Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: Will Worthington

  • Druidcraft Tarot | Rebox

    Just before Christmas I was provided with a review deck of the newly reboxed Druidcraft Tarot.

    Druidcraft Tarot | all versions | Tarot Thrones
    new box, brighter coloured book cover

    Even a casual perusal of back posts from me will show that the Druidcraft is one of my absolute favourites and I fondly recall buying my first copy from a little incense-infused shop in Glastonbury when I met up with some tarot friends from TABI waaaaaaaaay back in the mists of time – 2004!

    (more…)

  • Full Moon | March | Virgo

    It’s that time of the month again, when the moon becomes full and we turn our attentions to the Court Card that bathes in its glorious light!  Yes, on 5 March, our Full Moon rides again!
    This month, the sun sign is Pisces and so our full moon lands in the opposite sign, Virgo.

    In Tarot, Virgo is represented by the Knight of Pentacles.


    I’ve saddled up a small collection of Knights for you to peruse.  Feel free to run your hands lovingly over their fetlocks…

    Consider first the Knight of Pentacles from the Alexander Daniloff Tarot.

    In warm shades of russet and gold, he proudly sports an enormous hat and announces that he is an Earth sign by gently holding his coin like a trophy against his torso.

    He carries no weapon, just a money bag at his belt.  His only concession to his military rank is his shield and his helmet.  Items purely for defence.

    Let’s take another look at that hat.  It would not look out of place on the redoubtable Dowager Countess of Grantham:

    It features some outstanding feathers – reminding us that Knights have an airy and unpredictable component.  However, when married to the solidness of Earth, they don’t sit comfortably together.

    He can find his Knightly duties a little tough: He is called to be adventurous and an explorer, but he’d really rather do his exploring a little closer to home.  ‘Why try to conquer outer space when we have not yet understood our oceans?’ thinks this Knight.

    In the Druidcraft we see him, almost shy, peeping over his shield as he rests his sword arm on his horse’s flank.  He’s in no rush to go anywhere.

    He is slow to anger or rouse to passion, but once his heart is engaged, he will not be swayed from his course.  He represents dogged determination and slow but steady progress.

    Of all the Knights that might set off looking for you, the Knight of Pentacles is the guy that WILL find you.  Yes, long after the Knights of Wands and Swords have galloped off on a new quest, long after the Knight of Cups rededicates his ballad to another fair maiden, no matter how long it takes, he’ll be there.

    In Lo Scarabeo’s The Tarot of The Masters, his keyword is ‘Responsibility’.

    The Knight of Pentacles can be a frustrated character – someone who longs to travel, but who is somehow prevented from doing so, either by home commitments, lack of finances or even health issues.

    Or he might be someone far from home who longs for the delights of her own fireside.

    This character is stubborn, the least flexible of the Knights, practical and single-minded in a way that the other, more exciting Knights are not.

    He directs us to:

    • Take on an adventure – even a tiny one!
    • Follow one project through to the end!
    • Explore new ways to make your money work harder (but not high risk!)
    • Try a new type of exercise – nothing too fast-moving!

    Sorry that it’s been a whole MONTH since I last posted.  I am still here reading and writing like mad.  I’m hoping that you’ll still drop by Thrones for a comfy chair and a coffee.  Maybe even Eccles cakes …

  • My Favourite Court | Chloe McCracken | Page of Pentacles

    Once upon a time, I decided to offer other Tarot bloggers the opportunity to come into the Kingdom of the Courts and have a chat about their favourite court card.  Chloe McCracken, who writes the TABItarot blog eloquently and possesses the stamina of a HORSE to post every DAY, was invited to be my first guest.

    But lo! The post failed to schedule.  Yes, I was going through a phase of trying to be organised and practical – very Queen of Pentacles – but failing miserably!

    So, I trawled back my posts to 2012 *oh the SHAME!* and share it with you on this Easter Monday!


    Take it away, Chloe!

    “When Ali asked me to write a post on my favourite Court card, it wasn’t my astrologically and age- and gender-related card that popped into my head, nor the one assigned to me by the Thoth system of decans.  (To find out about those, take a look at Ali’s posts…..)  Despite having written – here , here http://innerwhisperscouk.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/bad-rep-well-deserved-knight-of-swords.html , here http://innerwhisperscouk.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/bad-rep-well-deserved-queen-of-swords.html and here  – about the undeservedly bad reputation of the Swords court, it was none of them that I thought of.  Nor was it the Queen of Wands, who has been appearing to me a lot of late, and whose energy and characteristics I love.  Instead, it was the studious Page of Pentacles who clamoured to be heard and seen.

