Freeform 3 Stones for Me

It’s time to try a simple three stone drop reading.  It’s a little different than choosing three stones and lining them up (as in the Arrowhead spread) because you can take into account the relative positions of the stones as they land.  I’ve noticed that I haven’t been considering color connections much either, so I’m going to give that a try here, too.

 

The question is:  What can I do to help my son be happier?

 

Here’s the reading:

 

From top to bottom:  3-Empress-Malachite; 16-Red Jasper-Tower; 14-Temperance-Rose Quartz.

 

Even though I’m the mother, and Empress is here, my first impression if that, with Empress and Temperance, this is a health reading.  While my son is generally healthy, he could lose some weight.  He is actively working on that, trying to eat right and going to the gym regularly.  (He’s a vegetarian, like I am, and sometimes that makes it difficult to keep the calories down.  You end up eating lots of pasta, pizza, and soy-based food!) 

 

Empress is saying I should quietly and unobtrusively nourish him whenever I get the chance.  And that should include encouragement and nourishing ideas and information on health.

 

Temperance means I should also encourage moderation.  (I tried to explain that beer is probably the highest calorie content item he consumes, but he isn’t hearing that!)  And, especially since we’re both vegetarians, I should encourage moderation through example. That way, I’m improving the health of both of us at the same time!  I’m also worried about him taking over-the-counter performance enhancing drinks before he works out.  They’ve got to be full of chemicals, so I’m thinking they’re not all that good for him.  So I might gently ask him about them and if there are more natural alternatives.

 

So now the burning Tower in the room.  Maybe I should communicate the obvious but often unnoticed old saw that if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.  When you’re young, your body can withstand and bounce back from a lot, of both neglect and over-discipline.  I am a prime example that if you wait to take care of your health after years of neglect, things can get pretty ugly (or at least very creaky)!

 

As for relative positions, the Tower might also be my worry about him, separating my over-mothering instincts from a moderate, reality-based concern.  I just hope it doesn’t take a health scare to impress on him the necessity of moderation.  Even too much exercising is too much!

 

Color-wise, if we read from top to bottom, the opaque stones lead to the translucent stone, meaning that things will become clearer in time as I put into practice the advice of the reading.  The same with the color tones:  dark and definite green and red lead to pastel, less defined pink.  Things aren’t as cut-and-dried as I think.  More open-minded is where I should end up.

 

Reading notes:  In contrast with freeform rune readings, to me, Arcana Stones are less definite and keyword based, so it takes a bit more thought and rummaging around for a coherent reading with just three stones.  (Of course, that could just be my relationship to runes as opposed to tarot.  I’m more familiar with the multitudes of meanings and associations of tarot.  I’m still in the keyword stage with runes!) 

 

Also, runes land face up or face down, and they are directional (upright, reversed, or somewhere in between), giving further facets of meanings to a tossed reading.  Would the solution be using more Arcana Stones in a reading, even though there are more runes (24) than Arcana Stones (22)?  (Stay tuned for a post about my infamous 15 percent rule of thumb.)

 

I think I’m going to need more practice with my freeform readings, so I will be posting more as we go along.  Let me know if you would like me to do one for you!

Why Is the Moon Not the Moon?

When I was new to tarot (back in the Neolithic Age, I think it was . . .), the oft-repeated cry of many a tarot student was:  “Why Is the Moon Not the Moon?”

≠

Back then, there were some very good books on Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) meanings around, but precious little really in-depth tarot information.  Many of us were forced to “reverse engineer” our tarot understanding, in other words, we had knowledge of RWS meanings, but we didn’t have access to the reasons WHY certain cards mean certain things, so we tried to figure it out for ourselves.

One of the most puzzling and annoying questions was on the RWS astrological attributions of the majors.  Some fit great (Sun for Sun, Venus for Empress), some not so great (Cancer for Chariot?, Water for Hanged Man?, and most of all, Pisces for Moon?).  (And if Empress is Venus, why isn’t Emperor Mars?)

