 The last Major Arcana card for the Lua Tarot is done. Here is Justice! ⚖️✨ If you’re a Libra, or have a Libra Ascendent, this is one of your tarot card archetypes. 💫♎️
With everything going on in the world there are some lessons that this archetype brings and one of those lessons is balance. In a world where everything seems so dichotomous, Justice teaches us to find the center. She teaches us the lesson of the middle path. On this spectrum of reality there are many perspectives, and somehow (at least in this country) we’ve come to have deeply polarized reality maps of our ideals and our society. The Justice archetype can ask us to work towards objectivity, egalitarianism, open-mindedness and poise to do what is just and fair in grounded and wise ways. Justice also teaches us to see duality with equanimity in order to find wholeness. Libra rules Justice and desires harmony and equilibrium. ⚖️ Librans are idealists with a gift of bringing balance into their external environment, as well as their relationships. 💞 They strive for fairness—justice! Even if justice is not being served, trust that Karma is operating behind the veils.
Lo Scarabeo is celebrating 30 years with this limited numbered edition of 1,987 copies to honor the year they were founded in Italy. The gorgeous, colorful artwork is by Fabio Listrani, artist of the Night Sun Tarot.
LS says this limited edition is printed on the highest quality paper. It is, indeed, a thicker card stock, but it's also glossier than their standard decks. Coffin box: 7" x 4" (178mm x 102mm) Deck: 4.75" x 2.75" (120mm x 70mm) Book: 4.75" x 2.75" (120mm x 70mm) 128 pages on glossy paper with a few of the cards in color. English (pg. 5-54), Italian (55-68), French (69-82), Spanish (83-94), Portuguese (95-106), Russian (107-118) and Chinese (119-128). At first glance, I like how the suit colors are similar to the Albano-Waite Tarot's coloration Brigit of Biddy Tarot invited me to do an interview for her podcast. We talked all about the Antiquarian Tarot, my process of creating it and a little bit about my journey as a card reader and healer. I met Brigit this year at the Northwest Tarot Symposium in Portland, Oregon. She flew in from Australia to do a workshop at NeWTS. It was a real pleasure to meet her and an honor to get an invite to do the interview. One of the things I love about the Biddy Tarot podcasts is that they make transcripts available for them. Sometimes we can't listen to an interview, so it's nice to still be able to read it when we don't have earbuds. So if you can't listen now, scroll down below the podcast for the full transcript of the interview. I hope you enjoy it.  Hey Ho,
It's Halloween! When all the Witches are to be seen! Some in black and some in green Hey Ho for Halloween! Happy Samhain! Here's something a little different—a leisurely browse through some  Smith-Waite Tarot vs PCS Commemorative Set I recently received the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck, Centennial Edition, in a tin & compared it to the Pamela Coleman Smith (PCS) Commemorative Set (2009) in a video I just made. In the video I go through the whole commemorative set, for those of you interested in seeing that. There is a size & slight card stock difference between the two decks. Other than that, the artwork & color is identical.
I love the deck that comes with the commemorative edition, but I tend to avoid using it since I view it as a collector's edition & want to keep it in the best condition possible. Anyway, I usually just end up using one of my Waite-Smith or Albano-Waite decks. Not Here's a video I shot showing all the cards last year, which I never posted. The soundtrack has music by Dream Lodge, a band project that my husband and I have been working on. The tracks High Desert Star and The Lodge are recent releases from our vinyl record EP (six tracks) which will be released this Saturday! The two tracks are available to download today. You can have the vinyl record mailed to you after the official release date, August 1st, 2015. There is a digital download card that comes with each record. You may order it here.  Antiquarian Tarot's Devil CardSymbolism
Astrological Glyph: Capricorn Hebrew Letter: Ayin (meaning Eye) Color: Blue-violet (Indigo) Keyword: Bondage Golden Dawn Title: The Lord of the Gates of Matter or The Child of the Forces of Time Meaning: a card about materialism, boundaries and limitations; a time to look at our fears, illusions, indulgences, attachments, addictions, and obsessions; being a slave to temptation or to something/someone; feeling disconnected from your spiritual side; becoming self-destructive; having inner chaos and doubt; the ego and shadow stuff; needing to look at the un-evolved aspects of oneself; embracing the dark side of our nature. divineMusings… We are bound to our egos; we are bound to our bodies. We all have shadow and we all have light, respectfully, the un-evolved and evolved parts of ourselves. Both exist and must persist. You can’t have one without the other. With darkness comes the light, with light, shadow. The scary monster made up of a human torso, goat’s head/hooves, and eagle wings are but an absurd illusion created by man. He is a convenient scapegoat for all the evils of the world. He is merely our shadow, the unresolved part of us that is obsessed with gaining satisfaction from material desires. The Devil card symbolizes our obsessions with the material world. This fixation is called materialism, and according to Paul Foster Case, materialism is the cause of man’s worst limitations. That which is visible and tangible in the world is all there supposedly is because we humans are so bound to physical reality. Since life is experienced through the five senses, the material world and everything in it is all that seems to exist. As a result of this, we become crazed with quenching a never-ending thirst. Some of us are hooked on collecting objects, cruising the Internet, shopping, eating sugar/food/chocolate/cheese, smoking cigarettes/pot, drinking alcohol, having sex, or making money. These addictions keep us trapped in our own personal hell. How do we break free from these self-imposed