    Ali suggested I choose my favourite version of whichever Court card, and the one that sprang to mind was this one from the Ancestral Path Tarot (OOP, U.S. Games, 1996).   This was the first deck I chose for myself, after buying the Radiant Rider Waite (U.S. Games, 2005) for a tarot for beginners course I took at Mysteries in Covent Garden (London). Yet, looking at it again now, I was surprised that the Ancestral Path image – renamed Princess of Sacred Circles – doesn’t actually speak to what is in my mind when I think of this card!  She has been influenced by the Thoth version, and while I like the idea of pregnancy suggesting our own creative forces, and bringing something new into the world, it doesn’t really match with my main thoughts about the Page.

    You see, the first book I read about tarot was Rachel Pollack’s classic “78 Degrees of Wisdom” (HarperCollins, 1997, but first published in 1980!), which deeply influenced my understanding of tarot.  Digging it out again and turning to the suit of Pentacles, and the Page in particular, I found the roots of my enthusiasm and the mental picture I have of this card: “the Page need not refer to someone actually in school, but simply anyone approaching any activity with those qualities of fascination, of involvement, of caring less for rewards or social position than for the work itself.” (p. 239)  

    I love that sense of being an eternal student, ever fascinated with the world, constantly learning something new just for the joy of it, caught up in what you’re doing.  Not just learning through reading, but through trying and playing and doing again.  Rachel Pollack points out that the Page of Pentacles: “partakes of the suit’s practical nature by symbolising the actual work of the student, the study and scholarship, as compared to the inspiration symbolised by the Page of Cups.” (ibid)  Or, it might be added, compared to the rational thought processes and joy in reading of the Page of Swords!  So, looking through my decks, although the Page of Pentacles from Lisa Hunt’s Celtic Dragon Tarot (Llewellyn, 1999) comes closer to what I had in mind, it’s still not quite there.  

    More than just learning through doing and learning for fun, for me the Page of Pentacles is  also about learning something spiritual.  Once again, Rachel Pollack talks of this mystical side to the suit of Pentacles: “However far we may travel in spiritual meditations we must begin and return here – or lose ourselves in the process.” (ibid, p.232)  As she explains: “the natural world, because it carries a firmer reality than the other elements, because it does not lead so easily to confusion or misconception or ill use, opens the way to more mystic experience.” (ibid. 233)  I think that’s part of what I loved about the Ancestral Path take on the Page/Princess of Pentacles/Sacred Circles – her connection to spirit as well as her groundedness in her own body.  

    Not that you have to get all mystical about it.  For me, a perfect example of Page of Pentacles energy is found in practising yoga.  You always feel things a little differently, and are open to learning something new about your own body, your mind, what it is to be human, or the pose that you’re in.  It’s spiritual, without being woo-woo.  More simply, it’s just about bringing “beginner’s mind” to whatever you do.  

    In that sense, I love Joanna Powell-Colbert’s take on the Page of Pentacles/Child of Earth (Gaian Tarot, Llewellyn, 2011). Looking at anything, even an apple, as though you had never seen it before.  Feeling its smooth skin, smelling its crisp, fresh scent, enjoying the crunch as your teeth break through the peel, and the spray of yummy juice that squirts into your mouth before you’ve even finished biting off a chunk.  Still, it’s not my favourite version of this card.

    After trawling through my decks, I realised that my absolute favourite depiction of the Page of Pentacles is from Anna K (self-published).   The sky is sunny and warm as our intrepid Page goes fishing.  S/he is doing something practical, and s/he might even get dinner out of it, but that really doesn’t matter – it’s just so amazingly interesting.  S/he looks intently at the bobbing pentacle, enjoying the feeling of the grass under foot, gazing at the sparkles in the water and the ripples from where the fishing line enters the water.  Engrossed in the moment, in the possibilities, s/he is learning a new skill, but doesn’t see it that way, just enjoying the day and the fun of doing something new.  Without even realising it, s/he slips into meditating on the nature of water, or the life cycle of fish, or the best way to sit so as not to get a dead leg.  It’s all good!  

