Hey guys… guess what…

I have started a forum. I am a huge fan of forums uh fori, no wait fora. At least as long as they have a few frequent visitors. This forum of mine is loosely related to this blog and there is a sub forum especially for discussing posts because the comment section here barely makes it possible to actually discuss at all.

I have decided to make it as free of moderation as possible, though I will intervene in flamewars and the like, I will not do so after the first possible post. Due to this “mission statement” I will have an age restriction, though I want to see what happens for a while before I install it.

There’s ranks, there will be giveaways and contests and all kinds of fun.

This is the URL: http://nltarot.forum2go.nl/

Now go and post…. Come on, you can do it….

Spread it!

What’s a good spread?

Sandwich spread is awful, that much is certain, but I am talking tarot spreads here. In other words; where the cards go and what the specific place on the table means.

Let me start of by saying it’s essential to think about this. Even though the cards themselves are quite powerful in their message, it’s the spread that forms the basis, the framework for your reading. It is wise to familiarize yourself with at least one spread, better yet stick to that one spread specifically till you know it by heart. It is not unheard of to design your own spreads, but keep them simple and recognizable for yourself, keeping track of 78 cards is challenging enough, especially when you’re just beginning.

Spread tips… I will give you the two spreads I feel are best. One is the three card spread en the second is the well known Celtic cross. It’s well known for a reason, many people use it and they use it because it works like a charm… not literally though.

Three way…
Uhm, three way spread that is, not a ménage a troi. Three is a powerful number, many spiritual concepts are inspired by the number three. The holy trinity, the pagan maiden, mother and crone are well known examples. Though you can alter the specific meaning to suit specific questions, basically the cards are divided in “past, present and future” or “what I’ve learned, what’s occupying me now, what are my goals?” which is more or less the same. You can place the cards any way you want, but I believe laying them next to each other is by far the most productive.

[1]-[2]-[3]

1: Behind me, past, learned
2: Me, now, current situation
3: path ahead, future, goals

Celtic cross

The Celtic cross is all kinds of awesome, the fact that it is a spiritual icon with a rich history rooted in a land known for its mysticism and folklore makes the image of the Celtic cross alone powerful enough to inspire many a wanna-be diviner. But the sheer completeness and logic behind the design make it one of the most useful spreads out there. It can take some time to figure it out and make it your own, but when you do as far as spreads are concerned this is the one you could do with for the rest of your tarot career. When you look at it, it almost seems like a man, walking on a road, when you keep that image in mind half of the cross is already easily explained. A man, a path, behind and ahead, head and heart. The pillar next to him is just four other cards to commit to mind.


---5----10
-3-1-4-9
---2----8
---6----7

1: The present situation, heart of the matter
2: What’s on your path, blocking you/ guiding you
3: Behind you
4: ahead of you on your current path
5: On your mind, ratio
6: In your heart, emo
7: you and how you relate to the present
8: External influences
9: Fears/ Desires
10: conclusion, answer, future


So there you have it! No go and try it yourself.

How does Tarot work... Yay Valentine's Day

Yay, it’s Valentine’s day! Time to spend money on chocolate, cards and perfume… all because if you don’t, you obviously do not love your spouse enough.

Did you know (one of the) Saint Valentine(s)* had little to do with love the way we think? Old Val was a prisoner and he became good friends with his captors daughter… oh and I believe he died kinda horribly, eyes poked out or something. A few centuries later the day of poor Val was scratched from the catholic calendar and clever merchants got their claws in it. They found out thousands of ways to make people spend their money on this day of love.

I do like the concept of letting someone know you secretly have a crush on them, but since I am happily married that specific part of valentine’s day has lost it’s merit for me.

Now about tarot, I wanted to give you my personal view on how spirituality enters into tarot. Oddly enough for a witchy type like me I hold little faith in higher powers guiding the cards. So, no spirits, divine beings or even faeries to pick the cards for me. I believe in the system behind the cards. How does that work, well put simply I feel the system as is cannot fail. When you use a certain pattern and know the possible explanations of the cards you always come to some sort of answer, add your querent as a catalyst and voila you get a storyline that makes sense, makes use of conscious and even subconscious themes in the querent’s mind and together you come to “fitting” answer to any question. In a sense it’s the interaction between the reader and the querent that makes up the answer.

