Monday, September 6, 2010

Clearing a Tarot Deck


Once and a while clearing a Tarot deck may become necessary. I've had my Robin Wood Tarot deck for about three years now. It was my main deck for almost a whole year. I learned on this deck, so it's one of my "old" favorites. After that first year, I noticed that a majority of my readings with it were jumbled, unclear and confusing. They simply fell flat. So I put them in a lovely hardwood box to let them "rest". Today, as I was reading a Tarot blog, I came across a picture of the Four of Swords from that deck. Deciding that I would like to use this deck again, I felt that a clearing would be called for first.



The first thing I did was fill the bottom of it's box with enough sea salt to cover the entire bottom. I then placed the deck on top of that and sprinkled more salt over the top. After that, I placed my clear quartz point on top of it all, leaving the box open. I left it like that for a whole day and night. Today, I burned a reiki candle called Wisdom near it and read the affirmation that comes with it out loud. I then took the deck out of the salt and put the cards back in order. I put it back in the salt and placed the crystal on top once more. I'll leave it like that for a few more days until it feels right to discard the salt.


I've done this before with a used deck I purchased off of ebay. Whenever I get a new deck, I like to sleep with it under my pillow. It seems to help me to "connect" to deck, and can give me some really cool dreams too. lol BUT.... this deck (Tarot of the Cat People), gave me the most horrible, terrifying dreams I think I've ever had! I buried it salt and crystals for a whole week after that, and now it's a very nice, well-behaved deck. I would suggest doing this to all your decks every once and a while, just to give them a fresh, shiny, new start. :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Konxari Cards

Death is a return to earth.
The universe is like an inn.
The passing years are like dust.

Regard this phantom world
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp - a phantom - and a dream.

~Buddha


Yesterday, I received the Konxari Cards that I ordered last week. What an incredible deck! You can check them out or order them on their website at here.

The stunning photography in this deck was done by Paul Michael Kane, and you can see more of his work here.

The directions suggest not to read them while you're alone, so I was going to wait until I could get someone to read with me. But I didn't want to wait. lol Last night, I was sitting at my computer browsing through them, when I decided that I really wanted to try and contact my Dad, who passed away on June 14th of this year. My son was sleeping on the couch right next to me, so I figured that I wasn't really alone anyhow. :)

First I need to tell you something. On June 14th, around 9 am, my Mother called to let me know that Dad had passed at somewhere around 6 o'clock that morning. After hanging up the phone.. I realized that I had been awoken around that time by a sharp, pinching pain in the big toe of my left foot. I had sat up, but couldn't figure out what had happened to make it hurt like that. I thought perhaps one of the cats or dogs had been playing around with my feet, and then quickly scampered off when I'd abruptly sat up in the bed. I laid back down, fell back asleep, and didn't think anything else of it... until after my Mom called later that morning with the sad news. For some reason, I thought perhaps it was my Dad saying good bye in his teasing, smart-ass way. He would definitely do something devilish like that. lol

So back to the reading... I simply asked out loud, "Dad, do you have anything you want to let me know right now?" And then I laid out four cards in a straight row. These were the four cards in the picture below (you can click on the image for a larger version):



I was simply astounded! :O The first card was olfactory, and it has the number 5 on it. (SMELLy foot with 5 toes!) Plus, my Mom often says she can still smell his cologne once and a while in their apartment. It also has a red circle on it for heat. My toe did feel hot and painful when that happened. The second card was love, and it has a FOOT on it along with the letter T. The third card was life, and it has the letter O on it. The fourth card was death, and it has the letter E on it. Those last three cards spell TOE! I couldn't believe it. I'm still in shock. There are two other things as well. The life card has the symbol for Buddhist on it, and the death card has the up arrow. I took this as a sign for reincarnation for some reason. Simply amazing (like he was telling me we'd see each other again). Love is in both life and death. Thanks Dad. :) Or.... love stinks. hahaha.. Dad would have found that amusing. ;)

Two other things I had to come back and mention... The olfactory card is right next to the love card, which has the photographer's wedding band on it. I thought this really affirmed that he is around my Mom when she smells his cologne. Another thing is the life card. It appears to have a dragonfly on it, and that really reminds me of the movie with the same name. The one with Kevin Costner who plays the man receiving messages from his deceased wife. I'm still quite amazed by all this. :)

P.S. Please see Donnaleigh's comment below, because she seen something else as well.