    For me, learning tarot is like that, too.  No matter how long you’ve been playing with the cards, every reading, every draw, offers new possibilities.  The context is different every time depending on who you’re reading for, what spread you use, what deck you choose, what’s going on in your life.  Each day, we can see the cards with new eyes, and there’s the potential to spot something we never thought of before.  Yet, no matter how mystical the question, or how emotional, there is something grounded about using the cards.  Not just because they are (mostly) physical bits of card that we hold in our hands (though that helps).  But because they’re talking about our lives, here and now.  Even if we’re asking about the nature of the universe, it’s about how we can see and experience it in this moment.  We learn, we explore, we play, we experience.  Definitely Page of Pentacles 🙂


    Chloe McCracken writes the TABITarot blog, the Inner Whispers blog and is about to publish the Celtic Lenormand Oracle (artist: Will Worthington) 

  • Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm | Interview

    Whose favourite Druidcraft Tarot card
    is this, The Princess of Swords?

    Hot on the heels of the Carr-Gomms’ highly successful Druidcraft video-conference sessions  hosted by Linda Marson at GlobaI Spiritual Studies, I was very honoured when they both took time out of their busy schedules to answer some questions for Tarot Thrones about the Druidcraft’s wonderful Courts.

    Me (A):  First of all – thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed for my blog!  You are a Tarot duo that I have admired ever since I laid eyes on the DruidCraft 🙂


    Philip and Stephanie (P&S) “Thank you! And now we can start a mutual admiration society because we’ve discovered your blog and love the way you’ve given it the focus of the Court cards, which – as you know – is of great interest to us and starts off our book and the training we’ve developed that we’re calling Integrative Tarot.”  


    (Ali: more on this powerful Integrative method in a future post!)

    A: Quite often the Court Card section of a Tarot deck can be a real disappointment: very little thought or symbolism seems to be included in the cards.  Not so with the Courts of the DruidCraft who are exquisitely detailed characters both in the artwork and on the written page.  You and Stephanie put great emphasis on the Court Arcana with the Druidcraft – what prompted you to do that?”
    P&S: “The Hanged Man perspective! Looking at things in a completely different way – turning things upside down and inside out, certainly helped. When we worked on the DruidCraft Tarot, after looking at hundreds of decks, dozens of books, we noticed exactly what you have said. It’s as if the authors and artists focus on the amazing Majors first, then the pips, and by the time they reach the courts they’re exhausted and don’t seem to give the same level of attention to them. What convinced us was not turning things around and saying – “if everyone finishes with them, let’s start with them,” as a sort of attempt to be different or unique. No – it was because we realised that the Courts represent the Tarot’s own special typology – just as astrology has twelve, the enneagram nine types, and so on, the Tarot has sixteen. And when I remembered that the most commonly used personality typing system in psychology is a 16 fold one – the MBTI – that clinched it for me, particularly since the MBTI evolved out of Jung’s four-fold typology which correlates so beautifully with the principles of Druidcraft. Later I discovered in Mary Greer & Tom Little’s book that various others had made correlations, which was fantastic.

    “But the story goes on, because at that time I was working on the book in New Zealand. Steph was in Sussex, Will was in Manchester, the publisher’s art director was in London. Steph and I were skyping about the project, and emails were whizzing between all of us. A friend in NZ had trained with a teacher called Glynn Braddy who used the four elements as a key part of his teachings. This friend talked at length to me about his teachings and in particular about the different facial and body types associated with the elements, explaining that predominantly airy people had thin faces, aquiline noses, and piercing blue or grey eyes, while Earthy types were more likely to be stocky, with round flat faces,and so on. I relayed this information to Will, and so we have very consciously delineated differences between the Court figures of each suit. 

    “Incidentally, Glynn Braddy seems to have influenced a number of people, including Stuart Wilde, and an internet search will reveal comments such as:

    “Glynn Braddy, an Australian, was another lecturer who was particularly brilliant and of course controversial (almost all the greats are). Some considered him a metaphysical genius with his ability to combine science, nutrition, philosophy and metaphysics in his teachings. His mind traveled over a vast landscape. I use the past tense because I don’t think he teaches anymore but I attended a few of his workshops and they were in a league of their own. I use the information I learnt from Glynn on a daily basis.” James Wild. Leon Davis has produced a novel based on his four element teachings: ‘The Seasons Within’  as has Geof Spalding with his book The 33rd Sage .