With the advent of the great miracle of our age, instant information on anything and everything, commonly known as the internet, esoteric (in both the “alternative spirituality” and “obscure” meanings of the word) documents became readily available, and many things became clear(er).

The mundane answer to the title question is this:

At the turn of the 20th century, an esoteric group/secret society was formed in London called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (GD).  It treated tarot as a kind of esoteric filing cabinet, associating such diverse systems as astrology, kabbalah, yoga, demonology, and (pre-Rosetta Stone) Egyptian mythology with the cards.  The chief architect of the attributions seems to have been MacGregor Mathers, one of the founders of the group.  The astrological associations are given in the short tract, Book T.  http://www.tarot.org.il/Library/Mathers/Book-T.html

Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Coleman-Smith, author and artist of the RWS deck (Rider was the deck’s first publisher), and later Aleister Crowley, author of the Thoth deck, were members of the Golden Dawn and used its attributions for their decks.

Book T attributes the 22 majors to the 12 signs, 7 planets, and 4 elements of astrology.  The first make-it-fit juggling was to make 22=23 by making Judgement carry 2 attributions, 1 planet and 1 element.

The next goal was to make the order of the signs match up with the order of the majors.  (But evidently the order of the planets and elements was not important.  They were stuck in between the signs wherever they would make some bit of sense with the ideas of the cards.)

This led to the famous switch of Strength and Justice, 8 and 11, since Leo comes before Libra.  Well, it WOULD be really odd to have a lion on a Libra card and scales on a Leo card!  And they’re both cardinal virtues, so nobody will notice, right?

This also led to the Moon not being the Moon.  Pisces is the last sign, so which card at the end of the majors could it be?  Moon = influences water  = fish live in water = Pisces = close enough!

The joke is on the GD because the order of the tarot majors was not as stable and unchanging through the Renaissance and later as they thought.  They could easily have gotten away with assigning things in any order they wanted to unnumbered majors (as some modern deck creators do).

So, you might ask, since I am ratting out, or at least exposing to mild ridicule, the GD astrological attributions, why do I use them for Arcana Stones? 

Easy answer:  GD/RWS tarot meanings and attributions are by far the most known and used, especially in the English-speaking world, but also in most of the world at large, and by me.  I intend Arcana Stones to be part of the mainstream tarot tradition (with a little side-eddy into crystals . . .).  And, of course, I have created something that comes from my own tarot knowledge, which is mostly GD-based.

Harder answer:  I really haven’t found anything better.  Back in the old reverse engineering days, and occasionally since, I have tried to come up with my own attributions.  But with little satisfaction.  So I’m sticking with the tried and true, at least for now.  Even though I STILL think it takes a good bit of mental gymnastics to associate Cancer with the Chariot . . .

Stone Arrowhead Reading for Me

This is a reading for myself using the a spread in the Arcana Stones booklet I call the Stone Arrowhead Spread.  It’s based on ideas of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Mary Greer, http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/jodorowskys-three-card-theosophic-sum-spread/, but (of course) I added some tweaks of my own.

 

Here are the instructions for the spread from the booklet:

 

Stone Arrowhead Spread

In this numerological three stone spread, you pick three stones and fill in the rest of the positions by adding the arcana numbers of the picked stones.

 

For this spread, 0-Fool-Clear Quartz is number 22.  If a sum is over 22, add the digits together to get a number 22 or less.  It is possible to get the same number-stone in several different positions in this spread.  Repeated stones obviously point to an important aspect of your reading!

 

Randomly pick three stones, A, B, and C, and put them in a row left to right.  These together are the basic answer to your question.

 

Add A plus C and place the stone of that number in the center under the row.  This is the cause of your issue.

 

Add A plus B and place the stone of that number above the row between A and B.  This is what you are receiving or what is happening to you in the situation.

 

Add B plus C and place the stone of that number above the row between B and C.  This is what you are acting on, doing, or giving in the situation.

 

Add A, B, and C and place the stone of that number at the top center.  This is the outcome of your issue.

