Who art thou Redcrosse Knight....?

Today I drew The Knight of Cups from the Bohemian Gothic.... a very dark looking card colourwise, darker than most, you really need to get into the light with a magnifying glass to see the detail in any way.

Knight of Cups - Bohemian Gothic Tarot

 The first detail I noticed on the card was the horned devil character carved into the stone of the castle wall. At first I thought it was a Green Man effigy, but when I took out my magnifying glass (a very useful Christmas gift...), I saw the horns and also it looks like his tongue is in two halves, or forked. So this dude could be escaping from the devil in order to bring something precious, back to its rightful place. He could indeed be a good guy like the traditional knight of cups.

He looks like he is not quite hurrying away, but there is some haste, he holds his arm up as if to show victory....showing off his trophy (which could represent the Holy Grail, as it is a kind of Chalice but has a devil on top by the looks of it), maybe he is holding it up to someone out of the card.. a crowd even?  Could it be devils blood, the elixir of eternal youth? Or eternal Vampirism...... Was the cross to protect him from the likes of Dracula in that dark castle?

The portcullis is raised so they haven't resisted his escape, unless they had no time. Looks like he entered the castle courtyard by nightfall, but surely the hooves of his horse would have been heard. He looks sinister and a bit sneaky, but he has no weapon I can see except this chalice. I think this goblet or its content has great power.

I originally connected the red crosses with those of the crusades and the Templars but their red cross was always on a white background.... that this is on a dark background makes me wonder if he is on the side of the shadows.

There is a Redcrosse Knight  in the Faerie Queen poem... written by Spenser in 16th Century... He was also called the knight of holiness. Like St George (who also had a red cross) he fought a dragon like monster and killed it. He had a lady who was in love with him called Una which means truth, but I am thinking maybe he fought for love of the Faerie Queen... Elizabeth. He was a Christian, Una means truth, and I think she was the symbol of the true faith in the poem. At one point an adversary of the Redcrosse knight uses faerie magic to change a sprite into a false Una and so try to lead the knight astray. When the real Una found he was gone she was bereft. I wonder if this is mean't to be Spenser's knight?  It seems to cross a bit with legends of Lancelot and Guinevere and Arthur in some places too. I must read it again someday but as it is written in old English it takes some time to translate!

The horse has a Fleur de Ly's on its collar, usually associated with the French but also popular in much heraldry and royal coats of arms throughout Europe. Both horse and rider are covered in armour, and heraldic drapes, only the eyes show, but those being the windows of the soul, maybe that is all we need to see... in a Knight of Cups......

I think though he knows no one will come after him, he may have sold his soul to the devil in order to get that grail, and that's why his eyes are so empty looking.... Even his horse looks disapproving. The grail as we know caused men to burn in fever. The light leaves his immediate path lit but all else in shadow, like a light between worlds of darkness. But what is the light, has he been enlightened?

I see little romance about this knight, and not too much emotion either, but maybe he is doing it all for love as did Lancelot.... so dangerous because he represents the threat of stealing your heart, and love and possibly taking you to a dark place. Looks like he will stop at nothing to get what he wants anyway.

Hmmmmm I guess he is the kind of guy I get attracted to come to think of it....

Well that was a lot of stuff to come at me in a short time as regards this card. I think I will just watch out for men wearing red crosses, and bearing silver goblets. Especially if they are heralded by the ghost of a dragon or followed by a creature with a forked tongue!

Still..... two knights in shining armour, in a couple of days..... can't be too bad I suppose!

Seven of Cups

Another delightful card from the Victorian Romantic... I am loving this deck more and more. Funy if I saw half these images in a book or gallery, I am not so sure many of them would catch my eye, but the artists who created this deck have done wonders with them. Bringing them to life as a Tarot Deck full of symbols and possibilites and magical pictures... well its totally transformational. Real alchemy!