    A: I e-mail interviewed  Mary K Greer (for my blog) and we spoke about the Personality Profiling that she and her colleagues did in her wonderful Understanding The Tarot Court and she said that they couldn’t agree on how to allocate the 16 types to match the 16 personalities of the Tarot Courts.  Do you think that this is because the Courts aren’t people, but facets of people’s character?”
    P&S “No I don’t think so. When you go into the subject of personality profiling and typology it becomes really quite complex and subtle – as it should do! After all we’re all quite complex contradictory creatures! And so I think it would take a lot of work to refine our understanding of the correlations between the MBTI types and the Tarot types, and maybe it isn’t an exact correlation anyway. But I think this requires more research and it’s rather nice to know that not everything has been discovered and worked out! I hope one day someone with a few years on their hands – perhaps a psychology graduate with a real interest in typology – will tackle this and let us all know their findings.”
    A: “Yes, that would be wonderful!

    “I very much enjoyed the two sessions that you and Stephanie did with Linda Marson’s Global Spiritual Studies and was impressed by the two sets of questions that you had developed to help people work out which suit and rank best represented them.  Do you think that one’s answers (and therefore Court personality card) to these questions will change, depending on the nature of the question that the sitter is contemplating?”  


    (Ali:  Those two sets of questions will go up here on  m’blog, with full permission from P&S next week!)

    P&S “That’s an interesting idea! The questionnaire as you know is very basic – but despite that it seems to often be quite accurate. I tried it last night on my mother and daughter – both Geminis – and they absolutely refused to go for one answer in each section. It took ages of saying ‘Yes but if I put a gun to your head which would you choose?’ before we could work out their types and I think they got a good fit. Your idea suggests that if – for example – you were struggling with an emotionally upsetting issue and you were feeling particularly vulnerable, you would be more likely to choose a statement that related you to a Cups Court, while if a day or so later you were wrestling with a practical or financial issue you’d be more likely to select a Pentacles court. I guess that’s certainly a possibility. One way around that would be to do the questionnaire separate from any reading, and to do it several times over a few months. If you consistently came up with the same Court I think it would be pretty accurate. “
    A: “My favourite card is the Queen of Wands – I love the expression on her face, the billowing fire, her pose, the cat beneath her throne…..THAT wand!  Which Court personality card is your personal favourite – and why?”
    Philip: “I love the Princess of Swords. In the original paintings the egg tempera blues of her dress and cloak are just stunning!”
    Stephanie: “I really like the Prince of Wands – he looks so joyful bounding along on his horse, over rolling waves of grass, he’s just having so much fun!”
    My favourite DruidCraft court card alongside Stephanie’s favourite!
    A: “We’ve had to wait a very long time for dedicated DruidCraft workshops to materialise – will you be running any more?”
    P&S:“We weren’t sure how a webinar would go – but we found that it’s a great medium to teach Tarot because the cards are a visual tool and therefore a visual medium like a computer screen is perfectly suited. And in addition, being able to interact with participants AND have it all recorded so students can go back over the material later is fantastic. So yes we’ll be doing more I reckon!”
    A: “I’m very interested in the creative process between deck authors and deck artists, can you tell me how you and Will Worthington went about creating these expressive cards? Did you send very detailed remits as to what you wanted to see in the images or did Will have a lot of creative leeway?”
    P&S: “For most we sent quite detailed briefs, but for some we said to Will ‘Why don’t you go ahead and just see what comes to you, as long as you have these two or three symbols/elements in there.’ Most of the time we agreed, but occasionally we struggled together but that’s good – that shows creativity is taking place. Giving birth isn’t easy after all, is it? It was definitely a joint process, for instance – ‘Death’ which we absolutely love, was our vision, which Will executed brilliantly. ‘The Wheel’ on the other hand was Will’s inspiration – and it’s fantastic, one of our favourite images!”

    A: Thank you so much to Philip and Stephanie for taking the time to answer all these questions! I hope that your interest is piqued by the Integrative Tarot style mentioned.  You can find out about the 16 personality types in much more detail in Philip’s book: The Book of English Magic, pp 45- 465


    See the full range of books by Philip Carr-Gomm:      http://philipcarrgomm.druidry.org/books.htm
    Read Philip’s blog:  http://philipcarrgomm.wordpress.com
    Find out more about OBOD:   www.druidry.org

    Druidcraft Tarot app – for iPad and iPhone on iTunes
    Druidcraft Tarot app – Google Play

  • The Fool and The Queen of Pentacles

    So, many years ago I read an article about the fate of greyhounds once their racing days were over.  Some, the lucky ones, were found new homes, but many of them ended up dead and in a ditch, their ears removed to prevent their identification.