*Please read part two of this here.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Vision Quest Spread

I recently ordered The New Mythic Tarot, and when it arrived it was missing the Queen of Swords. After my initial disappointment a few things occured to me. One.. I had been wanting a 'majors only' deck to have handy, and Two... I've been wanting to do a Tarot collage for hanging on the wall beside my computer desk. I have The Star (major arcana) Tarot deck, but I actually don't like using it because it's large size makes shuffling them difficult. I use them more for meditation. And I've never had the heart to use one of my other decks for a collage. I have no qualms gluing these cards down to some poster board because they are incomplete and I don't have a reading relationship with them. I also reordered another New Mythic Tarot deck from another supplier.

One evening I was sitting at my computer desk and trying to think of a 'tarot story' for my collage. I started by looking through the cards for a storyline, which isn't that hard with the Mythic Tarot because they are based on Greek Mythology. Pretty quickly I had ten cards in front of me depicting a story of sorts. Now all I needed was a pleasing way to situate them for viewing as a whole picture. After doing that, I then realized that I had a interesting spread before me and all I had to do was assign a meaning for each position. This was the end result. I may tweak it a bit after I work with it for awhile, so here is the rough draft of my Tarot spread which I call The Vision Quest Spread.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but it was late at night and all I had handy was my cellphone and limited lighting.



Position 1- The spark that starts it.
Position 2- What you should contemplate on first.
Position 3- The action you should take.
Position 4- What you're ultimately seeking on your vision quest.
Position 5- Who/What will support you.
Position 6- Who/What will challenge you.
Position 7- Where you will discover a hidden strength.
Position 8- The possible outcome of your quest.
Positions 9 and 10- Two things/lessons you will learn through it all.

If you are reading this, and try this spread, please let me know what you think, like, dislike about it. Any ideas on improving it are welcome too. Also, see if you can ascertain the 'story' in it.

The cards in my collage are as follows:

1- 3 of Cups
2- 4 of Swords
3- 6 of Swords
4- Ace of Cups
5- Ace of Pentacles
6- 7 of Wands
7- 9 of Wands
8- 10 of Cups
9- King of Swords
10- Queen of Wands

Thanks for stopping by my blog! :)

~Bobbie

Monday, June 14, 2010

Robert Ottey (April 14, 1927 - June 14, 2010)

My father passed away peacefully this morning at 6:15. He'd been struggling with heart and lung issues for several years now. He was an amazingly strong man to whom I always looked up to as a child and a grown woman. It pained me greatly to see him in the state he was in these past years. A shadow of the man that I remember as a little girl. He was the one who fixed everything from a car that wouldn't stay running because of a small, broken, plastic piece in the choke, to a badly scraped knee I gave myself while showing him how fast I could run the obstacle course I'd designed in our backyard.



He grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania called West Fairview, as the son of the local Justice of the Peace. During his junior year in high school, he joined the Navy and served for several years at the end of WWII. He served as ship's cook, and every time I would catch the movie "Under Siege" on TV, it would make me smile and think of him. I imagine it always will. He later went back to school and got his diploma. Here's his Navy photo. To me, he looks like a movie star. Six foot four, blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes.



He was a very intelligent man who didn't show emotions easily, but you always knew they were there beneath his rather stoic exterior. It was in his eyes, which would sparkle with amusement or compassion and occasionally anger, from behind his glasses. He was also a very intuitive man who just KNEW when you were handing him a line of bull. But he also had a great sense of humour about it too.

