Dreams and The Tarot

The past few days, I have been having dreams about the tarot. I had a dream that there was a pirate tarot deck with people walking the plank, it was very funny! Also, in my dreams, the suit is always the swords.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you dream about the tarot and what, if any, significance that has had for you.

Also, do you find that sleeping with your deck under your pillow affects your dreams or your readings??

Thanks!
Cathy

Hello Cathy,

well, yes. About a fortnight ago I had a night of tarot dreams. Cards, mostly Tarot de Marseille, doing all sorts of things. Lovely.

It signifies to me that I'm occupying myself rather too much with tarot.

And no, I don't know if sleeping with the deck under the pillow affects this.

Greetings from Germany
Niklas

You know, Cathy, there IS a pirate tarot deck with people walking the plank. Ten of Swords, in fact. Check it out in Decks! Two decks, in fact. One pricey one in cherry wood, the other quite reasonable from Lo Scarabeo.

Yeah, I dream about tarot sometimes. Usually the dream is trying to tell me something.

I once stuck a schoolbook under the pillow, hoping to absorb the lesson that I just wasn't grasping, but it was rather uncomfortable, then the book slid down between the bed and the wall, quite inconvenient, and I didn't automatically absorb the lesson either (I was desperate enough to try, though)...so no, I don't sleep with decks under my pillow.

swimming in tarot said:

You know, Cathy, there IS a pirate tarot deck with people walking the plank. Ten of Swords, in fact. Check it out in Decks! Two decks, in fact. One pricey one in cherry wood, the other quite reasonable from Lo Scarabeo.

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Alright, that's nuts! The cherry wood card with the person walking the plank is EXACTLY what I pictured (but not in wood)! WOW! Thanks for sharing!

I once stuck a schoolbook under the pillow, hoping to absorb the lesson that I just wasn't grasping, but it was rather uncomfortable, then the book slid down between the bed and the wall, quite inconvenient, and I didn't automatically absorb the lesson either (I was desperate enough to try, though)...so no, I don't sleep with decks under my pillow.

Click to expand...

This is pretty much the principal that I heard when I first started reading the tarot. I had a friend that did it and he said that his readings were amazing... maybe it was a psychological thing..!

Thanks!
Cathy

Cathy Hughes said:

The past few days, I have been having dreams about the tarot. I had a dream that there was a pirate tarot deck with people walking the plank, it was very funny! Also, in my dreams, the suit is always the swords.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you dream about the tarot and what, if any, significance that has had for you.

Click to expand...

Well, Swords are the intellect, the power of the mind, so this series of dreams is probably telling you that you're spending <gulp> too much of your mental energy on Tarot and not enough on other areas in your life that need it.

I know. Too much energy on Tarot? I didn't believe it, either, in fact I'm not sure that I understand the concept at all. Nevertheless, that seems to be what your dreams are saying.

Cathy Hughes said:

Also, do you find that sleeping with your deck under your pillow affects your dreams or your readings??

Click to expand...

Nope, not one iota.

However, what it *is* brilliant at, is ageing a deck artificially: if you have a brand-new deck and you want it to look old and authentic that is one of the things I'd be recommending. (If you want your deck to last longer, I don't recommend it).

Cathy Hughes said:

Alright, that's nuts! The cherry wood card with the person walking the plank is EXACTLY what I pictured (but not in wood)! WOW!

Click to expand...

HEY! you dreamt a *real* deck? Amazing! Quick - before the memory fades, go out and buy it. It's probably the Tarot egregore and your subconscious telling you what deck you need to work with.

I always tend to have Tarot dreams when my subconscious really needs to hammer a lesson home to me.

I always find Tarot dreams to be so relaxing and peaceful, although when I dream about a deck, I always wake up wanting said deck, even though most of the time said deck doesn't exist.

I'm not sure if keeping cards near your bed affects your dreams. I sleep with my cards directly beside my pillow, but I've also had Tarot related dreams when I've been away from my cards .

Either way, I'd say look up the meaning of the card and try to work out if it has a special meaning for you .

The Magician

A few moons ago ! I dreampt of a tarot card, the Magician. But this card was of a bird of paraidise, looking sideways on at a mirror. On the bottom of the card was the words: The Magician.

It was such a clear dream. Just the card, nothing else. I pulled out my deck and reflected on the card, and even did some more research on it. Shortly afterwards, within two weeks, I found out that someone had been lying to me about their plans, and what they said they were doing, they were not, but were covering up to go and help out an old girlfriend who lived miles away. Life after that, was like the Tower, and took some rebuilding, and things still are not the same. I've done some research on the significance of the bird of paradise, (animal spirt guide) but did not come up with anything!

Okay, let's look at the components of the dream.

You dreamt of the Magician card.

As one of us, you probably have a fairly clear idea in your head of what the magician card should look like: a person with a bench full of Magickal tools, maybe holding some of them and pointing diagonally (or not), maybe wearing a lemniscate-shaped hat (or not). You'd also have a clear idea of what the Magician cards means to you: individuation, personal power, magickal power, manipulation, manifestation, initiating change, etc etc.

What you got on your dream Magician card, was a bird of Paradise (incidentally, which one? There are hundreds, from tiny to huge, from midnight-blue to pale yellowish-green). It was looking sideways into a mirror.

It did not want to face itself directly, yet it had to face itself somehow.

It was not any reasonable variation of what you might expect a Magician to look like, nor did it have any of the props to lead you to believe that it could do any of the stuff a "real" Magician could do. In light of that, it was there under the label of the Magician, under false pretences.

It was a creature, not human, so it was somehow less than it should be. At the same time, it was a bird rather than any other kind of creature, and birds are associated with Air and therefor the intellect, so it is a mental construct.

Therefore, it is a mental construct, operating under false pretenses.

It seems to offer you more determinism and abilities (as the Magician) than it actually has (a bird of paradise).

Yet, being a bird of PARADISE, and being easy to look at, it is peculiarly seductive.

Given all of that, I feel your subconscious is trying to tell you that there is an aspect of your "animal" or subconscious self trying to influence your higher (winged) self by means of its attractiveness and its promise of personal power, into giving it more sway over your behaviour and feelings.

So much for the interpretation. I throw in the advice on how to deal with this for free as a little extra (and like a Tarot reading, it's up to you how you take it): I recommend trying to make friends with as many aspects of your personality as possible - there's certainly a part of you that feel unacknowledged and would like to be brought forward into the light a bit more. However, keeping your conscious mind firmly in control of your decision-making processes is Always a Good Thing.

Thoughtful.

Thank you Nisaba, you shed some thoughts on the dream that I hadn't thought of at the time. I took it to mean, as the events unfurled themselves, someone like a true magician, where things are not as they seem. But, thinking about what you said, and also thinking about Charmy's comment, that a dream about cards hammer a lesson home, there was a lesson to be learnt from this card which could have softened the effect of the tower that I experienced aftwards. And it was probably to bring in all aspects of my personality, to consider how I dealt with what happened afterwards. The tower occured because of my reaction, and my thoughts, my emotions; it came down like a ton of bricks and took ages to rebuild. Perhaps if I had as you suggested made friends with other aspects, Nisaba, the tower may have crumbled, not been destroyed. Thank you!