Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • The Queen of Weeping

    I’ve not been here for a while, not because anything drastic has happened (thank goodness!), but just because the gas has leaked out of my balloons. Not just my helium-filled, sparkly Tarot balloon, but all the other balloons as well.

    Maybe it’s because I became a veggie a few months ago.  Basically so that I could look lambs in the eye and whisper ‘I don’t eat you’ when I take Nero on a long walk down to our nearby lochan.  I’ve noticed that life has kinda gone a bit flat and wrinkly round the edges – maybe it’s lack of iron or something.

    Blood tests will tell whether it’s what I’m eating or something more long-lasting that’s the cause …

    … because I am 53 in a couple of weeks.  Of course, I’m grateful that I’m still above the soil and able to feel the sun on my face and be healthy and all that jazz, but there is no doubt about it, Things Are Changing for me.


    Chaps, look away now: menses talk ahead.

    My Time of the Month has now become My Time of the Fortnight and my pre-menstrual moodiness seems to last for about three weeks.  And the seven day window when I’m not snapping away like an angry pike at my DH and DS I’m to be found draped theatrically over the sofa like Ellen Terry, weeping into my Snickers bars at dog food adverts and Beyonce videos.

    A couple of years ago, I stopped dying my hair.  At the moment it is a sort of two-tone thing that looks as if someone has poured bleach all over my head and all the colour is draining away.  A metaphor there, I think. But I’m sticking with it because …. like it or not ….. I am ENTERING CRONEHOOD.

    Evidence:  I keep signing up for afternoon art classes. Like I am suddenly going to discover that I can fall down the art rabbit hole and pop out the other end of a 6-week course and suddenly find myself a new, arty life ….  I *know* it’s BEYOND PATHETIC.

    On the upside, this means that one day soon, my older gal pals will initiate me into their Post Menopause Group, the DUFs Club.  The Dried Up Fannies Club.  I kid you not.  REAL NAME. My goal is to be ensconced within their ranks, safely out the other side of this hormonal maelstrom, drinking wine, eating Dairy Milk and never having to worry about the gusset of my knickers again.

    Now, if I’m absolutely honest.  And I’ve just mentioned ‘gusset’ and ‘knickers’ in the same sentence, so we’re Through The Looking Glass now, this horrible flat and foggy feeling has been swirling around my ankles for a very long time.   Longer than I’ve been veggie.  Longer than my hormones have been sliding about like a drunk on a skateboard.

    And as the fog rises like a suffocating tide, I just seem to be getting angrier and angrier and angrier.

    Maybe it’s an anger borne of fear.

    I know that I am on the brink of saying farewell to so many strands of my life and it scares me.

    What will I be if I am not menstruating any more?
    What am I now that my partner does not find me attractive?
    Will we manage to make it through these choppy relationship waters?
    What will I be when my son goes off to further education?
    What am I without a job or career?

    Drew a card to see what can help me, from the Wildwood Tarot and got this guy:

    I am moving from primitive tool to sophisticated instrument.

    Maybe also get viagra ;-D

  • Full Moon Spread

    So I thought I’d come up with a Full Moon spread for the fans of the Wildwood Tarot over there in facebookland. Am popping it here in case it might be something that you want to add to your own toolbox.

    You can use any deck 🙂

    Focus on one aspect of your life that you seek clarity on and think about The Moon* card from your deck (it’s going to be acting as your totem in this spread).  Give your cards a good shuffle, face-side down. When you have shuffled sufficiently, turn your deck over, face-side up.

    Without changing the order of the cards in your deck, work your way through the upturned deck until you spot your Moon card.

    The card ON TOP (ie the card in front of, or before, The Moon) shows you the energies that can be embraced to gain clarity.

    The card BEHIND (ie after) The Moon will show you the energies that no longer serve you in this issue and can be let go to help bring clarity to the situation

    You don’t need to interpret The Moon card itself as it was acting as our sign post to find the best cards.

    * If your deck doesn’t have a Moon card, pick another card that has a prominent moon feature.  