When I was a teenager, my Mom found a pipe I had made from some scrap metal that I had obtained from his workshop in the basement. She gave it to him and needless to say, he wasn't pleased. Mostly because some of the pieces were made out of copper. He proceeded to tell me that copper, when heated, could produce fumes that could harm me if inhaled (Earlier in his life he'd also been a metallurgist for Bethlehem Steel). After turning the home-made pipe over several times in his hands, he looked at me bemusedly over the rims of his glasses and said, "Other than that.. the design is pretty damn ingenious." I think he was kinda proud of me at that moment. *smallsmile*

He was a mechanic by trade, and we spent many hours in his basement workshop, working on old, beat up, muscle cars that he would buy cheap, fix up and then re-sell. It was a hobby of his that he truly loved. He was a hard worker who always needed to stay busy both physically and mentally. My first car was a 1978 Mustang II that he fixed up for me. I loved that car. Two years later, I came home one evening after drinking a single beer at a friends house. My parents immediately smelled it on me. The next day he made me drive it to a car dealership in the area with my Mom in tow in a second vehicle, and promptly sold it. "I get it, Dad."



A year ago he decided he wanted to donate his body to science after his death. I get my love for all kinds of sciences from him. As a very little girl, he and I would watch Star Trek re-runs together. We enjoyed that old show so much. Laughing and commenting on things that caught our interest as we watched. He was like Captain Kirk and Spock all rolled into one, whereas my Mom was more like Bones McCoy, an emotional worrywart. Now, when I look up to the stars with these beautiful blue eyes that I was lucky enough to get from you Dad, I'll always be thinking of you. You taught me to fly.



The last words I spoke to him a few days ago were, "I'll see you again later, Dad." And I truly believe that. :*)

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Let It Rain

While watching the movie Patch Adams the other day, I was reminded how much I really love this song from Eric Clapton. :)

Let It Rain

The rain is falling through the mist of sorrow that surrounded me.
The sun could never thaw away the bliss that laid around me.

Let it rain, let it rain,
Let your love rain down on me.
Let it rain, let it rain,
Let it rain, rain, rain.

Her life was like a desert flower burning in the sun.
Until I found the way to love, it's harder said than done.

Chorus

Now I know the secret; there is nothing that I lack.
If I give my love to you, you'll surely give it back.

Chorus


Motherpeace Tarot

I ordered the Motherpeace Tarot a few days ago, and it arrived in the mail today. It's also my daughter's eighteenth birthday today, so I delighted in the coincidental timing of it's arrival. :) It's small size and round shape make it a delight to shuffle, and I love how there is an additional depth to the meanings of the cards depending on if they face left or right (they spin as you shuffle them). A very intuitive deck with primitive style illustrations that (to me) conjure up immediate impressions, without deep thought as to the traditional meanings of the cards.



As I was shuffling the deck a card in particular caught my eye, and I went back through the deck to find it. My first thought was that it was the World card, but alas it was actually Judgment.What a lovely card. The Egyptian ankh with a rainbow ray shining forth from it's heart onto the Earth. In the book that came with the deck, the description of this card is as follows:

"XX Judgment: The Goddess is the Egyptian ankh or life force pouring rainbow light from her heart. She is the planet Venus who has come to help her sister Earth at a critical time. The Goddess is asking for us humans to bring forth our best work. She accepts all our offerings. With these offerings the world becomes a better place in which to live."

When I found the card and pulled it from the deck, it was in a perfectly upright position. In the book, the meaning of this card in this position is as follows:

"Upright: Judgment is grounded in healing and love. She is connected to the Goddess in a way that goes beyond dogma and systems. She is able to give a lot to others without depleting her energy. There is a big change; a decision is made in the best interest of all."

I really like this deck so far and I'm looking forward to reading the book that came with it, as well as doing a spread. Many thanks to Ms. Eartha Stone for pointing me in it's direction. :D

http://www.motherpeace.com/

Friday, May 28, 2010

(My) Desert Rose

They say it blooms once, every thousand years.
With little rain, like drops of tears.

It's color shines with a ruby red.
Alone, it's beauty in a land that's dead.

The heat of the sun could turn the sand into glass.
Still the Rose shines on, like you, my lovely lass.

In a time of uncertainty, your radiance holds bright.
A magical aura, a beautiful sight.

Much like the Rose, you hold your own.
Keeping your cool, in a blazing zone.

So stand there forever, and strike a pose.
My love, my darling, MY DESERT ROSE.

~Seph~




Painting by Sylvia Ji.