Tarot Tales - Creating Your Own Tarot Deck

Hello dearests, welcome. Hubby and I are on the road again, this time in my old stomping grounds of NE Ohio. The weather is dreary and rainy, absolutely perfect!  Since I am still practically an invalid, I am enjoying the hotel room with the whirlpool jets in the tub. Remember, sometimes it is the small things that get you through.

The Courtly Love Tarot

A while ago I decided I wanted to try my hand at making my own tarot deck. I have like no artistic skills, so drawing my own was out. But, I do have some alright Photoshop skills and there are tons of royalty-free or public domain photos on the internet. So I set to work designing my own deck.

Book Review No. 35 - Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova

A huge hello from Texas! For the next several weeks, I am staying in lovely Round Rock with my hubby while he does training. We drove down in one day, which probably was a mistake, but it wasn't a bad 17 hours in the car.   

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Since I have some time hanging out in the hotel room, I've been reading and writing, doing some tarot research, and just letting the muses take me. I've read a number of books on tarot, own more than I like to admit, but figured I can always learn something new so decided to read "Kitchen Table Tarot" by Melissa Cynova. 

Tarot Tales: Bonding & Forming a Friendship with Your Deck

Bienvenue! I hope you are doing splendid! I want discuss something I've been thinking about for awhile. You have a tarot deck, and now you want to start a successful relationship reading with the deck. So you really need to bond with your tarot deck, become friends with the cards. Sound silly? Sound weird? Well it isn't, not really. It may feel silly and it may feel weird, but trust me its going to be worth it.   You're excited, you're thrilled, you're jumping up and down because you just got your new tarot deck. You've pined after this deck forever...or you bought it on a whim, whatever the case you have it in your possession and the universe is alight.

  Now what to do, dive right in and start out with a complex 40 card spread right? Well you could do that, but it seems a tad rude to me. Why not say hello first, get to know the cards and what messages their imagery gives you. Take your time, let this first encounter be nothing but a sweet, innocent flirtation of energies.

Tarot Review - The DruidCraft Tarot

Welcome back. I've got another lovely tarot deck to show you today. The DruidCraft Tarot by Will Worthington, Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm is a well thought-out and executed Celtic, druid, pagan deck.  As druids, Philip and Stephanie provide an authentic perspective to the deck that gives depth to the imagery and book. It first come out in 2005, and although that was some time ago this is an easy to find deck.  

Box set art   I'm partial to Celtic traditions, so this deck felt right at home. If you don't really care for Celtic imagery or history, or heavily nature inspired art, this may not be a deck you enjoy working with. The cards are nice stock, not too shiny but not too matte. They are larger than most other decks, which makes the images really pop but can be hard to shuffle for some people.  

Tarot Review - Victoria Regina Tarot

Hello! Have you ever just looked at a deck and knew you had to have it? Well that was the case with this deck. I was watching a lovely YouTube video by Tarot by Arwen, and she used the Victoria Regina deck. I knew I needed it.    And then she said the dreaded words...Out of Print - Hard to Find. My heart sank. I pined after this deck, coming back to it over and over again. I searched high and low for about a year until I found (and won!) and Ebay listing that wasn't ridiculous. Still pricey...but not ridiculous for an OOP deck. This deck came out by Llewellyn in 2002 in a boxed set. I've found the book isn't hard to find, but the deck itself is rare (unless you want to pay upwards of $200, and I did not).   Now about this deck. Just look at it! The black and white images are stunning. The authors George Patterson and Sarah Ovenall did a masterful job. Ovenall used mixed media collage work from vintage Victorian engravings to create the card's images. Knowing that these images are period works of art elevates this deck for me. If you enjoy the Victorian (and even Edwardian era) this deck will speak to you. This has a really interesting steampunk quality, as each suite has an interesting theme.    Swords = Guns, Cups = Mason Jars, Pentacles = Watches (or Clocks),  Wands = Fountain Pens  

 Minor Arcana

Tarot DIY Workbook - Preparation for 78 Week Tarot Challenge

Hello again, and welcome to my blog. A few weeks back I talked about starting a 78 week self-exploration course on the tarot. I was all set to dive in, and then a thought occurred to me. Now is the perfect time to start that tarot workbook I've been meaning to get to.

There are plenty of tarot workbooks out there, some are deck-specific where others are more general. I didn't want to have to buy another deck (who am I kidding! I love tarot decks, but the decks I am looking at right now don't have workbooks) and I wanted to take a little bit from this book and meld it with a little bit from that one.

So I decided to make my own.

I got a 3-ring binder from the store and some plastic sleeves. I recommend at least 1.5 inch binder, but I think I went for the 2.5 inch, so I have room for growth. I printed these pages I made up and made sections for my workbook.Overall I have less than $10 into this, and I am pleased.