  • The Sunday Times Rich List Tarot Cards | Sam Dunn

    So, the Sunday Times Rich List campaign featured some cleverly updated Tarot cards, depicting some famous faces.


    I got in touch with the artist behind the campaign, Sam Dunn,  and she agreed to answer some of my questions about the artwork 🙂


    Me:   How did you get involved in the campaign?



    Sam: Through my agents at Blink Art, they had been contacted by CHI about the project who thought my work would be a good fit.




    Me: Was the idea of Tarot cards presented to you, or did you come up with that for the campaign? 



    Sam: The idea was presented to me, the creative concept was created by Angus Vine and Colin Smith. Creative Directors – Micky Tudor and Robin Garton and Chief Creative Officer – Jonathan Burley



    Me: The cards are based on the much-loved Rider Waite Smith deck – what made you select that one over the hundreds of others that are in print at the moment?


    Sam: Angus or Colin would be good to contact for this question as I didn’t choose the reference personally.

    Me: How many images have you created for the Rich List? (I am praying that there are 78!)


    Sam: There’s 16 in total, a smaller version of the original deck! It would have been great to produce a full deck, it put into perspective how long Pamela Colman Smith must have spent on the illustrations.




    Me: Are they actual printed cards (if so, how can I procure a set of them?!) 😀 


    Sam: Not at the moment, but if they do get printed I’ll announce it!




    Me: Tell me how you created the cards – pen and ink? 

    Sam: Yep, they’re all created with an ink pen and Winsor & Newton ink at quite a small scale to replicate the style of the original deck. They were then scanned in and coloured digitally in photoshop.

    Me: Did you pick people to feature and then find cards that applied to them …. or pick the cards that you wanted to use first and see which people fitted them?  Or was it a mixture of both?

    Sam: Angus or Colin would be good to contact for this question, they selected the cards / celebrities.




    Me: Do you have some Tarot knowledge?


    Sam: I’ve always been interested in the imagery and themes, although I don’t practice anything or know the meanings of the cards. I’ve previously researched and referenced Tarot card themes in older work.


    Me: When you are working with a deck as recognisable as the Rider Waite Smith, is it necessary to get the copyright holders on board? 


    Sam: One of the Project managers at CHI should be able to help with this.


    Me: Do you have any other Tarot art? 
    Sam: I’ve always wanted to do Tarot cards, but haven’t done anything previously so this project was the perfect chance. I’ve referenced similar themes and I’ve been interested in the style of the artwork for a long time. I already had a folder of research consisting of some of the Rider Waite Smith deck alongside wood cuts and etchings of mythical beasts, alchemy art and religious symbolism. 



    Me: Where can people see other examples of your work?

    Sam: People can find me at: 

    Instagram – @xsamdunnx 
    Tumblr – www.samdunn.tumblr.comBlog – www.sam-dunn.blogspot.co.uk/




    Note:  I did contact CH&I for their input, but have not received any replies.


  • The World In Play | Catalogue Review

    The World In Play – catalogue cover

    The exhibition, ‘The World in Play – luxury cards 1430-1540’, has now finished its run at The Met. Did you get along there to see the playing cards?  Me neither, but I have procured the next best thing … the exhibition catalogue.

    It’s a nice size – nearly 24cm x 21 cm – and 136 pages long.  The book gives us a front row seat into the courtly and common pleasures of European life in the Middle Ages.  The glorious of the hunt to the life of the peasant, all depicted in playing cards.

    Author Timothy B Husband, curator in The Met’s department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, leads us on an interesting and scholarly tour of the cards – many replicated in gorgeous full-page, full colour in the catalogue while others are featured as intriguing details.

    After a brief, but enlightening, journey into the history of playing cards, the book moves on to explore the hunting motifs and practices of the Stuttgart Cards which date from the 1430s.

    Next to be shown is the Courtly Hunt deck once owned by Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, but which actually dates back to the 1400s.  The suit of herons is particularly charming, I think:

    Engraved cards (less expensive than the hand-painted Courtly Hunt or Stuttgard cards) are then explored.  Those created by the unknown geniuses The Master of Playing Cards and the Master ES have suits named after flowers, birds, animals – even helmets!

