Today's Draw: The Hermit, Pam's Vintage Tarot
In 2018 The Hermit is my year card as well as my soul and personality card. Once, twice, three times a hermit...hmmm. According to Waite the Hermit is not about 'occult isolation'. I believe this means not hoarding and hiding special knowledge for fear of critique, contestation or even combination with other knowledges.
The hermit is a wayfarer, one who goes ahead. In my line of work it is important to seek new insights. Less positively always being ahead can become pathological. If the insights gleaned are never shared one may as well be a laggard.
As Waite states the way Hermit holds up 'his beacon on an eminence' suggesting that this card is about 'attainment'. For me that will require intellectual exchange not stockpiling.
I've been pondering my word for 2018 - perhaps this is it.
Today's Draw: Ace of Swords, Pam's Vintage Tarot
An ace of thoughts on a Sunday? Not looking likely...Enough to take my cue from the olive branch and go placidly amidst the noise and the haste. Although now Ehrmann's poem has me thinking...
Today's Draw: Five of Pentacles, Pam's Vintage Tarot
The lame figure may suggest a problem from the past that a person cannot shake off. Perhaps they use alcohol or other substances as a crutch to make the situation more bearable. From a rational perspective this never solves the problem. Yet I can understand why people do it. Most likely because they do not yet have the inner or outer resources to cope.
It is easy to tell people to face their problems head on when we know nothing of their actual circumstances. I'm reminded of something a blind and mentally disabled woman said to me at an art workshop 'some things cannot be fixed so they are just left broken'. I knew exactly what she meant. The fixer in me still fights it.
Today's draw: Ten of Cups, Pam's Vintage Tarot
I'm often guilty of glancing this 'happy home' card which usually triggers eager thoughts of living in a cottage by the sea.
On closer inspection I'm not sure the couple in this card own the little cottage to the right. The man's body seems to be oriented in a different direction (the east) although the woman does seem to tilt her head and point her finger towards the cottage. May be they have different aspirations. Maybe I'm making too much of things.
I read this week that, according to census records, Pamela Coleman Smith lived in Didsbury, Manchester for a while as a child. If true it would be nice to visit. Verifying this will be my weekend project.
Today's Draw: Nine of Pentacles, Pam's Vintage Tarot
According to Katz and Goodwin this card depicts Rosalind in As You Like It. In Act 4 scene 1 she admonishes her suitor Orlando for his tardiness: 'I had as lief be wooed of a snail'. adding 'because even though he's slow he carries his house on his head'.
The lady's dress and the vines signify affluence but as this is a nine card I guess her 'fortune' wasn't just handed on a plate. The snail is a good reminder of the value of self-sufficiency and steady progress on the road to financial independence.
Today's Draw: Pam's Vintage Tarot, The Hermit
I have never quite bonded with my 'Original Rider Waite'. Maybe as I'm of the generation that has been quite spoilt by the plethora of decks available. Or something to do with the production of old images on very new looking card stock. I felt this a pity as the RWS contains colours and symbols with very specific meanings that modern decks often overlook.
So treated myself to this limited edition based on scans of a first edition and including an extra ten cards with illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. This bridge sized version feels far more mysterious and magical with muted colours on semi-matte linen stock. I can imagine finding it in a dusty corner of an antiquarian bookstore down a cobbled alley. A happy form of pretence which fits with the curious original meaning attributed to the card.
Today's Draw: The Goddess Tarot, Magic/The Magician
Here the Goddess Isis appears without the usual ceremonial tools suggesting hers is a very simple yet extremely powerful practice. The headdress and hawk hint at mind magic. Using intellect to bring about a change.
Yet there is also creativity here - the magic she works with her left hand. The wall paintings and the Goddess's golden gown (illumination) signal there is more than just words making up the world, things matter too.
The hawk and hieroglyphics tell me that to have magical day I need to work with a balance of visual and textual sources. Although, like the card, my study room is warm and cosy it will be good to go for a walk this crisp November day.
Wishing all a magical Saturday!
In 2018 The Hermit is my year card as well as my soul and personality card. Once, twice, three times a hermit...hmmm. According to Waite the Hermit is not about 'occult isolation'. I believe this means not hoarding and hiding special knowledge for fear of critique, contestation or even combination with other knowledges.
