Cards and Quotes: Ray

Today's Cards and Quotes features the Ray from Stephen D. Farmer's Messages From Your Animal Spirit Guides Oracle Cards (Hay House).

"As soon as you concern yourself with the 'good' and 'bad' of your fellows,  you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you."

Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969)
Martial Artist and Founder of the
Japanese Martial Art of Aikido  

And just for fun, below are some pictures I took of rays at Sea World in San Diego, California.

Reading for Violet

In this post I am sharing a reading that Violet, one of my blog readers, did for herself. She used a 7-card spread that I shared on this blog: the Sleeping Beauty Relationship Spread designed by ArwenNightstar. My version substitutes the word "love" for the word "romance" in the original spread. I also changed the last positional definition to "Best Possible Outcome" instead of "Final Outcome." The layout looks like this: 

.................................7
~1~2~3~4~5~6

Violet used The Mary-El Tarot* for her reading (to read my review of this deck, click HERE).

Violet asked for my interpretations of her cards, and I asked her to give me her initial impressions of them first. Below you will see the positional definition, the card Violet drew into that position, Violet's first impressions, and my interpretation.

Please know that I have no intention of disputing Violet's impressions or interpretations of the cards. My purpose is to offer options, possibilities, and perspectives for her to consider. It is my hope that blog readers will also gain something from this reading.

Thank you, Violet, for permitting me to share this reading! I hope my comments are useful to you.

1] Why are you asleep to a new relationship?

King of Swords - Rx

Violet: faith in a false king. not what he seemed.

Zanna: With the King of Swords drawn reversed, I think we are looking at the upright energy of this card being blocked or delayed, causing you to be asleep to a new relationship. The King of Swords is a master thinker and communicator. His sword is especially sharp, designed to cut through illusions and separate the wheat from the chaff. He controls his own thoughts and uses them to create the reality he wants. So these are the powers or qualities that are blocked or delayed in your case. Instead of demonstrating clear intent, sharp focus, and self-confidence, you may be allowing fears and doubts to dictate your behavior and thoughts. These fears and doubts are keeping you from waking up to a new relationship.

2] What is keeping you asleep to potential love?

The Tower - Rx

Violet: i have truly been shaken to my foundation in love- romantic love at least. but i deny that it perhaps my own doing and un-doing which electrified my tower... i also think that mr. thought i was perhaps a damsel, which i am not. do i project damsel?

Zanna: The energy of The Tower is that of liberation, destruction of illusions, and freedom from unnecessary or deceptive views, perceptions, and ways of life. The card was drawn reversed, suggesting that currently this energy is blocked or delayed in your life. Even though you feel your foundation has been shaken and you have gone through what feels like a "Tower" experience, there is more that needs to be questioned, that needs to be changed, that needs to be cast aside. The real benefits of The Tower experience have not yet made themselves apparent to you, which is why you are asleep to potential love. There is a sense that you need to completely emerge from the "wreckage" of beliefs or assumptions that have collapsed or are still crumbling.

3] What do you need to know about your dreams of love?

The Fool - Rx

Violet: am i delusional and jump in too eagerly? or do i hold on to false foolishness when my wisdom is needed? patience is called for.

Zanna: The Fool is a free spirit who leaps before he looks, who sets out on a journey into the unknown without hesitation or fear. The card was drawn reversed, suggesting that although your dreams of love may be free spirited, daring, and fearless -- that energy is blocked or delayed at the moment due to worry, regret, or fear. You hesitate to take that first step toward your dreams because it feels like you are stepping off a cliff into the air. There is always a bit of faith involved when we seek to fulfill our dreams. Dreams themselves are of the air, difficult to depend on, difficult to interpret at times. The journey may seem like folly at first, but if nothing is ventured, nothing is gained.

4] What or who will awaken you to love?

Knight of Cups

Violet: hope. feels like a pisces male. on point but on the same page as i am. easy flowing communication- perhaps platonic.

Zanna: What a great card to draw here! Court Cards can represent actual people in the Seeker's life, a quality the Seeker possesses (or needs to possess), or the energy surrounding a situation. I think it is very possible that the Knight of Cups in this position refers to a person who can awaken you to love and help you find your heart's desire. The Golden Dawn associates this card with the segment of the heavens from above 20 degrees Aquarius to 20 degrees Pisces.

5] What is needed from you for love to work?

