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Tarot Cake: Lucy Neville

A weird, ADHD little magpie. An academic by day (Psychologist and Criminologist), I am fascinated by the connections between Tarot and the human condition.

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Sun cards also often feature sunflowers; beautiful

Sun cards also often feature sunflowers; beautiful, bright flowers whose young buds famously exhibit heliotropism – that is, they track the movement of the sun across the sky (though interestingly this stops when sunflowers reach maturity – another call back to the importance of embracing our inner childlikeness?)

The sunflowers can be taken to represent us seeking spiritual connection within this life, by turning our faces towards the sun – the clear light of truth. As @carriemallon, co-creator of the #SpaciousTarot points out, the fact that “sunflowers track the light across the sky… [has] much to teach us about embracing radiance”.

The four flowers in the RWS card may represent the four classical ‘elements’ (fire, water, air, earth), or the four suits of the Minor Arcana, illustrating the importance of achieving balance and harmony in all aspects of our lives (the intellectual, the material, the emotional, and the spiritual).

Decks: The #SpaciousTarot, the #CosmicCyclesTarot, the #AnnaKTatot

Full post on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#TarotCardMeanings #TheSun #TheSunTarot

Despite being a pretty straightforward card, there

Despite being a pretty straightforward card, there’s still a lot of symbolism going on with The Sun (quelle surprise!) in many of the ‘classic’ Tarot decks (such as the RWS here).

Much like the moon in The Moon card, the central image in any Sun card tends to be the sun, natch! The over-arching quest of the Tarot (like many other systems of spirituality, religion, and therapy) is to integrate and accept the different parts of ourselves. We can see in the RWS image the sun’s rays alternate between straight/active/masculine and wavy/passive/feminine. We need to recognise and honour both these types of energy in ourselves. The sun represents the contentment we feel when our lives (and selves) are balanced.

Some Tarot scholars have suggested that the twenty one rays we see in the RWS could represent the twenty one (other) Major Arcana. By omitting itself from this representation The Sun “reveals the importance of illuminating others. The Sun could turn the light inward, but instead chose to turn it outward” (John Taylor). However, it certainly could be the case that there was meant to be twenty two rays (or even twenty four); note the abortive little black squiggle up by the numerals. It’s of course very possible that this is an “oops” line where Smith realised if she kept drawing in rays she was going to run out of room for her ‘XIX’, so just cut off halfway through. Who knows? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar 😂

Full post on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#TarotCardMeanings #TheSun #TheSunTarot

The Sun in a reading is linked with optimism, succ

The Sun in a reading is linked with optimism, success, good health, gratitude, and happiness, as well as a sense of clarity and understanding. A. E. Waite (co-creator of the classic RWS deck) wrote of the card that it signifies “the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration [aka Judgement] and is typified by the heart of a child“.

The card asks us to open ourselves up to the warmth and wonder of the world just like we did when we were children, running across the lawn naked on a hot day to escape the arc of the sprinkler: “strip yourself bare (metaphorically)! Let the Sun shine down on your (metaphorically) naked body!” (@litwitchure). To this extent, as @3am.tarot explains, “The Sun archetype teaches us to stop hiding, to be transparent about our desires and needs, to believe in more. Just like the sun’s warm and life-giving light, we need hope to survive and thrive”.

Deck: The Slow Tarot

Full post on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#TarotCardMeanings #TheSun #TheSunTarot #SlowTarot #WildCard #FindingTheFool

The Sun is also a pretty straightforward card to u

The Sun is also a pretty straightforward card to understand and to write about (I have nowhere near the pages and pages of notes I made on The Moon card to wade through this time!), because the feeling it asks us to reflect on is a very simple feeling: happiness. I don’t mean it’s easy – God knows if happiness was easy so many of us wouldn’t be so miserable all the damn time! – but it’s simple. Grief, pain, sadness – these are all complex feelings, wrought out of many strands of emotion and memory. But happiness is a big, golden now, that washes over us and asks us to let go and just soak in its glow. Under the sun everything becomes simple, joyous, physical, and we find ourselves totally alive with childlike joy. And it’s a joy that is very much a verb, a doing word – something that happens when we are out in the world in a sunny field, not alone in a library with our dusty books. As Rachel Pollack notes: “Enlightenment is an experience, not an idea.”

