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Tarot With Lady Hekate PDF
Tarot With Lady Hekate PDF
We learn about the Blind Ones, an elite class with great knowledge. They
revealed to humankind, to the hour, the time of their passing. A council was
called, and the Kings and their courts of the four elements were summoned.
The goal was to determine the directions and actions to be taken in the
remaining twelve solar orbits.
The Four Kingdoms flourished, and were in balance with their
environment. However, they were not always in balance with each other.
One realm shared in their activities, but also ruled over them. They were
the people that looked beyond the physical to the mind and the universe.
The Blind Ones were part of this group of people. They were blessed from
birth, and possessed great powers. (Another group came to my mind when I
read this – the Bene Gesserit from the Dune Trilogy.) With their guidance,
the civilizations that developed after the cataclysm paid homage to their
common memories and heritage.
The story now moves back to the present, and to correspondence Ciro is
having with a gentleman by the name of Gianluca Colombo de Savoy. De
Savoy comments on the “Limited Edition Tarot” that Ciro did, and then he
sends him prints, along with a handwritten note. The imagery in the
“Gilded Tarot” – is it possibly not unique to Ciro? Could he have seen it
before, and not remembered it? Ciro is invited to Italy – in fact, it is more of
a command performance than an invitation.
Ciro had been “encouraged” to visit Italy at a specific time because one of
the gateways would be opening, and de Savoy wanted him to experience the
museum that it opened into for himself. This is an absolutely wonderful
section, showing a great gift for vision and insight into journey work. From
this experience Ciro walked away with formative ideas for his next Tarot
deck – “The Legacy of the Divine Tarot”.
The traditional names for the Major Arcana are used, with the following
exceptions: The Hierophant becomes Faith, The Wheel of Fortune becomes
the Wheel, and the Hanged Man becomes the Hanging Man. Strength is
VIII, Justice is XI. The suits are entitled Wands, Cups, Swords and
Pentacles; the Court Cards are entitled King, Queen, Knight and Page.
The presentation of the cards in the companion book is text only. Ciro has
presented his own thoughts on the cards, as have contributors Ruth Ann
and Wald Amberstone, James Ricklef, and Leisa ReFalo. Ciro talks about
the reasoning behind his choices of imagery for the card, while the
Amberstones talk about the basic card energy. James Ricklef provides in
depth commentary, while Leisa ReFalo covers each card using the following
categories: keywords, reversed keywords, description, meanings, elemental
attribution, planetary attribution, gifts and advice. At the end of the
presentation on each card Ciro has included an applicable quote.
In a precursor to the Court Cards, Ciro talks about the Court Cards as
templates for royal families. In other words, the Court Cards are flexible! In
this deck, they all look directly at the reader, making a strong connection.
Ciro gives a general description of each card, and the intent behind the
card.
Leisa wrote a very comprehensive chapter on how to read the cards. Brief
instruction for doing a one to three card daily spread is given, along with a
three card Legacy Spread, a seven card Pages (or What is Needed) Spread, a
nine card Knights Spread, a five card Queens Spread, and an eight card
Kings Spread.
The Minor Arcana Pips show the suit at the top of the card, and the card
number at the bottom of the card. There is a slight difference in style, as the
Special Edition used Roman numerals for the pips, while the mass edition
does not. The Court Cards carry the card title and suit at the top of the card,
with the lettering color coded to the elemental associations.
The artwork is digital, very much in the fantasy tradition. The Pips and
Court Cards show the same imagery as the Special Edition deck, while there
is some difference in the coloring (but not the imagery) in the mass
produced deck. The cards that I noticed significant color changes in were
The Magician, The Emperor, Strength, and Justice.
Some of the imagery carries through the Major Arcana – for instance, the
same figure appears on The Fool, TheWheel, The Hanging Man, and The
World. The hourglass that The Fool balances on, and its colored sand, also
appears in The Hanging Man and The World.
We see The Fool balanced in space, with the Major Arcana cards arching
around him. The High Priestess has eyes so pale as to almost not be there.
The Emperor, standng under the sign of the Ram, evokes a sense of great
power. The Chariot is a winged chariot, while the Hermit carries with him a
sense of the hidden (as does the High Priestess). I love that The Wheel
shows the same figure (that of The Fool) in all four of its phases. The
Hanging Man is suspended horizontally over a horizontal hourglass
(indicating that time is standing still). Judgment shows a larger than life
Archangel, while The World shows the figure of The Fool, standing
balanced on the hourglass of time, with the twelve Zodiac signs circling
around him.
This is a deck that could be used by any Tarot student that had a basic
understanding of the cards. It is a deck for collectors, for those that are
interested in the theme of fantasy, as well as for those that want to offer
their clients a choice of decks that will open up their experience o the cards.
