Heard it on the Podcast - March 13, 2024

  

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we do most Wednesdays to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

13-Mar-2024

S4E11: A Look at Tarot

Some of the decks we discussed:

• Rider-Waite Tarot Deck:
  Read more on Wikipedia or buy on Amazon
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Tarot Deck:
  On Amazon
• Meryl Tarot:  On Amazon
• The Golden Girls Tarot Cards:  On Amazon
• The Zombie Tarot:  On Amazon
• Lenormand Cards:
  Read more on Wikipedia or buy on Amazon
• Light Seer's Tarot:  On Amazon

Literature, Magic, and Inspiration

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed our podcast this week about oracle cards. I have to confess, I have never been much of an oracle reader. I have been reading tarot cards for 28 years. I bought my first deck at Waldenbooks, a now-defunct bookstore in the local mall. I grew up in rural Texas, and reading tarot cards was not something that someone advertised or talked about. In fact, I didn’t talk about my interest in the metaphysical or tarot cards until college when I discovered a fellow enthusiast in Christen. Fast forward 20 years and now we are doing a podcast together.

My first deck 

I didn't buy my first oracle deck until a little over a year ago. I had never really been interested in oracle decks in the past, however, I was hanging out with Christen and Cindy one night when Cindy’s friend, Christina, came over with her oracle cards. She took out her many decks and she explained what each deck meant. Then she proceeded to give me an oracle reading from her many decks. I became fascinated with the idea of the cards.

It took me a while to choose a deck. There are many different kinds of oracle decks and many different sizes. Then one day I ran across the book Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers and “The Literary Witches Oracle Deck” by Taisia Kitaiskaia and illustrated by Katy Horan. Being a writer and an English teacher, I knew that this was the deck I had been waiting for.

Literary Witches book and deck

The Literary Witches Oracle Deck celebrates 30 magical female authors such as Mary Shelley, Toni Morrison, and Flannery O’Connor through symbolism and spiritual insight. The cards are perfect for those who seek wisdom from strong, creative women. The deck, in other words, is a literature lover’s dream.

The deck features 70 cards, 30 of which represent the personality aspects of the female writers featured in the deck, and the other 40 cards contain symbolic objects from the authors’ works and the ideas they represent. 

My three favorite cards in the deck:

• Angela Carter, the Identity card: If you draw this card, it means you are probably having some form of an identity crisis. You need a better sense of who you are. Angela Carter’s writing is all about finding oneself even in the face of adversity and tragedy.

• Emily Dickinson, the Soul card: If you draw this card, it means that it is time for you to make a major life change and venture into the unknown. Emily Dickinson and her writing pushed against the conventions of her time and encouraged readers to think beyond the confines of their minds.

• Mary Shelley, the Loss card: If you draw this card, it means that you are probably dealing with something that is disrupting the cycle of life whether it is a birth, a death, or a major life transition. Mary Shelley suffered many losses in her life and it showed through her writing and her exploration of life through her novel Frankenstein.

How can you use an oracle deck? There are a few different ways that I like to use them:

1. Single card layout: Basically this is your “card of the day.” You should shuffle the deck and draw a card. This is your daily card and you should reflect on the meaning of the card throughout the day.

2. Three card layout: This is generally a “past, present, and future” card layout. When using this layout, you should ask the cards a specific question while shuffling to get a better reading on the past, present, and future of the situation. This is the reading that I usually do when I use my oracle deck.

3. During a tarot reading: You can use your oracle deck in conjunction with your tarot deck. Shuffle your deck and draw a single oracle card before or after your tarot reading. According to Biddy Tarot, you can use your oracle deck to understand the general or underlying theme of your reading.

Past Present Future Spread

Since buying my first oracle deck, I have since added two more to my collection, but my heart always goes to my Literary Witches and the wisdom they bring through their writings. What makes a witch a witch? The magic and inspiration inside them. One day, I hope to follow in their footsteps.

