Glutted

I feel full and overloaded and that is that.

It's been a roller coaster ride and I'm glad to be off it. My brain is running in circles around its tail and I want it to stop. Too many things have affected me over the past few days, some extremely positive, others not so much.

I gain solace from creating my Tarot deck. I am half way finished the Flame (known as wands) suit. I have to say that I am very pleased with the results. My imagination is having a festival. Ole!

Allison asked that I post about how I got into reading Tarot etc. I will happily oblige.

It was a cold and stormy night. Heh! It was raining buckets in Athens, Greece. For lack of an ark, and because of supreme boredom, I took a regular deck of cards and started reading my friends "fortune". To their surprise and mine, I had a knack for it.

Thus started my long journey and fascination with the art of divination.

The thing is, it's really just a way of "reading" people's energy. All the answers are hidden within us, but most people do not like to delve into the depths of their psyche, so they ask for external reinforcement. I suppose it is a talent to be able to "read", but the cards simply manifest what is in the person's mind at any given point. It is especially important to be in tune and to approach this from a neutral stand point. It is equally important to understand that all forms of divination are not absolute and depend completely on the events and the state of mind of the "Now".

Soon, I got acquainted with the Tarot deck. I dove into books and interpretations, crossreferencing it with my knowledge of numerology and astrology. At some point, this separate knowledge melded into a higher awareness. I became better and better at divination, and I soon had many people ask me to read their cards.

I became a collector of Tarot decks, searching for the ones that "spoke" to me. The symbolism of most decks is heavily dependent on medieval christian symbolism infused with strong pagan icons. I branched out to the Egyptian decks, the Arthurian decks, and traveled into the world of Runes and I Ching.

In the end, all these tools, are just that - ways of getting through the social barriers and the adopted garbage and shining a light into the pure soul that knows all, sees all, understands all without external prompts.

I stopped doing readings because I felt that it was zapping my energy. After a while, the Tarot as well as all my favorite tools of divination decorated by bookcase, forgotten.

When I started Soul Coaching, I felt inspired to make a card. Just one card. I had also stopped playing around with photoshop, so this decision brought me back to two old friends. I found that I missed them. This brought me to the realization that I could now make the deck I have always been seeking, using symbols, colors, settings, and figures that most speak to me. I know that I definitely wanted to break away from tradition and inject the cards with more positive meaning.

So here I am today. The most recent completion being the Cups suit. I didn't change the name, but if you look closely "cups" have acquired many meanings from glasses to spray paint. I have started bringing in more urban symbols as well as mixing traditional with modern settings. I am creating them purposely in a an intuitive state. My head, heart and soul are working in unison. That in itself is an accomplishment, one that I hope to carry on into all aspects of my life.

Making these cards has afforded me an anchor that as helped me through these days. The holidays are prime in emphasizing the things we lack, things, people, love, food, homes etc. It's great when one has those things, but when one doesn't these holidays bring it to the forefront. I am not one to wallow in sorrow, but I have missed my parents deeply, and it has sharply put into focus the fact that I have no family, no mate, no children. I try to steer my mind to my blessings, but in quiet times, the dirge begins anew. The only thing that has shut it out has been creating these cards. And I am happy indeed. :)

Hope everyone is doing well. I will catch up with all your blogs and commenting tomorrow, but in the meantime... Blessed be my friends :)