XXII - Humility

In the light of this Major Arcana card I begin today on a waxing moon in Gemini (what better!) a new facet of these readings. Some time in 2009 I stopped doing readings on Sunday because my life was just too complicated. Having something I didn't have to do on one day just felt good. Now that I'm settled - more settled, I think, than I've ever been in my life (and that took some getting used to!) to be able to expand a little on these cards I've created feels good. If it's TMI for you, you'll know that you can just delete the Sunday edition without having missed a real reading. Meanwhile, here goes...

Creating these cards was not a decision. Creating these cards was scratching an itch that started in sleep on a beach at the Jersey shore and grew even more annoying as I moved from sleep into the hypnopompic trance that precedes full waking. Sleeping naked on the beach is one of my favorite things. Waking to the smell of the ocean, the feel of the breeze, the sun shining down around my umbrella, feeling free and safe and refreshed is like waking up in a little corner of heaven. Waking up with a Huge Question that just keeps repeating itself and repeating itself and repeating itself is almost no fun at all. But that's what happened.

"What about the other elements? What about the other elements? What about the other elements? What about the other elements?"
Images of the Rider Waite deck flashing through my mind. The two of cups, the ten of swords, the nine of wands. I sat up with only one thing on my mind, "What about the other elements?" Because, of course, each of the suits in tarot is associated with an element and for the previous maybe ten years or so I'd been studying five element theory in various contexts - feng shui, Chinese astrology, acupressure, acupuncture. It had been odd at first considering Wood and Metal as elements, but right off the bat I liked the system, liked the flow of it, respected the interpretations of the energies of wood and metal but also, right off the bat, I had a difficult time integrating what I knew about the elements from 25 years of practicing astrology and even more years of reading tarot wit this new very elegant and precise system.

I ended up reinventing how I used astrology for feng shui, combining the two systems in something I called Balanced Elemental Astrology and it worked like a charm for me. I could only imagine that the Tarot had tracked me down at the beach seeking equal time but I had no clue what to do about it. I made a few drawings, wrote down a few ideas and, as my first feng shui teacher, Melinda Joy used to advise, walked with them. I walked with them for at least a year and a half, putting them in a place where I could see them every once in a while because, frankly, they annoyed me. I didn't know what to do with them. They had all the appeal for me of a baby with colic.

My creative process was kick started by the energy of a brief conversation with a charming and motivated man I know whose energy somehow kicks up whatever is sloshing around in the bottom of my mind even though our conversation just barely touched on tarot, I awoke the following morning knowing exactly what I had to do, although not how to go about it, thus, the evolution of this virtual deck.
I hope that one day it will be a real deck that people can hold in their hands and work with but for now there is only one of those decks - the one I use for readings - because the cost of reproducing it, with all the rights to the stock photography I used to create it, is prohibitive. But at least it's out there now, the idea of it is out there, and that was the thing I had to do.

My job was to scratch the itch. My job was to integrate the elements from metaphysical the world over and create a deck that was without judgment, politics or religion, a deck that is as human as we are.

(Aether) Water >  (Aether) > Wood >  (Aether) > Air >  (Aether) > Fire >  (Aether) > Earth >  (Aether) > Metal  (Aether)

More on this progression on my next available Sunday.

With much respect and thanks,
Victoria