ADEPT LEVEL STEP TEN; 21 Ways To Read A Tarot Card

dadsnook2000

Next . . .

We've had suggestions, public and private, for a continuation of our special work together. We'll see about the "next" in our tarot lives when we finish this work. Maybe we will write a book of sorts.

To some extent that was done down in the astrology forum with the "Planet Series" of threads. I haven't followed up the work that was accomplished and posted there because the number of advanced students and astrologers has moved on to more serious sites, and those that remain are more concerned with what, to me, are frivolous issues. So, I don't add much to the Planet Series threads now, although I will start a new phase in that forum late this summer.

There are some things I would like to explore next in Tarot that fits in with what has been brought up. Dave
 

Verdi

21 ways adept level step 10

21 steps adept level 10
DruidCraft

Here is the first one. I hope it alright to edit in the two next as I finish them.

Five of Wands
Literal: Five boys playing with sticks. Sticks clashing. Green grass, sandy place and blue skies. A hen pecking

Allegorical: Anyone’s game, It’s only a game. Fun and games. Play it for laughs. Face the competition, Pick up the gauntlet. Stiff competition. Bring it on. Pecking order. Playing with fire. Meet your match. Power struggle. Battle of wits.

Moral: Be a good sport. Fair play. Meet the challenge. Pickers cannot be choosers. The best man wins. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Play by the Rules.

Spiritual: Love/forgive your enemy. Meet your own challenges of life. Embrace your fears. Transformation through struggle.

The Lord (Emperor)
Literal: A man seated on a stone throne holding a long staff. A crown of antlers. An eagle flying.
Allegorical: Fearless leader. King of Kings. Figurehead. The master of my fate. King of the castle. Uneasy lays the head that wears the crown. Founding father
Moral: You cannot fight City Hall. Honor thy father.
Spiritual: Divine right of Kings.

For the Emperor i would like to quote Jung and Tarot by Sallie Nichols:
"The Emporor brings permanence, stability and perspective. He stands as the figurehead for the state. He represents the principle upon which the fertility and the welfare of the kingdom depends"

I think this summerizes the literal, moral and spiritual side of the Emperor.

The Lady (Empress)
Literal: A pregnant lady sits on her wooden throne. She sits with her arms holding the harvests abundance. The country side is picturesque with a stream flowing beside her, which she dips her toe into
Allegorical: Mother love. Land flowing with milk and honey. Fruits of the loins. Fruits of your labour .Open to love. A pregnant harvest. The fruits of the womb
Dipping your toe in the water. Bumper crop.
Moral: It isn’t nice to fool Mother Nature. The rule of love.
Spiritual: Mother Nature.

To quote again from Sallie Nichols:
“It is she who carries the seed from which ultimately will spring a new transcendental awareness in which mysticism and science , spirit and flesh, inner and outer , can be experienced as one world”

I’m reading my “Jung, A very Short introduction” by Anthony Stevens to understand a bit more about the Archetypal/Psychological meanings. Very good intro into Jung.

Verdi :)
 

Jewel

Adept Level - Step 10 Meanings

ADEPT LEVEL STEP 10: Meanings
DECK: Fantastic Menagerie
CARD: The Moon

ACTIVITY 10:3

(1) Levels of meaning

5 OF WANDS (FM Deck)
LITERAL: you will challenge someone or someone will challenge you.
ALLEGORICAL: (loss, conflict, pg. 158) This card represents a conflict to prove superiority through the use of bravado.
MORAL: This cards says that right and wrong can be proved through winning a contest, irrelevant of the actual point. That one can bully others t win the right to be right.
SPIRITUAL: Winning and being right at al costs, assuaging the ego, overrules our sense of decency. Winning is everything regardless of how it will affect others even if we are wrong.