One more characteristic - which had been well received by the Tarot
community - was passed along from the Tarot of Dreams: the change in
name of the fifth Major Arcanum, from Hierophant to Faith. In p. 95,
Marchetti explains that he wanted "to widen the message to embrace other
religions and belief systems. [...] Too often throughout history, [...]
differences have been a cause of conflict, prejudice, and war." Here Ciro
tried "to demonstrate that despite those variations, the central column of
light, and the source of their devotion - their ‘faith' - shines through as the
common denominator of all."
Ricklef then rightly remarks that this card does not always mean good
luck, rather it is about cycles.
With no need to show monstrosities or horns, this deck's Devil is, on the
contrary, appealing, and conveys at the same time the meanings of
temptation and chains, and ask a very relevant question: "Is the Devil
actually a separate entity or possibly another version of us, the demon
within?" (Marchetti, p. 127.)
In p. 187, the artist explains why he put a dog and a cat instead of the usual
festive family with the rainbow for the Ten of Cups: "I felt the use of the
two animals conveyed the message [of an ideal scene of home comforts] in
an effective way. As common pets, they were already appropriate in a
domestic scene, but the relationship shown here, between two creatures
more often associated with conflict, is in its irony a means of portraying the
harmony with which this household is blessed."
And in the Three of Pentacles we find Ciro himself, "albeit with the
embellishment of a few additional wrinkles and gray hairs," (p. 213)
because the author identifies with the image of the craftsman totally caught
up by the creative process.
Court Cards share a few specific features besides the associations with their
respective element, which is either easy to guess or clearly visible in each
card. "The pages, queens and kings look directly at us, and it's left to us to
interpret their gaze." (p. 230)
• Kings have authority and power that come with the position and title,
projected and reinforced by symbolism, ritual and tradition. Hence,
Marchetti depicted them "more from a distance [...] in their regal
environments, which reconfirm their status and project the suits of their
respective realms" (p. 230)
• Even though they are not the ultimate rulers of their realms, the
Queens wield "considerable influence and [...] are arguably the true power
behind the throne. [...] Their power comes from within, and they project
that power without the need of material reinforcement." For this reason,
Marchetti chose to use close-ups for them (pp. 230-231)
• Knights are another matter. "If the kings are the leaders of their suits,
the initiators of ideas and new directions, and the queens put those ideas
into action, then the knights might be perceived as the enforcers who
ensure that those concepts are followed." But since most knights were
mercenaries, their personalities were partly muted, as they became
subordinate to their function, their uniform. For this reason, their faces do
not appear; rather, their flamboyant helmets (worn in the fictional history
which acts as background to this deck) take centre stage, each projecting
their elemental association and allegiances
The last part of the book, How To Read Tarot, was entirely written by Leisa
ReFalo. It includes basic information for beginners, but on the whole I
daresay that both this deck and its companion book are more suitable to
those that are no longer beginners. Information is summary and exhorts the
reader to search somewhere else to further his/her knowledge (and where
Tarot is involved, this suggestion is never out of place J). A few spreads
with reference to the fictional background of the del Legacy of the Divine
Tarot are presented.
I wish to finish this review with a quote from ReFalo (p. 271), as I'm in full
agreement with its content: "Your tarot deck can be a wise friend who
offers advice, insight, and guidance for the important issues in your life
and in the lives of the people you know
Keep the balance, you need both spirit and mundane, magick, and
natural gifting, and skill to achieve your goals. You have tools and
you have grown, and will keep growing. It is time to apply your
knowledge, and use the tools you have.
.2 The High Priestess
Promise
Femininity
Abundance
Creativity
Assurance
This card is about potential and giving birth to that potential with
promised results. Hard work, creativity, brings prosperity, good results.
This card can also suggest seeking council of a strong woman. Or a
promised raise, promotion from a female boss.
.4 The Emperor
Strategy
Rulership
Authority
Masculinity
Practicality
This card can indicated a good time to return to school, or getting training.
Trust, Passion,Temptation
Vulnerability,Communication
Balance, Physicality
Victory though the struggle. Remain focused on the goals during the
struggle, hard times. Do not quit.
.8 Strength
After the battle, the struggle it is time to renew your strength. This is a card
about inner strength, power. The Lion does not roam announcing he is
king. You are stronger then you think.
.9 The Hermit
It is time for some alone time, just do not make it a hiding time. The Hermit
calls us away to do some introspecting on our self. Wisdom is found in the
quiet times as well as in life lessons. Remember we are human beings, not
human doings.
