THE MOON (XVIII)

TODAY'S CARD is The Moon (XVIII). This version is from The Babylonian Tarot by Sandra Tabatha Cicero (review below in my post of June 5, 2006):



For comparison, here's The Moon in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck:



THE MOON: I recently posted an exploration of my relationship to the actual moon along with a moon poem, on my dreams and poetry blog (see link at bottom of this post). So I thought I'd cover The Moon card in this blog.

DIFFERENT TAKES ON THE THE MOON CARD:

Addiction or an addictive tendency.

The real or the underlying issue is unconscious and therefore very unclear, if "seeable" at all at present.

The issue you are inquiring about is reflecting aspects of yourself you can't or don't want to see. Surrounding cards may help clarify, or drawing another card from the deck at random. If not, inquire again in the future.

You may not be able to see what you need to because past experiences are coloring your thinking. Maybe draw some additional cards at random on what these old experiences might be.

Long on dreams or ideas, but short on action.

Don't take risks or make changes now, wait until the storm is over or the clouds have cleared.

Things cannot be clear right now; wait.

You may need to allow for change or wildness in your life right now; you may be being overly responsible or controlling.

And with respect to one of the traditional interpretations of this card as referencing psychic abilities, here's an interesting quote I ran across: "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." -- Oscar Wilde

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Resource: The Tarot School, good site with Tarot lessons, readings, teleclasses, a list of free online reading sites, a newsletter, etc.

Please see the top of the sidebar for my background with the Tarot and a recommendation to beginners.

‘til next time, keep being patient as needed and enjoying The Tarot,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for some articles about Tarot.****

A FIVE OF WANDS WAKEUP (Dream Exploration Using The Tarot)

[The Five of Wands in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck]

This post is a bit of a departure from my blog's basic focus, but certainly within the topic of The Tarot. It's an old dream exploration of mine that illustrates how dream work, in this instance using The Tarot, can occasionally offer very pragmatic help. (It appeared in 2003, in a slightly different form, in the email newsletter "Dancing World.")

In early May, 2003 I had a lengthy dream that ended with an image that intrigued me:

We have ordered lunch. When it arrives I eat it all, but avoid the pile of orangey-yellowish very fine grain. It winds up spilled on the floor. I clean up as much as I can by hand and tell my friend I will get the broom to get up the rest.

When I did journal work with the entire dream all but this closing image yielded insights. No matter how I thought about and followed the vaguest associations to it, I could not get a decent handle on the “orangey-yellowish very fine grain.” I knew this had to be an important image to which I was resisting relating. This kind of impasse is an example of what can bring me to The Tarot when doing dream work.

I pulled a card at random and got the Five of Wands in the Tarot of the Cat People. This just sort of sat there and did not really resonate, either (1). So I did what I often do when stumped by a card, I reached for my favorite Tarot book, "A Guide to The Herbal Tarot"(2). As soon as I put my hand on the book, I remembered that the Five of Wands in The Herbal Tarot has Turmeric on it.

Gadzooks! It hit me that I had started taking Turmeric – along with other herbs and supplements, losing weight, and exercising – to see if it could help with osteoarthritis pain in my knees. The fine grain in the dream looked just like Turmeric in its spice form, and was the color of the Turmeric tablets I’d been taking.

Why had I resisted seeing this? It was so obvious! Then I remembered what I did in the dream: I did not eat the fine grain. Oh, my, I then became quite sure that the dream image was saying that I should not take Turmeric, that it is not good for me. In dream work this sort of image is called “prodromal” – a message about/from one’s body.

And my resistance to seeing Turmeric in the dream image? I spend a great deal of time researching and then deciding on which herbs and supplements to take, as I have a lot invested in finding healthy alternatives to NSAIDS for pain alleviation (3). So I tend to resist letting go of even one of the many things I have placed a lot of hope in.

Being endlessly curious, I then began to wonder how it was not good for me. As I read what “A Guide to The Herbal Tarot” says about Turmeric, the fact that it stimulates digestion jumped out at me. I’d been having a noticeable increase in appetite that I could trace to starting on Turmeric, as I keep a detailed food and supplement journal. OK. Turmeric was definitely not good for me.

Then I locked on to the part of the dream image of “clean up…by hand,” relating it to the recent increase in the itchiness of eczema patches on my palms, that I had attributed to the healing process. OK. I’ll bet Turmeric was starting to aggravate the eczema(4).

Need I say it? I’ve stopped taking Turmeric as a supplement. I hasten to add, this is based on my own body’s responses. Many, if not most folk might tolerate Turmeric fine as a pain management supplement. (Always, of course, under a doctor’s management.)

Ultimately, this experience has reminded me that no matter how carefully I research and think over anything in life, nothing is certain until I risk doing it.

Footnotes:

(1) Since the five of wands can be seen as representing “the struggle of life,” I did briefly wonder if what the very fine grain symbolized might be stressing me.

(2) “The Spirit of Herbs: A Guide to the Herbal Tarot;” U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT, USA; 1993; ISBN: 0-88079-525-5.

(3) Over-the-counter, anti-inflammatory pain relievers like aspirin, naproxen, and ibuprofen.

(4) Still curious much later, I looked up the Five of Wands in The Tarot of the Cat People deck on Tarot.com and got a chuckle out of the comment that one might need to develop a thicker skin!

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Resource: see footnote (2) above.

til next time, keep listening to your body and enjoying The Tarot,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for some articles about Tarot.****

REVIEW OF THE BABYLONIAN TAROT, by Sandra Tabatha Cicero

THE BABYLONIAN TAROT




Book and Deck by Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 13:978-0-7387-0716-7
ISBN: 10:0-7387-0716-3

Whenever I get a new Tarot deck I can barely wait for my first complete look through the entire deck. Like a kid on Christmas morning, opening the gifts from under the tree, sometimes I’m not as pleased as others with the unwrapping. However, with this deck I was delighted.

The Babylonian Tarot’s images are very reminiscent of ancient Babylonian art, at least from my non-expert point of view. They are also extremely evocative, whether one is an experienced Tarot reader or not. A friend who knows next to nothing about the Tarot looked through the entire deck and was very engaged by it, and she is not always by the decks I share with her.

I have since used the deck to explore my night dreams. Since its images are not familiar to me – being from an ancient culture not overly exposed in our art and media – I found it particularly suitable to dream work. It may have shaken my preconceptions loose, allowing for a rather dream-like response on my part.

One of my pet peeves is when a deck is so small that details of the art are hard to see – this deck is a perfect size. Another pet peeve is thin paper stock for the deck – this one is a good weight and nice to handle. The traditional 78 cards all have zodiacal, planetary, qabalistic, and elemental correspondences listed in a detailed appendix. The deck also has five additional cards (one new Major and four extra Courts).

The accompanying book has a wealth of information on a host of Babylonian Deities and legends attributed to the cards, many highlighted with quotes from ancient texts, and all rounded out with suggested Tarot meanings. There are also two Tarot layouts designed especially for use with this deck, and a rich bibliography filled with cites to material on ancient texts.

This is a thoroughly thought out and beautiful deck and book set. I highly recommend it.

‘til next time, keep exploring various decks, and enjoying The Tarot,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for some articles about Tarot.****