Do you have an interest in oracle or tarot cards? Please share your experiences in the comments below, or in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

I've linked the cards I mentioned in this article with our Amazon Affiliate account. As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

Exploring My Inner Self Through Oracle Cards

I’m no stranger to the metaphysical. I remember reading my mother’s copy of Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs from cover to cover growing up, followed by “Love Signs” and a whole host of other astrological and parapsychological texts. I’ve been intrigued by the paranormal, supernatural, spirituality, and philosophy my whole life, and I don’t believe there is one real and complete answer to our existence that we humans are capable of understanding. That leaves me open to explore a lot of different theories and ideologies without completely ruling out any of the others. I like it that way. I call myself a “Christian” because I follow the ways of Jesus, the Christ, but I don’t even pretend that my belief explains everything or that we know all there is to know.

That wasn’t always the case. Not that long ago, I had allowed myself to worry that things like horoscopes, tarot cards, and empathic or intuitive messages were connections to the Devil…something to be feared and avoided. But even then, curiosity got the better of me (who among us has not sinned?), and I began to understand that everything is not so black and white. After all, if the prophets of the bible, or the saints who performed miracles, are truly sent from God, then who is to say that others, even you and me, can’t receive divine enlightenment, too? And thus my journey into the realm of metaphysics, which, by the way, is a term originating in the 16th century to describe “the things after (or beyond) physics”, and is based in great part on the philosophy and teachings of Plato and Aristotle.

I won’t get into the history of metaphysics here (Wow! What a great discussion that would be!), but I will say it’s a huge and wildly divergent field, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available. That’s why I decided to start out slow, with something I could dip my toes in, and of which I had several friends with a bit of experience. Thus I began to explore tarot and oracle cards.

I didn’t know where to start, so I figured a basic Rider-Waite tarot deck would suffice, and I found one on Amazon. I had intended to stop there, but I happened to glance down at the “recommended” purchases list, and there was a beautiful deck of Oracle cards that caught my eye. I had absolutely zero experience with oracle cards other than an occasional single card pull by a friend who uses them almost exclusively. But this gorgeous deck had me intrigued, so I had to check it out.

The deck was called the “Work Your Light” oracle deck, written by Rebecca Campbell with artwork by Danielle Noel. This 44-card set incorporates digital photography and computer illustration to create a surreal landscape of fantastic images in hues of pink, purple, and teal, which eventually became one of the inspirations for our Modern Musings logo. I just couldn’t quit looking at these cards.

The imagery was what called me, but what really spoke to me was the content and message of the cards themselves. The “Work Your Light” oracle deck is filled with positive energy and potent messages meant to guide the user to deepen the connection to one’s intuition, thus aligning your life to your soul’s purpose. That really resonated with me, because I had recently been striving for clarity in my life’s purpose through my One Little Word project, and I was currently working on the word explore. I was drawn to the idea of “working my light’, which also aligned with my Christian beliefs.

To become familiar with both decks, I decided to begin a daily one-card pull from both the tarot and the oracle deck. I don’t have a lot of fancy rituals that go with my morning reads, just a simple shuffle (three times for my numerology Life Path Number) while asking “What do I need to know? What do I need to think? What do I need to do? What are you trying to tell me?”. After that, I then cut the deck to reveal the card for the day. This daily practice has, for me, become a very useful tool in growing my spirituality, introducing a bit of mindfulness into my day, giving me insight into my personal beliefs and thought patterns, and helping me become a better and more intuitive person.

My inquiry into tarot and oracle cards has definitely piqued my interest in all things spiritual and metaphysical. I’ve grown more curious about astrology, numerology, meditation, prayer (something I’ve practiced since I was 13-years-old), chakras, crystals, palmistry, and more. Do I believe everything I hear or read? Absolutely not! But I do firmly believe that I can cherry-pick as much or as little as I choose, retaining the concepts and theories that work for me while disregarding anything that doesn’t. I especially believe that I should go into every consideration with an open mind, because even if I don’t take everything at face value, I can often find at least a grain of truth, and who’s to say where that might lead me?