    Things have changed since I read that article and many charitable bodies help rehome the 30,000 dogs that annually retire from the sport and need loving homes.

    And for some reason it stuck with me:  One day I would give one of these dogs a good home.

    Wednesday was that very day!

    It’s one thing to talk about rehoming a dog, quite another to be confronted by 48 of them peering through their kennel doors, all hugely delighted to see you and barking their heads off.

    I was quite clear about what I wanted.  I wanted a blue bitch.  I’d even seen a couple on the rescue centre’s website so that I wouldn’t have to put myself through the torture of looking at every dog (and wanting every single one of them!)

    However, I hadn’t reckoned on the formidable presence of the lady who runs the rehoming centre.  Before we could suggest the names of the dogs that we wanted, ‘Flash’ was produced for us to take for a walk around the paddock.

    Flash was a huge black dog who wasn’t much interested in us.  And, to be brutally honest, we weren’t much interested in him.  He wasn’t a blue bitch.

    We returned to the kennels and the cacophony of excited barking that greeted us was quite overwhelming.

    ‘What did you think of him?’ she asked.

    ‘Well, he’s very nice and easy to walk on the lead,’ I said, ‘But we were really looking for a blue bitch.’

    The lady nodded.  ‘Oh yes, the unusually coloured dogs always go quickly.  But it’s not about how you LOOK, in life that counts, is it?  It’s about the nature of the dog,’ she said.  Turning to one of the many smiling volunteers who walk the dogs for her, she said’ Bring down Jojo.’

    Jojo wasn’t one of the dogs on my list.

    He came in and my heart sank.  He was a big black boy with a moulting coat, shaking legs and a severe dose of dandruff.

    She handed me his lead….

    …..And he leaned against my leg, gazing up at me with eyes darker than the devil’s waistcoat.

    …and, fool that I am, I took a deep breath and stepped off the cliff.

    Reader, when I set off from home that morning I was determined about one thing:  I didn’t want a Big Black Dog.

    So here he is:  My Big Black Dog.

    This is the first time that he laid down on his blanket, hence the nervous ‘skinned rabbit’ look about him.  He didn’t recognise his name, Jojo, so we changed it to Nero because he’s black and it’s regal looking, as is he.

    As I type he is spread out on the floor behind me, sleeping.

    And I luff him.

    Sooooooo what in the hell has this got to do with Tarot – or the Tarot court specifically – I hear you mutter.  Well, it’s this.

    The Queen of Pentacles often gets landed with the nurturing home-maker label which can make people think that she’s a bit of a soft touch.

    And the woman at the Rescue Centre clearly had that caring and nurturing Queen of Pentacles nature, but also, running through her was a steely core, like a bit of high-tensile cable! She possessed the resolve to make the very best efforts for her hardest to re-home animals – the big black boys.

    So the next time the Queen of Pentacles come up in a reading for you, remember the determination of Celia to do the best for her four-legged foster kids.

    Have you had any Fool or Queen of Pentacle moments recently?

  • Protecting Artists’ Work – can WE help?

    When I’m creating a blog post here at Thrones Towers, I like to illustrate it with one or two card images.

    Sometimes it’s the image that’s important, rather than the card.  For example, if I am blogging about masks, I might search for a Tarot card that shows a mask: I’m not concerned whether it’s the 10 of Swords or The Magician.

    Other times, I might be talking about a specific card or even a specific card in a specific deck: Would any Page of Wands card would do? Let’s pick some nice ones!  Or maybe I need the Page of Wands from Alexander Daniloff’s Tarot specifically. So, let’s go get him!

    What do I do?

    I would like to tell you that I go to every artist and ask for their permission to use their cards in my blog posts, but I don’t.

    That’s not because I don’t respect the artists that have created this work, but if I asked for permission for everything, I stand the risk of being refused or (worse?!) ignored and then unsure about whether I ought to proceed or not.  Should I ask EVERY time I want to use a card from that artist’s deck? Sheesh, Alexander Daniloff is going to get really sick of seeing my name pop up in his inbox!

    There has been some discussion on other platforms about what constitutes ‘fair use’ and I regard my blog as ‘fair use’:  I am not selling the images.  I am not passing them off as my own work.  I am commenting on the artwork or I am (I hope!) using the artworks to help with understanding the Court Cards – so they are a sort of learning tool.

    On the other hand, if I wanted to create, for example, an e-book, I wouldn’t DREAM of using an artist’s work without their permission and would expect to pay them (and possibly also the publisher) for the privilege of being associated with their artwork.

