Daily Draw - Nine of Wands, Three of Pentacles and Seven of Swords

Tomorrow is my son's birthday. He has been counting down the days for more than a month now. Every day, several times a day, I have heard his countdown number expressed with great anticipation and enthusiasm. I view the Nine of Wands as "almost there"... one last hurdle to jump before getting to the finish line. That's today, one more day until his birthday. Finally!

This afternoon my two daughters and I sat together and created birthday cards for him. This is seen clearly in the Three of Pentacles card. We had to do it sneakily, a la Seven of Swords, while my son was on the computer in the other room, so he wouldn't see our creations before his birthday. It was very easy to see my day in these cards today.

Deck: Paulina Tarot by US Games

Attention Tarot Collectors: Swann Galleries Fine Books Auction

I just received an email from Lynn Araujo of US Games Systems asking me to share the following information which will be of great interest to serious tarot collectors.

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Swann Galleries of New York is presenting a Fine Books auction on April 2, 2009 featuring Works on Cards & The Occult from the Collection of Stuart R. Kaplan.

Many of these works are referenced in the Encyclopedia of Tarot by Kaplan.

Collection highlights include rare manuscripts and first edition books relating to playing cards and tarot.

LOT 16: Les Cartes a Jouer du XIVe au XXe Siecle: A two-volume, first edition (1906)of an encyclopedic history of playing cards with lavish illustrations in full color.

LOT 17: First edition (1770) of Jean-Baptiste Alliette's first book, a treatise on divination with regular playing cards.

LOT 18: Group of 7 works by Alliette from the 1780s.

LOT 19: First edition of the final volume of Aretino's dialogues concerning card games and tarot, 1589re.

LOT 20: First edition (1572) treatise on games with reference to tarocchi.

LOT 21: 1526 poem on Italian card game primiera, old vellum loose binding.

LOT 22: 47 engraved plates and maps concerning mythology and esoteric language, and ancient origins of tarot (1787) Pages 365-410 in Volume 8 includes the famous "Du Jeudes Tarot" detailing the ancient Egyptian origins of tarot.

LOT 23: First edition of Moonchild, a 1929 novel by Aleister Crowleys.

LOT 26: Handwritten notebook, containing over 180 leaves, with original transcribed text from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, circa 1890s.

LOT 29: Group of 8 first-edition volumes signed by famous fortuneteller LeNormand (published 1814-1831).

LOT 32: 18th century handwritten manuscript English Fortune Tellers, with astrology diagrams.

LOT 33: Three 1782 volumes by Saint-Martin on the occult philosophy of the Major Arcana.

LOT 34: 19th century manuscript The Art of Divination by Cards: A Complete Revelation of Destiny by Means of Cards & Tarot.


Descriptions and images of all items (Lots 16-34) may be viewed online at www.swanngalleries.com
or at the public Exhibition March 28-April 1 at 104 East 25th Street, New York, New York.

Public Auction Sale 2175 is being held Thursday April 2 at 10:30 AM.

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Thank you, Lynn for the heads up!

Daily Draw - Death, The Devil and King of Pentacles

Today I pulled my daily cards just minutes before exercising. I have not worked out for a couple months. Today for some reason I woke up and decided I would get back into the routine. The cards showed me the end (Death) of my sloth-like ways and giving into temptations (Devil) such as eating too many sweets and being too lazy to exercise. The King of Pentacles is master of all things physical, including one's own body. This king seizes control from the Devil, and makes his own decisions about the health of his body.

These cards were just perfect for validating my urge to get back into my exercise routine, along with healthier eating practices. The Death card indicates a transformation, which is the motivation I need to stick with it.

Deck: Paulina Tarot by US Games

Daily Draw - Page of Wands and Knight of Swords

Last week I received the newly published Paulina Tarot. I have had a hard time putting it down ever since. It immediately became one of my favorite decks. I read with this exquisite deck all last week, but didn't have time to blog, so I am happily spending another week with it, this time sharing my daily cards and some readings.

