Victoriana & New Tarot Decks

After our meeting at the mobile home seller, Cat and I opted for a long drive and an outing to just get away from the house for a while. Cat suggested Victoriana (a.k.a. Port Townsend) and I eagerly agreed. Just indulging in some driving and seeing the signs of spring in all the blooming plum and pear trees would make it worth it. We chatted in a friendly manner along the way, both of us feeling more optimistic about the future.

We went to the bookstore there, Phoenix Rising, and Cat and I both bought new tarot decks. For me, it was the first time in over 20 years that I had done so. In my early 20s, I bought the Londa tarot deck, which I call my “Darkling” deck, because they look like unseelie elves or maybe alien-human hybrids. In my late 20s, I bought the Celtic Dragon deck, which has the correct swords/fire and wands/air alignments. This was the deck that Cat bought this weekend, because she loves dragons and also wanted elemental alignments to match correctly as she turns her attention to mastering reading tarot herself.

The new deck I felt drawn towards was the “Heaven & Earth” tarot deck. It has very traditional tarot deck symbolism (including the wands/fire and swords/air mis-alignments, le sigh…) with an overall gray fog sort of look that captures my own temperament.

Here’s an example of a few cards which does a lot of light vs shadow and gray vs color:

The imagery is decidedly Christian, as suits a tarot deck that follows the traditional symbols.

In the store, as I was looking through their many decks, I could feel this deck “talking” to me, just as my other ones did so many years ago before I purchased them. I’ve looked at almost a hundred different decks in the last 20 years and none had that “easy voice” thing I need to read easily. Finding this was a welcome surprise!

In addition, you’ll notice in the bottom “clue” borders that astrological correspondences are included, which I like when I’m doing a certain kind of precise tarot reading, especially involving magick when the cards are a part of the spell, not just used for divination.

I’m looking forward to getting to know these cards in my close future. Looking over them more carefully after I opened the box (and more tarot card & book sets are coming with nifty magnetic clasp closing boxes!) told me it won’t take long to master the deck. The symbolism and tone of the cards just fucking works for me. Now I not only have bright sunny dragon cards and brooding darkling cards, I possess a deck in between the light and dark. Something less– dualistic– was needed in my card selections!

After our purchases, we went out to eat at a less expensive seafood diner. It had a nice atmosphere and decent food for the same kind of money I’d have to spend for a fast food joint these days!

The drive home was less chatty and more thoughtful, which suited my mood very well.