King of Wands - Rx

Violet: stop fighting for what i know is and will be- love arrives in its own time- if i let go... it will come.

Zanna: Like the King of Swords, the King of Wands is a master. He controls his own energy, life force, passion, and spirituality.  The card is reversed, which to me suggests the need to relinquish control in some way so that love can work. If we are trying too hard to be in control, we are not open to receiving love. Our efforts to remain in control act as a barrier. I don't believe that you need to be "out of control" in order for love to work. But there seems to be a need for letting go just enough.

6] What do you need for love to work?

8 of Wands

Violet: support and honesty. let go of jealousy and envy of the love- i think- others' possess.

Zanna: In this deck, the 8 of Wands is about knowing yourself and creating your reality. Surround yourself with art, music, poetry, colors, and patterns that nourish and support you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This will help you be responsive to deep inner knowledge. You may realize something you did not know or remember something you had forgotten about yourself.

7] What is the best possible outcome (if obstacles are overcome and opportunities are taken advantage of)?

3 of Cups - Rx

Violet: perhaps i celebrated love too soon... OR i need to celebrate love i do not know yet!

Zanna: It is always interesting to see a reversed card in the "best possible outcome" position. We tend to think of reversals as "negative" -- yet they do not have to be. When we look at the 3 of Cups upside down, the three waterfalls flow uphill to their source. Our normal tendency might be to resist this as "wrong" or "unnatural." But it seems to me that in this case, you are being encouraged to reach upward (or inward) and connect with your "source." The best possible outcome is that you will go back to the beginning, to the place from which your feelings about love originated.  You can reverse your direction temporarily and receive the emotional nourishment you need. Then your emotions will be free to flow downward or outward again, toward your world and the people in it.

* The Mary-El Tarot by Marie White

Schiffer Publishing

Copyright 2012 Marie White

Cards and Quotes: 6 of Hearts

 
For today's Cards and Quotes I am using a deck of playing cards called The Doomed Queens, created by Kris Waldherr and published by U.S. Games Systems. In this deck, the Six of Hearts features Mary Stuart, aka Mary, Queen of Scots.

“To be kind to all, to like many and love a few,
to be needed and wanted by those we love,
is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.”
~ Mary Stuart (Scottish Queen, 1542-1587)

REVIEW: Freshly Squeezed Lenormand

About My Reviews  * ~ * R E V I E W

Freshly Squeezed Lenormand
by Jean Hamilton-Fford
Self-Published
Facebook Page
Web Site  

TOP LINE (formerly Bottom Line)

When life hands you lemons -- consult the Freshly Squeezed Lenormand! In fact, it's fine to consult it when life hands you a delicious lemon meringue pie and all is right with your world. I am a newcomer to the whole Lenormand oracle deck world, having only recently acquired the French Cartomancy deck by Lo Scarabeo. (So if you're looking for a Lenormand expert's view on Freshly Squeezed, you'll need to look elsewhere.)

Having said that, it's my opinion that Jean Hamilton-Fford has created a charming deck, which she presents in attractive handcrafted packaging. The surprise gift included with the deck is a feast for the senses, and the golden organza bag is the perfect home for this lemony delight.

The cards are not as thick and sturdy as some decks, so you do need to treat them extra gently, and make sure your hands and your reading surface are always clean and dry. After all, Madame Lenormand deserves only the best!

The words printed on the cards are blank-verse poems with irregular rhythm and intermittent  rhymes and near rhymes. I love the sensory details and evocative phrases. For example, Card 20 (Meeting Place) includes the lines: "The Meeting Place is full of sun / It dances brightly on the flowers / It showers those who visit here / With love, with long spent hours / Of holding hands, of stolen kisses / Of good company and reminiscences."

I especially like Jean's comment near the end of her LWB (little white book) for this deck: "Whatever your journey with the Lenormand, I encourage you to make it FUN. No one is absolutely 100% correct. There are no absolutes in Lenormand. Everyone develops their own spreads. Everyone develops their own habits and techniques. . . Keep it inventive and make it your way."

As suggested in the LWB, I drew a card this morning to engage my focus for today. Number 6 -- Clouds -- came forward. I find that there are "cloudy moments" in every day, and I do have one or two small clouds hanging over my head at the moment -- but clouds also provide blessed relief from the sun on a hot day. It will be interesting to see what meaning this has for me as the day progresses. I plan to share larger readings with this deck in the future.