Do you have an interest in oracle cards or the metaphysical? I’d love to hear about it! Share your experiences with us in the comments below, or in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

I've linked the cards I mentioned in this article with our Amazon Affiliate account. As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

Heard it on the Podcast - February 23

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

23-FEB-2022

S2E9: Oracle Cards

• Rider-Waite Tarot Deck:  https://amzn.to/3I9kWOW
• Work Your Light Oracle Cards:  https://amzn.to/3BG57wR
• Spirit Animal Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3sZzn1M
• Celtic Spirit Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3IdluUb
• Galaxy Oracle Deck:
• The Secret Language of Light Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3p5FCQA
• Jane Austen Tarot Deck:  https://amzn.to/3Ioma9m
• Literary Witches Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3hbdZBg
• Literary Witches Book:  https://amzn.to/3hfwfsV
• Divine Circus Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3h905iV
• Cirque du Tarot:  https://amzn.to/3sbn2rU
• New Orleans Oracle Deck:  https://amzn.to/33HsSrF
• Music Oracle Deck:
• It Playing Cards:  https://amzn.to/3IhmBCi
• Coffee Cards:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/590905742/coffee-cards-1796-fortune-telling-oracle
• The Food Healing Oracle Deck:  https://amzn.to/3JL0TH1
• The Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck:  https://amzn.to/3LNQMmJ
• Food Fortunes Card Deck:  https://amzn.to/3p8w0Es
• Just a Girl Who Loves Strawberries Journal:  https://amzn.to/3p9Pad3

As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

What the universe was telling me...

Hi everyone, it’s Christen here! This week on the blog and the podcast we are discussing Oracle cards. I hope you have had a chance to listen to our podcast; if you haven’t, be sure to check it out. Each week on Wednesday, we release a new episode, but occasionally the podcast will have a fun episode we call Excuse Me While I Read My Tarot. The name is funny to me because sometimes I just have to stop what I am doing and conduct a little reading. I know that my mom can’t start her day without her daily reading as well. 

I got my first oracle card deck shortly after my first tarot deck. I have used those same decks for almost 2 decades. This year though, I decided that I wanted to add more to my options. I had been keeping an eye on this one set in particular and when I saw it at a holistic fair several weeks back I couldn't resist it. 

The reason that this deck was so tempting was because it was an entire deck dedicated to my spirit animal, the unicorn. I have always been obsessed with unicorns, but had never considered them my spirit animal until recently. I loved them as a small child and all through my teen years up to young adulthood. I would collect images online and download them to a file on my computer or pin them to my wall. For a while there, it seemed that unicorns became less popular and my love for them, although it did not fade, was dimmed by adulthood. I sometimes wonder if I just stopped seeing them. But, I found myself “secretly” loving them. It seemed shameful to love something so childish, and with my arrival into the working world, anything fantasy, cartoonish or too colorful needed to be kept private. I wanted to fit in with corporate America to be taken seriously. Somewhere in there I lost myself. Too quickly did I become this cookie-cutter call center employee. Black pants, black shoes, and dress shirt. I would have loved to be able to wear a unicorn shirt to work, but I was too afraid to be myself. 

In recent years, it seems that everywhere I turn, there is a unicorn – it’s back in style. Not just kid’s attire, but things made for grown women and men, too. Does everyone love unicorns as much as me? Heck, they must, because it seems that there is a unicorn printed on just about everything these days. Did the unicorn go away and make a return, or was I just ignoring it for all this time? Was it a little reminder to me from the universe that it was “ok” to be myself? Quite possibly. 

So since I have been feeling not quite myself lately, I thought it was perfect timing to purchase that unicorn oracle deck I had been fantasizing about. I have been ready to invite the unicorn back into my life. I feel that with all the changes that have occurred in my life, I have slowly forgotten who I am and what brings me joy. Typically the unicorn represents uniqueness, surreal beauty and purity among many other qualities. For me, the unicorn represents self love and acceptance, mystery, divinity, creativity, joy, adventure, and childlike wonder.

