A Tarot Reading for 2021 - Choosing A Deck

As part of our New Year's revelry, I asked my spouse to help me with a Tarot reading for 2021.  He obliged, and so I have my (pretty awesome) reading for 2021 to share over the next several posts.

Given that I'm a scientist, I'm sure it's no surprise that I do not view Tarot as supernatural.  Rather I view it as a engaging and creative means to uncover some of my own psychology.  Tarot works best for me when I look at a card and consider the implications that I easily accept, and then those I immediately resist.  Also during this time of pandemic, I find myself gravitating to tactile activities that are not computer based.  There's a sort of need for texture, color, and the sound of shuffling cards.  It's very grounding and comforting in a time when so much of the physical world, and the physicality of other people, has been out of reach.

For my 2021 reading I chose my Tarot Grand Luxe deck.  It's my go-to deck for when I want lots of detail, but don't want to work too hard to find the messages.  One of this deck's best aspects is that, unlike SO many other Tarot decks, it includes people with a wide range of skin tones and facial features.  It's a dynamic, vibrant deck that's full of life.  Now if I could only find a deck with a wide range of genders and body types, too, I'd be pretty darn happy ...

Tarot Grand Luxe.  Stunning art, detailed images, diversity,
high-quality card stock and labels that are easy for the eye.

This is a gorgeously illustrated Tarot with largely standard themes.  Because the themes and symbols are standard, it makes interpreting the messages more straightforward than some of my more unorthodox decks.  What do I mean by standard themes?  Let's take a look at a comparison of four of my favorite tarot decks.  I've taken the Six of Coins/Pentacles and the Hermit card from each deck.  Check out the image, with helpful arrows and labels!  :) 

The first deck is the Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck, a variant of the very first decks used for divination published in the early 1900s.  The second deck is the one I've chosen for 2021, Tarot Grande Lux.  As you can see, the first two decks have similar imagery and symbols for both cards.  The Hermit is an old dude with a long white beard, usually carrying a lantern or such and maybe a cane or staff.  The setting is a path or journey.  For the Six of Coins, there is a scale and someone weighing out gold.  It's easy to say, yep, that's a scale and it's being balanced, or that's a lantern and he's looking for something.  I.e. you can get a quick read on the general idea of what you are looking at in the card.

But decks can be a great deal more unorthodox, with imagery and symbols used in new ways, or that are not immediately recognizable.  The last two decks show a progression from weird to weirder.  Revelations Tarot is pretty cool because the cards can be read as they fall, either right-side up or upside down.  I don't usually bother with 'inverted' or 'reversed' readings - if I pull a card and it is upside down, I flip it.  Many people prefer to leave the card inverted, and then interpret the meaning in some way that is reversed to the original meaning of the card.  Revelations Tarot makes that super easy - it's almost like there are two whole decks here, since each card has a top and a bottom image.  However, these images are highly stylized, and combine symbols in unusual ways.  Deviant Moon Tarot is one of my more weird decks, and is perfect when I'm in that headspace.  The images here look nothing like the Rider Waite Smith Tarot, and the moon and tone of the art is vastly different.  So when I'm in a mood for the strange, I'll choose a deck more like this.

Nuff for now, more later.

Image Credits:  All pix are taken by me of my own Tarot decks, except I have cut in the pictures of the RWS Hermit and six of coins into my image from Wikimedia Commons.

Writer Interview - Shadow Leitner

Shadow Leitner - Beautifully Haunted Writer

I'm honored to present a blog interview with Haunted writer Shadow Leitner!  She graciously posted an interview with me on her excellent blog Dark Inklings, and I'm so happy to have her here today - so read on to learn about Shadow, her haunted writing, and what really scares her :)

Shadow Leitner spent over a decade in the performing arts but left the stage for the page to write Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Gothic Romance novels for Young and New Adults, and thoroughly enjoys torturing her imaginary characters with love and other peculiar things.  She also creates beautifully haunting art with her iPhone, consumes absurd amounts of coffee, and is enchanted by all things vintage, old world and macabre. She’s also quite fond of nonsense literature. Well, all sorts of nonsense really.  Shadow haunts from Maryland, with her husband, their two spawn, and a menagerie of mostly domesticated creatures.