BASIC INFORMATION

In Jean Hamilton-Fford's own words, she is "an author, a columnist, an international speaker, a life coach, an artist, a mother, sister and wife... not necessarily in that order."

Jean describes this self-published oracle deck as "A New Take on an Old Divination -- Complete With All the Pulp." When she immersed herself in Lenormand as a way to round out and question her Tarot studies, she noticed that "there were so many cards that were full of heavy, negative and hopeless images and verses." She also found no real relevance in some of the image-verse combinations in the Lenormand.

The inspiration for the Freshly Squeezed Lenormand came from dreams given to Jean before and during the project. She wanted to create a Lenormand deck in which she could offer hope and in which the images and verses were applicable to the current day. Some of the card titles are the same as the traditional Lenormand deck titles, but many are not. For example, Card 1 in the Freshly Squeezed Lenormand is titled "Messenger." The traditional title is "Horseman." Jean titles Card 12 "Anxiety." She writes: "Traditionally, this card is known as the Birds/Owls (representative of two elderly women). There are so many culturally ambiguous meanings with those pictures, I felt compelled to update it."

There are no card titles on the cards themselves. The card number is printed directly above the verse on each card.

Jean advises us that any card can be used to represent the Querent (the person consulting the cards for information). She refers to this as "Your Card" throughout the LWB (little white book).

Four unnumbered "Mystery Cards" are included in the deck: YES, NO, NOW, and LATER. Jean suggests that we separate these cards from the main deck and use them "only when needed." When that time comes, we are to randomly place the Mystery Cards in the deck and shuffle a few times. Next, we turn over cards until we come to the Querent's card. Then we continue turning cards until we come across the first Mystery card. The number of cards between the Querent's card and the Mystery Card helps us determine the certainty of the answer and if there is any 'wiggle room' regarding the strength of the answer.

The LWB for this deck is actually a PDF file that you can download from the internet and print. I printed mine in "booklet format." The content is extremely useful and clear. The type is a nice size and easy to read. I agree with Jean when she says, "There's nothing worse than trying to read 4 or 5 point font through a whole little white book." 

The LWB contains the following sections:

• Acknowledgements
• How to Care for Your Deck
• Introduction
• Using Your Deck
• Detailed titles and descriptions for each card, along with black-and-white illustrations of the card
• Spreads
• About Jean

The cards are numbered 1 through 36. For each card Jean tells us the comparable card from the traditional Lenormand deck. She then offers a detailed explanation of the symbols and images on the card and why she chose them. Jean does not provide a separate interpretation for reversed (upside down) cards. After each card description she asks, "What do you see in this card? How would you interpret it?" Space is provided for Notes.

APPEARANCE, SIZE, QUALITY

The cards in this deck are small, measuring 6cm by 8cm (just over 3-1/4 by just over 2-1/4 inches). Card stock is light-weight and will probably not withstand poker-style shuffling (I didn't even try). If you use a push-pull shuffle or when laying out cards, you'll need to go slowly to make sure cards don't cling to each other.

The cards are not laminated.  Jean warns: "While the ink on the cards will not come off due to a special coating on the paper, the cards will react with wet surfaces and they bubble up like puff paint."

The box is handcrafted and relatively sturdy, but you'll need to treat it gently. A golden organza bag and another free gift are packaged with the deck.

ART

Jean views each card in this deck as a miniature work of art that can mean different things to different people but makes current sense when paired with the accompanying verse.

Each card is a collage of images or, in some cases, a single image. For example, Card 14 combines a field of flowers with a fox wearing a tie labeled "Deception," a yellow diamond warning sign labeled "Wrong!" and the word "LIES." On Card 35 we have an ocean in the background, with a desk, bookcase, and lamp sitting on the beach in the foreground. An anchor is hooked around one leg of the desk. Card 31 simply shows a blazing sun against an orange background. Card 6 depicts both dark and light clouds against a blue sky.

Some of the images contain more detail than others, but all of them encourage the eye and mind to explore. There are no borders, so the images fill the entire card face. A scroll positioned in the top third of each card contains verses that pertain to the meaning of the card.

Card backs feature a photograph of lemons.

In accordance with the FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, I hereby disclose that this product was provided by the publisher for free. Other than the occasional review copy, I receive no monetary or in-kind compensation for my reviews.  The substance of my reviews is not influenced by whether I do or do not receive a review copy.