Traveling AT Member Deck ~ Journal ~

Still Thursday...
I was confused at the time allowed with the deck, but I do think we have shared much in this little time we had together!

I decided to try and get to the post office with the deck today...as much as I don't want to give it up...I am excited for the rest of its journey!

so...I asked the deck...what card best represents my current life..which one should I sign?

And I cut to the seer of cups.

It's a very pretty card. I love the archway of water...almost like tears over the lady, who looks so serene and maybe just a little capricious!
And the turtle...for me a symbol of Mother Earth, and of attention to detail and creativity.
I hid a turttle within the Empress card of my Midnight Masquerade deck.
I am also reminded of the reading that contrascarpe did for me with the Fey...where the page of cups came up...as the last card i need to create to signal that I am finished...and there's no going back.

Maybe it's because I have such a clear vision of the Page.. which in my deck...will be the Child of Glass.

I feel that yes...maybe this Seer (gods I love the court titles in this deck! ) is a very appropriate card for me on my path right now.

Like the page...still young, and still experimenting...but cups have always been my favorite suit (I am usually a Queen Of Cups in a deck)

and the seer...one who envisions...or maybe has visionary ideas.
Yes...I can very much realte to that! especially in the realm of water...which is creative, cathartic, dreamy, emotional and visionary.

so...Off to pack this lovely away, and send it off to Melvis!
Fare thee well AT deck!

so...I needed to add this final nit to my journal...because I feel so...blessed right now!

After I brought the deck to the Post office, I came back and dug up my own World Spirit deck, and decided to look up the meaning of the seer of cups in the little booklet.
And right under the title it says...

Dedicated to Pamela Coleman Smith

I felt a chill sort of course through me as I read that.

Looking closer at the card I realized that it is meant to be a portrait of her.

For magically strange coincidences...just today, I discovered a biography about Pamela, and read things I had never known about her and her life.

There are things she experienced with her art that I am now experiencing...especially with dealing with the aspects of commercial success vs. self publishing her art.
And there are other things about her life that parallel my own experiences...
her visionary art, theatre design, poetry and writings.

I feel like she is my new muse...and I feel very close to her creative spirit...like she's watching over my own creative deck making and spiritual pursuits right now....

I have always loved the RWS deck...my first love in the world of tarot. it's the deck I base my own creations on...I have always felt a connection to her images.

And of course...today, I found out...is her birthday!

I can't help but feel like this is a sign, of some sort.

Well, I met the deck yesterday.

It arrived at work just as I was leaving, so I had to take a minute to unwrap it and get that 'new deck rush'. (Even if it is only my new deck for a couple days!) Since it's been so cold here lately, and our deck had been waiting patiently in the mailbox most of the afternoon, it was very cool to the touch! What's funny is that it remains cool-ish even now.

When I got home I went through the deck card by card. I've held off using my own copy of the World Spirit since we started this project so I would come to the deck with a fresh perspective. And it was wonderful to see these cards again, like old friends with new energies.

A card that I'd never really noticed before was the Seer of Pentacles, but now it seems to leap out at me. I've picked this card to do a little meditation on to see what it has to say to me.

************
I start out my meditations by surrounding myself in my mind with water. I use the image of calming the surface of the water to calm the thoughts in my mind. When I'm ready I rise up out of the water and start walking across it. (Sounds like delusions of graduer, right? I don't know why, but this is just what I do when I meditate.)

It is dark out but not black. I can see the outline of a mountain ahead of me. I continue across the water until I reach the stony base of the mountain. There I see a doorway in the stone. It is finished with some sort of black stone trim. There's only a dim brightness in it, so I can't really see anything beyond the doorway -- it's like there's a blurry haze between me and the other side. But I feel a breeze coming from it, though. It is cool, and smells 'green'.

I enter the doorway and walk a few feet before I reach the blurriness. I reach out my hand and put it through. I don't feel anything specific, but I hear the goat in the card give a 'Baaa!' It makes me laugh because I assume my disembodied hand startled him! I pull my hand out and wait a second, to see if I hear the goat again. Instead I hear a rustling sound, like wind in the trees. This time I put my hand into the 'blurriness' with more intention as to parting it, and it starts -- for lack of a better word -- crystallizing and evaporating in a radiating pattern from my hand. Soon I can walk through it.

