There may be no sense in attaching to one favorite card in the deck. This is also to say the same for the various conditions and circumstances of life.
There are a couple of things I want to discuss. First, this deck: the Wildwood Tarot is a newer deck of mine (even though I got it maybe last year but didn’t use it frequently) it replaces my very well-used deck that I had since I was a teenager, Tarot of the Spirit. I am not a person who has like 20-30 decks or more, like so many tarot card readers I know. At least now I am not. When I was pregnant, I literally cleared the decks and gave away my long time deck to another friend and shaman. Which brings me to another friend and shamanic healer who I was having lunch with and shared my deck. She was also looking for a deck to replace her main once since 1983. She recently decided on getting this Wild Wood Tarot deck and said I planted the seed because of the accuracy of my reading. I’m just very happy she got the deck and rekindled my enjoyment of tarot in the process. It’s nice to speak a common language with friends.
The card pictured above is like the Temperance card from the classic Rider Waite tarot deck. I received the Temperance card last night as “what I embrace in 2020” and I the Balance card pictured above, today. This repeat gesture from the universe followed after I had written to Karen from Shamanism and Healing blog. I’ll have to return to add the link. I wrote that I was sculpting the matter of my mind, non-dualistically, while emptying my thoughts. What I wrote is my experience that is being demonstrated by the cards, as the “universe.”
I have a fairly dualistic astrological natal chart. That is to say that the unaltered chart that was “cast” at the time of my birth, showed strong “opposing” energies. The goal of this chart would be to balance or to integrate any seeming dichotomies.
When I photographed my tarot card, I used a black and white background. Being intrigued as a child and in art with checker boards, chess boards and checkered floors, I’ve often been drawn to the juxtaposition of opposites. It’s the flavor of my character, perhaps, but deeply rooted in my consciousness is the desire to express a “and” and “both” existence, while experiencing and providing a sense of “wholeness” in my environment and for others.
For now, this is my favorite card, because it is calling to me deeply, and I’m grateful for its reflection. It brings up Indian Ida and Pingala and the caduceus as well as the foundation and structure for DNA and the formation of nucleic acids.
Thank you for reading!
Fiesta Estrellas 
Balance is always a good thing,I think. Your reference to DNA’s winding structure along with the card remind me of how fascinated I am by the sections of branches wound by wisteria I remove when doing yard work. I’ve heard the wisteria can kill the tree, but there’s something about this pattern that attracts me. Maybe because it’s DNA!
JoAnna! I too am fascinated with the way vines grow! It’s a meditation to gaze at one in the light. I was at a nursery once where I took a picture of such a vine and then gazed at my photo meditatively. So I can connect with you about that, very well 🙂
Balance is an interesting word, considering how in order to “create balance” or “return to balance” we would need to – at times – be at a state of what doesn’t look like equilibrium because balance is not static. It is a process. Like how when we walk or bike, we use one side and then the other (but not at once) to achieve balance. 🙂
It feels good that you get the winding vine thing. I will give the meditation a try. Thank you for that useful perspective on balance! I’m sure it will help me enjoy my yoga balance poses more! 🙂
Happy to provide a useful perspective here! Yoga is truly a wonderful gift for us, thanks for bringing it up for my reflection as well. I’ve been focusing a lot on stretching and using intuition lately – asking my body more questions about what it wants – and doing fewer specific poses, but I have various phases I go through, based on how I feel, and what my current goal is. This is all enjoyment 🙂
Reminds me of the symbol for a healer too~ the rod with a snake or two snakes wound around it.
Me too, Kristen. I reviewed that symbol on Wikipedia and found out that it was misused back in the 1900s as a medical symbol (caduceus), it is actually supposed to be the rod of Asclepius!
What a fascinating post….thank you so much. I really don’t know very much about Tarot cards, but am aware that in an annual ‘numbers’ reading I have on my birthday, Jari Lyn the woman who does the reading also uses Tarot cards.
I have always found them to be very beautiful.
