The Contract Tarot – Gemstones

We’ve made it through the suits of Runes and the suit of Virtues and Cosmic Principles. We now take a look at Gemstones. The suit of Arts and Sciences will follow.

This suit in traditional decks would be the suit of Pentacles, Coins or Disks. It is concerned with material things of wealth, health and possessions.

This template has three pentacle-shaped placeholders. Each of these will be filled with gemstones representing the keywords of each pentacle.

The Tree of Life path, elemental symbols and astrological symbols will appear around these pentacles.

We’ll start on Monday with the Ace of Gemstones and work through the suit to the Wisdom of Gemstones.

I hope you enjoy the journey.

Until Monday… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot – Wisdom of Virtues and Cosmic Principles

We are coming to the end of our journey through Virtues and Cosmic Principles. Today is Wisdom of Virtues and Cosmic Principles. In traditional decks, this would be the King of Cups! This is the ultimate in self-control and self-awareness. Wisdom is about experience, knowledge, good judgment, and discernment. It requires perceptiveness and dignity, a state of holding one’s self apart and seeking the highest good for all concerned.

Let’s look a little more closely at this card.

The background is a rainbow sky. The rainbow is a covenant of grace, a bridge between heaven and earth, a symbol of hope and a bringer of peace. Within this context, it is an encouragement to seek the treasure within and Wisdom sees and identifies this treasure.

The next image is a Sphinx Cat. Perceptiveness runs down it’s back. The Sphinx is the guardian of mysteries and cats are independent, stealthy, intuitive and perceptive. Perceptiveness is significant here because it admonishes the reader to use discernment, insight and knowing and to look for understanding.

The next image is a peacock and the word Dignity runs down its back. The peacock is an animal of immortality, renewal, resurrection, potentiality, awareness, manifestation and healing. Dignity is defined as worthy of honor or respect.  Wisdom encourages us to see these qualities in others and in ourselves.

The next image is Lavender. Lavender is commonly thought to express purity, silence, devotion, caution and healing. Here is that healing word again. Wisdom cultivates these qualities. Purity leads to clarity, silence to knowing, devotion to awareness, caution to discernment and healing to renewal.

The symbol above the ‘C’ is Scorpio. The symbols above the ‘P’ are Air in Water.

The Tree of Life path is Tiphareth (beauty) in Beriah (creation).

What do you see in this card? How would you interpret it?

Until tomorrow, when we look at the next suit of Gemstones… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot – Wisdom of Runes

This is the Wisdom of Runes. It replaces the Kings/Knights in traditional decks.

Kings are about authority. However, this authority is full of wisdom, service, and action.

Let’s take a closer look at this card.

Immediately, you can see that it is evening in this card. There is a nearly full moon (wisdom of intuition) and a raven (intelligence, curiosity, keeper and bringer of secrets)  flying over a black horse wearing a pinkish (purity)/red (passion) cloak bowing in service. A golden (wisdom) flame (action) illuminates the night to such a degree that yellow (compassion) and red (perfect love) tulips (signify eternal life) are the blanket upon which this horse treads.

This King is wise. He knows his wisdom is derived from service to others, from passion and compassion, and from illumination through action. He is bold and decisive, confident in his passion and wisdom.

The symbols across the top of the card are Fire, Leo, Fire.

The Runes below the Fire sign on the left are Thurisaz (the warrior who combines consciousness and wisdom, awakening of the will to action), Ansuz (creative wisdom, inspiration and divine communication, order), Nauthiz (understanding resistance in the process of creating, mysteries of necessity), and Jera (understanding the natural cycles and rhythms of life, peace, prosperity and plenty). The Runes below the Fire sign on the right are Ihwaz (communication between levels of reality, mysteries of life and death), Berkano (hidden sanctuary in times of need, mastery of silence of listening and protecting), Laguz (mastery of emotion, development of prophetic wisdom), and Inguz (integration of the four selves – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – for wholeness, storage and transformation of power).

The Tree of Life path is Tiphareth (beauty) in Atziluth (emanation).

What do you see in this card? How would you interpret it?

Until tomorrow… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot – The Suit of Runes

The Suit of Runes is now upon us. As I was working on this deck, I asked if I should keep to the traditional suits or change them and, if I were to change them, what should I change them to be.  I meditated on this for a few nights and then I dreamed the suits and the changes to the Court Cards as well.

When I began working on this deck, I was led to conceptualize everything and to forego adding images of people. I was led to know that, in this way, anyone could pick this deck up and ‘own’ it. This is a decision of Spirit. I was led to know that, where I found difficulties conceptualizing any element, Spirit would find opportunity for growth and guide me to images I would need to fulfill the purpose of this deck.