I'm on top of a hill in a meadow or field. There are fields all around, as far as the eye can see, with an occasional bunch of farm buildings here and there. I'm standing in a patch of flowers, and there are large groupings of trees here and there around the countryside. The goat is here, and rushes over to me. He nudges my hands, apparently looking for treats. He is very silly! I tell him I don't have anything and tussle with him a bit until he gets the idea. Then he bleats some sort of goat-epithet at me and goes over to start chomping on the flowers.

I walk a bit and see the Native American woman featured in the card on another hill below me. I meander towards her, enjoying the cool breeze and the wonderful smells of nature. As I near her I hear humming. She starts singing in a language I don't know, but I can tell it must be some sort of children's song or folk song, as it has a repeating type of melody. It's catchy enough that I'm soon humming it as I approach. She glances up at me and waves a hand at me, both in greeting and as an invitation to sit down next to her.

**Continued below**

I sit near her with my legs straight out, leaning back on my hands. She has a large green disk in her hands (about a foot or so across) that she is flipping over in her hands, running her hands over it and grinning hugely even as she still sings a few words of the song. I ask her what it is. She answers me in that other language, but somehow I know what she's saying. She says she doesn't know what it is, she found it in a tree, and gestures towards the tree behind her. I look up and notice the tree, a huge oak that has millions of bugs and birds flying out of it.

"What's going on?" I ask her. She laughs and says that she startled them when she took the disk. I ask if it was holding them all in like a cork. She says no, she just took it from a crevice in the base of the tree. What startled them was that she could see them with it. I said, well I can see them, too. She laughs again and says no, she means that she could see their beauty. "Beauty?" I ask. She says she sees the beauty they create when they fly from flower to flower, pollinating them so her friend the goat can contine to eat them. The goat's beauty is in the milk that he gives us, which helps our children grow, and so on. I ask if I can touch it, and she says yes. It feels like stone, but is not at all heavy. I mention this to her and she agrees. "Wat will you do with it?" I ask.

"I'll put it back." she says.

"Aren't you afraid someone will take it?" I ask.

"If they take it they are meant to take it. What would you do with it if you took it with you?"

"I'd probably...hang it on the wall." I realize how lame it sounds as I say it. She laughs and tells me if that would be what I would need to remind me of beauty, then that's okay. For herself, she'll put it back in the tree which see can see from miles around, and that's how she'll remember the beauty.

We sit for a while, just enjoying everything, when a dragonfly starts flying around me, flitting around my face. We both laugh at his antics until he lands on my shoulder. I hold my hand out near my shoulder and tell him that I can't see him very well there. He crawls onto my hand and buzzes his wings a bit. "What do you want?" I ask him. "I think he sees your beauty!" the woman says, and laughs again. He flies back up to my shoulder as I tell the woman that I should go. She says she should get her goat friend and be on her way as well. I say goodbye and make my way back up the hill.

The goat is still in the flower patch, and I see the shimmering rectangle of blurriness that is the doorway back to my meditative home. The goat rushes up to me again, apparently forgetting that I had no food, or hoping that I'd found some in my short time away from him. Once again he chastises me with bleats and then returns to the flowers. The dragonfly flies down to my hand. "Are you coming with me?" I ask. He crawls to the very tips of my fingers and starts buzzing his wings. I take it that's a 'Yes'! You'll probably be safer on my shoulder, I say. He buzzes again, staying right where he is. "Do you want to start it?" I ask. He flies up to the blurriness and bumps into it a few times. The crystallization starts again and he returns to my shoulder. He kind of burrows into my hair, and I worry that he'll get tangled. Somehow he doesn't, then crawls down my neck until he's perched just above where my collarbones meet. I can barely feel him, but there's where he stays as we go back through the doorway.

***********

Thank you, World Spirit! What a fun journey. And guess which card I'll be signing?