As I was shuffling this morning, my mind was on something I was thinking about last night. For some reason my weekend had inadvertently revolved around superheroes. On Friday night I saw the movie Watchmen. Then last night I watched the first half of The Dark Knight (an unfortunate electronics malfunction prevented me from watching the rest of it). Then I was tooling around online and something called my attention to the Fradella Adventure Tarot, which is a deck based on comic superheroes. Of course I have known about the deck for a long time, but have never even considered adding it to my collection. But happening upon it last night seemed very synchronous, and I am now contemplating getting a copy. All this superhero stuff must hold some message for me right now.

So that's what I was thinking about when I was shuffling my deck this morning. When I cut my cards and drew the Page of Wands and Knight of Swords, it's no wonder what I immediately saw in them was Good vs. Evil. It's amazing how the Page is masked like Batman, and the face of the Knight is painted shockingly similar to The Joker. There is even a bat resting on the Knight's hand! Even the word "Knight" stood out, as the movie was titled The Dark Knight.

I thought about the reasons I watched these two films this weekend, because they are not my typical movie picks. I'm not a comic superhero kinda gal. The singular draw to the movie Watchmen was Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I love him to pieces, and could watch him read the phone book for two hours. I can say for certain that I would never have seen that movie if he hadn't been in it. I'm glad, because I enjoyed it. And similarly, Heath Ledger is the only reason I was drawn to The Dark Knight. I was inexplicably affected by Heath's death, which is what has kept me from seeing The Dark Knight until now. Why was I suddenly ready to watch it last night? I don't know. And why were the two characters who drew me into these films both a wee bit on the maniacal side? Again, I don't know.

Perhaps there is some pent up craziness within me that is longing to escape. Have I been too good? Have I been too boring and complacent? Has my life been too mundane lately? Do I need to let loose and experience something that's risky and insane, just to shake things up a bit and be more awake in life? Maybe. Just maybe I do. And despite their extreme differences, that is advice I can hear coming from both the Page of Wands and Knight of Swords.

I got to thinking about good versus evil, and how sometimes, in real life, the line between the two can be ambiguous. It feels like I'm being called to dance a little closer to the border. Not enough to do any damage, but just enough to spice things up a bit.

Deck: Paulina Tarot by US Games

Daily Draw - Five of Ghosts, Death and King of Pumpkins

The Five of Ghosts (Cups) returns from yesterday, followed by Death and the King of Pumpkins (Pentacles).

Last night I lay down to relax, and ended up falling asleep. I woke after a little while and had the strangest feeling. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion. It felt like I had received an unexplainable message that things would be changing for me really soon. Something big was coming, and it was going to change my life. I don't know the significance of everything being in slow motion, but it certainly added to the otherworldly feeling I was getting.

When I was drawing my cards for today, I was thinking of the feeling I had last night, and I wondered if the Wheel of Fortune would appear. When I turned over the Death card, that made just as much sense.

Death coming after the Five of Ghosts looks like an ending to whatever has been causing any source of melancholy in my life. Everyone in the Death card is smiling, it's quite the chipper card! At times I think of the King of Pumpkins as my father, and there is indeed a big change coming up in my life quite soon which involves him. So it looks like this change will be for the better and I needn't worry about any of the details that I may have previously been dwelling on.

Note: After typing this all up, I looked back at the cards and saw them in a completely different way: Feeling sad about the death of a man in my life. The King of Pumpkins' eyes are even closed, and there are animal skulls on either side of his head, making his own appear to be one of three dead heads. However...I'm going to stick to my first instincts as I certainly didn't get that morbid vibe from these cards when I first interpreted them!

I had a lot of fun working with the Halloween Tarot this week. The cards are much more vibrant in real life than the online scans show. It's a delightful deck, and clearly can be utilized at any time of the year!

Deck: Halloween Tarot in Tin by US Games