So, we come to the Suit of Runes. I was led to using the keyhole image. This would put traditional users at ease because they would see the image of a ‘wand’ instead of a keyhole. They would immediately relate this suit to the traditional suit of Wands and be at ease. Then, they would have to explore the other imagery, if they didn’t already have a grounding in it. Anyone could use the keywords seen to identify the concepts of these cards. The image would support these keywords though it may not first be obvious how that would work.

The Court Cards presented another opportunity. The images in traditional decks meant that these cards were grounded in usually archaic imagery that had no real meaning today. I was led to represent these Court Cards by defining the overriding attribute of what traditional cards contain and working toward those attributes. Thus, Pages/Princesses became Inspiration; Knights became Aspiration; Queens became Intuition and Kings became Wisdom.

I share with you, here, the Ace of Runes and will speak about it more in depth tomorrow. Today, just for today, I hope you will think about what I have written and prepare for an interesting journey going forward.

Until tomorrow… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot 5: The Hierophant

“Hear the wisdom Of the Hierophant! He offers advice And ancient grace. Bring your problems In your search For truth and understanding He brings harmony and peace. Your desire for knowledge Will be answered here Sit at the feet Of the teacher Aspire to being Life!”

So, let’s dive into this card and see what we can see.

The most noticeable thing is the background with sun, moon and mountain and colour. Then the eye focuses on the two pillars, the stone throne, the crown, the borromean rings, the open book, the keys, the lilies, the red roses and the kerubim.

Okay… one at a time.

The background colour is red-orange and is the colour of the Hierophant’s robes.
The light from the sun becomes the oriel representing macrocosmic knowledge and is characteristic of the enlightened.
The moon is the crescent moon that links this card’s energy with The Priestess.
The mountain represents the self-imposed limitations an initiate must overcome on their journey of self-discovery to obtain esoteric/divine knowledge.
The two pillars/columns are Law (right one) and Liberty (left one).
The stone throne is the grey and cold colour representing the earth – this card’s element.
The crown is the papal three-tiered crown.
The borromean rings replace the triple cross scepter and represent the 3 Thelemic Aeons of Isis, Osiris and Horus.
The open book is the Book of Mysteries now open to reveal knowledge.
The keys open the door (of your mind and spirit) to receive divine knowledge.
The lilies represent knowledge.
The roses represent desire and Venus (rules Taurus).
The kerubim are the lion (Leo), the bull (Taurus), the angel (Aquarius) and the eagle (Scorpio) and also the 4 powers of the Sphinx: to Know, to Will, to Dare and to Keep Silent.

On the bottom of the scroll (left to right): the Hebrew letter Vav (nail), the symbol for the element of earth and the zodiac symbol for Taurus. Below the scroll the path between Chokmah (wisdom) and Chesed (mercy) is revealed.

This card is all about finding the wisdom of your soul, looking for divine/esoteric answers and self-discovery. You already know what you need to know. You will find it inside yourself. The path, the truth and the mystery are in yourself.

What do you see? How do you interpret this card?

Until Monday… have a blessed weekend! Love, light and blessings!

 

 

The Contract Tarot – Forward Progress

As you know and have seen if you’ve been keeping up with the cards on FaceBook, none of my cards have people in them. There are several reasons for this:

1) I didn’t want to bias anyone’s interpretation of the cards based on the attitude, body language, race, perceived creed pictures of people may evoke;

2) I didn’t want anyone to write to me later and tell me that I used their image.

3) I wanted this deck to be accessible to everyone based entirely on concepts.

Saying that, I am now at the point of creating where I am faced with Court Cards (typically King, Queen, Knight and Page) which denote physical appearances of people. I will not be using ‘people’ in my Court Cards. Rather, I will be using ‘concepts’ of these people to address this.

• Kings/Wisdom
• Queens/Intuition
• Knights/Aspiration
• Pages/Inspiration

To move on to the Suits (typically wands, swords, cups and pentacles), I will not be using the usual suits.

• Wands/Runes (R)
• Swords/Arts & Sciences (AS)
• Cups/Virtues & Cosmic Principles (VP)
• Pentacles/ Gemstones (G)

You will begin to see a shift in the cards now that the Major Arcana are done. I will continue to post the Major Arcana until I am through them. I will then show the Suits – Ace-10 and then Court Cards.

I hope you will come to find these to be a way to open your perception in a different way. I know I am asking a lot of you and hope you will bear with me. All will become clear over time.

Until tomorrow… Love, light and blessings!