Peace,

Melvis

Hi all,
I got the deck on Tuesday, February 28. Since I already have the World Spirit deck, I was familiar with the images. I liked the bag it was in and there was a nice card from Melvis inside. The cards had a nice satiny feel to them. I enjoyed looking at the signatures that are on the back of the cards. I spent some time shuffling the deck. I have been having some health problems and while shuffling the deck the Death card fell out. I put that card aside and continued shuffling. The next card to fall out was the 10 of Pentacles. I set this card aside also. I shuffled some more and the 10 of Cups fell out. Yes, these three cards made perfect sense to me. The next day was very busy for me and I didn't get home until late so I wasn't able to spend much time with the deck. After work on March 2nd, I had a doctor's appointment which went better than expected. I had supper and at about 7:30 in the evening I was able to take the deck outside with me to look at the stars. I am an avid stargazer and I had a great time showing the deck all of my friends in the night sky. There was just a sliver of a new moon hanging low in the western sky. Above the moon was the great winged horse, Pegasus. With my binoculars I took a quick look at the Andromeda Galaxy which looks like a dim cotton ball. I said hello to the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters. Mars was it's typical red and wasn't too far away from the red eye of Taurus, Aldebaran. Saturn was high in the sky and in the binoculars it was very close to the Beehive Cluster. Very pretty! My old friend Orion was to the south and he was very glad to meet the World Spirit deck! I love looking at the Great Orion Nebulae! Even my binoculars show the hydrogen cloud surrounding this stellar nursery. Hello baby stars! The deck and I had a great time together in the chilly Iowa evening. When I came in, I had to sign the perfect card for me. Yep, the Star!

I have already overstayed my welcome, sigh!

I am afraid I have not done well by the Traveling deck. I got it and admired the darling cat card RaeAnn included, but then I got so involved in other things. I got an extra gig (with 2 hours warming!) Tuesday night. Wednesday, my bridesmaid dress came in (for my Gddaughters wedding next month in Lawrence, KS.) what do you mean I need to get the shoes before I fit it? So, I put it aside, thinking I have time for this. Well, of course I don't. I didn't realize I only had 3 days! I will get it out on Monday, a whole week, I am ashamed to say, but I want to use it Saturday night for a party I am doing. These nice women will love that deck. Then Sunday I am working again, so it goes out Monday, really!

I just tried it out and pulled three cards. The first was Seeress of Wands, this deck (it promised) can teach me about coming into my own power. Really, I asked, how? 2 of wands, it replied, build on what you know. And what will that do? I asked. 7 of pentacles, be very productive!

So I am hoping for a productive few days. I am going to post an offer of a reading with it, like Choronata did. I wanted to keep it until Friday and show it to the Chicago Tarot group, but I will send it on before we can get together about it. oh, well. Meanwhile, I think I might sign the Seeress of Wands. A woman coming into her own power. More later.
Ace

This has been quite a journey!

I have had some fun and some interesting times this weekend. Among other things, I posted a reading done with the World Spirit deck at this URL

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=55856

Please tell me what you all think. This deck reads different than others, so my interpretation of the cards may be a bit different than others also. The Emperor is saying, sort of: "go West, young man!" it says there is a big world out there, go exploring! Are seers the Page or the Queen of other decks? Sometimes he or she seems like one and at other times another. I am a bit unsure about the Fool, as I said in ros' reading, I can see reckless but this is crazy. And the Universe? I am not sure where they fit.

I did read with the deck at a party Saturday night, I think it went well, but I don't remember the readings! Which means I was really on: being a conduit to the Universe instead of saying what I wanted. I remember one reading: about a woman's fertility. I got the strength card Rx, she probably should consider adoption. I was not sure either where her husband stood on this issue, the lion was pulling away, I wasn't sure he was very supportive her. I had to hustle at the end, I was doing a second party, a Sweet Sixteen down town and it was POURING rain.

But I made it in time and (using the WorldTree deck instead) read all about their love lives until one asked about sex. Then they ALL asked about sex. Sigh. What do you say to them? I tried to answer honestly and tell them what the cards said, sometimes to be careful, once I saw a near rape that she needed reassuring about (I urged her to talk to an adult) one I told her to say no, and if (as she feared) her boyfriend broke it off, then he was no good anyway.

I am glad I got ros's reading down this afternoon, I got a call from a neighbor right after that asking me to please walk their dog, they were at the hospital where her Father had been in surgery all day. I took the dog out and promptly fell on my face! I have bruised and skinned knees, and a lump on my forehead. I haven't done that for at least 4 yrs. I feel like an idiot.

I am rambling, sorry. This has been a very productive experience, just as I had hoped. Raeann had left a a note in the box on blue paper that says, "1. 13 Death 2. Ten of Penacles 3. Ten of Cups." the cards she said fell out as she shuffled. Was it that way for you? big change, and fullfillment, Raeanne? For me is was fun.This is not the deck I would use first but it was fun. All but a few cards are very good the 9 of Wands still puzzles me a bit and the six of pentacles is a rather awkward, but over all it is a fun deck. I probably would not use it alot and at some point, I would like to see the book (which Tarotbones bought) just to see what the rational (if it is given) for some of the cards are. Some of the costuming is strange: some modern some ethnic (Native american or african-sort of) but the art is attractive and the cards mostly resonate with me. I love mermaids, so I am tempted to sign the Seer of Cups, but I will sign the Seer of Wands, as I said at the beginning.