THE EMPEROR:
LITERAL: A person in authority or whom you admire cares for you as a father and provides you with guidance, which you might not want to hear.
ALLEGORICAL: This card denotes a figure of authority or a leader, who cares deeply for his subjects/subordinates/followers.
MORAL: The Emperor represents a just leader who looks out for the best interest of subordinates/subjects/followers/children, etc.
SPIRITUAL: The Emperor rules like a father. He is stern but nurturing, trying to help us achieve our highest potential and gives us structure. He rules with benevolence and compassion.


(2) Examples of the 4 levels of my chose card, THE MOON:

LITERAL: Stepping out into the moonlight to get lost in one’s fantasies. Secret rondez-vous.
ALLEGORY: The moon is known for its influence and pull on the earth and on our minds. The term lunacy is based on this, about loosing our minds. It is also associated with the feminine (Lady Owl), delusions/illusions (mouse shadow in the moon), addictions (mouse bracelet), and hidden mysteries (clothes).
MORAL: Reality vs. fantasy. Our society encourages us to live in the real rational world. The Moon card on the other hand, looks at the forbidden and our fantasies. Subconsciously we are aware of the thoughts of escape and indulgence, and sometimes long for these. Some people give in and get lost in them (i.e.: addicts and people who live in their own fantasy world).
SPIRITAL: This card speaks of the intuition and dreams that we harbor. The inner voice that speaks to us and guides our actions for good or ill. The part of us that longs for something more that we have and/or are.


ACTIVITY 10.4 – Book of the month approach:

Though I am currently lagging (very far) behind, I have been participating in the “78 Weeks” Study Group where I am using the Celtic Dragon tarot (main reason I am lagging behind ) As part of this work I have certain steps from “21 Ways” that I use with each card (literal description, emotional description, number, mode/suit/element, book meanings (78 Degrees of Wisdom & Celtic Dragon Companion Book being used), and the summary of what I have learned.

As I am using 78 DW as one of my book meaning sources, I do a comparison of the Celtic Dragon deck with the RWS. This work has really given me clarity of what the cards mean to me, as well as what makes a deck a good or bad reading deck where I am concerned. In seeing some meanings in the CD companion book I can feel myself flinch and know my facial expressions and physical body strongly react to my disagreement in meanings for some cards.

When I can muster the courage to continue working with the Celtic Dragon, and get back on board with my “78 Weeks” work I will complete what this step and meet its requirements, as my reactions thus far have been such that I am learning to truly see what the cards mean to me.
 

Jewel

Jewel said:
When I can muster the courage to continue working with the Celtic Dragon, and get back on board with my “78 Weeks” work I will complete what this step and meet its requirements, as my reactions thus far have been such that I am learning to truly see what the cards mean to me.
OK will this is not going to happen. I posted about this last week, so I will re-iterate it here with what I have decided to do in lieu of what I originally thought I would do.

I have a lot of tarot decks that have companion books that have been neglected. I am always complaining that I do not have time to get to them. I have decided to quit making excuses and to read a companion book a month and go through each deck. On a monthly basis I will make a new post to this thread with an update of the companion book I read and the cards I went through while reading. I will also compare and contrast The Moon cards from each of these decks and disucss their book meanings.

JANUARY 2009 - The Mystic Dreamer, companion book The Dreamer's Journal by Barbara Moore.

I enjoyed the book and got some new insights into several of the minor arcana. I know the 3 of swords was one of the ones that was quite useful, and I believe the 2 of swords was another. They were by no means the only two cards, but Ms. Moore's meanings were very simple and I felt some little "AHA!" moments with the way she described their meanings.

Though the deck is very beautiful I did not really feel a connection with it. Like many have posted in threads about this deck I think I would benefit from larger images on the cards. There are many details on the cards that I would have missed had I not been reading the book as I could not see them.

I will edit this post later with a comparison between its moon card and my moon card to finish up this post later this week.