    The Archduke must have had a thing about collecting playing cards because he also owned the Courtly Household cards – my favourite of these luxury cards!  These show all manner of people that would have been familiar at court – a Fool, a Potter (a woman), a Master of the Household etc – and we can glimpse their lives though the cards – their clothing, their surroundings etc.  Here the suits represent countries – Germany, France, Bohemia and Hungary.

    Then – joy of joy – we move south, to Italy and onto Tarot cards, namely the Visconti Sforza. As an aside –  I was delighted to see, in Andrea Aste’s new deck, The Book of Shadows Tarot, the reference to the Visconti’s ‘Love’ card in the rendition of his own Lovers card.

    Husband then whisks us north again to the Cloisters Playing cards, oval-shaped gems from the Netherlands, dating from about 1475.

    Things then change focus and instead of looking at the luxury of the court and princely families, the cards look at peasants – primarily as the wealthy land-owners would see them – in the Nuremberg deck and that by Peter Flotner.  The status quo is wobbling, a burgeoning merchant class is earning cart-loads of money. The changing social situation is reflected in the cards – we see peasants shown largely as bawdy and stupid, indulging in foolish behaviour – there is farting, pooping and all manner of shenanigans.  You couldn’t play cards with your mother, using these decks:

    That bull looks FURIOUS

    Yes.  A man having a poop!

    If you are a UK-based card buff would like to procure yourself a copy of the catalogue, you can do so via Amazon.  Fans in the US can also buy direct from The Met.

    And if you like the decks …. please check out Guinivere’s Games for her historic reproductions of three of the decks mentioned in the catalogue. They’re ‘spendy, but gorgeous!

  • Astrology | The Sunday Times Rich List

    Sunday Times Rich List
    Richard Branson
    King of Disks

    OK – this isn’t strictly speaking TAROT, but I’m making it into a tarot post by the end, so keep reading!

    The Sunday Times Rich List (Britain and Ireland) actually looked at the birth signs of the top 1000 earners (where known).  It makes for interesting reading:

    Gemini        116
    Aquarius      93
    Libra            82

    Total Air signs   291

    Pisces         91
    Scorpio      71
    Cancer       88

    Total Water signs  250

    Taurus      98
    Virgo        89
    Capricorn 90

    Total Earth signs 277

    Aries            96
    Leo             106
    Sagittarius 102

    Total Fire signs 304

    Best performing individual sign Gemini – the Air sign – The dare-devil with mental agility…… the Knight of Swords!

    Worst performing individual sign Scorpio – Water sign – The diplomatic, empathetic…….. King of Cups.

    With a total of 1122 signs being considered (some of the top earners are in bands or partnerships, which causes there to be so many actual birth dates to consider)

    Fire signs 27%
    Earth signs 25%
    Water signs 22%
    Air signs 26%       (all figs rounded up/down to nearest whole no)

    Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the assertive ‘Yang’ signs of Wands and Swords are the biggest earners with 53% of the overall swag bag.   The ‘Yin’ suits of Earth and Water on 47%.

    The relationship-focussed suit of Cups has the fewest high earners in the top 1000 …..

    The suit traditionally associated with the making and keeping of wealth, Pentacles, performs next worst (or third best, depending on how you look at it!)

    What do you think? Time for Pentacles to hang up their crowns as the money guys?  A load of old tosh?!

  • The Book of Shadows Tarot | Andrea Aste

    The Book of Shadows

    I decided to throw caution to the wind on Friday and make a proper video deck review for this deck, The Book of Shadows Tarot.

    Dear Reader, I kid you not, it took HOURS and you would NEVER know that from the 7 minute offering that I made on youtube.

    I shall look at even TV adverts with new-found respect ….

    Anyway, the deck that I reviewed was The Book of Shadows Tarot by Andrea Aste.

    I had the good fortune to meet Andrea last year when I visited Italy with a group of nefarious ne’erdowells  Tarotists on Arnell Ando’s Tarot tour.

