Diary of Broken Soul

[Shimure]

The page of swords and the hermit.

The page is looking for something. the hermit too..

both cards are looking at a mirror.... seeking.

[shadowdancer]

I think the page of swords is actually drawing/painting on a huge canvas. I remember Ash saying some time ago the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword" might apply for this card.

The Hermit is certainly in front of a mirror. I guess in a reading it will be interesting to home in on how the Hermit feels comfortable (or not) with what they are seing.

I would certainly recommend reading back on some posts by Ash to learn more about the main characters from the deck. In the main the ones who make the story through repeat appearance are the knights. Each relate to each other and in turn have huge influence on what you see on the numbered suits.

As for the HP, take a look at the Moon and the Empress card. Some nice links there




Davina

[shadowdancer]

another point to muse....

take a look at the hat being worn in the World and compare that to the original Fool.... you will see they are the same. A reminder that indeed our character has gone on a journey of discovery. When we see them on the World we see them as older, hopefully wiser and ready to start a new journey.

Ash did change this card for the full deck but the original Fool is available in the 22 MA only deck.

Just another example of how cleverly Ash weaved a story with characters cropping up in very relevant places through the deck on more than one occasion



Davina

[LotusSong]

Yes but if you look closely at the two cards, you'll see that the Fool is still there on the new one. ;x They are not the leaping man, but the hooded figure tucked off in the corner against the trees... For the lady in The World also has a dark hooded robe along with their jester garb.

(I think it was Ash herself that pointed that out in this thread some time ago, but I'm not certain. >.>; )

Man, I missed reading with this deck! I will have to make the time tomorrow to pull some cards before I leave...

[shadowdancer]

You are right LotusSong, there is indeed the hooded figure and I hadn't associated them as being the same person on the World. I have learned something here which is soooo cool.

And I have to say I absolutely LOVE reading with this deck. If you ever get the chance, and also if you do daily draws (I appreciate not everyone does) this deck absolutely fits like a glove for them

If you do go down that road it would be great to see some of your thoughts on the daily draw forum. I have been using this for daily draws since December and I love how it really gives me a kick up the rear end if I need it at times.
At other times it is great for just reflecting on.

[sacredashes]

Originally Posted by LotusSong

The problem is, I'm doing it 100% cart-before-horse backwards. I let the images come to me and I slowly mull them over, letting them form like a baking cake in the oven, until I think they are done. I slowly go over them with my fine brush, painting my cursory knowledge of symbols onto each image before I send the words off to my friend so he may breathe them into life on the white page. Then I decide where it should belong in the deck, or even if it belongs at all.

I know it's a silly project between friends that will probably never be completed, but I've tried so hard to put meaning into the cards. I've heard people complain when they get a deck and discover that the creator just put things in places because they felt like it, with no greater meaning. So, even though I'll most likely be the only person in the whole world that will read with this deck (if it gets finished), I've been carefully choosing everything I'm putting into it. (Including the colors!)

That was how I worked on The Diary.. and found out, the process itself was therapeutic for me personally. Create your deck the way it wants to be created.. Break the rules and put them back together again... and don't stop no matter how tempting that option seems at the time!.


Ash

[sacredashes]

**Glad to see you are sharing your thoughts on the images; as well as your personal insights on what you read into the images. Big hug all around **

Beware long post; I cannot claim credit for the words I am about to post. Credit and reference is given; fair use *hopefully* applies.

Excerpt taken from: Women who run with wolves
Written by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes; Page 364

Descansos

So we have seen that we wish to make rage into a fire that cooks things rather than into a fire of conflagration. We have also seen that work on rage cannot be completed without the ritual of forgiveness. We have spoken about women's rage often deriving from the situation in her family of origin, from the surrounding, and sometimes from the adult trauma. But regardless of the source of the rage, something has to happen to recognize it, bless it, contain it, and release it. Queen of Clubs


Women who are tortured often develop a dazzling kind of perception that has uncanny depth and breadth. Although I would never wish anyone tortured in order to learn secret ins and outs of the unconscious, the fact is, having lived through a gross repression causes gifts to arise that compensate and protect. Queen of Diamonds


In that respect a woman who has lived a torturous life and delved deeply into it definately has inestimable depth. Though she came to it through pain, if she has done the hard work of clinging to consciousness, she will have a deep and thriving soul-life and a fierce belief in herself regardless of occasional ego-waverings. Queen of Spades


There is a time in our lives, usually in mid-life, when a woman has to make a decision - possibly the most important psychic decision of her future life - and that is, whether to be bitter or not. Women often come to this in their late thirties or early forties. They are at the point where they are full up to their ears with everything and they've "had it" and "the last straw has broken the camel's back" and they're "pissed off and pooped out." Their dreams of their twenties may be lying in a crumple. There may be broken hearts, broken marriages, broken promises. Queen of Hearts


