Tarot Conversations: August Acclimation

The Writer's Tool: The Eclipse Tarot

This month was a fortuitous one for me to get to know my Eclipse Tarot. I created the deck with the intent of using it as a writing tool, exclusively. Yet I still needed to spend some time getting to know it, to grasp the nuances of its voice, the currents of its energies, in order to successfully and efficiently employ it for its purpose.

After all, any craftsman must invest the time in familiarizing himself with a new tool before setting its edge to precious raw material.

Tarot Rebels' August Challenge employed a series of questions, one each day for the duration of the month. Silly questions like, what restaurant would you prefer, what kind of pet would you have, what's your musical taste, that on the surface seem flippant and out of place. Yet through the course of the month I found my way to hearing this deck's voice, to understanding its insecurities and immaturity. It doesn't mind clutter, for instance, understanding the environmental demands of a working writer.

Nothing wrong with clutter, there's a natural flow involved.

It's a fan, I've concluded, of 80's hair bands and quality sound. It has decent taste in music, at least, and my writing tracks aren't likely to jar its vibe -- and isn't that a relief, let me tell you.

Vinyl is the best sound, and Steven Tyler is god.

This particular spread was also a sort of turning point for my relationship with the deck because it jumped this pair of cards out at me, and I don't usually observe jumpers to mean more than "pay attention when you're shuffling" most of the time. When I tried to ignore it with this deck, however, and cut the deck before drawing an answer card for the day's question, I got a blatantly belligerent response that pretty much said, oh, you don't want to listen to me when I give an actual answer? Well fine then, let's listen to KIDS BOP, MUTHAFUCKA.

Not only has this month given me a greater comfort level with the deck, I've discovered a freedom to ask shallow, blunt questions of this deck. It will respond in a manner that befits the framing, it turns out. I've spent a great deal of my time as a learning reader investing much effort in the importance of framing and wording my queries. I understand the importance of focus, and many times it's the framing of the question with explicit care which forges and maintains the focus for me.

But it doesn't have to work that way every time. I spent this month loosening up and relaxing my interpretations to fit the mood of the questions, and it was fun and engaging and didn't lessen the value of the responses in the least. I've learned, yet again, to trust myself in reading the answers I see, both at face value, and to varying depths as needed.

Things might get bloody. Maintain a healthy balance.

And that's great, that's such a relief, because this is a working deck, this is my writing tool that's going to help me understand my muses better, and ultimately it's that relationship, that communication, which is fundamentally crucial for me. Reaching in and understanding that other part of myself, and translating it into actual words -- it's a rough stretch of road sometimes.