 

Add all seven of the previous numbers together (including any repeated ones) and place the stone of that number at the bottom center.  This is advice for you to consider in dealing with the issue.

 

So, let’s try it.  I’ll walk you through my reading. 

 

The issue is the outlook for the unfinished tarot project I’m working on now.  (The concepts are pretty much set, I just have to write it!)

 

I picked three stones and laid them out left to right:  22-Fool-Clear Quartz; 4-Emperor-Carnelian; 6-Lovers-Rhodocrosite.  The basic answer is that I have to remember that I’m a beginner at this (Fool).  But, even though I’m just a beginner, people in authority, I’m assuming a publisher (Emperor), will love it!  And I will be able to make a productive partnership (Lovers) with someone in order for it to be completed.  Very good news for me, because the project is a deck concept and book.  I will definitely need to partner with an artist for the deck to become a reality.

 

I added A+C to get the cause of my issue:  22+6=28=10-Wheel-Botswana Agate.  I’m asking and wondering because I feel like completion of the project is out of my control and in the hands of fate for some reason.  This is actually not true at all.  I can work on it whenever I want!  I just feel like circumstances are preventing me from doing that.  A good insight from the stones.  I need to stop wondering and reading about it, and just do it!

I added A+B to get what I am receiving:  22+4=26=8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye.  Once again, encouragement to just do it.  I already have the power to do this.  I just need to focus my energy on the right things.

 

I added B+C to get when I am doing now:  4+6=10-Wheel-Botswana Agate again.  Ok, ok!  I get the picture!  (Perfect example of a repeated stone showing what’s important in the reading!)  I’m just waiting around like it’s just going to happen on its own.  Well, it’s not . . .

 

I added A+B+C to get the outcome:  22+4+6=32=5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite.  Well, this is encouraging.  When the project (or my part of it) is complete, it will be recognized as a valid entry in the tarot deck tradition.  Or it will be accepted by tarot experts and traditionalists.  Or I will be acknowledged as someone who knows something about tarot and maybe as a useful teacher of tarot.  Any or all of those would be wonderful for me!

 

Last, I added all seven stones so far, including both 10-Wheels, to get some advice:  5+8+10+22+4+6+10=65=11-Justice-Aventurine.  This is just a friendly reminder to keep a balance between the Hierophant’s visions of grandeur and the nose-to-the grindstone promptings of the Wheel and Fortitude.  The outcome will never come unless I finish my project.  On the other hand, having something positive to look forward to will help me to keep working away.

 

 

Well, this is one of those readings that tells you what you already know, but it doesn’t hurt to check in when in need of a reminder!

 

I hope you enjoyed the demonstration of the Stone Arrowhead Spread.  Let me know if  you would like me to do one for you!

Experimental Astrological-Only Reading

Here is the threatened astrological-only reading, that is, reading the stones according to their astrological attribution only, leaving out the tarot meanings. 

I wasn’t able to find “cookbook” style houses information specifically for traditional houses, so I’m going to use an internet paper that I can’t figure out the author of, http://www.trufax.org/research/Signs%20on%20House%20Cusps.pdf, for the signs on the house cusps, and my favorite astrological cookbook, Key Words for Astrology by Hajo Banzhaf & Anna Haebler (Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1996), for the planets in the houses.

The question about my astrological future.  Should I/will I study astrology more formally, or should it/will it remain just an interesting adjunct to my tarot work?

 

So we have:

Virgo (9-Hermit-Fluorite) on the Fifth House cusp

Aquarius (17-Star-Blue Lace Agate) on the Eighth House cusp

Moon (2-Priestess-Moonstone) and Mars (16-Tower-Red Jasper) in the Tenth House

 

(Following are quotes from the above mentioned sources.)

 

VIRGO ON THE CUSP OF FIFTH HOUSE

There is an inclination to be somewhat analytical about how you approach others, and to apply your own values as to how a relationship should develop.  While you have a wide range of friends, you’re not inclined to follow the party crowd.  You can have a good time without letting go, and proper conduct is expected from everyone.  Courtship is something you probably have a preconceived idea about, and you desire an orderly sequence of events to unravel in their due time.  There may be few children from marriage, but many factors will determine the exact number.  Although you may not be artistically inclined, you possess a shrewd eye for form and design.  Your opinion is of great value to those who appreciate your fine tastes.  You are more inclined to invest rather than speculate, and investments in food, catering, or in the health fields would benefit most.

AQUARIUS ON CUSP OF EIGHTH HOUSE
You may experience rather eccentric or erratic conditions when the time comes to adjudicate the outcome of a will, or dispose of the goods the individual accumulated during life.  Complications or old debts could surface resulting in the loss of anticipated benefits for yourself.  It would be wise to close loopholes, otherwise problems could arise at the most difficult time.  Your own transition to the higher planes is apt to be quick, and the element of an unexpected nature is usually present.  The exact manner of death is not easily ascertained from just the nature of the sign itself, although certain characteristics stand out.  Accidents rank high, and problems with the heart and blood also stand out.  In respect to how you can expect a partner to handle money, there is strong likelihood that benefits will accrue through wise investment.

Moon in the 10th House:  Popularity (Detriment)
STRENGTH:  The Celebrity.  Need for recognition and popularity.  Instinctively senses what the audience, the public and the people want.  Can easily make oneself popular and is good at dealing with other people in the scope of working life.  Likes to have profession and the public as one’s family.  Often has the ambition of making the theme of the Sun house one’s vocation.  Wins followers easily.  The born representative.
PROBLEM AREA:  The Narcissist.  Is enthusiastic and uninhibited about adorning self with borrowed plumes.  Overly exaggerated need for admiration and reckless approach to responsibility.  Tends to make decisions that don’t help the matter as a favor to someone else because of a craving to be liked.  Frequently changes professions.
IMAGE OF THE MOTHER:  Strong identification figure and close emotional ties.

Mars in the 10th House:  Rivalry (Exaltation)
STRENGTH:  The Fighter.  Always ready to fight for matters that concern one, push through unpopular steps, and swim against the current.  Great ambition to reach the top, willingness to engage in conflict, enormous endeavors in the professional area.  Seeks confrontations and likes to compete against rivals.  Many enemies, much honor.
PROBLEM AREA:  The Machiavellian Prince.  Scorns other people’s opinions and inconsiderately disregards justified interest and claims within the scope of the profession.  Attacks others out the of the blue and continually infringes on the professional rules of the game and agreements.  Unscrupulously oversteps competencies and likes to “govern” one’s way into other people’s areas of responsibility.  Power-hungry, unpredictable, greedy for success.
IMAGE OF THE MOTHER:  Strong, dangerous, aggressive.

So, obviously, these interpretations are geared toward birth charts.  (Note the attribution of the “Image of the Mother” to the Tenth House.)  But let’s see what we can glean from them for my question.

Virgo in the Fifth and moon in the Tenth seem to be contradictory.  I’m not inclined to follow the party line, but I am very interested in popularity with the in-crowd.  Maybe that means I am ambitious to be known as an astrologer, but only on my own terms.  That ties in well with the Mars in the Tenth’s “overstepping” “other people’s areas of responsibility”!

I know I am rather independent intellectually, and I would probably take what I like and forget the rest, no matter what instructors and books might say, maybe even “infringing on the rules of the game.” 

But I like the idea of the “profession as my family.”  Astrology seems like a common language that cuts across many actual languages and cultures.

The mentions of investment make me think that, while it would be enriching intellectually, and/or in the long run, being a trained astrologer wouldn’t bring instant fortune (or fame). 

Now my (amateur) interpretation:

I would enjoy (Fifth House) the creativity (Fifth House) of astrological study, but I would attack it in a practical and organized way, almost like a job (Virgo).

That seriousness of study might lead to an ending (Eighth House) of my free-wheeling, impressionistic (Aquarius) interpretations and make my readings more traditional and cut-and-dried.

I have a romantic (Moon) concept of the astrology profession (Tenth House), but I still would want to be ambitious and competitive (Mars) when practicing it.

