Mid may - mixed bag!

Buckland Romani Tarot

Tools And Timing

Sometimes creative projects come in fits and starts. There may be funding or creativity problems. All kinds of obstacles can crop up when you are trying to put a project out in the world. But, no journey can begin without a first step! Admittedly, I am often slowed down by health issues, but for a long time I put off doing the creative things because I didn’t have the “right equipment” or because I was in an unstable situation. Finally, I decided that I was just going to do it anyway. That was really exciting.

But, lately, there have been some impediments to doing it anyway. I’ve had to surrender. I started a YouTube channel only to find out when I make videos or take photos, I'm unable to transfer them from my phone. My computer is old and unreliable. I have sporadic internet. My life is full to the brim with stress and my physical pain seems undaunted no matter how much ibuprofen I throw at it.

There are times in every creative process when you feel like you’ve hit a wall! I had a good momentum going and I smacked up against it pretty hard. I’ve been pretty mad, dejected, frustrated, but the cards have been telling me lately that maybe I just need to stop for a bit, focus on some of these tiny details and build up my tools. I don’t have to stop creating. I just have to be patient, go slow, do it at my own pace, etc. It does no good beating myself up for being sick. That doesn’t help me with my health. Surrendering to my limitations and having faith that I’ll still produce some good work that connects with people is a pretty good strategy and may prevent me from having a stroke, yes?

This reading with the Animals Divine Tarot, which is always on point, really underscored this for me. It’s time to be an industrious little mouse and stock resources.

ABUNDANCE!

The Abundance card from The Vintage Wisdom Oracle has come up a number of times lately, alone or paired with Transition. It’s been a good reminder that the acceptance that change is inevitable and letting go of things or people that are holding me back makes room for things that do. Making room for abundance is a worthwhile endeavor. It also reminds me that even though I don’t have the kind of financial abundance most people associate with the word, I have much to be grateful for as I am truly rich in friends.

Let's Talk Tens!

Changing gears a bit here, I had meant to highlight Michelle Tea’s marvelous book, Modern Tarot throughout May, but barely got started with one post on Instagram last week. I’m going to keep it going. Hopefully, you’ll follow along and enjoy it, The book is highly quotable, Tea’s observations on tarot are brilliant. It is one of my favorite books and I recommend it highly!

So, let's talk TENS in the Tarot for a minute: I have a little bit of trouble with tens. On one hand,, they can signify a moment of huzzah! You’ve done the thing, everything is beautiful, and all your hard work paid off, right? Time to celebrate! This is especially evident in the Ten of Cups and the Ten of Pentacles. The Ten of Wands is that temporary extra load you’ve taken on that you know will push you over the edge to your goal! The Ten of Swords, on the other hand….yeesh, that’s the one we all try to avoid, right? But, you have to end your cycle. It’s inevitable. Even the scary cards have a positive message when you can get past the imagery!

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"Tens are the resolution, but they are not the big happy whiz-bang party card you might expect. Because the tarot is a glyph of life itself, and life is about action always, the pride and happiness of a ten is tempered by a twinge of boredom, of “what now”-ishness.  Because as one cycle ends, another is beginning, and the suit is ready to tip back into the Ace and start the whole thing all over again. This is sometimes a big relief - the Ten of Swords for instance, looks like the worst card in the deck, but it holds the considerable Silver Lining of this lousy moment finally being over."  -Michelle Tea

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Here are three decks that illustrate this rather well (L to R):
​The Fradella Adventure Tarot, The Morgan Greer Tarot, The Buckland Romani Tarot.

I’d invite you to spend some time with the Tens of the tarot this week. What do they make you feel? What clues  jump out from the imagery in the deck you use most?

Recommendations

What am I listening to this week? I’ve been delving into the tarot episodes of Midnight Scario podcast. It’s been fun hearing the observations of someone who is somewhat of a novice. I’ll have to listen to a few more before I can really comment.

What am I watching? Well, I had a fun surprise. I had a rough day and decided to unwind with a few giggles by watching, Amy Poehler’s comedy film, Wine Country on Netflix. It has a great cast of ladies, mostly SNL alums including Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey. Poehler says many of the film’s  misadventures are based on things that actually happened on various vacations, including a very bad group tarot reading. Cherry Jones, is hilarious as a reader with a very bad cardside manner. What I appreciated about it though is that the scene was written with accurate card interpretations. It’s refreshing to see tarot respected in this way. They used the Golden Universal Tarot which is a very pretty RWS based deck. 

Golden Universal Tarot

That’s it for Tarot Tuesday this week. As soon as I can get something, ANYTHING working, there will be new videos on my YouTube channel. I post on the Speaking Of Witch Instagram regularly, but not so much that it will overwhelm your feed. I’d love to see you there!

If you want to help Speaking of Witch grow and get better content,  HERE is our Amazon wish list of decks and books we'd like to review.