So, one of the monthly habits I have gotten into (besides working on my bullet journal) is pulling a card for the month. I used the Seventh Sphere Tarot de Marseille by Labyrinthos Academy, and - so far - I have been pleased with what I have pulled, even if the month was challenging.
It took me a hot minute to choose this deck. I have had the same one for pretty much forever (the Golden Dawn Tarot by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero) and I just have not been too keen on using it since I was a teenager. I am not a huge fan of Aleister Crowley (aka the Literal Worstâ„¢); the Golden Dawn was pretty much his jam. And since I am not a misogynistic, racist, old white dude, I have problems connecting with the deck. It has never felt right to me.
But both decks are Tarot de Marseille format, which is different from standard Tarot (the ol' faithful Rider-Waite-Smith decks that pretty much everyone recognizes.) Tarot de Marseille still has the Major Arcana cards (the Fool, Death, the Lovers, etc.), but its Minor Arcana cards are very familiar to a regular playing card deck. (I will go into Tarot and my deck and deck differences in a later post. For now, onto the card!)
For the month of June, I pulled the Tree of Life. Now, something you should know about this deck is that it has TWO extra cards in the Major Arcana - the Tree of Life and the Return. I am pretty unfamiliar with these two new cards, so when I pulled this one, all I could think was,
"Faaaaantastic."
The Tree of Life is all about creation and movement, and working with the energy ever-flowing between ourselves and the universe. Labyrinthos says, "We are creations and creators of that divine tree that gives our bodies and our psyches structures."
Basically, the card asks us about what we have done or what can we do to contribute to that eternal rhythm of life.
That's...a lot. For the most part, Tarot comes easily to me. The messages reveal themselves clearly. But with this card in particular, I was not really sure of how to interpret its philosophy. The most I could come up with was that I was on a journey to fulfilling a higher purpose by creating...something?
That's where my dear friend, Kelly (@wonder_xviii on Insta) came in. She is an amazing reader and empath, and is far better at interpretation than I will ever be.
She and I picked two of her decks, and she drew cards from both to help clarify and explain what my own card was trying to tell me.
From the Animal Spirit deck by Kim Krans (who founded the Wild Unknown), Kelly drew Horse. From the Botanical Inspirations deck by Lynn Araujo, she drew Tuberose. Of these cards, she told me:
Horse: "I get very Chariot vibes from it - which is your card. It's all about charging forth, being driven, and your ambitions."
Tuberose: "This card says 'live dangerously' but I think it is more than that. It's about taking time to enjoy pleasures."
Overall: "If I had to guess, the cards all telling you to keep going. Keeping moving forward, but don't forget to spend time indulging every now and again."
I'm taking a few things from this. The first is that I am at the right place at the right time. I have very rarely been a person that has allowed unfortunate circumstances stop me from getting what I want. I am going to continue to move forward and take risks. I have not felt this confident in myself in a long time; I have never been so sure.
The second is that I don't need to be fearful of indulging...and, to me, this is saying that I should indulge my imagination. Some of my best ideas have come from simply allowing my mind to wander. For the last few months, I have been second guessing a lot of things. It wasn't until recently that I told myself that behavior just wasn't part of me. Since stopping, things have really turned around.
I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish that aren't just witchcraft related. I am hoping that this is a sign to just keep on keepin' on, as my brother would say.
If you'd like a glimpse at your monthly outlook, feel free to message me. I read much better for other people, ha!