    Yet artists are finding their work popping up in unexpected places.  It can be entire copies of their hard-crafted decks, such as happens with sad regularity to the creative powers at +Baba Studios.  Will Worthington’s work, for example, has been found on giant-sized poster artworks.

    Taking someone’s work, their livelihood and making money from it without paying the genius behind the paintbrush?  That’s not on.

    There are grey areas though – what about when you sell a reading to someone and want to include a scan of the cards used in the layout?  What about if you want to use an artist’s work in the header of your blog?  *cough* Or your avatar on facebook?  Or pin an image in Pinterest?

    I think that both artist and admirer have a role to play in protecting the artist’s work.  Artists could create FAQ pages on their websites or blogs which outline what uses of their work they deem acceptable for free use (eg blog headers, avatars, newsletter header images etc)  and that for all other uses, admirers should expect to pay a fee (on business cards, in training materials etc)  And those FAQ pages would grow as more innovative uses for their artworks are put forward to them (would it be free to use a card’s image as the basis for your new tattoo, for example?!)

    We, as admirers of an artist’s work, can play a part in protecting our artists by watermarking every image that we use.  And when I say ‘watermark’ I mean any marking directly to the card image with the artist’s name, source and website. Take a look at Nimue, illustrating this blog post.  She’s gorgeous, isn’t she? She’s by Will Worthington and anyone using this image will see that.

    Marking artworks in this way will:

    1  Prevent unauthorised use of YOUR scanned card image by an unscrupulous downloader.
    2  Act as an advert for the artist if the image IS used (eg pinned on Pinterest) or shared on another blog
        because any viewer will immediately know who the artist is, where the card comes from and the url
        for the artist’s site.

    Adding a caption beneath the image on your blog is not enough, it’s not protecting that piece of art.  It doesn’t travel WITH the artwork to any another site.

    We LOVE these artists, let’s do what we can to protect their work 🙂

  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 7

    Tarot Thrones: 3 Cups from Mystic Faerie Tarot by Linda RavenscroftQuestion 7: What is my favourite card (both in terms of the decks artwork and divination meaning)


    Ooooh this is a tricky one!  How can you select a favourite card from the 78 available? And then how can I pick one image from the hundreds of decks out there?!


    Initially, I was going to say that it must be Death that is my favourite card, because when I’m buying a new deck, Death is one of the cards that I go straight to, to see how the artist has rendered it.  If Death appeals to me, then the chances are all the other ones are looking good too!

    I have been very greatly enamoured with the DruidCraft Tarot since I first met it in Glastonbury….and also Alexander Daniloff’s Tarot…. but as far as artwork that I loved so much that I wanted to hang it on my wall, it had to be The Archer from The Wildwood Tarot, painted by Will Worthington.


    The Archer, Wildwood Tarot, Will Worthington, Tarot Thrones
    The Archer


    I loved the image so much that I begged Will Worthington to sell me the painting! Which he did!  The Archer was delivered to me at TABI’s Tarot Conference a couple of years ago in Birmingham where Will Worthington had agreed to be interviewed by me, and I unwrapped it with shaking hands and a thudding heart.  Mr W makes these magnificent Arts & Crafts frames for his work too – isn’t it stunning?


    Words can’t express how much I loved her when I saw her – and still do,  The Archer hangs where she can regularly remind me to focus all my strength on my target, just as she does.  Even when I am lying on the sofa with a Crunchie and a cup of tea I know that she’s willing me to Get OFF my arse and DO something!


    I am also deeply besotted by Igraine in the Camelot Oracle, also painted by Will Worthington.

    Tarot Thrones: Igraine - Camelot Oracle - Will Worthington



    Like I said in another post….*creepy Stephen King voice* I’m his biggest fan 😀




    As far as having a favourite with regard to divinatory meaning – I think that it might be 3 of Cups and Celebration – what’s not to like?!  But what I REALLY like is a card that you can have a lot of discussion about, like Death or The Tower.  Not a barrel of laughs, but something meaty to talk about.


    So, what about YOU? Tell me what your favourite cards are (artwork and divinatory meaning)







  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 3

    Question 3 in the Tarot Challenge:


    Do you have more than one deck that you use, and, if so, do you have a favorite? If not, why do you like the deck you have chosen?


