Mystic Goddess: A Journey in Tarot

 Major Arcana 13 is the death card, and its appearance can be deceiving. While pulling the death card in a reading can incite fear in many, this card doesn’t need to be taken literally, as this card often symbolizes a metaphoric death or rather change. Let’s get into it! On the card we see a skeleton in armor riding on a white horse. This skeleton is carrying a black flag with the number 13 and a white rose. Trampled beneath the deaths horse is the emperor and in front of his horse, soon to be trampled is the child from the sun card, the hierophant and the maiden from the strength card. In the near background we see a shadow cast over the land, but in the far background we see the sun rising up over the two towers from the moon card. Wow! So why is this card filled with so many characters and objects from other tarot cards?  Death is a card of change, first and foremost. It is a sign that things that have been, are coming to an end, or have already come to an end and you will ...

Major Arcana 12 is The Hanged Man. I love this card because on first glance is it quite peculiar, indeed! However even the strangest things often have the most wonderful meanings… Here we have a peculiar picture of a young acolyte hanging from what appears to be a tree branch, but is it? At second glance, it looks like there is a t-shaped frame crafted from wood that still grows leaves, from which the acolyte hangs. The thought of someone hanging is quite a macabre one, but this is no cause for alarm as the acolyte is hanging from his one ankle, his hands tied behind him and perhaps attached to the ankle of the bent leg. He certainly has himself in one heck of a predicament, and it’s for a good reason. His blue tunic signifies the intuitive connection to spirit that he’s been dedicating his time to developing while the red tights signify his connection to the pleasure of the material plane. He also has a bright and shining halo around his head a shining representation of his burgeoning...

The 11th card in the major arcana is Justice and within many clues are provided to its meaning and purpose in a reading.. let’s take a look.. Our initial glance at the card we sees woman dressed in red robes symbolizing connection with successfully manifesting in the material world, a crown signifying her authority both in spirit and material worlds. Justice is of course holding her scales symbolizing her part in karmic justice and the weighing of deeds, and her sword represents the clarity of vision and connection to intuition needed to weigh all things carefully. She sits on a chair between two pillars, with a red cloth hiding what is beyond her judgment. The two pillars are reminiscent of the High Priestess card, where the querent must earn the right to traverse beyond the boundaries of the known, into the realm of the teachings of the Goddess and esoteric mystery schools. The justice card is showing us that karma is coming around the corner. The law of balance and karma, what goes ...

 Major Arcana 10 is the Wheel of Fortune, and there is a great deal of symbolism found on the card. Let’s break it down and get into it! The wheel of fortune has been around a long time, before gambling and the popular tv show. Through the ages it has been represented by many different things, and beings, especially Goddesses Fortuna and Airanrhod. It symbolizes the turning of life’s wheel and how at times things can be going in our favor and at other times, not so much. Many used to believe, and still believe that our fate is controlled by the wheel and there is not much we can do to change it, while other believe we have more control of the direction of our fate than we realize.  There are a lot of references to Ezekiel’s wheel as mentioned in the Bible, which was said to be a wheel spinning with in the wheel accompanied by and angel with four heads, the head of a lion, an ox, a human and an eagle. The four winged creatures in the corners of the card are these four heads, bu...

Major Arcana 9 is The Hermit card and this card has a very obvious meaning, and it also has a lot of magic behind it. The hermit is the card of the solo seeker, the one who hermits by going with in to understand the nature of spirit. On the card we see a man with a grey beard, dressed in a grey hooded cloak and even outfitted with grey shoes. The color grey representing his desire to be unseen and his internal focus, not unlike the plain clothes of a monk. In his left hand he holds a staff symbolizing his desire for deeper spiritual knowledge and in his right he holds a lamps with a 6 pointed star, representing the union of spirit and matter, the merkaba. One part of this picture I especially love is the mountain tops under his feet. He has climbed the mountains of spiritual experience and dedication to higher knowledge and now he is ready to come down the proverbial mountain side to share his knowledge. The sky in the background is clear signifying mental clarity resulting from soul e...

Major Arcana #8 is the strength card. This card is technically the 9th card and it has some deep significance pertaining to strength and what it truly means to be strong. Taking a look at the card, we see a woman dressed in a white gown, a rose garland tied around her waist and draped down her skirt, with a crown of roses on her head, above which an infinity sign hovers. This woman, for all intents and purposes, seems fairly average in stature, but in her hands she is holding open the jaws of a lion. That is certainly not the norm for someone who isn’t physically mighty! Additionally the lion doesn’t seem to be resisting at all, rather he seems happy to oblige her, as he stares up at her soft filing face. They are outside in a grassy field with a clear bright yellow sky and a mountain range behind them.  When we think of strength, we tend to think of physical strength, as the patriarchal society we live in tends to associate strength and power to acts of aggression and physicality....

Major arcana 7 is the chariot. It is the card of movement, a card of materialization to move you along, to share a message. Let’s see what that message is  When looking at the chariot we see what is very clearly a man of some prestige or note, riding in a chariot. This chariot is covered in a star studded canopy, two golden wheels, and the sign of Mercury or Hermes, atop a shield with a red lingham penetrating a red yoni. In front of the chariot are two sphinx’s, one black with its wrists chained and one white, it’s wrists unchained. Not only are the white sphinx’s wrists unchained but it holds a closed wrist cuff in its paws. These sphinx are similar in color and symbolism to the pillars in the High Priestess card. They signify a marker, a threshold that is crossed because it had been earned. Steady progress has been made by the charioteer and as a result he is on his way to materialize all he as worked for. The charioteer is dressed in the outfit of a spiritual warrior, his epaul...