craftsmanship is impressive. Every design element is not only beautiful, but serves symbolic purpose.

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Wu Xing: Five Movements 五行 · 오행

On By benebellIn astrology, divination, feng shui, Fu talismans, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft4 Comments

This is a crash course on the Wu Xing 五行, Five Dynamic Movements, though you’ll often see it called the Five Elements of East Asian metaphysics. These are five alchemical agents of change to describe how yin and yang qi create, destroy, and thus transform the physical world.

Download PDF
The Five Changing Phases and Their Correspondences
Download DOCX
The Five Changing Phases and Their Correspondences

1/30/2023 Erratum Update: A few of the correspondence rows in the Metal and Earth columns got flip-flopped in the subsequent reference chart. If you downloaded the table before 1/30/2023, please delete it and re-download the rectified version. ❤

I say “East Asian” here because it’s not limited to any one culture, ethnic group, or nationality, not to mention the concept itself is much older than modern-day borders.

Continue reading “Wu Xing: Five Movements 五行 · 오행” →