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I bought a new tarot deck recently (the Norbert Losche Cosmic Tarot, if anyone knows it). I've always had a fairly hit-and-miss relationship with tarot - the symbolism fascinates me, and the potential for archetypal storytelling, but I've had varying success actually using the things. This deck, though ... feels around about right. Heh. It's my first real experience with the minor Arcana, too, which is turning out to be fascinating.
(I have, in fact, considered the possibility that it's less the deck that has improved/come closer to me, and more that my attention span/patience with the deck has improved -_-;)
To get used to the deck, though, my sister and I have been essentially ... Well. Using the seven-card spread, and asking the deck to 'tell us a story'. *smiles* Well, it seems a valid question, and the tarot is really good for telling archetypal tales. Using the seven-card spread gives you a protagonist (questioner), a situation (current problems/obstacles), a basic backstory (distant and recent influences), a trending towards the future, a potential consequence of that trending, and then a warning/POV/thought to consider alongside the story. It also gets you used to how the interpretation of cards can change depending on context (and interpreter - my sister has very different interpretations of some situations to me).
It's an interesting way to learn a deck, I think. Heh. Also, a lot of fun. Tarot really is excellent for off-the-cuff storytelling.
(Now, I've just got to figure out if using the suit equivalents in a normal deck of cards is a viable alternate to the minor arcana, because that's going to be handy in stories - hello Ezra Standish, for a start. Heh).
Yes, I'm not right in the head. Why do you ask?
(I have, in fact, considered the possibility that it's less the deck that has improved/come closer to me, and more that my attention span/patience with the deck has improved -_-;)
To get used to the deck, though, my sister and I have been essentially ... Well. Using the seven-card spread, and asking the deck to 'tell us a story'. *smiles* Well, it seems a valid question, and the tarot is really good for telling archetypal tales. Using the seven-card spread gives you a protagonist (questioner), a situation (current problems/obstacles), a basic backstory (distant and recent influences), a trending towards the future, a potential consequence of that trending, and then a warning/POV/thought to consider alongside the story. It also gets you used to how the interpretation of cards can change depending on context (and interpreter - my sister has very different interpretations of some situations to me).
Among the stories we culled from that were:
- a conman who seems to have accidently become the mask, and become a pillar of his community (Prince of Cups as protagonist/Two of Swords as the backstory, moving to Heirophant as the future)
- someone who went through utter hell (Ten of Swords as protagonist, with the Devil in distant past) who tried to pull themselves out by latching onto someone who couldn't really help them(Princess of Cups in the recent past, Seven of Cups as current obstacles), realised it was fake, and retreated (Hermit as future trendings), and built something concrete to rely on instead (Three of Pentacles).
- a revolutionary (Ten of Wands) who found out that winning the war (Two of Wands), and the subsequent attempts to hold power and security, weren't quite what they'd expected it to be (Eight of Cups as the future, Seven of Cups as the warning/consideration)
And a number of others that we fairly quickly realised were echoes of fictional character arcs (one my sister swore was Jaime Lannister to the life, one that bore a lot of resemblance to Will Turner with a more violent backstory, etc).
*grins* We also discovered that my dealing tends strongly towards Wands (Two of Wands likes me), while hers tended more towards Cups. *shrugs, smiles*
- a conman who seems to have accidently become the mask, and become a pillar of his community (Prince of Cups as protagonist/Two of Swords as the backstory, moving to Heirophant as the future)
- someone who went through utter hell (Ten of Swords as protagonist, with the Devil in distant past) who tried to pull themselves out by latching onto someone who couldn't really help them(Princess of Cups in the recent past, Seven of Cups as current obstacles), realised it was fake, and retreated (Hermit as future trendings), and built something concrete to rely on instead (Three of Pentacles).
- a revolutionary (Ten of Wands) who found out that winning the war (Two of Wands), and the subsequent attempts to hold power and security, weren't quite what they'd expected it to be (Eight of Cups as the future, Seven of Cups as the warning/consideration)
And a number of others that we fairly quickly realised were echoes of fictional character arcs (one my sister swore was Jaime Lannister to the life, one that bore a lot of resemblance to Will Turner with a more violent backstory, etc).
*grins* We also discovered that my dealing tends strongly towards Wands (Two of Wands likes me), while hers tended more towards Cups. *shrugs, smiles*
It's an interesting way to learn a deck, I think. Heh. Also, a lot of fun. Tarot really is excellent for off-the-cuff storytelling.
(Now, I've just got to figure out if using the suit equivalents in a normal deck of cards is a viable alternate to the minor arcana, because that's going to be handy in stories - hello Ezra Standish, for a start. Heh).
Yes, I'm not right in the head. Why do you ask?