The oracle deck itself is very lovely and I feel it represents all of those qualities. The deck was created by Diana Cooper and illustrated by Marjolein Kruijt. There are 44 cards in the deck and they have a full range of interpretations. My favorite card so far is “Create Your Vision,” which depicts a unicorn (of course) but along with it, a winding gold staircase leading up to a mysterious palace in another realm. The card tells you to do what makes your heart sing, and that you are being nudged forward. All of the cards have uplifting messages, and the handbook that is included, offers several ways to use the cards for personal insight.

​​

Diana is a well known author of oracle cards and books varying from angels, mythical creatures, ascension, and personal development. On her website, you can have a reading with her oracle cards. She has 9 decks to choose from and you can pull up to three cards. This is a great way to sample her decks before you buy, plus you can get a little reading without having to provide your email to get the results! It's also a great way to see what oracle cards are all about. 

We hope that you check out our podcast coming out this Wednesday where we dive a little deeper into oracle cards and our ways of using them as an intuitive tool. Do you have a favorite oracle card deck? We would love to hear your thoughts. Join in on the conversation here on our FaceBook chat. 

Excuse Me...

Hey this is Cindy Murray and I wanted to pop on here for a minute to tell you about a little segment that we will do from time to time that we call “Excuse Me While I Read My Tarot.” This series is a fun excursion into the art of tarot reading and the many ways we use it to look deeper inside ourselves and enhance our daily lives. But before we get started, let’s take a look at some common misconceptions about tarot cards and how they are used.

Reading tarot cards is a popular practice and different people use Tarot readings in different ways. Some historians speculate that tarot cards may have started in ancient Egypt, but in the strictest sense, tarot originated as playing cards in 15th century Italy, and were used to play games not unlike the traditional playing cards many people use today. In fact, the original cards are still used today in many parts of Europe to play various card games without occult associations, and other than a 15th century sermon by a Dominican preacher who condemned them for their use in gambling, they were not really censured at all until more modern times.

Fortune-telling with cards, called cartomancy, began some time in the 14th century and eventually found its way to the Tarot and other decks of cards, including the common playing cards used in America today. Sometime around the 18th century, Tarot decks began to be produced specifically for these card-reading purposes. One of these, the Rider-Waite tarot deck, is quite famous and is often the one that comes to mind for people here in the U.S. This deck was first published in 1909 and contains a bounty of religious symbolism, including Judeo-Christian icons, as did many of the preceding decks. Imagery includes the Pope (later renamed the Heirophant), the Papess (renamed the High Priestess), Adam and Eve, the Devil, angels, and crosses. The cards are really just a very elaborate “symbol code that depicts universal and natural laws and principles that are shared by all the world’s great religio-spiritual traditions.”

So enough of all that history! Let’s talk about what’s going on with tarot cards today! While many practitioners interpret the cards as a form of divination, or fortune-telling, just as many (or more) use the cards as a sort of cue or prompt for daily insight and enlightenment. Much in the same way a therapist might use a Rorschach ink blot, the interpretation of the symbolism on the cards can be a useful tool to examine the beliefs, behaviors, and thought patterns of the individual. As stated by the tarot for dummies website (cited below), “The purpose of a tarot reading is to help you see your past and present thoughts, words, and behaviors more objectively.”

For me, personally, I like to look at the cards as a good way to start my day with a little mindfulness and reflection. I certainly don’t see them as anything at odds with my Christian beliefs, and I know a good number of Christian faithful who use tarot cards. However you want to interpret the cards, we hope you will enjoy what we have to share and will accept our readings with the spirit in which they are given.

Information in this article came in part from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot

https://www.dummies.com/religion/paganism/correcting-major-misconceptions-about-tarot/

https://tiffanyleebrown.com/tarot-religion

If you would like to learn tarot, this is a great website:

https://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings/