Don't worry, be happy

In an effort to get my card reading mojo back I've dropped my Three Deck Rule and I'm back to grabbing whichever deck catches my attention. 

I saw or read something somewhere today (can't remember where now, argh) that reminded me of my Connected and Free Oracle and how, for me, it's THE deck that cuts through all the bullshit and gets right to the issue. So...

I'm clearly being told to lighten up.

I've been putting all my emphasis on Progress and Purpose. I needed to go deeper, work harder, get somewhere with my practice. I needed to Focus!

Wrong tack.

In reality, I need to recapture the joy of playing with my cards, change my perspective, and open myself back up to the flow of the Universe.

If it's not fun, why do it?

Thank you, ATA!

Thank you, American Tarot Association (ATA)! I won a $25 Amazon voucher* in their April e-magazine contest, and immediately set about spending it! On cards, of course. . Believe it or not, I don't actually have that many decks on my wish list. Even fewer that can be bought on Amazon. But these two were there and cheap enough that I could get them both and cover the postage. . (*They kindly sent me the equivalent Amazon UK voucher.) . Tarot des los Angeles - Fournier, Spain (with instructions in English as well, fortunately) Tarot: The Complete Kit - Dennis Fairchild (aka Tarot Nova - so cute!) #igotlucky #newdeck #newdecks #tarot #angelcards #tarotreadersofinstagram #fournier #tarotdeslosangeles #tarotnova

A post shared by Judy K (@weirdeye) on Apr 29, 2017 at 10:26am PDT

Crazy thing is, this is the second time I've won. With all the members ATA must have, I can't believe that's possible! But I'm not complaining. 😁

Oracle Haiku

@otmoraclecards has been hosting a #haikuoraclechallenge this month. I wasn't up for taking part (Judy has declared herself a Challenge-Free Zone for a while) but I was smitten with the idea of using ordinary oracle cards, the #wisdomoftheoracle especially, to inspire haiku. . Wisdom of the Oracle - Colette Baron-Reid #haiku #oraclehaiku #oracle #oraclecards #cardreadersofinstagram

A post shared by Judy K (@weirdeye) on Apr 17, 2017 at 9:18am PDT

As one of my commenters said, "It's so fun!" 😃

Want to receive a spirit message through your cards?

Would you like to use your cards to receive a message from a deceased loved one or a particular spirit guide?

Assign them a significator, a card that will be their "place holder" in the deck. For example, for me, my mother always appears as the Queen of Diamonds* when using playing cards, and the Bouquet when using Lenormand.

Shuffle the deck and then thumb through it face up until you find their card. The card before (on top of) it reflects what they want to talk about or how they're feeling, and the two cards behind (below) it expand on the subject or form the message about the first card.

Need more information from them or want to ask a question? Reshuffle and repeat the process. Don't overdo it though. When you start getting jibberish is when you know you've worn them out. 😉

*Because in traditional German courts this Queen is holding a carnation, my mother's favourite flower.

Heads-up: Selling some decks

I've had a box of unloved tarot decks and boxed sets, as well as various oracle/fortune telling decks, sitting around taking up space for far too long now. So I've finally started listing them on eBay. I've set a few up already, timed to start a day or two apart, and I hope to keep up the process so that I can get the rest of the box-full listed over the next 2-3 weeks.

The first listing is already up and running - The Atavist Tarot Boxed Set

Coming up next are a Kenzo Psy-Chic Tarot deck (sold), 1st edition Alchemical Tarot boxed set (sold), Alchemical Tarot: Renewed deck (sold), El Tarot Universal de Waite (Spanish only) boxed set (sold|), and an Ananda Tarot boxed set.

These are not bargains. I've listed them close to the prices I've seen them listed for elsewhere. They may not actually be *selling* at those prices 😉 but I'll give it a shot. This is purely a heads-up in case you've been looking for one of these decks. I've got plenty of economical decks, and a few books, to add later on, but I thought I'd get rid of the bulkier and more valuable decks first.

You used to be able to list separate shipping costs to all the different world postal zones, but now it's UK and either Europe OR Worldwide. Choosing the World Zone 2 price for everyone wouldn't be fair. Nor would it incline the closer people to bid! So I've listed a European price and asked those outside the EU to contact me for a shipping cost if they're interested. I'll then send an invoice with the correct price at the end of the auction.

Please do not ask me to sell any of the items directly. I will only sell through eBay.

As I get more listed, I'll try to remember to make a note of them here...
Coming Soon - 
The I-Ching Tarot boxed set (sold)
I-Ching Holitzka deck (sold)
The Elemental Tarot boxed set
"Original" Rider Waite deck - Random House UK 1993 (sold)
The Black Book of Cards playing cards deck
Mosaic Dream Tarot deck
Maroon Tarot deck - original, majors only
Mystisches Kipper deck - German only

Follow your star!

I don't make a habit of sharing my Instagram posts here because if you were interested you'd be following me there.

But sometimes the cards are so spookily synchronistic that I *need* to share the magick.

Like this one for today... 6 January... Epiphany....
"The day the Magi visited the Christ Child".

Follow your star! . Color Mage Oracle - Bernard Charles, The Color Mage #colormageoracle #dailydraw #dailycards #twocarddraw #cardreadersofinstagram #oracle #oraclecards #oraclereadersofinstagram #thecolormage #citrine

A photo posted by Judy K (@weirdeye) on Jan 5, 2017 at 11:59pm PST

How do it know?!?

Color Mage Oracle - mine, all mine

Sqweee! I finally have my copy of Bernard Charles, The Color Mage's Color Mage Oracle! I've wanted this for so long,
because Bernard. 

It's been charging overnight on my altar with a malachite, serephinite and amazonite. Why these crystals? No idea. They're just the ones that shouted "Me, me, me" when I went looking.