Seven of Cups - Victorian Romantic

This guy reminds me of The Fool...... just by his appearance really. I wonder what he is doing. Is he using his treaures as bait to catch the fairy folk below the surface? He could have been taken in by the underwater creatures, for they could be like the Sirens who led men to their deaths crashed up rocks.
He could end up with nothing left, like the gambler who throws it all in against the big prize. Of courser with gamblers there never is a big prize, it is always just out of reach... that being the nature of the beast. Is he being taken in by the Sirens or is he fooling them? Are his treausures merely illusions which will disappear when they try to touch them? Someone seems to be playing a game in this card. If the fisherman falls in he could be caught in those tentacle things and trapped... drowned even.

I read somewhere that this card is sometimes know as Faery Favours... because like Faery gifts they could just be illusions which fade after time. There is much illusion as this card is associated with the Moon, and emotion of course... shown in the water. I just thought of being drowned in emotion.... deluded... tempted to believe that which is not true but only imagined. Very much a Seven of Cups energy.

Faery favours makes me wonder if I should turn to my Faerie Oracle for help.... or will I only become more deluded?! I do like this particular Seven of Cups though..... I like dreams... even if they can be only castles in the air.

Tuesday Energy

I love the word Tuesday, I wanted to call one of my children Tuesday, but the closest to a Tuesday was my son who was born at 10.33 on a Monday evening. Today I wouldn't need them to be born on that day to name them Tuesday, because now I don't need a reason to do things.... I like signs though... some kind of guidance is good, no matter how subtle.

So today I asked the cards what energy I needed..... for healing... I felt low....low spirits and low energy and I didn't know why.

These are the cards I drew:

Queen of Wands - Victorian Romantic and Two of Chalices from Ludy Lescot

The Queen of Wands is shown here looking very confident and self assured. She wears her regal purple dress with frills and bustle, but I cant help but noticing that it also has big pom pom buttons which remind me of clown suits! Another playful side is show by the mask she carries. This could show a darker side to her nature, maybe to wear when her passion rises, or is it something she has now stopped wearing as she has grown more into her true nature and no longer needs to hide it?

Her Wand is a large parasol in fiery orange and she wears a ribbon on her hat to match. So while passion may go to her head it also connects her to the ground. She looks at her people, knowing she is adored by them and in return they can trust her to be a true and just monarch. The blue of the hydrangea on her parasol is a symbol of heartfelt devotion.... its literal meaning, from the Greek hydro and angeion, means water vessel. It can be a symbol of thankfulness and gratitude... possibly given to her by one of her people. The sunflowers in the background are representative of adoration and joy.... there is a Greek myth about a yellow flower which is very fitting. From Squidoo:

Clytie, the water nymph, was in love with Apollo, the Sun God, who later became known as Helios. She would stare up at Apollo, hoping he would glance her way. But Apollo was in love with someone else and never did favor Clytie with his gaze. When Clytie realised that Apollo was never going to return her love, she sank into a depression and would not eat or drink for nine days but just stare with sorrow at her unrequited love. The other Gods felt sorry for Clytie and they transformed her into a beautiful sunflower which always followed the path of the sun.

 When in bud the sunflower does follow the sun, seeking the warmth and light...but when in full bloom they always face east, which is appropriate as the sun rises in the east, and so she would look this way for Apollo's chariot to appear on the horizon each new day. What a great symcol of hope and devotion! Also of course the Sunflower has longevity and is a form of nourishment, providing hundreds of seeds for food or oil.Wonderful flower to signify the qualities of a good ruler.

I need to seek out my truth and my light and stand tall in those things... obviously!

The Two of Chalices seems to support the message of the Queen of Wands. There is the connection with the water vessel and also a need to get in touch with who you really are. This card shows two people back to back kneeling on a bed. There is a trunk against the wall and a fishing net on the bed. The windows are clouded glass, so noone can see in, they have privacy to enjoy their intimacy.  It looks like it could be a cabin in a cruise ship, with the trunk and the net. The two figures have their eyes closed, they cannot see each other and are relying on feel, even as they share the wine between their chalices, trusting it not to spill. They touch blindly, giving themselves up to the senses. If this is a ship then that itself is a vessel and the net could symbolise that they are caught up in emotions I love this card.... I love this deck!