1.  You have only three minutes to convince a stranger to read your latest work.  What do you tell them about your writing, and about yourself, to get them interested?

I am Beautifully Haunted. Eventually, the voices in my head make it to the page where they can haunt you, too.

 

2.  Your spaceship can travel to any world, real or imagined.  Where do you go?

I travel to a steampunk world where the cities and towns float in the air. There I own a Victorian mansion which I open-up as bread & breakfast for other airship travelers.

3.  What was your favorite book you that read as a child?  What have you read recently that you can recommend?

I was a bookworm growing up, so I have many, many favorites, but the first book I remember having a real impact on me was Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell. It’s about a fairy prince who marries a human princess and trouble ensues.

Where to start, I’ve read so many great books lately. I just finished The Mara Dyer Trilogy and started the first book of its companion series The Noah Shaw Confessions by Michelle Hodkins.  They are YA and deliciously dark. I’m in love and dying for the next one to be released. In the adult, more ghostly realm, I’ve recently finished and highly recommend The Haunting of Maddy Clare and Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James.

4.  How do you meet and stay engaged with other writers?

Well, it works like this, I stalk my favorite authors, wrestle them to the ground, chain them in my basement and like that we are besties. Okay, not really, that would be creepy. Don’t do that.

The real answer is I belong to author organizations and attend meetings, conferences, etc.  I write a blog for Dark & Gothic Writers called Dark Inklings where I get to hang out with other cool Night Writers. And yes, I do totally stalk other authors, but in the nice, safe (for them) environment of the internet and social media.

5.  What is a quote that resonates with you - either from yourself or someone else?

So the darkness shall be the light. – T.S. Elliot

6.  Do you have a personal symbol or icon with which you identify?

White spiders. Though I’ve never really thought of them as a personal symbol or icon and I’m not particularly fond of them, either. However, they seem to have an affinity for me and show up often. I certainly sit up to take notice when they do. I’ve come to accept them, seeing them as messengers, who let me know when I’m on the right track.

I’m also very fond of black hearts.

7.  How do you find good new reads in your genres of choice?

Well, there is this place where all the available space is covered in books and all of them are free. FREE. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It is called the Library, and while I could literally set up a cot and live there, I don’t have to, because I can take the books home with me. I promise this place is not a figment of my imagination. It’s real. One should really check it out. ;)

I refer to Goodreads a good bit, as well. Come friend me and we can share all the books. Muahaha.

8.  What is one thing that really scares you?

Being eaten alive by zombies and tornadoes, but then that would be two things. So let’s stick with zombies because they really freak me the f**k out.

9.  You can create the perfect one-week writing retreat - describe what makes it ideal for you.

The perfect retreat would to be holed up in a historical place, such as a Victorian mansion or castle with roaring fires and plenty of coffee. Being in such a surrounding the stories almost vibrate out of me and reverberate off the walls, but then that might be coffee. It’s hard to tell.

10.  Which conferences/book fairs/meetings do you try to never miss each year?

A new one for me, but one I don’t plan on missing is HallowReads. There are many others I haven’t been to but would love to attend.

11.  You have a magic wand that can cast only one kind of spell.  What does your wand do?

My wand transports me where ever and whenever I want.

12.  Where can fans find you and your work online?

ShadowLeitner.com is my main haunt, but I can also be found creeping around on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest.

13.  What is the question I should have asked?  Answer in the form of a haiku or limerick.

How reliable of narrator are you?

When you've bats in your belfry that flut,

When your comprenez-vous rope is cut,

When there's nobody home

In the top of your dome --

Then your head's not a head; it's a nut

-        “The Nut” by Anthony Euwer

Image Credits:  All images provided by and used with permission of Shadow Leitner.