Reading: Will Trump leave office in 2018?

I haven’t bought any new tarot decks for quite some time. There hasn’t been much to interest me. I’m not a big fan of photorealism and ornate images in my cards, and these seem to be popular trends in card design nowadays. Also, I’ve been working to pair down my “stuff.” This includes tarot decks (although not as much as, say, books!). However, I’ve been getting the urge to try some new decks; and picked up a couple that I was aware of when I saw them in the local new age shop.

One caught my eye online some time ago, and after seeing it in the store in its compact and sturdy box, I decided to get it: The Healing Light Tarot. The deck is created by Christopher Butler, and the artwork is in the style he is known for. He has also created the Quantum Tarot (with Kay Stepforth), the Son Tarot and a Lenormand deck whose name escapes me at the moment.

Of course I had to test this deck out, so I decided to ask a political question: Will Donald Trump leave office for any reason in 2018? I used the modified tree of life spread that works so well for these kinds of questions.

A Couple of Quick Kippers

I’ve had the urge lately to try out the kipper cards. I’ve owned the Mystical Kipper deck for a couple of years but it hasn’t gotten any use. I have the traditional German kipperkarten winging their way to me. In the meantime, I put my Mystical Kipper deck to use.

I’ve been told that the kippers work similarly to Lenormand cards, so that’s how I approached them. About the only thing I know about kippers is that it’s traditional in a three-card spread to start with MC1 or MC2 (Main Cards; Man and Lady), and read in the direction they are looking.

I’m also aware that “directionality” is  part of kipper reading; that is, if a figure has its back to another card, or is pointing in a direction, then the other cards can add nuance to the reading. That is done in Lenormand reading as well, although it’s not as commonly acknowledged among native-English Lenormand readers.

Kipper Reading #1

The first reading was done over the weekend, to ask how a meeting would go Monday morning. I had a work meeting scheduled to check in with a contractor who is helping me with a technical project. Here are the cards:

Marriage Card – Military Person – High Honors

A Funny “Quickie” with Clouds

Over the weekend, I did a quick two-card reading to try out what Andy B. calls the tirage oui ou non. In this reading technique, the answer comes from the flow of two cards. It is similar to the quick cut that I’ve written about before.

So with that in mind, I asked if the Lenormand decks I’d previously ordered would come this week. I cut the cards and got Clouds + Ship.

Job Opportunity?

Here is a quick reading with my Mertz Lenormand. I was contacted by a recruiter about a job opportunity at Company X. I’m not actively seeking a new job, and I’m probably overqualified for what they’re looking for.

Still, I was curious and asked the Lenormand: how is the opportunity at X for me?

I got: Roads – Man – Moon

Doctor, doctor. Can you see I’m hurting, hurting?

I had a doctor appointment this week. I injured my toe over a year ago, and I still have pain in the toe and foot. Scans hadn’t showed anything permanent injured, and supposedly any damage was to tissues or ligaments that just take months to heal. I wanted a followup to assess whether my (slow) healing is still what the doctor expects.

I pulled out my Judith Bärtschi Lenormand deck to ask: What will the outcome of my doctor appointment be?

Cross – Mice – Child – Moon – House (Sorry for the poor lighting!)

Reading in a line, this flows from left to right, and the cards go from negative to more positive. Read “poetically,” with a story based purely on the thing pictured on each card: the mice eat at the base of the cross. The child plays in the moonlight until it’s time to go home.

Free Lenormand Virtual Workshops – August 2017

A respected Lenormand reader is offering a free virtual workshop. Check it out if you’re interested.

Reading and Eating; Eating and Reading

Sorry to disappoint anyone who hoped this title meant I’d be speaking of gourmet delights paired with cards. Perhaps an earthy cheese with a Marseilles tarot, or finger foods with a Dondorf Lenormand? Cheesecake with a Waite-Smith tarot? Oh, the possibilities… but no, these are readings about avoiding too much food.

I’ve noticed a definite tendency to snack lately. And my fondness for sweets has increased. At a time when I want to eat better and lose a few pounds, this is annoying. Today I thought, why not ask the cards what I can do immediately to stop the mindless snacking? I pulled out a tarot and a Lenormand for this question.

Here’s a look with the gilded and gorgeous Renaissance Tarot by the (deceased) artist and author, Brian Williams.

Strength — Hermit — 9 of Coins

What’s the Magician Deck Think of the Greenwood Tarot?

This is a reading I did a couple of weeks ago, or thereabouts. I hadn’t used the Magician’s Deck in quite a while. I must admit that, when I first received it, aside from a handful of cards I felt the deck was very cold and sometimes uncomfortably alien. When you consider that its goals are to map out a level of reality behind the universe, maybe that makes sense. In other words, its angels go back to their roots of beings who keep the gears of reality turning, and they are not the anthropomorphic (arch-)angels we may be familiar with.

What struck me when I did this reading is how warm the card images appeared to me now. It’s almost like I had a different deck in my hands, and I was pleased to work with it again. Sadly, my cards are all curled along the vertical now; I’m not sure if that’s because of my storage pouch (which is oversize but still a snug fit) or because that’s the nature of the paper. But they are no less usable, and being in the throes of my new Greenwood romance at the time, I asked: What energies are flowing through the Greenwood Tarot?

Is the Greenwood Worth It? (Part 3 and Final)

In Is the Greenwood Tarot Worth It? (Part 1), I started writing about whether the Greenwood Tarot deck, by Chesca Potter and Mark Ryan, is worth the effort and expense to obtain. This was continued in Is the Greenwood Tarot Worth It? (Part 2), where I looked into worth in three contexts. Now that we’ve reached the third post in this series, it’s time to bring it home and come to some conclusions!

Context and Worth

When I examined context for “worth it,” I suggested three contexts for this deck’s use that may be summarized as collectible, study or working (readings). Any of these contexts are valid, but I felt that having a working deck is the riskiest, because it subjects the cards to wear-and-tear — maybe literally! They are so expensive and in limited quantity that use is a risky proposition.

So, is the Greenwood Tarot worth it? Like so many things, it depends.

Is the Greenwood Worth It? (Part 2)

In my previous post, Is the Greenwood Tarot Worth It? (Part 1), I started writing about whether the Greenwood Tarot deck, by Chesca Potter and Mark Ryan, is worth the effort and expense to obtain. In that post I gave an overview of the deck’s history and how it came to be a collector’s item. I will continue by looking at how this deck might be used.

What, exactly, is the context for “worth it?” The way I see it, this deck can be obtained for use in three contexts:

1. As a collectible whose value is by being owned and (hopefully) admired.
2. As a deck that will be gently used by someone who wants it for comparative study and maybe a meditation focus.
3. As a working deck for someone who wants to use it for readings.