Well, there you have it!  If any astrologers are out there, please let me know how I did!

A Reading for Meghan

Meghan asked me to do a Stones on Lenormand love-life reading about the possibilities with someone she still has feelings for or meeting someone else suitable.

 

And here it is!  The deck is Lenormand Silhouettes, http://lenormandsilhouettes.wix.com/deck#

 

 

Let’s start with the good news first:  12-Death-Mahogany Obsidian on the Tower.  As I mentioned in a previous reading, the Lenormand Tower can be about stability and longevity, but here it means solitude, like the Hermit.  I know you recently moved to a new city and are in the process of making new friends.  This combination says your solitude (or even loneliness) is at an end (Death).  So that’s definitely a good thing for a love-life reading!  And it seems to lean toward the possibility of meeting someone new, rather than renewing something with someone you already know, since Death is so, well, final.

 

Where will you meet this fascinating stranger?  2-Priestess-Moonstone on the Ship.  (Lenormand encourages me to read pretty predictively and literally, so here it goes!)  You will meet someone romantically interesting at a spiritually-focused (Priestess) event or conference (Ship).  Since the Ship is about travel, the main idea is meeting someone at an event that you have to travel to (not necessarily or essentially a learning or social event).  But, even though I’m not really reading cards that don’t have stones on them, the Garden card IS present, so it might indeed be a social activity or get-together of spiritually-minded people.  Maybe you should start thinking about Readers Studio 2014!

 

Way down at the bottom of the reading, off the cards, is 5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite.  I think he is here to clarify the Priestess by contrasting with her.  This new acquaintance and the way that you meet him will be anything but conventional or traditional.  You might meet through a form of spirituality that you never considered or even heard of before.  Or it might be the start of a completely non-traditional relationship--a May-December romance, a long distance relationship, or something I haven’t even thought of or heard of before!

 

(Reading note:  Interesting.  It looks like I’m reading a Stone that doesn’t land on a card as a reversal or opposite.  That is originally because of the Priestess-Hierophant contrast here, but I might be onto something . . .)

 

In summary, your lonely days will soon be over!  It might be good to let previous attachments go so you can be open to new ones.  Explore your city’s meta shops, spiritualist churches, Halloween parties, etc.  If you don’t meet the love of your life, you will at least learn something and probably make some new friends!  And it can’t hurt to consider travel to a meeting of spiritually like-minded folks.  And don’t pass something or someone by just because it/he doesn’t fit your concept of normal.  That might be where the good stuff is!

 

Well, my summary turned into advice.  But you know what I mean.  No Gentleman, Heart, or Lovers showed up, so it looks like the reading is more about end of the old and the beginning of the beginning of the new.  So it’s time to embrace the possibilities!

 

I hope this reading makes sense to you and helps you.  Please let me know!

Musings on Houses

One of the background stimuli for the creation of Arcana Stones was my dissatisfaction with my various attempts to read using an astrological houses spread (sometimes known as a horoscope spread).  Readings based on one card for each house didn’t gel for me.  They seemed so disjointed as to be pretty much meaningless.

 

With Arcana Stones, we read only the houses that stones land in.  That immediately removes the disjointedness of considering every house no matter what the question is or where the questioner is coming from.  And considering which houses seems most apropos to the question or concern before dropping the stones gives another layer to the reading.  Did stones land in the applicable houses or not?  What does that imply?

 

In keeping with the desire to make houses readings more clear-cut and pertinent to the questioner’s concern, I thought it was important to keep my house interpretations close to the “fortune telling” style of traditional astrology. 

 

Besides, I was always intrigued by the topics listed for various houses that I’ve seen around the internet, including (my favorite!) small animals and large animals (Sixth and Twelfth Houses), not to mention allies, public enemies, and private enemies (Second, Seventh, and Twelfth Houses).  If you’re also intrigued, check out the great Renaissance Astrology site, which has lots of astrology primary sources.  (Here’s the houses page:  http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/houses.html.)  And/or check out On the Heavenly Spheres:  A Treatise on Traditional Astrology, by Helena Avelar & Luis Ribeiro, published by the American Federation of Astrologers in 2010, for fascinating and useful information on classical, medieval, and Renaissance astrological methods.