The Two of Chalices seems to relate to my nature far more than the Queen of Wands, but maybe they are both giving me the same message. Trust my intuition, be who I am, and be proud of that.

Full Moon Spread with Sweet Twilight

For today I decided to do a Full Moon spread instead of a daily draw, as the Moon will be full in about 5 hours time.... I wanted to catch it before it begins to wane. I used this spread designed by
Eowyn on Aeclectic Tarot, along with my Tarot of the Sweet Twilight.

Full Moon Spread by Eowyn

 ****2****
1*********3
 ****0****

3. What begins to fade away, to darken, to abandon you... or what needs to be.
2. What gets completed. What closes a cycle.
1. What can be seen with clarity, so bright that can even blind you.
0. Yourself. Shadow card, from the base of the deck.

Eowyn has the cards laid out one above the other in a line, but because I wanted to photograph the reading for this blog I laid mine out around the face of the moon with the zero shadow card at the bottom and then moving clockwise with the other three cards.

Full Moon Spread - Tarot of the Sweet Twilight

0 - Yourself. Shadow card, from the base of the deck - The Empress

For the Shadow card I drew  The Empress. I dont feel too much like the traditional Empress at the moment, but I can relate to this half submerged creature. She looks calm and balanced and actually I do feel calm, like the calm after the storm if not quite Venus rising from the waves! All elements are here showing no struggle between any of them... she wears fire, stands half in air and half in water and she carries the earth in her hand. Moon Goddess and Earth Mother, Fire Maiden and Mermaid!
I love her big heart shaped crown..... I definitely rule with my heart and not my head. I also see the water as emotions which she is rising from. Part of her is still submerged in emotions but she is holding her world out of the water. I can relate to this. The fishes all want a little bit of her.. or maybe a great big chunk... I can relate to this too. But also she is part of everything in her world... as I am.
Someone told me the other day how my children have taken parts of me just as I am getting new parts from them. We are one.

1 -  What can be seen with clarity, so bright that can even blind you - Death

Another Major Arcana..... and what a gorgeous card. The skeleton is so loving, and it looks to me as if he is carrying the sleeping girl away from the shadow of death which is in the scythe of the grim reaper behind him. he is moving away from the Moon and towards the Sun and the light. There is however a desert to cross, maybe he has done most of the journey and is nearing the end. The skull and the snake remind me of a print I have of the Mexican border... there are skulls and snakes there... Snakes have always been signs of regeneration and transformation and of course temptation. Skulls are a symbol of impermanence and even considered lucky by some cultures. Perhaps this skull is signifying the border, the edge, and soon the two will be out of the desert and moving into a new lusher country. I feel as if I am the person being moved on.... I have felt this for some time, I am not sure what is moving me, but some force is making it happen....

2 - What gets completed. What closes a cycle - Seven of Chalices

Two skeletons in this reading.... the girl looks at her reflection in the water and see's death, the death of her old self maybe... or the death of feeling....emotion... An emotional death.... again I am gobsmacked by this tarot deck. Behind her the future is lush and bright and life beckons, but she cant see that in her watery mirror yet... but if she looks deep enough she will. Is she looking to find who she truly is? Has she left the world behind for a while to contemplate who she is?

Death has one of the cups, it is just a reflection, is it something she has to leave behind ...something she can no longer touch, or an emotion she can no longer feel? That would work for me. Of course she could be intoxicated.... three of the goblets are empty and one is in the water... strangely enough I haven't been able to drink wine for ages!

The girl sits between life and death, which is where we all sit, all of the time, for all we have is now.

