Tarot Blog Hop Beltane 2015: Yikes !

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The host of this year's Beltane Blog Hop is Morgan Drake Eckstein, and the topic they have chosen was inspired by the recent Ostara Blog Hop, and is as follows:


''The theme of the May 1, 2015 Tarot Blog Hop is Dealing with the distasteful cards.

Reading the entries of the last blog hop (updating the Tarot), I noticed that we all agreed that the distasteful cards needed to stay in the Tarot deck.

The "distasteful" cards are those which when turned over (revealed) evoke a strong negative reaction--the cards that indicate that something upsetting is about to happen, and that big changes are about to visit one's life.

A short list of such cards would probably include: Hanged Man, Death, Tower, Devil, Three of Swords, Ten of Swords, and the Happy Squirrel (*wink*). 

These are cards that when revealed that you can see the client visibly try to run away from. They can be unpleasant...mainly because most humans really do not like changes in their lives, even when their lives are a complete and utter mess.

So how do we deal with these cards when they show up? What do we tell our clients? What rituals (actions) can we take to better cope with these energies?

Feel free to expand upon this idea--heavens knows that my own entry will probably drift a little, or a lot from the original thought.''



There are 2 things we need to consider when discussing 'distasteful' cards: the level of distastefulness, and how different tarot decks portray these cards, which may mitigate or exacerbate the unwelcome appearance of one of these cards in a reading.
 
I think there are 3 levels of 'distastefulness' - firstly, a slight aversion, the kind that results in a raised eyebrow or perhaps a facial expression displaying that a bad smell is unfortunately present, or that one's cucumber sandwiches have been served with the crusts on. This might be cards like the 5 of Wands or 8 of Swords ...

 

Bruegel Tarot

 



















 Secondly, a definite sigh or grunt and the kind of martyred expression that accompanies the presence of other people's noisy and badly behaved brats in your vicinity, or that one's Pimms is not the No.1 Cup served with cucumber, apples, strawberries, orange and lemon slices and borage but some kind of devilish abomination they concocted for winter at the behest of the marketing department. This might be cards like the 9 or 10 of Wands.

Victorian Romantic Tarot

Finally comes the kind of card(s) that has the effect of the other person's kid that has simultaneously pooped, peed and puked in your lap when you have no tissues, wipes or a change of clothes - or (perish the thought) of being on a dinner date with someone who asks for a well-done Steak Tartare and drinks the finger bowls from the crevettes* - that makes one involuntarily gulp down a scream and quickly rearrange one's face into complete neutrality rather a doomed rabbit trapped in the headlights.

What's with all the food references ? I don't know - I must be hungry, or have been given a copy of the Cook's Tarot to review...

Now, let's see how deck design can either ameliorate or intensify the negative effects of that 3rd grouping of cards ... let's take, oh, XVI The Tower, a card I personally hate to see:

Sirian Starseed Tarot

Whimsical Tarot

 

 

















Another traditional baddie, the 10 of Swords:

Deviant Moon Tarot

Shadowscapes Tarot

 




















And finally ... umm ... what say we see the contrast between these 3 of Swords cards:

Labyrinth Tarot

Spirit of Flowers Tarot

 





















The message of the cards is not different so much as the tone of voice it is delivered in has been altered by the effect of the style of the art: there's your harridan screeching a warning, or the subtle hint of a laid-back hippie. This links in nicely to a discussion about whether these softer tones of voices, pastel colors or caricature depictions renders a reading too toothless to be useful, an issue of sparing the rod and so the querent is spoiled. I know - interesting, right ?

I think that gentling a harsh message so that the querent can accept it and work with it is what an ethical, compassionate reader should do. One would have to know one's querent awfully well to simply lay bad news out in a starkly, with the kind of bedside manner that should get a doctor fired.

Enough of my soapbox, jump to the USGames blog to continue the journey, or backtrack to Karen's blog before for another perspective ...


* I have actually had both these things happen in my career ...


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Short Report Card

Pagan Tarot

Half-term week was fabulous, not least because DH was home for the whole week. OK, that was mainly to take care of Wilhelmina the Volvo's MOT and any issues arising from that (a new tyre and whole set of brake discs and pads, so she is not a cheap date), but even so - we even had some grown-up time on our own, as the kids had a sleepover at Belo's, after which he put them to work weeding his garden.

Sure, I can tell you what we got up to, why wouldn't I ? 

We ate, drank, went to sleep early, and slept til late - as one ages, one begins to truly appreciate a long night of uninterrupted sleep all the way through until mid-morning. In separate beds. It was blissfully good.

But lest you think that all I did was lie around delicately munching peeled grapes, let me show you the front garden. It is only tiny, but what with the weather (drought then floods) and other things, I had really left it to itself for the last year and a half. It just shows you how messy Nature is when unsupervised:

And after a few hours and half a bottle a little sip of wine, we have this slightly less messy and with more gaps/spaces result:

 

 

Tottering away dragging my trowel behind me, I decided that the only thing that could possibly revive me would be more wine and a doner kebab the size of my head; then I collapsed in a catatonic heap of digestion ....

 But now I must be off and attempt to be productive - another shawl needs blocking. I finished it yesterday - binding it off took all afternoon (really, it was like a squillion million stitches AND a picot bind off) sitting in the sunshine; I have the sunburnt inside knee to show for it. How do you burn just the inside of one knee ? All these mysterious things that I never used to worry about.