.10 Wheel of Fortune
Luck
Chance
Change
Destiny
Revolution
Consequence
The Wheel of the year, is always moving. Entering a new season for the
better. There is a time and season for all things. Your fortune or luck is
about to change. No season lasts forever.
.11 Justice
Accountibility
Facing a Legal Issue, this card favors you. This to me is also a Karmic Card.
What you sow you reap, time for you to receive the reward of hard work,
and dedication. Also ask are you being Just with yourself, and others.
.12 The Hanged Man
From the recent hard times, struggle, or even challenge your facing, this
card calls you to change your perspective. To get beyond, move forward,
you may need to sacrifice your ego. You cannot remain neutral. Flexibility
is great to have in life, and will help you in many ways. Be flexible.
.13 Death
Change
Exposure
Transition
Termination
Inevitability
Endings bring new beginnings. Endings are not always easy but are
necessary. Major change . Often when this card shows up in a reading it
means the querent has had, or will have a change that is monumental - an
ending of circumstances that were dragging on for far too long and the
only way to make a clean break is to have a sharp ending
.14 Temperance
Moderation
The ego is a key to understanding the Devil card. Ego tells us we're better
than the other guy, or we're not good enough for the glee club. Ego tells us
we need external stimuli (drugs, alcohol, food) to be acceptable to society,
or feel comfortable in our own skins. Ego tells us we need a new car to get
respect or we need to put our spouse in his/her place so we are "on
top."When we pull the Devil card in a reading we've got some serious
examining to do. We need to consider who or what is in charge of our lives.
The Devil is a very loud message stating that we're in danger of giving up
our control to our base nature. Or, it's a message that we've already
dropped to a level of functioning that is beneath us
.16 The Tower
Change
Eruption
Upheaval
Exposure
Trial
Sudden Shift
Hope
Promise
Healing
Guidance
Assurance
The Star despite the hard knocks of life there is always hope. Not all is lost.
This card is a message that a time of relaxation is here. Think "spa for the
soul." Think breath of fresh air. Break time, as well as some better days
ahead.
.18 The Moon
Emotion
Intuition
Reflection
Influence
Intuition is key in the Moon card, do not be afraid to listen to your inner
voice , intuition. The Moon governs the water of emotions, listen to
them.The Moon is also about influence. We must constantly be aware of
what is influencing our lives, our decisions, our actions. We must unravel
the perplexity of our thoughts and see clear to that which is causing us to
move in a certain direction. And when it comes to our higher purpose, we
must have the highest intensity of diligence to stay the course and persue
the path that leads to expressing our highest selves.
.19 The Sun
Life
Energy
Growth
Vibrancy
Illumination
New Beginnings
Honesty
Judgment
Resurrection
Heeding a Call
Value
Success
Achievement
Fulfillment
Graduation, you have passed your tests, you have come through your
challenges well. Promotion time. It means that the project you've been
working on will receive the highest acclaim. The counseling you've been
undergoing with your lover will lead to a happy conclusion. The
rehabilitation you've been going through will have a profound and healthy
outcome. The World is a promise of success, and a reminder that the
highest value in life is the condition of your own soul.
The Minor Arcana
The Minor Arcana consists of four suits – Cups, Pentacles, Swords and
Wands. Each suit corresponds with a different element and is
representative of different aspects of day-to-day life.
Each suit in the Minor Arcana consists of fourteen Tarot cards, including
ten numbered cards (Ace through to Ten) and four Court Cards (the Page,
Knight, Queen and King).The numbered Tarot cards reflect everyday life
situations while the Tarot Court Cards reflect personality-types or actual
people.
The Suit of Cups is representative of the element of water. The Suit of Cups
Tarot card meanings deal with the emotional level of consciousness and are
associated with love, feelings, relationships and connections. Cups are
about displays of emotion, expression of feelings and the role of emotions
in relation to others. The Cups Tarot cards indicate that you are thinking
with your heart rather than your head, and thus reflect your spontaneous
responses and your habitual reactions to situations. Cups are also linked to
creativity, romanticism, fantasy and imagination.
The negative aspects of the Suit of Cups (i.e. when the Cups cards appear
reversed) include being overly emotional or completely disengaged and
dispassionate, having unrealistic expectations and fantasising about what
could be. There may be repressed emotions, an inability to truly express
oneself and a lack of creativity.
The Suit of Cups traditionally represents the west and autumn. If using an
ordinary deck of playing cards, Cups are represented by the Suit of Hearts.
The people represented by the Suit of Cups (i.e. typically the Court Cards)
are emotional, artistic, humane and creative. They are connected with their
emotional selves and will draw energy from what they feel within. They
are said to correspond to the water signs in the zodiac (Pisces, Cancer,
Scorpio) and to water as a symbol of the subconscious mind and reason.