3 - What begins to fade away, to darken, to abandon you... or what needs to be - The World

Sadness? Will sadness abandon me? This is an amazing card.... the World is crying and the sun shines through her tears and makes a rainbow... the sign of hope. Stars are twinkling and the little person is standing on the Moon (?) holding up a bowl to receive the love and joy and sorrow of the world. Our planet. There is a flower on the moon growing up.... whats this? Life on another planet... is it showing that there is more than the earth that needs our love and care and attention.

Everything is here.... a cycle is complete with The World card.... there have been struggles and hardships but it is time to hold up our offering bowls and celebrate, be thankful for we have gotten this far, and there is much to live for.

As far as the position of this card in the layout goes... maybe what is fading away is that which is meant to fade away, the end of a major cycle in my life... what once seemed light and all there was to live for is now in shadow, and I can hardly see it?

There are a lot of deaths in this reading... I am definitely looking at changes, endings and new beginnings. But I have known this for a while. Three Major Arcana cards are pretty strong stuff in a four card spread! I will think about this more tomorrow. Time to watch an episode of Lynley!

Amazing Three Cards!

As this past seven days has been so eventful, in so many ways, I asked the cards to tell me the three important events or lessons about my most week.

I will begin with a purely intuitive reading from the images on the three cards I drew. I didn't keep them in any particular order of drawing so all have equal weight unless the cards direct me otherwise!,

When I turned the cards over, I found it hard to believe the accuracy of the images.... just like 3 snapshots straight out of my life!

Two of Pentacles, Eight of Chalices & Five of Pentacles - Tarot of the Sweet Twilight

Two of Pentacles

This card says to me that she is looking in that mirror and asking plain and simple...

"What shall I do?" I see birds as messengers and the fact that there are two of them shows lots of advice coming her way but she needs to make the decision ultimately. She knows that she is the only one she can rely on to guide her safely through the emotional turbulence she is in.

The mirror is magic so she is being aided from other sources than this world... her intuition is strong, the image it shows is clear and she needs to trust it.

The floating object in the sea to the right of the mirror looks as if it could be an island, if this is so then maybe its a distraction to take her from the path she really needs to be on.

She is hiding her talents in real life but knows she needs to show them off more.... I wonder if the red hat is a thinking cap... she looks very thoughtful!

Lots of questions this week, and I have been trying to ask what I want and whats best for me in the long run. I have been told by a couple of friends to concentrate on my well being.. and I have felt a strong need to really look and find out who I am now.... I have always seen myself as a bit of a loser in life deep down, but maybe others don't see me this way. Maybe that person in the mirror is me in my true light and power.

Eight of Cups

Oh my so poignant. I see a woman who is walking away with a lot of difficulty from a relationship that was just too unbalanced. The sun is setting in a red sky which says to me that the relationship is ending. She is still connected by the ends of her hair to the tree that is how she saw her lover. He is not attached to the tree, he never was, the tree was the illusion that he created to bind her to him. Her hair os growing out and away from him and the tree... growth is a natural process, it takes time for hair to grow that long, and there are a lot of tangles to be dealt with on the way. She looks sad but determined. She is emptying the cups contents... she doesn't need to escape into the wine anymore. She can see how big the world is.

The lover looks totally disbelieving, his hand is on his heart indicating pain. He is too shocked to feel remorse. She has really left him....  and he is left clutching his goblet of wine for solace. He is dark and shadowy and closed. He stays close to the tree of illusion that was him..., he is blending into it in the shadows. She is light and open one snip and she will be totally free.

There is a path ahead which looks clear, but she ignores it and is looking to the side.. distracted by the wonderful view... so there may be some indecision.

Well yes and yes and yes..... all this happened this week... exactly as in the picture on the card. Even the timescale for the hair to grow that long and for her to get that far away is about right. Amazing.

Another aspect I see here is that the girl is looking out to sea where her sister is far away.....  she wants to be with her, she is maybe raising the last glass to her (in which case it would contain Lindauer Brut Cuvee. The shadowy figure could be our Dad who was cremated this week. The sunset could be his.

Sometimes when there is a lot of loss... its hard to sort out what hurts most.



