Pregnancy Spread

I found this spread shortly after becoming pregnant. I did not spend much time interpreting it then and I've gone back and compared my drawn cards with what has happened thus far in my pregnancy. After each month, I will compare the events with my cards.

1

2 _ 3 _ 4

5 _ 6 _ 7

8 _  9 _ 10

11 _ 12

1. Conception

2. Month 1 - January

3. Month 2 - February

4. Month 3 - March

5. Month 4 - April

6. Month 5 - May

7. Month 6 - June

8. Month 7 - July

9. Month 8 - August

10. Month 9 - September

11. Labor/Birth

12. Sex of child

My cards:

1. Ace of Swords

2. King of Cups

3. VI of Wands

4. VIII of Cups

5. X of Swords

6. III of Pentacles

7. X of Pentacles

8. The High Priestess

9. III of Cups

10. IX of Swords

11. IX of Pentacles

12. II of Swords

I will post reflections of each month coming up soon.

Tarot for Yourself: A Workbook for Personal Transformation

Yesterday I got Mary K. Greer's books "Tarot for Yourself: A Workbook for Personal Transformation" and "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card". I already love both these books. I've decided to focus on Tarot for Yourself for a few days first and I thought I'd share some of the beginning exercises here. In Chapter One: Getting Acquainted with the Cards, Greer asks you to answer a few questions about your purpose and thoughts.

1. What is tarot?
Tarot is like 78 mirrors; each card is like a reflection of another part of you. It's a tool of self-help on the journey to enlightenment.

2. What do you feel is the purpose of the tarot cards?
The purpose of the cards is to show you the answers to questions that you knew all along. You didn't know you had the answer, but it was inside you, waiting to be released. How you interpret the cards is your release of that answer.

3. What do you want to learn from the tarot?
I want to learn who I am, how to reach my fullest potential, how to be the person I was made to be.

4. What are you hoping to gain from this workbook?
The information I need to help myself use tarot in a more constructive way. A deeper sense of self. A stronger working knowledge of the tarot.

Is anyone interested in following Greer's notebook as I do? I think it'd be fun to have a book club of sorts, with us discussing the answers we get from either of her books. If you are, drop me a comment or send me an e-mail, I'm really interested in partnering up for tarot studies.

My Sister's Tarot Blog

My 14-year-old sister started her very own tarot blog. If anyone would like to support her in her new Blogger and tarot journey, she can be found at Tarot. Enjoy!

Deck Interview: Shadowscapes

There's a spread I like to use when I procure a new deck and since this blog is mainly focused on my primary deck reflection with the Shadowscapes tarot, I thought I'd share it here. If you're interested in seeing the images of the cards I'm using, visit the Shadowscapes website.





1 _ _ 4
_ 2 5 _
3 _ _ 6

1. Tell me about yourself. What is your most important characteristic?
2. What are your strengths as a deck?
3. What are you limits as a deck?
4. What do you bring to the table? What are you here to teach me?
5. How can I best learn from and collaborate with you?
6. What is the potential outcome of our working relationship?

Cards I pulled:
1. VII of Swords
2. The Devil
3. Strength
4. II of Wands
5. VIII of Swords
6. The Star

My interpretations:
1. This deck is full of shadow images. they reach pas the mundane into the fantastic. The most important aspect of this deck is that it is not what it seems.
2. The strengths of this deck will be its ability to help me release my own chains, remove the veil from my own eyes.
3. Strength as a weakness is ironic. But I see that it may be difficult to reign the passion, fire, creativity, and intuition of both myself and this deck. It may be difficult to handle.
4. I'm going to learn that there are always new horizons to explore. This deck can show me something new every time I use it. I can continuously improve.
5. In order to learn, I need to release myself from my binds. Echoing back to The Devil, these chains are self-imposed. I have to be willing to free myself.
6. I see the outcome of working with this deck to be reaching new heights, growth, potential. An inner peace can be achieved.

Initial Review of Shadowscapes

After a year of longing, I have received my Shadowscapes tarot deck. As Lyon, Old Man Sutton and myself can tell you (we three have drooled for so long over this deck, it's ridiculous) this is a show stopper. I have looked at each card's image online, drinking in the details, for such a long time that opening this deck was like welcoming back an old friend. I felt as if I'd owned this deck for years.

With this deck I have had better readings than any other. I get very clear readings from the Deviant Moon deck but to be honest, the images kind of creep me out. It is not a deck I want to use every day, unlike the graceful Shadowscapes, which I have picked up every morning and night since getting it in the mail.

My two complaints about this deck so far are that it did not come in a box, but was wrapped in plastic, and that the cards are rather slick. For storage I would like a box but with as often as I use this deck, I will probably end up buying a nice wood one.The slickness of the cards makes them difficult to handle sometimes; as I shuffle, the cards occasionally end up flying every which way and get turned over. I imagine that over time, with more use, this will become a non-issue.

The colors of this deck are fantastic. With purple quickly becoming my favorite color, I cannot complain that all but a handful of cards have a large amount of this lovely color. All of her images in this deck are done with watercolor. The artist, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, is truly a visionary. Done in the Rider-Waite style and titling, she does deviate a bit from the traditional imagery. I have not found this to be a detriment, however. The images are so clear, their meanings so apparent, I have been able to look at each card and derive something from it. She uses archetypes that can be found the world over. There are animals in almost every card and that also makes them much easier to read. All in all, it's a beautiful deck that I think any intermediate to advanced tarot reader would enjoy.

Later I will be posting my deck interview spread I did with Shadowscapes. I'll also be looking back at a pregnancy spread I did in January and compare the cards I drew with the months that have gone by so far using the corresponding Shadowscapes cards.

Welcome to 78 Mirrors!

 

Welcome to my new blog focused solely on the study of tarot. This blog blossomed out of the idea of doing a primary deck reflection using the Shadowscapes tarot. After thinking about it I realized that I could do a lot more with this space. I plan to post some of my readings and exercises here as well as my reflections of the Shadowscapes. This will not likely be a daily blog but I hope you check back here occasionally and can find some use out of the information I post here.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jupiter and I also write over at Carnelian Chronicles, a blog focused on all other aspects of my spiritual journey and a bit of my mundane life as well. I believe in using the tarot as a personal tool for growth. I see the cards as 78 mirrors, each providing a reflection of a different part of me. My goal is to improve my tarot reading skills as well as learn more about myself and I hope to use this blog to achieve that goal. I hope you all will get something out of this experience as well. Enjoy!