 

In addition to the mundane-psychological split between traditional and modern (20th century) astrological thought, another difference traditional astrologers are quick to point out is that that many modern astrologers are apt to mix up the houses with the signs.  While there is some correlation in attributes (see the Renaissance source at the link above), houses and signs refer to different phenomena.  An astrological chart is like a snapshot of the solar system at a moment in time.  Signs in a chart refer to space divisions of the sky; houses refer to time divisions of a day.  (I’m not 100 percent master of this information yet.  I’m still trying to get solid understanding of it, but I think I’m not leading you astray here . . .)

 

The biggest traditional-modern houses controversy is the attribution of fathers and mothers.  Traditionally, fathers are attributed to the Fourth House, mothers to the Tenth.  Some (most?) modern astrologers have taken the liberty of switching them.  Correlating the Fourth House with the fourth sign, Cancer, a water sign ruled by the moon, has led them to think that it is a more logical place for emotional, feminine mothers.  Similarly, the Tenth House and the tenth sign, Capricorn, which speak of ambition and public life, seem to be logical places for modern fathers.  Oceans of ink have been spilled on this controversy, but ultimately, as with all things divinational, we have to decide for ourselves!

 

In the Arcana Stones booklet, I’ve tried to combine the mundane and psychological aspects of the houses just enough to make them as useful as possible for readings.  (I even came up with a theory to justify using the traditional houses for fathers and mothers!) 

 

And those are my musings on houses!

 

I’m going to give myself an assignment here so you can hold me to it:  As an experiment, I’m going to do a houses reading using only the astrological attributions of the stones (not the tarot meanings) and traditional astrological interpretations straight from the texts.  So each stone will be either a planet in a house or a sign on a house cusp.  (I’ll have to figure out what to do if one of the element stones turns up!)  I’m no kind of astrologer, so it’ll be interesting if nothing else!  Wish me luck!

Colors!

I purposefully chose to use Golden Dawn Book T attributes for Arcana Stones, most obviously with the astrological attributions, but also with the titles “Fortitude” and “Universe” instead of the more common “Strength” and “World.” 

 

Golden Dawn color scales are also a major factor in my choice of stones, but that was a lot easier to accomplish than it sounds.  Knowing that Frieda Harris, the artist of the Thoth, was a serious esotericist and carefully followed the color scales as she worked, I simply tried to match stones to the colors of the Thoth.  Why reinvent the wheel?

 

(Not all stones correlate with Thoth colors.  I had other ideas for choosing those stones.  A topic for another post!)

 

Without further ado, here are the stones on their corresponding Thoth cards.

 

A Reading for Blue

My friend on Aeclectic Tarot Forum (tarotforum.net) asked me for a reading and was kind enough to let me post it here.  So here we go!

 

Blue asks what the future has in store for her regarding meeting a husband and having children.

 

I used the cards method again, this time using the minors of my trimmed pocket Thoth.  I don’t think I explained in the previous reading how I drew the cards.  I shuffled, drew them from the top of the deck, and laid them out in a Saturn magic square:

 

4--9--2

3--5--7

8--1--6

 

(I’m trying to formulate a spread using the magic square and haven’t figured it out yet, so I thought this is as good a place as any to use it!)  As in the previous reading, I will only read the cards on which a stone lands.

 

 

This looks like it needs to be read bottom to top.

 

6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite on Prince of Cups.  This looks promising for a love and marriage question!  The Prince, a confirmed romantic, may be just the guy you’re looking for.  And with Lovers, it looks like you might just find him!  The stone version of Lovers points especially to marriage because the concept behind it is that the pink and white are joined beautifully into one lovely stone. 