I am ready to pass it on, but a few people can't take it now, so as soon as I figure out who gets it next it goes on. Sorry I have kept it so long. Anyone want to ask me about it?
Ace

I dropped by the local PO this morning because it's my son's birthday and I was afraid his b'day present would sit out in the rain. I was surprised when the clerk handed me two packages instead of one. What had I bought on ebay and forgotten about? Halfway to work, it hit me what it was...it was my turn to play! Oh, the agony of having to work all day long, knowing what a treat was waiting in the trunk of my car.

So, now here I am with the World Spirit Tarot before me. My son wants to open presents and I told him to wait awhile (yes, horrible mother I am, he'll get over it), I have things to do!

I can't wait another minute, I must investigate. Thank you for the note, Ace. I'll let you know how it goes! What a lovely bag! Who made it, I have have to reread the journal to see, very nicely sewn (like I'm an expert, NOT!). Oh, wow, these are a different shape, they're wider than the other decks I've held. I have to look at each one and sort them out. Oh, I already know which one I'll sign. It's me personafied! I just love the colors and feel of the cards. There's energy here. From others before me perhaps? I wonder would I feel that energy with my own deck brand new deck? Yes, I'm already considering adding to my collection!

Oh, I must ask a few questions now...I shall report back later. Don't wait up, it may take awhile...

Calligirl

It is almost time to close up the package and send this messanger on its way. I have done several readings and time will tell if they ring totally true. I do know that I immediately bonded with this deck and was able to grasp the meanings easily without having to resort to a dreaded book. I have signed 'my' card and taken one last look. I feel like I've made a new friend.

What amazes me the most is all the energy attached to this deck. It attracts! Every single time I pulled it out for a quiet moment, someone came in! I'm used to my kids coming in and out of my office or my beloved passing through but this weekend, they ALL wanted to stop and talk to me even though I'm in the middle of a spread. It was like they didn't see the cards, they just wanted to talk to me! Even a relative (who doesn't usually come by and who does NOT like Tarot) showed up and walked right in! If I didn't know better, I'd say it is magnetized! I just wonder if it's THIS deck because of all the hands it has passed through and absorbed energy from? I would like to know if others who own this deck has this same impression.

Whatever the reason, I have enjoyed this deck thoroughly and I'm glad to have held the World Spirit for awhile. I hope others find it to be as lively an experience as I have had. Goodbye, World Spirit, until we meet again!

So, the traveling deck arrived yesterday.

It has come, quite by accident, at a very strange time. I've gotten some news in recent days - big news, good news. It should be good news, anyway. And yet part of me wants to flee. I don't even begin to know how to talk about it. Not yet. (And no, as I keep telling everyone, I'm not pregnant. That, to me, would be bad news.)

Ah, but the deck. It's a heavy deck - physically, it weighs more than the average deck. And the cards are oversized. I tried to shuffle it and found that the cards were sticking together - just from previous use, I suppose - so I treated them with fanning powder. The fanning powder sort of worked, but much of it stuck in the worn spots of the edges of the cards, making the edges feel a bit sticky. However, after much more shuffling, they are handling quite well and the stickyness is gone.

I don't feel any "energy" coming from these cards, unlike many of the previous people to handle it. But then, I don't really believe in that sort of thing. I don't feel "energy" from any deck - a deck is paper and pictures and a chemical coating - the real magic happens, for me, when I interact with a deck. And so my experience with this deck is no different.

Looking at the signatures was fun. I still haven't decided which card I will sign. I still haven't read with the deck, either. I haven't been able to read the cards very well in recent weeks, and I don't feel any particular pull to attempt a reading with this deck, although I may change my mind in the next few days.

I did take the deck out with me today - although I didn't take any pictures, the deck got to witness a very beautiful spring day, complete with Bluebonnets blooming everywhere. The deck also got to go on a very long trip with me to Borders - the one nearest to me is about 90 miles away, in The Woodlands - where I discovered that Borders has roughly the same selection of tarot decks as my local Hastings, although their selection of tarot books is far better. I ended up buying a copy of DuQuette's book on the Thoth tarot, which I've been wanting for a long time.

And that's it for now. I'll try to make another couple of journal entries over the next few days, before sending the deck onward to Magpie.