    Andrea Aste

    I was hugely impressed by him.  And not just that moustache.  His drive, vision and illustrating skills fairly whipped me along with him.  So, when the kickstarter was launched, I was there, pledging.

    As is my habit, I am now reviewing the court cards from the deck.  To see my review of the whole shebang about the deck, go to my youtube channel. Yars.  I haz one.  I do rabbit on somewhat …. so take a coffee and something to keep you awake.

    There are two pages in the book that comes with the deck that focus on the hieroglyphs found on the cards; thus the symbols act as titles and keywords.

    Initially, I thought that there was nothing to decode the symbols on the court cards.  BUT I AM MISTAKEN!!!

    The Magician’s decoded glyphs show me the four symbols that signify each suit. Wands is represented by a stylised two-branched tree, Coins by a spiral, Swords by three wavy lines and a scimitar and Cups by a cup.

    Through additional Sherlockholmesian shenanigans, I can see that the symbol for Woman and Man and the symbol for Power show up on the Queen and King cards

    Power + Man + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = King of suit
    Power + Woman + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = Queen of Suit
    Horse + Human Being + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = Knight of Suit
    Human Being + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = Page

    It’s that simple.  And that clever.

    The Suit of Swords

    Alternative career as fashion designer entirely feasible!

    The Suit of Wands

    I don’t know what went wrong with my scanning – too much gin, maybe? 

    The Suit of Coins 
    The Suit of Cups 
    I think that you can still buy a copy directly from Andrea via his website (and have it signed, perhaps?!).  I understand that Lo Scarabeo, who printed the cards etc) will be distributing via their outlets too.
    So, what do you think? 
    http://www.andreaaste.com

  • Sunday Times Rich List 2016 | Tarot Cards

    Last week on Facebook I shared an image promoting the Sunday Times Rich List, featuring an enticing-looking deck of Tarot cards.

    The campaign is now underway and from yesterday’s Sunday Times, we have these:

    J K Rowling as the Queen of Wands

    Simon Cowall as Judgement

    Adele as The Empress
    Then an embarrassment of riches as Richard Branson takes to the stage!
    Richard Branson 1 – Yeah, ok, we know it’s really The World

    Richard Branson 2 – The Chariot

    Richard Branson 3 – The King of Discs
    Richard Branson 4 – The Moon
    I have sent a message to the publishing company, CHI & Partners, asking them whether I might send someone there some questions about the campaign, so fingers crossed that they get back to me about it and I can tell you more!
    Edit:   here are some more!
    Rory McLlroy – The Magician

    The Beckhams – in a variety of guises! 

  • King of Swords | King of Wands

    The King of Swords is a decent sort of a person, but very keen on taking action when his decisions are based on logic, knowledge and common sense.   The King of Wands is a very different animal, preferring to rely on passion and intuition to direct his steps.

    When they are positioned next to each other like this, it looks as though the two Kings are very much engaged with each other.  The King of Swords, by holding his sword in his right hand, appears open to the King of Wands.  The King of Wands is entirely focussed on the King of Swords.

    Elementally they are Air and Fire – a combustible combination.  It could work well to create the most enormous and fabulous fire the world has ever seen (ie brilliant teamwork and co-ordination on a project)

    Swap the cards around and you have a completely different take on the situation.  The King of Wands is looking elsewhere, with his back to the King of Swords.  The King of Swords seems to be listening now to someone else, just out of sight – and of course that sword is now angled towards the King of Wands back!

    Not so much of the brilliant teamwork now, is there? It’s looking as though they are not listening to each other, but to other people outside of their dynamic.

    Perhaps the King of Wands might be looking to the past, or his previous experiences, using them as a reference point, whereas the King of Swords is inclined to the future and new experiences?

    But what would those clouds mean, that his vision of the future is not as crystal clear as he might like to think?

    What do you think of their relationship?

  • Crow Moon| March 2016 |

    The March full moon has a lovely selection of names that speak of the quickening of the soil and the spirit of Spring:

    Sap Moon
    Worm Moon
    Crow Moon
    Lenten Moon

    I have chosen the Crow Moon to celebrate the full moon of the 23rd because I am surrounded by the flappy black blighters.

