Echoside: Phoenix Rose

Today's blog will be showcasing The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Deck by Kim Krans.  This is a beautifully illustrated oracle deck.  On the surface the meanings behind the cards are simplistic, however these simple reflections to ask oneself can have you diving quite deep into yourself. New Deck Interview ...5…...6… ……4…… ...3…...2… …...1……. 1. Tell me more about yourself; What is your most important characteristic? **Hummingbird** Positive, Enthusiastic, Spiritually Resourceful Inside the tiny hummingbird resides in endless well of energy and positivity. The hummingbird's secret is that it has learned where to gather nectar, and it returns to these sources daily for nourishment and rejuvenation. The secret elixir springs from many sources, but usually involves nature, creativity, and exploring spirituality. Follow the way of the hummingbird and you cannot go wrong. Every drop of life becomes sweet, every moment worth savouring. 2. What are your strengths a...

A conversation happened recently where a good friend was asking about the concept of how tarot decks have to be given to you, that you shouldn't buy one for yourself. He threw out his deck based on this information he was told. While this old wives tale has a mysterious allure to it, almost a romanticism that somehow makes a deck more special, it is still just an old wives tale. There is an adage to "the deck must be given" and it's "or stolen." I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not becoming a thief to acquire a deck, not in today's day and age when they are so readily available! Our fore-mothers, the old wives that made up all these tales, I do not wish to discredit them. There are still nuggets of truths that are valid today, though some things just no longer hold truth, and we need to use discernment in the now-moment. I have been given decks that I absolutely adore. My first deck, Rider-Waite-Smith, was given to me. I did my best to...

Last week I said that I would be posting sample questions and spreads for using tarot to navigate your life. However, I am going to go a different direction given a conversation I had this week with some dear friends in the tarot community. I do apologize and will get to it in a future post. This seemed like a more pressing thing to talk about as even the most skilled readers will ask other readers for input in interpreting cards for themselves. This is because it can be difficult to remain objective when you are too close to the situation. We can't see the forest for the trees. How I learned to become objective for myself is to read cards for other people. Not close friends and family. Reading for absolute strangers (you can find many groups where readers do free exchanges). Reading for people or situations you know little about can have a great impact on exercising your intuition. One mistake I made reading for myself is that I would look up every single possible meaning of e...

I'm going in a different direction with tarot.  Today I am announcing a new blog series entitled Creative Tarot. Tarot is and has been a useful tool in divination - the art of looking beyond what we can see with our eyes, for divine guidance or predictions and fortunetelling - for many ages.  Tarot has also been used for the mundane as in playing card games.  I will not be discussing interpretations, readings, history, or anything of that nature in this new series. What I will be using the tarot cards for is to assist in creative writing.  Someone with absolutely no knowledge of tarot or their meanings can use this method to work in conjunction with a creative writing project.  While I do have knowledge of the card meanings, I'm not relying on that for creating a wee story. I will be using the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck, basing the story strictly on the pictures, and what comes to mind.  I will pull 3 cards per blog post, and 3 parts per series. ...