General Oracles Study Group Week 2

[DragonFae]

This is a "whole deck" activity...I'm not sure how you all feel about the elements but thought we could play around with them a bit...this is EXPLORATION....of our decks after all...

Week #2 The Elements

This week we are going to play around a little bit with the elements and the cards in your deck.

The Four Elements:

Fire: Things are moving and things are changing. Fire represents change. Fire is passion and energy, inspiration and impulse.

Water: Things are not moving. Things are staying the same. Water represents emotions, mysticism, intuition, and nurturing.

Air: There are problems. Air represents mental processes, intellect, ideas, communication and social relationships

Earth: Things are grounded. Things are stable. Earth represents stability, being practical, materialism and being realistic.

Those are very basic ideas about each of the elements. Now take a piece of paper or an index card and write the name of each element. (One on each card) If you find it helpful jot down the definition or some key words about the element on the card also because what you are going to do next is place each card in your deck into one of the element groups.

Sit in a comfortable place and slowly pull a card. Look at it, reflect on it for a bit and then place it into one of the four groups. Take time to reflect but do not over analyze. Place it in the element group that first comes to mind.

When you are done…look at the groups. Count the cards in each group. PLEASE make a list on the back of your index card or piece of paper of the cards you sorted into each group because we will be working with these groupings again. Remember don’t worry about getting it RIGHT….there is no right or wrong here…just exploration.

I’d like to do an element activity at least once a month if we find them helpful. Once you have them recorded somewhere…THEN…come here and post whatever you might have discovered during this exploration…perhaps this activity will simply bring up questions, if so post those too.

[DragonFae]

P.S.

If you are interested in the exchange the last week of the month....

sign up here......

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=184039

[Rosie_0801]

(Flowers of Love deck)

I got:
9 fire cards
14 water cards
7 air cards
6 earth cards

I'm glad there was some practicality in there. :p

[DragonFae]

Interesting....water is so emotional...I'm not surprised that there are 14 in a love deck!!

[DragonFae]

Part One.....I divided the cards...The Faeries Oracle.....

Fire=20

Water=18

Earth=12

Air=15

I'm going to reflect for a couple days and then post some thoughts.

[Tarot Fairy]

It wasn't really easy and did it 2 times:

Without knowing the meaning; based on the images (colors/feelings):

9 Fire cards
14 Water cards
10 Air cards
12 Earth cards

After knowing the meanings:

8 Fire cards
11 Water cards
15 Air cards
11 Earth cards

Funny to see that many cards became Air cards after some reflection

[DragonFae]

One of the reasons I like exploring the elements is that they can help us “read” cards in combinations. For the purpose of this discussion I am going to use the idea of a three card draw where the center card is the card of importance and the cards on either side influence it. So if you Draw THREE fire cards, you need to know that the center card is strengthened by the two additional fire cards. (This is not an idea I invented, you can read about it over at Tarot Eon) It is something I want to reflect on and explore more. To better understand this let’s think about cards that support, weaken, or are neutral.

Fire and Water are enemies
Air and Earth are enemies
So they weaken each other.

So let’s think about my deck: I'll illustrate with Luathas who is obviosuly fire.

Let’s say I have Fire cards on both sides of him.
(Fire) Luathas (Fire)

Reading the center card, this is a dangerous situation. It might get out of hand and have the potential to burn beyond control. Beware this may turn out to be Luathas at his worst. For the purpose of this example we are not even looking at the meanings of the other two cards, just the elements.

(Water) Luathas (Water)

In this one Luathas is weakened by the water cards and therefore something might start out raging but will soon burn itself out or it may simply smolder and never amount to much.

Other combinations:

(Water) Luathas (Fire) The Water and Fire cancel each other out…so Luathas is neither weakened nor supported.

(Air) Luathas (Water)…Air and water are neutral to each other so in this case the water will somewhat weaken Luathas. The level of intensity will not be as great.

(Air) Luathas (Fire)…Air and Fire are neutral to each other. Same as with the one above except Luathas is slightly supported so the level of intensity will be somewhat greater.

(Earth) Luathas (Air) Earth and Air are neutral to each other so no influence.

I could go on and on with combos…I suggest you look at your own deck and try some groupings. Try some three card combos with your deck and see what you come up with.

I find this interesting and will look forward to any explorations you might do with your own decks.

Now if you wanted to at some point you could look at the meanings of the other two cards to see HOW they might weaken or support the center card....but more about that later if I have time to post again this week. Or perhaps save it for next month....a lot to think about this go around!

[krystalkitty]

Have had a look through and never thought about the animal deck with the thought of elements in mind..

It was quite an even split for me
air 12
fire 12
water 10
earth 10

But am going to go through again as there were some that I wasnt 100% and reading through again I think there are some which need to move around a little they dont feel right in the catorgory so after looking at them again will edit this post with the addition of my new list...

[Rosie_0801]

Originally Posted by DragonFae

One of the reasons I like exploring the elements is that they can help us “read” cards in combinations. For the purpose of this discussion I am going to use the idea of a three card draw where the center card is the card of importance and the cards on either side influence it. So if you Draw THREE fire cards, you need to know that the center card is strengthened by the two additional fire cards. (This is not an idea I invented, you can read about it over at Tarot Eon) It is something I want to reflect on and explore more. To better understand this let’s think about cards that support, weaken, or are neutral.

Hmm. This is a good exercise for me; something I haven't thought of thinking about, so to speak.

[DragonFae]

Sometimes I have a little trouble with the water and earth meanings...like how are they different?

Water is not moving, things are staying the same. Since water is emotional...it makes sense that this refers more to the emotonal sense of things.

Earth is things things are grounded, things are stable..Since earth is material and realistic this seems to refer more to overall life not emotional issues.

They seem alike but I read the water one as things being stuck in a situation (where there is the potential for movement but it is not happening) and the earth one as things being very stable...as a long term sort of situation and more positivre in nature than perhaps the water one...

What do you think? those are the two in that regard that I struggle with for sure.