    I think that most Tarotists develop the compulsion to add to their deck collections!  Sometimes it is just the amazing art that attracts you to a deck, sometimes it’s a system or mythology that you love to work with.  Sometimes it’s just the thrill of the new.  Yes, I am a Tarotholic.  I am only about 4 days ‘clean’ and not anticipating to run to many more.  I love, love, new decks!


    I do have a favourite.  Actually, a couple of favourites.


    My comfy-slippers deck is the Rider Waite Smith – either the Original or the Centenary Edition.  Yes, they’re pretty much identical, but the Queen of Swords looks a lot less po-faced in the Centenary Edition, I think!


    I have loved the DruidCraft Tarot since I first laid eyes on it and I can honestly say that I use it every single day.  I love the ethos behind it.  I love the art of Will Worthington beyond words.  


    I am his biggest fan.  *said in same tone of voice as Kathy Bates in Stephen King’s Misery* 😀


    I’ve used The Druidcraft in lots of posts on this blog – too numerous to list!


    My newest love is Alexander Daniloff’s Tarot which I love TO DEATH.  It’s one of those decks that just sings out to me – the colour, the style of the artwork, the humorous touches.  Right up my Tarot street! I’ve already written about his Court Cards – you can check them out here


    I’m also a teeny bit in love with the Lenormand Revolution Oracle by Roz Foster and Carrie Paris.  Again, I am absolutely loving Roz Foster’s artwork across the cards.  The overall effect is a consistent, clean and damned attractive deck.  Now all I need to do is learn how to read with it!


    A good Tarot deck is, for me, something that has plenty of symbolism in it to get the ol’ juices flowing as far as intuition goes.  


    I’m increasingly drawn to old decks – perhaps I’m searching for interpretations, lost over the years and hundreds of decks that have now been published.


    So – why don’t you tell me what YOUR favourite Tarot deck is – give me a link to it.  Help me feed my addiction 😀

  • Will Worthington | The Camelot Oracle

    OK, I hold my hands up – technically this is nothing to do with Court Cards REALLY, but ooooh the gorgeousness of the characters in these paintings simply BEGS me to tell you about them!

    The other thing that I want to point out is that I do some work for Will Worthington and John Matthews on an ongoing basis, but neither of them has asked me to blog about this – but I think you can see from the images just why I HAD to tell you about them!

    I put some questions to the artist, Will Worthington:

    You’ve worked with John Matthews before – are you given free license to create the image that you want or are you given a brief?


    “I’m given a short brief explaining what John’s idea of the character is.

    “As both of us have been very imersed in the Arthuriad for most of our lives we seemed to have the same vision as to the appearance of each character.

    ‘There were some characters that I hadn’t heard of so I just did my interpretation from John’s brief.”

    I know that some of these faces in the Camelot Oracle are portraits – are you willing to divulge which portraits belong to whom?!

    “The first one was Gawain…we had a photo of [Will’s wife] Wendy’s son Paul looking grumpy and it struck me that he would be perfect.  Once I’d done that I felt that I should do my own son Nolan as well, so he turned out to be Gareth. As they worked well I then did Wendy’s daughter Jenny as Igraine.”

    What about the other faces – do you just make them up or do you have source material that you refer to?


    “As with all my previous decks I just make up the faces, just drawing and drawing until I get something that I feel connects.”

    Which portrait in this deck are you most pleased with?

    “That’s a toughie!…discounting the three portraits of our children, I’m particularly fond of Merlin….I’ve not seen any representation of him in any medium that I feel is right to the archetype so that’s my version.

    “I’m also quite happy with Elaine, but I have to say I was disapointed it wasn’t the other Elaine…the lily maid of Astolat…who died of love for Lancelot and whose body was barged down to Camelot and was painted numerous times by many victorian artists. The publishers felt it unwise to have a dead character in the deck! However I put in the barge in the background as a hint.”


    Which overall image are you most pleased with?

    “I guess it must be Arthur…John reckons it’s the best picture of him ever, and coming from him that’s one hell of a compliment.”

    [Dear Reader, you’ll be able to see Arthur on Friday’s post with John Matthews! – Ali]

    How long did it take you to complete all the paintings?

    “I was given six months to the deadline by the publisher which was tight, but I managed to finish before time.”

    Will there be prints available at some stage?

    “Hopefully…if enough people buy Wildwood ones* then I can afford the large cost of printing them.”

    What are you working on now?


    “I’m just starting on a Lenormand deck for Chloe McCracken which is very exciting and a pleasure to work with such a lovely gentle person.

    “Previous to that I was half-way through a painting of Edgar Alan Poe with his Raven….but that’s on hold for six months or so!’

