Dark Grimoire Tarot - Six of Chalices

When I first saw the scans of this deck, I did have doubts whether I could use such an ominous looking deck for readings. The weird mutant creatures unnerved me, especially the one on the Ten of Swords. But then I saw this card, and knew immediately I had to get this deck. For me, this is the most beautiful, atmospheric and haunting card in the deck - and going out on a limb here, possibly my most favourite image for a tarot card.

The image conveys the feeling of an autumn evening in a Depression-era town. Almost a Ray Bradbury-type setting. Leaves are blowing in the wind as the sun sinks away in an orange sky. A woman has paused in her reading to gaze out at the town roofscape. She is lost in thought. Perhaps contemplating what she has read. Or tying in with the traditional interpretation for this card, she is thinking of the past. Of regrets or pain she has experienced, and her longing for that she has lost.

There is a plant or small bonsai tree next to her, all but shed of it's leaves. The town shows three lighted windows - one has bars, one has a flapping curtain and the furthest one has the hint of someone looking out, possibly looking back at the woman. The past can keep you prisoner and the woman is now facing the autumn of her life. Or she could be the woman from the previous card now contemplating her loss.

A truly beautiful card.

The discarded book at her feet...the past thrown down.

The plant on her right, even though almost barren, provides hope for a growing future.

The somber sky and the weathered rooftops...the reality she faces.

In this card we see the three states of time represented in the three aforementioned sets of objects:

That which was, that which is and that which may be.

We are always in the center....sometimes forgetting our past and often hoping or longing for a better future. But, the past and the future cannot suppress the sometimes bitter reality of the present.

The woman in the card may be on the right track however. She has tossed the book aside perhaps indicating letting go of a past that is best left behind. She has sown the seed of hope in the plant but must weather the autumn with the plant....shedding our leaves down to our barren skeleton only to be reborn and re-greened in the coming spring. For now, she drifts into forlorn longing, observing the passing of time. I hear a sigh in her voice. The autumn leading into winter is a time to heal and to renew so that we may blossom once again when spring's sun brings life anew.