Thursday, December 21, 2006

Welcome to my Tarot Blog



I've been working with Tarot for over 27 years, since the summer of 1979.

I was introduced to the Tarot by a boyfriend. He didn't last long but the cards have stayed with me. Thank you very much S for such a long lasting gift!

In those days it was hard to find tarot cards and we went on a trip to Soho in London to find them. There were only a few sets to choose from and I started with B.P. Grimaud's Ancien Tarot de Marseille. You can see how obliging they still are, when asking them for a card for starting this blog they produced The Fool!

I never used the booklet that came with them but instead used Alfred Douglas' The Tarot

Since then I've accumulated many different packs of divination cards, also runes and the I Ching - amongst them are many variations on the tarot.

I've often felt the need to draw my own tarot - not to sell but as a personal tool. I remember when I first got these cards I did draw various versions of The Fool but got no further. In this blog I'm hoping that some of those cards will start to take on form.

Recently I've been making a pen sketch of the card of the day pulled from The Shining Tribe Tarot.


Doing these has re-awoken a need to be creating my own images to work with.

I like the fact that the Shining Tribe's imagery is drawn from pre-historic artifacts, I love cave paintings in particular. But there was something missing for me. One of the most interesting things about many prehistoric artifacts is that they provide a clue to the postures that can be used to induce specific trance experiences. For more on this see:


I prefer the first of these books (the one on the left) but the other is also useful as it covers more poses researched since the first was written.

They are both based on the work of Dr. Felicitas D. Goodman who has been inspired by ancient artifacts to experiment with shamanic journeying in various positions based on those depicted. The use of the position often acts as a sort of key to a particular type of experience. The research has involved many people experimenting with specific positions and then comparing their journeys. A particular position does not guarantee a particular journey but it improves the chances of it.

The Tarot includes one important position that is not covered by these books - that of the Hanged Man (or Woman in the Shining Tribe). I'm currently exploring the relationship of the different energies of the major arcana with specific ecstatic trance positions and am considering echoing this in my major arcana.

8 comments:

Caroline said...

Your comments are welcome - I've only put on moderation as an experiment to see if it is better than the word verification which is often impossible to get right.

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Tinker said...

I think this is a wonderful idea Caroline - I can't wait to see how it progresses. Connecting the tarot to ecstatic trance positions is an intriguing experiment. Though it's been quite awhile since I used the tarot or other divination tools, I've always been intrigued by them. Have you looked into Soul Collage cards? I've only recently discovered them through Imelda's (Greenish Lady's) blog. Those really intrigue me as well.
Wonderful new venture here - go Caro!!

Caroline said...

Thank you Terri / Tinker! Yesterday I heard someone say on the radio and a musician had spent all their life creating their first album and that they were expected to do the next in 6 months... a good perspective to apply to this too before I've kept on expecting to do a tarot deck in a few weeks and then got disheartened... but its unrealistic and one of the lessons of the Artist's Way is to set stretch goals but then allow yourself baby steps to get there!

I've not seen the Soul Collage cards I'll check them out thank you!

Tony LaRocca said...

So I should think of you as Jane Seymour in "Live & Let Die"? ;)

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see what you post on this blog! What a fantastic idea! I always get so much inspiration from your posts...now I will have even more :)
I went to Soul Collage and really liked the idea that there wasn't a set meaning for the cards...that, I had to draw meanings from what I saw.

Caroline said...

Joy Eliz - I can't promise more posts... I may just have to stretch myself between blogs... I like that one makes one's own cards and one's own meaning... are you going to make some?

Caroline said...

Tony - sorry I didn't meant to leave your comment unanswered so long - that's what happens when I spend too long trying to think up with a smart answer!

I guess not as she ended up dead having been seduced by Roger Moore...