 

15-Devil-Hematite on 5 of Cups.  As soon as I saw the stone land, this flashed into my mind:  You will be tempted (Devil) to give up (5 of Cups).  The cups look like they’ve been waiting a long time, so long the flowers are dropping their petals.  The leaves are even the same grey as the hematite.  But I think the answer to this temptation is in the final pair:

 

18-Moon-Mother of Pearl on Ace of Swords.  The Moon landed right on the crown at the point of the sword.  Beautiful!  The Ace of Swords is the card of inspiration and great new ideas.  In the Thoth, it is also the card of personal will.  Inscribed on the blade is the word “Thelema,” meaning Will.  Paired with the Moon, it is saying you will receive a powerful intuitive perception of your future mate.  You should trust that intuition, realize that it is a strength, and follow it with your will.  The Moon stone isn’t really out of place on this seeming very masculine and airy card:  Notice that the hand guard part of the hilt is made of two moon crescents and two moon(?) spheres.  That just emphasizes that your mind and intuition are going to work together seamlessly to give you a new (Ace) way of looking at your desires and ideas of how to pursue them.

 

Wow!  So, in summary, don’t give up on your dream of a husband and family.  Trust your intuition and dreams and follow them with assurance.  A romantic partner who is good marriage material may be just around the corner!

 

I’m glad this has turned out to be a hopeful, upbeat reading.  (I was a little doubtful when all those swords cards showed up!)  Thank you for letting me read for you and for letting me post the reading.  I hope all turns out well for you!

An Experiment

A wonderful Arcana Stones mad scientist originated this idea:  instead of dropping stones on the houses, why not drop them on cards?  After all, not all tarotists know the houses of astrology, but they know the cards.  I refined the idea to dropping on minor arcana cards only, so the stone and card combination would be a major-minor pair.  And then she did me one better–use Lenormand cards instead of tarot cards!

 

Since this is an experiment, I decided to read for a fictional character.  I watched Show Boat last night, so my question is:  Whatever happened to Julie?  (She was forced to leave the show boat because she was a black woman passing for white and married to a white man.  Later, abandoned by her husband and in an alcoholic haze, she relinquishes her job as a singer in Chicago to her young friend from the show boat, Nolie, who had also been abandoned by her husband.  In the end, she arranges the joyful reunion of Nolie and her husband and their return to the show boat, only asking that he never tell Nolie of her degraded condition.) 

 

This is the reading.  (The deck is Lenormand Reloaded (https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/lenormand-reloaded-special-edition.)

 

 

12-Sodalite-Hanged One on the Cross.  This rather pointedly refers to the sacrifice that Julie made.  Her suffering (Cross) gave her great compassion for Nolie’s similar predicament.  She willing gave up (Hanged One) her job so that Nolie would be able to support herself.  In a reversal (Hanged One) of usual values, she feels that Nolie was more worthy of a job and a renewed relationship than herself, already on the path of self-destruction. 

 

11-Aventurine-Justice on the Tower.  The Tower in Lenormand is kind of the opposite of the Tower of tarot.  It’s all about longevity and stability, and also isolation (like the Hermit).  This combination follows the ideas of the first one.  Julie feels that the best thing she can do (Justice) is remain isolated and hidden (Tower).  On the other side of Justice, Julie became an instant outcast (Tower) through no fault of her own, but through the action of an unjust law and cruel law enforcement officers. 

 

So far, the reading is tracking with what we already know from the movie, not the future.  Perhaps the last combination will give us a clue of what happens to Julie.

 

13-Mahogany Obsidian-Death on the Book.  Reading in the (seemingly facile) Lenormand style, it looks like Julie took her secret (Book) to her death.  The Book might also say that, as she did in the movie, she keeps track of the (now happy again) family through the newspaper articles about forthcoming show boat performances. 

 

In summary, while devastated that she is isolated from her friends and family for life, Julie is not sorry for the sacrifices she made.  She remains in the shadows, as she is in the final scene of the movie, but is comforted, and perhaps not quite as self-destructive, for the rest of her life by knowing she gave her all to promote the happiness of the people she loves.

 

Let me know what you think about my experiment!