Satori
I love it when a cloudless sky fills up with light. When the blue is so blue it is beyond expression. Cerulean. Indigo. Lapis Lazuli. We have different words for the color, but the blue I have in mind exists on a mountaintop in Colorado where my husband and I had gone four wheeling in a rental van! It was 1997 and we were still childless, we were in love and there was a simplicity to life that I long for today. And a sky full of light, even if the blue isn’t quite as deep as that long ago day, triggers that memory for me every time.
Memories like that are so full of emotion and feeling. I have favorite songs from the ‘80’s that actually hurt; they cause a kind of pain in my chest and stomach that is a combination of butterflies and the taste of chocolate. Sometimes I listen to a song and I can smell the woodsmoke from the fire at our childhood camp. I hear my father chopping wood and I can hear the voice of a lost childhood friend singing out over the lake, “Claudia and Joey sitting in a tree…Claudia and Joey sitting in a tree…k-i-s-s-i-n-g”.
Years ago when I was working with the Robin Wood Tarot I remember the sky on the Queen of Swords (Adding here it is the inside of her cape. The blue with the butterflies.) hitting me like it did that day in Colorado. And it was the moment I began to realize how the cards work. It was also the day I recognized that each deck would have a different emotional impact on me. The mood of the cards, the colors, the settings and people, were evoking different emotional responses in me that were like little punches in the chest. They each had a meaning that was personal to me and my life. They hit me with memories and the memories were multi-sensorial.
The decks that felt a certain way were the decks I chose to read with. If the deck brought in a more negative emotional response I tended not to reach for it…and sometimes I’m confused by decks that I don’t really care for in terms of the art, but would get uncannily accurate readings with. Dance of Life Tarot was famous for that. I really don’t love the artwork, but the deck for some reason just Works for me.
All of this is about symbol. Since my friend Scion started his thread over in Deck Creation on Symbols and even before that I’ve been thinking so much about the symbols that I’m connected to and that work for me. I’ve been reading lately and thinking, What do reds mean to me? What do I think about birds? What do I know about birds? What do I know about spirals? How do I feel when I see the Ten of Swords? And other questions like this.
Emotion and feeling in a deck don’t get discussed often. We don’t often say in our posted readings “The card in the fourth position smelled like rain in the spring….and I remembered how funny robins look when they cock their heads while looking for worms.”
I’m sort of making multiple observations here. Connecting some dots about the way I tend to read for people, and talking with all of you about the things I say and some of the things I leave unsaid. Reading cards for me is an emotional and mental exercise. So many things happen lightening fast and I don’t get to really cognitively dissect what is happening. Today the sky got to filling up with light and started me thinking about Colorado and Tarot. And I brought it here to share.
Memories like that are so full of emotion and feeling. I have favorite songs from the ‘80’s that actually hurt; they cause a kind of pain in my chest and stomach that is a combination of butterflies and the taste of chocolate. Sometimes I listen to a song and I can smell the woodsmoke from the fire at our childhood camp. I hear my father chopping wood and I can hear the voice of a lost childhood friend singing out over the lake, “Claudia and Joey sitting in a tree…Claudia and Joey sitting in a tree…k-i-s-s-i-n-g”.
Years ago when I was working with the Robin Wood Tarot I remember the sky on the Queen of Swords (Adding here it is the inside of her cape. The blue with the butterflies.) hitting me like it did that day in Colorado. And it was the moment I began to realize how the cards work. It was also the day I recognized that each deck would have a different emotional impact on me. The mood of the cards, the colors, the settings and people, were evoking different emotional responses in me that were like little punches in the chest. They each had a meaning that was personal to me and my life. They hit me with memories and the memories were multi-sensorial.
The decks that felt a certain way were the decks I chose to read with. If the deck brought in a more negative emotional response I tended not to reach for it…and sometimes I’m confused by decks that I don’t really care for in terms of the art, but would get uncannily accurate readings with. Dance of Life Tarot was famous for that. I really don’t love the artwork, but the deck for some reason just Works for me.
All of this is about symbol. Since my friend Scion started his thread over in Deck Creation on Symbols and even before that I’ve been thinking so much about the symbols that I’m connected to and that work for me. I’ve been reading lately and thinking, What do reds mean to me? What do I think about birds? What do I know about birds? What do I know about spirals? How do I feel when I see the Ten of Swords? And other questions like this.
Emotion and feeling in a deck don’t get discussed often. We don’t often say in our posted readings “The card in the fourth position smelled like rain in the spring….and I remembered how funny robins look when they cock their heads while looking for worms.”
I’m sort of making multiple observations here. Connecting some dots about the way I tend to read for people, and talking with all of you about the things I say and some of the things I leave unsaid. Reading cards for me is an emotional and mental exercise. So many things happen lightening fast and I don’t get to really cognitively dissect what is happening. Today the sky got to filling up with light and started me thinking about Colorado and Tarot. And I brought it here to share.
