The BloG
Major concepts. minor musings.
Monthly Reflection: The Wanderer & Four of Pentacles
There has been a collective energy lately around emerging from our comfort zones, and this Monthly Reflection is no exception. As we enter into August, we are met with a sense of yearning, a sense that something is missing, and if we truly want it, we can’t stay where we are.
July Reflection - The Wanderer
This is a beautiful bonus card found in The Wandering Moon Tarot (a wonderful, high-quality deck). In the image, we meet The Wanderer, who appears to be sitting atop the moon alone. She looks out towards a crescent moon in the distance. She may be physically on this moon, but her mind and heart are elsewhere. This forms the basis of our reflection for July…
Suits & Seasons: Summer
In Spring, we explored the link between Spring and the Pentacles (read the blog post here), but which suit relates to Summer?
Well, how could the hottest season of the year not be linked to the most fiery suit of the tarot deck?
At the most basic level, Summer is a natural seasonal pairing to the Wands. With the hotter temperatures and greater risks of sunburn, heat stroke, dehydration, and other heat-related issues, we can draw parallels with the element associated with the wands suit… Fire. Humans turn to fire for warmth and light, both of which are benefits we gain from the presence of the sun, shining at its brightest, and warmest, during the summer months…
Monthly Reflection: The World & Justice
The monthly reflection comes a little late this month - moving home has been a little chaotic! But we’re back with quite a bang - two major arcana cards make quite the powerhouse combo here!
The Wayhome Tarot’s version of The World, called The Universe, is perhaps my favourite. Its beautiful imagery captures the complexity of a card that is mostly reduced down to being about accomplishment, achievement and completion.
Don’t get me wrong, it is about those things - but what does that really mean? Let’s break it down.
Monthly Reflection: Continuum & Keeper
If you’re familiar with the tarot, these might not be the tarot cards you’re used to, but the Ephemere Tarot deck by Arthur Wang is just as powerful. Though the minor arcana follows the traditional structure, Ephemere’s major arcana, follows The Hero’s Journey, instead of our familiar Fool. In this month’s reflection, we have two majors. Whether traditional or otherwise, this is always a sign that big things are occurring for us. As someone writing this on the precipice of a major house move, I can certainly say that energy is reflected in my own life!
May Reflection - Continuum
As the last card of Ephemere’s major arcana, Continuum of course indicates the closing of a chapter, but moreover, the cyclical nature of everything in existence. With every ending, comes a new beginning, as they say…
Monthly Reflection: Three of Swords & Knight of Cups
The months of April and May appear to mark an important turning point for us my friends! The areas we have been stuck are being brought to light, and while it might be painful, it is an opportunity to release and to forge ahead on a new and better path.
So, let’s break this down…
April Reflection: Three of Swords
This was a significant, albeit difficult, month.
The Three of Swords is our card of heartache, a card many of us fear to see, and the way the Wayhome Tarot depicts this has an interesting additional layer for us to consider.
We can see the blood red liquid as a signifier of the pain we hold within ourselves. It sits there, circling round and round within us, an endless loop…
What It Means To Be The Fool
As some of you may have seen on my Instagram stories (check it out here), last week, I went to the Tarot: Origins & Afterlives exhibition at The Warburg Institute. It’s a small, free exhibit in London that delves into the history of the tarot, and I found it incredibly interesting. One of the things I love about tarot is that it’s an endless treasure trove - there is always more we can learn, more to research, more to study. Anyone with an interest in tarot who is able to get to the exhibit before it closes at the end of the month, I would certainly recommend it.
One thing at the exhibition that particularly caught my eye was a tableau of Etteilla’s original 78 cards.
Monthly Reflection: Seven of Wands & The Hierophant
March Reflection: Seven of Wands
If you’ve been following along with this year’s monthly reflections, you’ll know that, at the start of the month, we pulled the Seven of Cups for the outlook of the month ahead. At the end of the month, we see another seven in our reflection!
We began the month with the potential for distractions, but the Seven of Wands indicates we’ve handled those distractions rather well. These distractions came to knock us off our path, and we said, “No, thank you!”
Suits & Seasons: Spring
As someone who spends so much of my life working with, talking about, learning about and thinking about the tarot, it doesn’t take much for me to wonder, “How does this real life thing relate to the cards?” I’m sure I drive my partner nuts with my regular tarot references!
And so, as seasons change, I have found myself revisiting something that originally sprung to mind (pun unintended… but now I kinda like it) around the last spring equinox. There are four seasons and, coincidentally, four tarot suits. Which season corresponds with each suit?
The more I’ve thought about this question, the more obvious the correspondences have seemed, and as we approach the Spring Equinox, I have found myself revisiting the idea that Spring and the Pentacles are inextricably linked.
Monthly Reflection: Nine of Stars & Seven of Moons
As we enter the month of March and we see the first signs of Spring (or Autumn for my Southern Hemisphere friends), the Nine of Stars indicates that many of us are bringing big goals or dreams along with us, taking root through the course of February.