I have often said…that had I listened to my intuition throughout my life, I could have saved myself a lot of heart ache:)
Have a wonderful day. Janet X
Thank you, Janet! So good to hear from you. Numerology and Tarot and Astrology are all linked by symbolism. Yes, the cards are so beautiful which is why there are so many decks! I really like the art on this Wild Wood Tarot deck. When I was 18, that was a while ago, I had the idea to make a deck but I never did. This was before all of the ones created are available now! It would be a big project which would require a lot of my focus and I haven’t gotten there yet! One can get immersed in the beauty of the imagery of tradition, and then step outside of that… as many have, in meaningful ways!
Our intuition is our very best guide.
Have a wonderful weekend! I always appreciate your art and your way of expressing yourself ♥️
Thank you so much – X
Lovely reflections, Ka! Happy 2020! I love the way the cards and your friendship spoke together as the revelation of a deeper thread, and also your ability to see the “cards” of your life in the macro, and the gift that lives inside the hand you were dealt/chose/created/love/embody. The pivot point to balance for me is the life and power of the unknown… When we get pulled too far to one side, we lose access to the mystery/miracle at the heart of what is expressing. I’m always finding myself “in between” the sides, and while it is not a well-traveled space, it has always been in my cards… 🙂
Peace!
Michael
I loved this… “and the gift that lives inside the hand you were dealt/chose/created/love/embody,” that’s exactly what it is. ♥️ all of that!
The unknown is so rich with silence and openness. We are on the “edge” of it at any given time, even when we don’t know it! Hah! Perhaps what I love too, are the hints and the glimpses of what we really do know, when we sit with our wholeness and we don’t feel alone. When we sit with the entirety of existence in our breathing process. I love how you found yourself here, and there, and especially in-between! May we always keep drawing! Symbols, breaths, emptiness, and travel well. ♥️ Much love and gratitude, Ka ~ Happy New Year to you and yours.
I love the details within this tarot card and the face at the base.. I think we all have our own favourite decks.. At the moment my favourite is this one Angels and Ancestors Oracle Cards, my daughter bought them for me last year as a gift… I have around eight different packs, various Angel card decks, and some unusual ones… For many years I used the Aleister Crowley Troth Tarot deck.. it too has wonderful indepth paintings ..
I do not do anything with them seriously, but when I am struggling with making decisions I found they often bring insights to clarify some particular issue…
Loved what you shared you had written to your friend Karen.. ” I wrote that I was sculpting the matter of my mind, non-dualistically, while emptying my thoughts.”, Brilliantly put..
I feel that is what I have been doing for the last several months.. 🙂 as i ponder and realign and put in order the accumulation of data my memory banks have received to which have been overloading with information..
Balance!! is the Key factor in many things… Something we as people often forget to put in place in our own lives, and to which we have neglected to keep within our world..
May 2020 restore the Balance of Humanity in its caring, both of love and respect, not only for each other, but for themselves.. As well as remembering we are all part of that whole experience here on Planet Earth.. And we so need to remember to restore the balance within Nature herself…
Have a beautiful Sunday dearest Ka… May you continue to remain in that balance, as we let go of our attachments, keeping both Love and Grace in tact… ❤
Love and Blessings my friend..
Sue ❤
Sounds like you have lovely gift there, with your angels and ancestors deck. I hope this year I can penetrate to deeper levels of relationship within the images. I enjoy the face in the card, too. So many of these cards feel like places I have been, and places that I can travel to in the other journey worlds pretty easily. My friend was having that Crowley deck for a some decades before getting the Wild Wood tarot. So it’s interesting you brought it up. In my early college years a friend of mine left me the Crowley tarot book, but I did not have the actual cards.
I do enjoy reading for other people. It’s fun. Sometimes I forget that.
