November 22- Daily Draw (Thanksgiving!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the US; and to all international readers feel free to enjoy some turkey as well!  The holiday season has me behind on all of my writing!  Just in case you're behind as well, I'd like to remind everyone that the deadline for Christmas orders in the US is coming up - December 3rd!  If you'd your deck to arrive by Christmas please place your order soon!

Today's daily draw was done with the absolutely lovely Rumi Tarot by Nigel Jackson.  I believe it's still in print by Llewellyn, and if you don't have one you should pick one up before they go out of print.  This is my spiritual go-to deck.  Not only is it beautifully illustrated, but each card also has a line from a poem by Sufi poet Rumi on the bottom; many of them relate to the Rider-Waite meaning of the card, but many are just little encouraging, spiritual asides that can comfort even in the darkest times.  This deck has gotten me through so much in my life, I can't tell you how much I love it.

My draw for today was the Empress, the Three of Swords, and the King of Cups.  On this Thanksgiving day, the Empress reminds us of the beauty of the feminine archetype; today we appreciate the Empress's gifts of abundant food and a great cook!  The Three of Swords reminds me of the tragedy that this day also represents; our country's terrible mistreatment of the people who first walked this land - and also a reminder that acknowledging that grief is an essential part of this happy occasion.  The King of Cups is the King of his emotions - he lets warmth and affection for his family shine through while keeping minor annoyances and squabbles in check.  Overall, a good reminder for this Thanksgiving!

I used the Mystical Lenormand for my Lenormand draw, and today have Heart + House + Moon.  Love and affection is central this Thanksgiving, love of family and home, reflected among all the members of family and friends (Moon).

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 11 - Daily Draw

Today's daily draw was done with one of my favorite decks with Rider-Waite imagery; the Nigel Jackson Tarot (also known as the Medieval Enchantment).  Nigel is, in my opinion, one of the most gifted modern Tarot artists; his Rumi Tarot is also exceptionally beautiful.

I drew the Ace of Staves (Wands) and the Ace of Cups.  (As an aside.. I sometimes have a hard time concentrating with decks where the Wands are titled Staves, especially if the Ace comes up! For half the reading, I have Motörhead's song 'Ace of Spades' stuck in my head, except as 'Ace of Staves'.  Yes, this is a serious problem)!  The Staves in this deck are represented as arrows and associated with the element of Air, which I think is a nice twist on traditional Rider-Waite imagery; it allows the usually passionate Wands to be read in a more moderate way, and the usually cold Swords have some passion in them.  Drawing two Aces obviously means that something is starting up, and it has the potential to be big.  The elements of Air and Water tell me that this will be something that's intellectually stimulating, but also something that I'll be emotionally invested in.  Sounds to me like this is a perfect day to start reading a good book; one that's well-written and informative, but has a nice storyline as well.

Under the advice of a few people in an online Lenormand study group that I'm a part of, I'm going to start doing my daily draw as a line of three rather than a pair; it seems from their experience (and mine, after a few tries!) that two cards is a bit too generic to really learn good combinations with.  To start out, I chose the Mystical Lenormand, a pretty deck from Germany that's not extremely traditional with its symbols, but is still very much a Lenormand.  It's quite beautiful, and goes well with the Nigel Jackson Tarot.

In this new method, the 'focus' card is the one to the left, and the other two cards describe it.  I drew Anchor + Snake + Fox today, which tells me that my comfort and stability (Anchor) is being threatened by a deception (Snake) involving work (Fox).  I'm working with the concept of the 'magnitude' of the cards - basically, cards for a daily draw describe much lesser things than, say, cards for a month-long reading.  So it seems to me as if a little white lie will come out into the open today, and I will probably be a bit perturbed about it.