A body who has lived a long time accumulates debris. It cannot be avoided. But if the woman will return to the instinctual nature instead of sinking into the bitterness, she will be revivified, reborn. Wolf pups are born each year. Usually they are these little mewling, sleepy-eyed, dark-furred creatures covered in dirt and straw, but they are immediately awake, playful, and loving, wanting to be close and comforted. They want to play, want to grow. The woman who returns to the instinctual and creative nature will come back to life. She will want to play. She will want to grow, both wide and deep. But first, there has to be a cleansing. Page of Hearts


I would like to introduce you to the concept of Descansos as I've developed it in my work. If you ever traveled in Old Mexico, New Mexico, southern Colorado, Arizona, or parts of the South, you've seen little white crosses by the roadway. These are descansos, resting places. You'll also find them on the edges of cliffs along particularly scenic but dangerous roads in Greece, Italy, and other Mediterranean countries. Sometimes crosses are clustered in twos or threes or fives. People's names are inscribed upon them - Jesus Mendez, Arturo Buefuentes, Jeannie Abeyta. Sometimes the names are spelled out in nails, sometimes they are painted in wood or carved into it.

Often they are profusely decorated with artificial or real flowers or they glisten with chopped-up straw glued to wood slats, making them shine like gold in the sun. Sometimes the descanso is just two sticks or two pieces of pipe tied across one another with twine and stuck in the ground. In the rockiest passes, the cross is just painted onto the large rock at the roadside.

Descansos are symbols that mark a death. Right there, right on that spot, someone's journey in life halted unexpectedly. There has been a car accident, or someone was walking along the road and died of heat exhaustion, or a fight took place there. Something happened there that altered that person's life and the lives of other persons forever.


Women have died a thousand deaths before they are twenty years old. They've gone in this or that, and have been cut off. They have hopes and dreams that have been cut off also. Anyone who says otherwise is still asleep. All that is grist for the mill of the descansos.


While all these things deepen individuation, differentiation, growing up and growing out, blossoming, becoming awake and aware and conscious, they are also profound tragedies and have to be grieved as such.


To make descansos means taking a look at your life and marking where the small deaths, les muertes chiquitas, and the big deaths, las muertes grantotas, have taken place. I like to make the time-line of a woman's life on a big sheet of white butcher paper, starting with her infancy all the way to the present where parts and pieces of her self and her life have died. Page of Diamonds


We mark where all the roads not taken, paths that were cut off, ambushes, betrayals and deaths. I put a little cross along the time-line at the places that should have been mourned. And then I write in the background "forgotten" for those things that the woman senses but which have not yet surfaced. I also write "forgiven" over those things that the woman has for the most part released.


I encourage you to make descansos, to sit down with a time-line of your life and say "Where are the crosses? Where are the places that must be remembered, must be blessed?" In all the meanings that you have brought forward into your life today. They must be remembered, but they must be forgotten at the same time. It takes time and patience. Page of Spades


Remember in "The Crescent Moon Bear" the woman said a prayer and laid the wandering orphaned dead to rest. That is what one does in descansos. Descansos is a conscious practice that takes pity on and gives honor to the orphaned dead of your psyche, laying them to rest at last.


Be gentle with yourself and make the descansos, the resting places for the aspects of yourself that were on the way to somewhere, but never arrived. Descansos mark the death sites, the dark sites, the dark times, but they are also love notes to your suffering. They are the transformative. There is a lot to be said for pinning things to the earth so they don't follow us around. There is a lot to be said for laying them to rest. Page of Clubs

G'nite, everybody.. sweet dreams.

Ash

[Herzog]

i think my deck has arrived but im trying to sync up with the mail man, he keeps leaving notes and im not home to sign for it. gonna pick it up at the mail center on monday morning

cant wait

[OctoberGwen]

Originally Posted by sacredashes

[color=orange][i]Excerpt taken from: Women who run with wolves
Written by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes; Page 364

I used to have a copy of this book, but I can't find it. Ash, this is fantastic. I've printed the excerpt out to reflect on as I use the cards.

Someone likened the Diary to a deep, black pool of water...I think that is so very apt. (Forgive me, whoever wrote that, for not naming you. I would if I could, I just can't remember nor do I know where I saw that post.)

[thorhammer]

I have a copy of that book, but a friend reminded me last night that she has it I don't think she's read it yet, plus I've got wedgeloads of Thoth study material in the works. But I'll get to it again, it's worth another read. That was really interesting, the way you linked the cards to that excerpt, Ash

\m/ Kat