Should a Tarot reading be predominantly Cups cards, then you can be sure
that the client is seeking solutions to what are primarily emotional
conflicts, love matters and emotions.
Pentacles deal with the physical or external level of consciousness and thus
mirror the outer situations of your health, finances, work, and creativity.
They have to do with what we make of our outer surroundings – how we
create it, shape it, transform it and grow it.
The negative aspects of the Suit of Pentacles (i.e. when the Pentacles cards
appear reversed) include being possessive, greedy and overly materialistic,
over-indulging and not exercising, not effectively managing one’s finances,
and being overly focused on career to the detriment of other life priorities.
Often what is required to counteract these negative aspects is a return to
nature to ground oneself and rediscover what is truly important. In
addition, there may be blockages in being able to manifest ideas and plans
resulting in a lack of success. Better goal-setting and planning is required.
The Suit of Swords deals with the mental level of consciousness that is
centred around the mind and the intellect. Swords mirror the quality of
mind present in your thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs. Swords themselves
are double-edged and in this way the Suit of Swords symbolises the fine
balance between intellect and power and how these two elements can be
used for good or evil. As such, the Swords must be balanced by spirit
(Wands) and feeling (Cups).
The negative aspects of the Suit of Swords (i.e. when the Swords cards
appear reversed) include anger, guilt, harsh judgement, a lack of
compassion and verbal and mental abuse.
Swords represent the Air signs of Aquarius, Libra and Gemini. Swords
people (as typically seen in the Court Cards) are intelligent, thoughtful,
rational, logical and excellent communicators. They are rational beings and
like to experience the world by understanding and analysing what is
occurring around them. On the flipside, Swords people can be ruthless,
domineering, confrontational and rigid.
Some meditate
Do what feels right to you, whatever connects you to the energy of the
universe or puts you in the "groove" to do readings. The one thing I
suggest, if it is possible is to do a quick smudge of the room to rid it of any
energy that might interfere with a reading. And it's always a great idea to
ground and center and take a few deep breaths before beginning.
You do want to make sure you won't be interrupted when doing a reading
so turn off the TV, the phones (your client's cell phone) and shut the pets
out. Make sure the atmosphere is at a comfortable temperature. And make
sure you are dressed comfortably. You can't concentrate on a reading if
your top is constricting your breathing.
Drawing cards
Once you have everything set up and are focused, it's time to begin. Take
out your cards. As you shuffle them, it is important to concentrate on what
it is you want to know. It is better to ask open-ended questions as opposed
to yes or no questions. The clearer the question, the clearer the answer will
be. Keep questions simple. Focus on the experience rather than the
outcome. Make sure your question is specific and it is worded to represent
exactly what you want to know. If you don't have a specific issue to
address, you can ask for general guidance or what you might need to know
for the next week or that the spirits/deities tell you whatever it is you need
to know right now. Just be sure to concentrate.
Whether or not you cut the deck now and how you do it is up to you.Some
people will then deal out cards from the top of the deck. Others fan them
out and randomly draw cards. Others still will use a pendulum to choose
cards. The choice is yours.
A point of note: If a card or cards fall out when you are shuffling, put them
aside; they usually jump out for a reason and should be included in your
interpretation.
(If you are doing a reading for others, you need to decide their level of
involvement. Will they do all of the above? Will they only shuffle or cut the
deck? Will they even touch the cards at all?)
If you are doing a spread, you might want to look at it as doing two
readings. The first reading is the card in relation to the position it occupies
in the spread. The second reading is how the cards relate to each other.
Each reading tells a story about someone's life. It is your job to piece it
together.
Also don't feel limited by a spread or a deck. There have been times when I
would switch decks mid-reading. I've done 40+ card readings. Go with
your gut. You'll know when a reading is over; you'll either feel it or you
will find the cards repeating themselves or all of the sudden the new cards
won't make any sense.
Choosing a spread
Again it is up to you if you use a spread or not. Spreads are nothing more
than a way to organize your cards. It doesn't impact the reading. You could
get the same reading by randomly throwing out 10 cards as you would
doing the famous Celtic Cross.The more readings you do, the more
comfortable you will be. You will begin to develop you own way of laying
out the cards, be it spread or random.
If you feel stuck, don't be afraid to add more cards to the spread for clarity
or to set aside the card that is troubling you and do a second spread with
that one as your focal point.
Trust your instincts and remember there is no wrong way to read the cards.
A word on reversals:
Whether or not to use reversals is a decision you must make for yourself.
There are six general schools of thought on this issue.
3. A reversed card signals that the energy of the upright card is blocked or
may be delayed in some way
4. A reversed card has the same meaning as an upright card but special
attention should be paid to it.