    Lots of people hate them – frightening off the songbirds from the bird tables as they craftily work out how to burgle your squirrel-proof feeder.


    They are absolutely the noisiest neighbours in the history of Christendom.

    Many years ago, we were in a BBC Scotland gardening programme called The Beechgrove Garden.  When the producer turned up to ask me some preliminary questions, he was astounded by the amount of noise that the crows were making.  I was surprised- after half a dozen years, they failed to even register with me as being vocal!

    Now nearly 20 years later, I adore my great dark neighbours.  They’re clever, cruel and vastly entertaining to watch.

    I’ve hand-reared fallen chicks – wary-eyed feather dusters – with, erm, let’s say, VARYING degrees of success.

    I’ve rescued one who dangled by a claw from a bird feeder.

    I love their rhythms – wheeling noisily into the sky at dawn and then at dusk dropping into the treetops and settling in waves, like a black tide.

    At this time of year they toil through the skies clutching enormous twigs (usually the spring clippings from some garden border!) often so large that if one plummets from a distracted beak, you can get quite a startle as it clatters onto the pavement!

    The Crow Moon is, for me, a time when Spring arrives proper.  The ground is warming up, the sap is rising, the worms are working madly beneath the ground, pushing up their casts onto lawns all over the land.

    I choose The Queen of Swords from the Mary El to illustrate the Crow Moon.

    What is pulsing into life?

    The creative intellect of the Queen of Swords is what!

    As the year gathers power, so does our Swords energy – communication, brain stuff, book-learning, natural intelligence …. coupled with the Queen’s spirit – protective, nurturing and creative.

    Got a creative project lurking inside you? The Queen is telling you to Get. On. With. it.

  • Tarot & Finance | Pentacles Financial Advisers | Spring Blog Hop

    Welcome to the Tarot Thrones contribution to the Spring Tarot Blog! Our wrangler for this hop is Ania Marczyk.  As we the end of the Financial Year is bearing down upon us at a rate of knots, Ania wants us to talk about Tarot and Finance.

    Since the Tarot Thrones blog is all about the Court Cards of the Tarot, I have opted to seek advice from the family that knows most about money, the Pentacles.
    After a short confab, the Pentacles family from The Morgan Greer Tarot have come up with these little nuggets of advice …

    Words in bold are associated with their rank 🙂

    Page of Pentacles

    Look at your money in a new way

    Start     saving – even small amounts

    Learn     about money (without your eyes glazing over) Financial literacy is too important to leave to other people to handle for you.

    Start     a financial diary!
    The Knight of Pentacles

    Financial risk-taking should err on the side of caution
    Explore your financial options
    What can you do re your telecoms, can you make savings?  (prompted by all that Airy communication energy!)
    The Queen of Pentacles
    Nurture your money – check your interest rates and change where possible.
    Get on top of your household budget
    Be a good guardian for your money – be alert to identity theft. You may not be actually out of pocket, but your credit rating can be adversely affected if someone gets access to your identity.
    Teach other people what you have learned about making your cash grow – your other half? Your kids? 
    The Queens have watery energy – Might you may be better off on a water meter rather than pay via rates?  Before you change, check to see whether you are permitted to change back if it turns out to be more spendy.
    The King of Pentacles

    He didn’t get to where he is today by being frivolous, no matter that those grapes make you think! 
    Pay off old debt – whenever you have cash materialising put it towards reducing your existing debts – mortgage, credit card, store cards etc.
    Get an expert advisor/adviser 
    (‘Parently -er is five times more commonly used than -or)  I’m hedging my bets – very Pentacly 🙂
    The Kings display Fire energy, so here,  The King asks you to take command of your fuel bills – can you change your supplier? We did it this month and are going to halve our monthly energy spend.
    The Fire energy also suggests that maybe you could quit smoking to save some cash AND care for that other, most vital of possessions – your health!
    And just before you go ….. M’new book 😀  Yes! It’s by ME!!!!
    Click to visit Amazon UK
    also for sale in other Amazon outlets 😀