However I do find that when I read, the cards always find a way to amaze me with their accuracy. In that sense it seems like any other card on the same place would not have worked. So who knows, maybe there is some higher power at work. For me however it is not important, the system works and the results so far have always been useful.

*There are several Saint Valentines in the running for being THE Saint Valentine, but it’s probably a combination of several martyred saints all rolled into one.

A running start

Today is one of those days where my entire mood seems to be stuck between being progressively optimistic and melancholically depressed. Somehow I am having trouble to be in a content sort of “now”. I have plans, some of which I spoke of earlier, but they take time and time isn’t moving fast enough lately. On the other hand I have these terribly melancholy moods thinking back of days gone by, which make me wish time would have stood still or even to be able to go back.

All in all, the problem seems to be that I am not completely satisfied with the present… don’t get me wrong, I have a great life. A loving wife with everything in the right place and right proportions and hell, she’s got brains and humor too. I have a nice job where I get paid well to do something I can manage and even have some fun at doing it as well. I can get what I want, usually within a reasonable amount of time and I even get positive feedback on some of the things I do.

Not bad eh, no I don’t think so either. Still, sometimes I feel like I am living the wrong life, like I am in the wrong parallel universe. Some things seem to be a bit off, they’re not me. Not that “everything” is wrong or something, it’s more subtle than that. Little choices I’ve made seem supposed to have worked out different. But the further I get in life, the more those little choices seem to have their impact on things.

For instance my job, now don’t get me wrong I am quite happy with it at the moment, but when I look closer it somehow seems strange… working for a huge company, sitting behind a desk most of the day, little to no use of my personal skills and as far off of the lifestyle I would have imagined myself to have as can be. The company I work for used to be a small local cable company but now after fusions and takeovers has become the largest cable and internet provider of the country. Then there is sports, I used to be a quite fanatic, especially martial arts, but ever since my twenty-somethingth year it faded from my life, leaving me not just more massive then I’d like to be, but also with a case of diabetes that would otherwise be under control a great deal more. Making time for exercise, running and doing aikido, judo, karate and jiu-jitsu became less of a priority when time became more precious due to work, relations and household management.

Now there’s a list of things I need to pick up again, making music, sports, and chasing a career as a tattoo artist… they’re all out there, just beyond my grasp. It would seem I will have to jump to reach higher, with the risk of making a bad landing to get the life I feel I was supposed to have, the life I was headed towards before some of the choices were made. Or maybe the choices I made were right after all and the path I am walking on is right and all I have to do is conform to it…. Nah. So yeah, plans are made, a definite image of the future I want in my mind and I’m ready to jump and reach.

It’s forcing myself to make that running start that’s getting to me today…..

Sick and planning... so four of swords....

Yay, a new blog…hooray for me!

So I’ve been quite sick, in case you hadn’t seen my sad facebook posts, I even cut down on my gaming a few nights, somehow watching a screen while your whole face is filled with mucus has it’s challenges, like not being able to follow anything on screen with puffy eyes. Also running to the toilet while in a multiplayer game is less than fair, though I think sometimes the team might be better off with me just standing in a corner. Which doesn’t mean I haven’t done any gaming by the way, just less.

Another thing I’ve done is thinking…. Thinking is a challenge for me to begin with, but this time it was kinda serious as well. I am going to pursue some new things. One thing will be tattooing. I am planning to invest in equipment, getting information and getting some papers that I will need. I don’t know exactly where it will lead, nothing solid there, but I do know for sure that I am going to take the first steps. Art and especially small designs and doodles have been my “thing” for quite a while and I have designed hundreds of tattoos through the years, I now feel it is time to take that next step and see how that plays out. So keep your fingers crossed for me there and who knows if things work out I may give you peeps a discount!

And no, this does not mean I am dropping my tarot activities… I am actually planning to shift the gear up in that department as well, together with Ixani we are already picking dates for workshops, courses and even a course in designing your own Tarot deck, when there’s enough response off course.

So there’s that, a short update… yes I am alive and yes I plan to do more posts soon… I’ll keep you posted.