You can never have too much colour in your life. 


2-Jan-17: I'll be using this deck for my 2-Card draws over on Instagram for a little while, if you'd like to see them in action.

Filling the Gap

If you've been missing my Open Readings (hey, I can dream), then you might appreciate my 2-Card Mini Reads over on Instagram. They happen much more frequently - usually four or five a week. Here's my latest offering:

Don't take it to heart. . Ground and shield. . Graven Images Oracle - Natalie Zaman, Katherine Clark Zerner-Farber Tarot - Amy Zerner, Monte Farber #dailydraw #dailycards #cardreadersofinstagram #tarotreadersofinstagram #oracle #tarot #gravenimagesoracle #zernerfarbertarot #calcite #greencalcite

A photo posted by Judy K (@weirdeye) on Oct 27, 2016 at 11:38pm PDT

A mini makeover for a less than ideal deck

You are the boss of your cards*.

Last year I bought a secondhand Soul & Spirit deck off an acquaintance on Facebook. These decks come as occasional gifts with Soul & Spirit magazine, so they're nothing special. She had several she was offloading but only that one appealed to me. It was the "Your True Calling" oracle by Genevieve McGee. More about that deck in a bit - I mention it because I love it so much that when a new S&S deck featuring Ms McGee's artwork came up on eBay I bought it blind - the Angel Blessings Oracle Cards.

Hmm.
The technique used to create the artwork is very different from my other deck, and doesn't really appeal to me. Also, and I shouldn't have been surprised by this, it is all angels, or in some cases blobs that I imagine are supposed to represent angels

And then there's this -

Really, Soul & Spirit? You need 36 images to create a deck and you resort to this?

But never mind, I can deal with all that. What I can't deal with are the cheesy and frankly redundant "affirmations" at the bottom of the cards. "Whispers - Heart whispers bring you joy". Oh puleez!

At this point, I was so underwhelmed that I considered selling it on. But then I thought No, I'll give them a chance to prove themselves. So I tried a little reading, a follow-up to a playing card reading I'd done for someone earlier in the day.

The cards were so spot on for the situation that I knew I had to keep them.

But I had to do something first. I had pretty much the same issue with the Your True Calling cards. They didn't come with their box so I didn't get the "blurb", but the affirmations and advice on the cards seemed very much geared towards helping you to find or create your dream job. Job satisfaction basically. Too restrictive for the all-purpose use I intended to put them to, and too distracting. So I fixed them.

Just like this.   Correction tape rules!

Now I can use just the titles and colour patterns (if not the images themselves ) to trigger my intuition.

*I'm trying to remember who said this. It may have been Hexe Claire, but please correct me if you know differently.

Open Reading 13

For today's open reading I'm using the Grandfather's Breath Spread from the book which accompanies The Lakota Sweat Lodge Cards (Chief Archie Lame Deer and Helene Sarkis, Destiny Books). Simply put, the positions are Release this, Act on this, and Pray for insight on this.
(It's tobacco incense - what else? ☺)

Respect: Let go of your dependence on the will or advice of others - honour your own inner strength and wisdom.

Self-protection: Acknowledge that there is a challenge; remove yourself from a negative situation.

Eternal Life: Determine your inner truth. Your actions leave a mark - are they in keeping with your thoughts and the fire in your heart?

Open Reading 12

Your heart has been bruised. In order to heal well at this time, 

take a step back, and rest in your own strength. 

Heart Chakra, Third Eye Chakra. Suggested crystal: Sugilite

Connected and Free Oracle, Lauren Aletta, published by Inner Hue

Well, I wasn't expecting that.

I bought the Connected and Free - The Alchemist's Oracle* because the artwork appealed to me. It reminded me of the Wild Unknown Tarot, which I admired but wasn't going to buy because the images were so divergent from my understanding of the individual cards that I would have had to read it as an oracle. Better to just buy an oracle in the first place. :)

But I have to confess I had misgivings about this deck when I first flipped through it. I quickly realised that the keywords and the images didn't seem to relate to each other, at least in any way that I understood. Uh oh. How was I going to apply intuition to cards that seem to pull in two different directions? What was I going to do with a DIS-Connected and Free oracle?

My initial thought was to read them much like some people read Gypsy Witch cards. Sometimes the symbol on the card is at odds with the meaning of the playing card inset. For example, No.9 The Birds: "The birds signify dire misfortune and fierce enemies..." This is coupled with the Ace of Diamonds which traditionally and at its most basic represents a letter or a ring. How do you reconcile those two? Well, you could go with the one that "jumps out" at you first when you look at the cards. The Birds meaning may tie in better with the surrounding cards. Maybe the letter meaning will strike a chord with the question. Flexibility.

So with that in mind I figured I'd give the Connected and Free a chance. But first, I'd subject them to Moonlit Tarot's June Deck Challenge questions, and I'm so glad I did. By pulling one card in response to each day's question I quickly realised that the images and keywords, although not obviously related, did in fact play off each other in a unique and compelling fashion. This was one instance where reading the accompanying book made all the difference. If ever a deck could convincingly claim to have been "intuited with the guidance of the Universe" this would be one of them. The connections do seem to emanate from a different plane of existence.

This deck spoke to me in a way I'd never experienced before. It was uncomfortable. It presented me with my fears, those things I avoid or resist. I couldn't *not* see it. And yet with each revelation the interaction felt positive and safe. This deck wasn't out to wound me but to show me the disparate pieces of myself and help me to wholeness.

I can't call this a review - it's just a very personal reaction to the deck. But if you're prepared to see the world and yourself from a different angle, I can recommend it.
(*except that it doesn't seem to be available at the moment 😢 but they might still have copies here.)