Five of Pentacles

I laughed when I saw this card.... after the other two it was unbelieveable that this could show. Most of my week has been taken up with the idea of traveling again. I have spent hours looking at buses on Trademe and talking to other travelers and being so inspired. I have had some wonderful exchanges and sharing with one special traveler who is new in my life.

The two chicka's could be me and any of the five awesome friends who have helped me so much this week... Chris, Pearl, Myk, Susan and my sister Debbo. I thank you all and am blessed to have you in my life.

They are flying their colours on their persons and their awesome hippy camper van! They have their bat wing kite to help them and if all else fails the two broomsticks are standing by at the ready. They have everything they need now to move forward. Even the dirty washing has all been done. Ready for a clean start. Fresh air bows through the windows of the bus, blowing the cobwebs away.

Just wonderful.... I have the best friends in my life, who are ever supportive of me, I have all I need to move on, the wings and the wheels and the will. I just need to decide which direction to head in...one half of me wants to hang on the the old dying life, that old black hat was comfortable. This new green one will take some getting used to.

What an absolutely awesome, intuitive accurate deck this is.

Ace of Wands and Six of Cups

The roots of fire... and pleasure...

Today I drew the Ace of Wands from Tarot of the Sweet Twilight..... and the Six of cups from tarot of the Silicon Dawn.

Ace of Wands & Six of Cups

The Ace of Wands is a great card in this deck.... I love how the little person in the tree is so intent on
trying to deal with the dead leaves that they miss the huge juicy red apple behind them. Great illustration of how we can miss something really good in our lives by looking in the wrong direction and concentrating on that which is dying rather than that which is healthy and ripe and shiny. This card is about stepping back and seeing the bigger picture. There is magic and fire and earthiness in this wand. You cannot see it in my photo, but on the ground near the tree is a magic wand with a skull on top.  Little person could be looking for the wand, realising she has let her magic fall. The skull on top of the wand could also show us that there is magic in endings.. the magic of new beginnings.

This card is bursting with creative energy, and sometimes it can be hard to know which direction to move in, with too many ideas coming at you all at once. There is a need to make a change in your life ... it's time to realise you dream, follow your heart and your instinct. But first you have to find out what this is.

The Six of Cups in the Tarot of the Silicon Dawn is another card that is literally bursting with energy. It is a card of joy and pleasure and living in the now while reaching for the heights, This card shows a huge fountain of water, like a goddess rising from the ground that has been warmed by the sun. The water in the cups is spilling out with abandon, here in the now everything is abundant.

The hidden parts of your life are coming to the surface, feelings, talents maybe, things from the past that you once enjoyed could resurface. The water goddess here has pink bows about her person which remind me of children and the the easy joys and innocence of childhood. Childhood also brings naivety which could be a warning not to be too trusting of someone who may not have your best interests at heart.

I have very recently been concentrating  my energy on things which no longer work in my life or serve me in any positive way. I could be missing out on huge chunks of juicy apple joy because of this inability to let things die naturally. I do have lots of inspiration from different sources and end up confused as to which way to turn. As a result, one day life seems full of possibilities and the way forward seems very clear, and the next day I am back underground looking up through a wormhole where everything seems huge and impossible.

I can be way too trusting of some people.. and that trust has recently been proved to be misplaced. But I do have a pure way of seeing things sometimes, and tend to think others are like me. I do need some Six of Cups joy and pleasure and play in my life at the moment though.... been a long time!

I an thinking that the Ace of Wands may be telling me to see the big picture, and also saying its time to act without too much thought. No more procrastination! Looking at that giant apple again that is hidden in the background, a part of me wonders if the little person deliberately ignores it? Maybe she knows something about it that we don't.. maybe it is not so good as it looks, it could be an illusion created by the magic wand. Could it be that she wants to cure whatever is killing the leaves she is inspecting, to heal the tree? Maybe the BIG apple sapped all the life from the tree and that is why it is starting to die. This reminds me very much of a situation in my life right now.