prisons? We can laugh! Humor doesn’t seem like the exact remedy, but if we can release the seriousness of our tone, we may well begin to find relief in this dark comedy of ours. We can poke fun at ourselves and at the ridiculous cosmic spectacle that is our human drama. Think about it! Everything in our society is an illusion that we concocted ourselves; the rules, the idea of how we should or shouldn’t exist. We decided how we were supposed to act and supposed to be. We have been strutting around the world for millennia defining what is right and what is wrong. We have been allowing our egos to dictate conflict and to create our living hells. It does not seem funny, and it actually does feel like hell at times, but if we look at it through that lens – that it’s all just things we make up, a fantasy really – it IS all quite laughable! If we can cultivate a sense of humor when we face setbacks and challenges we may find some peace. We can understand that we are just human beings and accept we are programmed to err. As I worked with the Devil card again this week, I found something so ironic in its message: that I must set boundaries for myself in order to release some of my self-limiting behaviors. It’s all too funny! The Devil card isn’t all that scary, though it can certainly feel that way when it’s time to face our fears and deal with our demons. Sometimes it is simply telling us a little fun is exactly what we need! We can let go of seriousness, break our own damned rules and perhaps ignore the repercussions until tomorrow…sound like the little devil on your shoulder? You decide! The Devil reminds us that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We aren’t perfect, and we certainly will always have a shadow side to evolve. Let's embrace the darkness as well as our light. About the Art: The drawing Der Daemon is Baphomet created by the French occult author and Magician Eliphas Levi. It is found in his work Dogme de la Haute Magie (translated: Dogma of High Magic) printed in 1854. This is the image that inspired the Devil card as we know it today. The original image has an upright pentagram but I cut it out and reversed it to be in line with the RWS, Albano-Waite and BOTA decks. In occult mysticism, the pentagram reflects the human body’s head, arms and legs. The reverse pentagram shows that the legs & Base Chakra are pointing upwards instead of the head & Crown Chakra, conveying the focus on the physical instead of the spiritual. I added a drawing called Chained Prisoner inked by Francisco Goya c. 1812 to highlight the bondage this card can indicate. ©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses. All Rights are Reserved.  Antiquarian Tarot's Temperance CardSymbolism
Astrological Sign: Sagittarius, the archer & the centaur Hebrew Letter: Samekh (meaning tent peg, support or foundation) Color: Blue Keyword: Verification Golden Dawn Title: The Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer Forth of Life Meaning: Tempering, integrating, testing, blending, balancing, synthesizing, and/or adjusting two or more aspects of your life: spiritual & material, intellectual & intuitive, home & work, or your life with someone else’s. It is about alchemy or art, living ones life like art. Moderation. Healing. divineMusings… The image of La Sphynge by Felicien Rops (Belgian 1833-1898) is used in this Temperance collage. This divine being has the torso of a female human, the wings of an eagle and the lower extremities of a lion. The union of Lion and Eagle represent the perfect alchemical blending of the forces of fire and water (respectively). She is a Sagittarius, a centaur in her own manifestation. She shows us qualities of our animal and human natures coming together as one. What happens if we merge different aspects of ourselves? Hopefully nothing quite so frightening as La Sphynge, but there is a beauty in reconciling opposing elements. By refining and uniting different facets of our lives we can create a new, more whole way of Being. It’s an art form, an act of alchemy, mixing a precise ratio of ingredients to create the perfect individual result. It may be a healing process, or there may even be a complete physical transformation, perhaps that ancient alchemist’s wish of turning lead into gold. The rainbow represents the practice of this alchemy. It is the attainment of the transfiguration of the ignorant into the Illuminated. This is the real changing of lead into Gold. This curve of colors epitomizes the Chakras. Energizing and balancing our internal rainbow assists in the path to our enlightenment. This awakening to our Higher Self is exactly where we find the elusive Gold at the end of the rainbow. ©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses. All Rights are Reserved.  Antiquarian Tarot's Death CardSymbolism
Astrological Glyph: Scorpio Hebrew Letter: Nun (Fish; To grow, to sprout, to propagate.) Color: Blue-Green Golden Dawn Title: The Child of the Great Transformers, The Lord of the Gate of Death Keyword: Transformation Meaning: Change; an ending, closure, or purging; regeneration, metamorphosis. Some part of our life has died (career, relationship, living situation, etc.) to allow for something new to come in. divineMusings... The Sun is rising. Though one could easily say it's setting. For endings & changes are difficult (painful even) times in our life. However, in Death we transform. What dies becomes compost for new life. Science even says that energy never dies. Ever-transforming, ever-changing, we are eternally cycling through the Law of Transformation. Death's true meaning is in its never-ending movement and transfiguration which is constant with change. It is fear of change, of the unknown, that makes Death an enemy. A white rose grows from the skeleton's hand. The skeleton, aka Death, is fertilizing and feeding it new life. Like when a tree is felled and then new shoots grow from its stump. Life brings death and death brings life. The Sun may be setting, but it is certainly rising somewhere else. ©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses. All Rights are Reserved. |
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