    * Will has 10 fine art prints of the 7 most popular Wildwood Tarot Majors available to purchase via his own website and the Wildwood Tarot website.

    You can follow Will’s facebook page (not run by Will) here

    -o0o-
    Here’s a slideshow of all the images in the Camelot Oracle – I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did making it.  Part 2 of this session, where John Matthews helps us understand the Camelot deck’s uses as an Oracle will be up on Friday.  Hope you enjoy!

  • Meet The King and Queen of Cups

    Reverting once more to the glorious Court Cards of the Druidcraft Tarot, I’m introducing you to Mr and Mrs Cups.

    The Queen of Cups stands on the shore of some tranquil waters, her bare toes dipping into the glassy cool depths.  Unlike the other Queens of the Druidcraft, she is standing, her throne can be seen some steps away with a serpent lying close at hand.

    Her hair is covered by an elaborately embroidered hood and she stands, eyes closed (or downcast?) as she holds her golden cup before her, as if she is working a ritual.

    The full moon floats eerily above the chalice, almost like an accessory in a conjuring trick.

    The sky is changing – either dawn or dusk.  I like to think of it as dusk because the Cups rule the Autumn and the West and so dusk is the time of day that resonates with these qualities (Wands being midday, Pentacles being midnight and Swords being dawn).  These times of the day are special – offering us gateways to travel between worlds.

    There is also a black beetle near the edge of her cloak. …. some people think that this is a scarab beetle, but I’m not sure and the book is silent – as is the Druid Animal Oracle by the same creators (Will Worthington and Phillip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm).  But I’ll find out 😀

    The atmosphere in the card feels silent, but somehow charged-up by the Queen’s actions.  The characters feel like Irish Celts – from the embroidery and colouring of her robes to the snake on the ground.  In Ireland the Christian church drove out the druids (the adders) and that’s why there are no snakes in Ireland.  Or so the story goes.  So she’s definitely got Irish Druidy connections for me.

    As Water of Water, she vibrates to a single element – love, compassion, empathy and the creative impulse are very strong.  An ‘unhealthy’ Queen of Cups (ie reversed position) could be manipulative, selfish, clinging and *cough* wet.

    She doesn’t need her eyes to see you, she can tap into your emotional state.  This can leave her vulnerable to energy vampires (oh, you know what that is – the toxic friend that leaves you washed out and exhausted after a self-absorbed telephone call)

    To remain healthy, she needs to ensure that it’s only her toes that get into that emotional water!

    Take a look at the King.  He sits on his throne like a well-stuffed sofa!

    His crown is bald and he wears a circlet of gold.  He does not face out towards us like the Wands King and his close relation the King of Swords.  Instead he looks off to the right, an attitude that I associate with looking to the future.

    He is musical – his harp lies by his side.  And a great wolfhound lies behind his throne.  This is a loyal husband and a wise man (see the salmon of wisdom in the watery depths).

    He does not enter the water.  Unlike the Queen, the King is Water and Fire. He is aware of the emotions (he looks out over rippling water) but he does not act from them. He can understand your emotions but is perhaps better at knowing what needs to be actually DONE.  In this respect he is a master of diplomacy.

    But he can be found working in the caring professions, where what you need is a compassionate response, but someone who is still able to take action.

    There can be a conflict going on within this man.  Sometimes what he needs to do is at odds with how he really feels.  So he can really feel stressed out by situations when this conflict arises.

    He sits in a similar dusky landscape with the sun just going down.  But whereas the Queen has Irish connections for me, the rock formation in the distance of the King’s card looks like the Old Man of Hoy, which is on the Orkney islands of Scotland.  So you can make up your own mind about this duo’s Celtic origins!

    There have been ruins found on Orkney of a settlement called Skara Brae that archaeologists are increasingly convinced are the ruins of a centre of artistic/spiritual leaders…. perhaps like Anglesey was for the Druids?  Perhaps the Cups are from this community?

    Placing them side by side, The King looks at his Queen.  More specifically,  he looks at her cup.  In fact, even if you line up their horizons, the King still looks at her Cup.  His focus is not on her beauty or form, even though they face each other.  And her eyes, as we have noted, are closed.

    Placing them the other way around, the figures are back to back.  With the Queen looking to the left which is, for me, looking back to the past, to the Old Ways.  Whereas the King looks out to the right, to the future….

    What do you think? What would you add to the King and Queen of Cups?