EDITED 02/27/09 TO INCLUDE MOON CARD COMPARISON:
The Mystic Dreamer (MD) Moon is a lot more emotional than the FM Moon Card. From the whistful and possibly sad facial expression on the MD full moon to the turbulent waters.

The MD includes some traditional RWS imagery such as the two towers, wolf and lobster, but again the turbulent waters and the moon itself add much depth and emotion to the card. The FM gives a picture of someone under the Moon's influence looks and feels like independent of whom it is affecting.

In the FM companion, a very good explanation of what this card represents in a reading (both positive and negative aspects) as well as a warning. The MD companion emphasises the mystery and fear strongly, and to view the card primarily as a warning. Personally I prefer the more objective position on the card that the FM takes over the MD. I did not really gain any new insights on this card from comparing it to the MD Moon.
 

Jewel

squeakmo9 said:
In any case, it will be refreshing to pull the card(s) at the end of my day and relate to book meanings. Lately I haven’t done all that many daily pulls, so this will be a great time to get back into it!
Will see what happens and report back at end of 21 ways adept.
Squeak, have you been doing this? if yes, how has it been working for you? if no, are you going to start doing this or possibly revise your plan for this step as I had to do? I'm just being nosey and trying to get some dialog going on in the study group :D
 

squeakmo9

Jewel said:
Squeak, have you been doing this? if yes, how has it been working for you? if no, are you going to start doing this or possibly revise your plan for this step as I had to do? I'm just being nosey and trying to get some dialog going on in the study group :D

I tried this past summer but lost steam after a couple of throws. Since my VR didn't come with a companion book,
I used a random tarot book. Your input regarding the use of a companion book&deck makes much more sense. Never thought of doing it that way.
I think I will try again to finish this step, but not with the VR.
 

Jewel

I am really enjoying going through a companion book and deck. I am doing the Alchemical Renewed, with the book from the Alchemical Tarot for February. I started the book last night as I was finished with the Dreamer's jorunal, and it is really interesting. It will be a great way to make me pull decks off my shelf that have been collecting dust! *LOL*. I might try doing the Tarot of Prague for March, though I am also interested in doing the Sacred Circle, Bohemian Gothic, and Sacred Rose as well.

Too bad you don't have the companion to the VR it is very good (as are all MRP companion books I have read). Perhaps I will re-read this one at some point for this exercise. If I recall I did not finish it because I just got so comfortable reading with the deck. The Golden VR is probably my favorite reading deck. If you ever need anything specific out of the book, PM me and I will be happy to share it with you :D

But I better stay focused on February *LOL*. I lucked into finsihing my January deck/book early only because of the Christmas holidays. Life is back in full swing now, and I want to keep up this time :D
 

coyoteblack

For the adept 10 steps we are doing step 10:3 for 2 cards plus our own. But how do we do the 10:4 in written form? are we just to keep that in back of our minds as we progress through the rest of the book?
 

squeakmo9

coyoteblack said:
But how do we do the 10:4 in written form? are we just to keep that in back of our minds as we progress through the rest of the book?
I just started doing a daily pull and plan to do so for the next month or two with one deck and companion book in particular. I'm currently jotting down my daily experiences in my journal, and intend to report back as to how it all felt and how accurate the book interps were. That's my plan so far CB for this sub-step.
 

dadsnook2000

Step 10:4

I typically switch and use the Fey Tarot, Waite-Smith Tarot, and to a lesser extent the Tarot of Prague and Robin Wood Tarot. So, I'm comfortable with multiple decks and often select one appropriate to the person I'm reading for. When I use the Witche's Tarot, I even switch Swords/Wands and Fire/Air applications to fit with each deck-creator's design of the cards. The only deck where I don't do this is with the Robin Wood where the companion book says that this switch is part of the deck's ideal application but the card illustrations don't reflect the change ---- they closely mirror the Waite-Smith cards.

I say that you should do this when you wish, now, later, much later. It's a good exercise to develop flexibility as well as card insights. Dave