Yes I was having trouble linking to Karen’s page. I’ll have to try it again. I also get to catch up with her new posts as well as many others. The stuff of the mind need not be busy, there’s an awareness that is beyond the junk thoughts. Lol beyond the junk thoughts is the “substance” of connection…
I too would like to see a more comfortable and righteous habitation for humans and creatures, ecology and with more beauty and less concrete, fewer bad decisions. There are new inventions that are hopeful. I think on a whole, humanity is awakening and this is our vision on the way to balancing. May the future reveal our freedom, peace and great grace. Love to you, Ka
Yes Humanity is slowly waking and in so doing is beginning to restore the balance within their own lives and is so doing will help the world restore its own balance also.. All is as it is meant to be.. Sometimes for us to feel compassion there are those whose lives are unbalanced out of sync or whose world suddenly becomes chaotic .. There are always two sides to every coin, yet both are part of the whole..
May our collective Vision of a future healed bring about that balance our Earth Mother so needs to set her on her own vibrational upsurge.. ..
Much love my dearest Ka… Have a beautiful week my friend ❤
This week is moving very swiftly, Sue! Hope you are enjoying nature and have a wonderful week, too! May our collective vision for peace and wholeness in balance with Earth be realized for all who dwell within her past, present and future. Xo
Agree wholeheartedly 🧡💚🧡
This week is moving very swiftly, Sue! Hope you are enjoying nature and having a wonderful week, too! May our collective vision for peace and wholeness be in balance with mama Earth and be realized for all who dwell past, present, and future. Xo (this is another comment? Not sure which went through)
Swift here too. Time is what we perceive of it. Atrocious weather here at the moment. So not been able to get out Much. 🧡🤗🧡 Take care of you.
Sorry about the weather across the pond! Keep warm and dry and wishing you well my friend ♥️ as well as others in your area. So many prayers and group meditations and collective joining for the Australian fires. Realizing that our Earth mama is living through a lot and her vibrations progressing through in the galaxy 🌌 as we all are connected within this enormous Love my friend, and be well!
The more who can visualise rain already falling there in Australia the better… ❤ I heard today they had some rainfall which is good..
And yes Gaia, is undergoing huge changes and transitions of her own.. We may not have seen nothing yet.. Which is why we need to keep our calm, harmonic heart at the core of our being.. Much love right back ❤
♥️♥️♥️
I saw the news of the weather in 🇬🇧 UK and thinking of you all, Sue. Saying my prayers and sending my best wishes for all to withstand those winds and the rains. Please be well 💗
Its been calmer today dear Ka… much better where we are, but it was very blustery yesterday, and the rain was a like a river when it fell.. ❤ Thank you for your well wishes Ka.. I appreciate your thoughts
You got it!! Xo
Balance sounds good to me too. Great draw and post. I am curious about Tarot and have had a few very interesting casts from others in the past, but have yet to buy a deck and do my own.
I think it’s beneficial for both having yours done by others, and reading for yourself . It’s tradition to receive the cards as a gift! Tarot is a fascinating design with an historic value! Have fun! Nice to “see” you! 🙂
Oh, cool. I didn’t know about that tradition. What’s a good beginner deck/instruction book?
I recommend the traditional Rider Waite deck because the other newer decks are based on this classic, and because there are numerous videos and channels on YouTube that walk you through the card meanings. Also there’s Biddy Tarot online for supplemental meanings offered if you are wanting more than what the booklet that comes with your cards offers (they can be sparse). From there you might want to branch out and choose artwork and cards that particularly speak to you. Some of the symbolism is universal (as based on Rider Waite) but some other decks can include symbols from many different traditions/other cultures, such as Kabbalah or other such symbology like the I Ching. Keep it simple to start. Find a basic spread like the “Celtic cross” (available online and in most booklets) and keep with that for a while until you are having a meaningful dialogue with the cards, and working through your inner examinations. So, short answer is the classic Rider Waite. Alternatively, you can get any kind of oracle cards that aren’t based on this system and having a meaningful “one card” draw if you are looking for focus and direction and are having challenges reading spreads. I hope that helps! My best wishes on your tarot journey.
Thank you so much! I will look for this deck and check out YouTube tarot channels for beginners. I love YouTube btw. Learn so much this way. LOL.