Even if this card crops up at a dark time in our lives, one of the most straightforward, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin ways to interpret The Sun is as a reminder that going outside into the sunshine is an excellent way to boost happiness. As @maddyelruna points out, “the sun’s energy is the original source of life’s energy on this planet… Plants photosynthesise using the sun’s light and form the start of the food chain for the planet’s animals. The bright, bold sun represents our connection with that life source, whether we see that as… energy or a deity”. Go! The Sun urges us: go outside and feel the light on your skin. Go and frolic in the fields! All is well. After all, “sometimes in the darkest moments you get the brightest cards to lead you out”.

Full post on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#TarotCardMeanings #TheSun #TheSunTarot

. “Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I

.
“Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s alright

Little darlin’, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darlin’, it feels like years since it’s been here…

Little darlin’, the smile’s returning to their faces
Little darlin’, it seems like years since it’s been here…

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…

Little darlin’, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darlin’, it seems like years since it’s been clear

Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun
It’s alright

It’s alright”

‘Here Comes The Sun’ by The Beatles (Harrison)

Welcome to my circle of sunshine! It’s my belief that every card in the Tarot has both positive and negative connotations (and why I don’t read reversals per se, rather I’m guided by both the spread and my querent as to whether a card’s energy is light or shadow), but The Sun is BIG on the positivity and doesn’t leave the shadow many spaces to hide. It’s one of the happiest, brightest cards in the deck, and when it comes up in a reading it’s inviting us to rise and shine 😄.

Full post on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#TarotCardMeanings #TheSun #TheSunTarot

And off I go! #Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #My

And off I go!

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#TarotReadings #SomersFest #SomersFest2024

Excited to post that I’ll be offering face to fa

Excited to post that I’ll be offering face to face readings this weekend (Saturday 27th) at #SomersFest, a community festival in my home city of Portsmouth put on by @portsmouthcitycouncil . It’s been almost a year since I last did public readings, so I’m really keen to get back into the groove 😄.

If you happen to be in Portsmouth (UK), come along and find me. I’m in the World of Wellness area with some other great folks. Sadly I won’t be in my Tent of Wonders, as it’s a hard standing pitch, so it’ll just be my common or garden traders’ gazebo, alas.

To prepare I’ve been re-reading @jennamatlin’s fabulous ‘Have Tarot, Will Travel’ – highly recommend it!

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector #TarotReading #TarotReadings #CommunityFetival #SomersFest2024

Just a quick post to say that one of my favourite

Just a quick post to say that one of my favourite decks, the #OutofHandTarot, is available again! You can back a pocket version of the deck on Kickstarter.

You can read my (very effusive) review of the full-sized deck on my blog. Sadly, after the artist and creator @jamiesawyer336 finished the campaign for the original deck, and sold out all her stock, it was counterfeited. My review of the original deck is the *most* visited page on my website each month, which shows how popular the deck is! However, none of the money goes to Sawyer when people buy counterfeit copies of the deck, and this SUCKS. So, if you like the deck, please buy it from the artist!

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#KickstarterDeck #KickstarterTarotDeck #outofhandtarot #outofhandtarotpocketedition

And here’s my favourite card in the #GroundedWis

And here’s my favourite card in the #GroundedWisdomTarot, The Hanged Man, reimagined here as The Fallow Field.

I love how well the metaphor of a fallow field captures the core messages of The Hanged Man – stillness, rest, and how what looks like a period of total inaction and inertia can actually be preparing the ground for fundamental (and wonderful) change and growth. Even the sense of sacrifice is there, I feel. It can doubtless be frustrating to give up a few fields each year when you’re desperate for crops, but it is also a necessity if you want the farm to flourish in the long-term. The guidebook speaks about “embracing rest, honouring the need for recovery, [and] acknowledging the necessity for periods without growth”. Which is such a valuable message in our fast-pasted neo-liberal capitalist world, where growth is expected to be exponential and everything should be bigger, better, faster, stronger than the year before. Which we all know IS NOT POSSIBLE. As the Tarot teaches us, our world, our lives, our bodies, are built around cycles – waxing and waning, rising and falling, growing and resting. Morris asks us “how are you developing ways to rest and recover, allowing new insights to thrive?”

“Just as traditional Tarot illuminates the complexities of human experience, the Soil cards reveal the intricacies of our relationship with the land – each card a poetic, insightful metaphor for ecological, design, and personal transformation”

- Gabby Morris @gabbyamorris

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

The Moon and The Sun are both gorgeous in the #Gro

The Moon and The Sun are both gorgeous in the #GroundedWisdomTarot. Simple and to the point, we have a moonlit garden for The Moon (“unseen growth, cycles, mystery, the power of rest and regeneration”) and a sunlit field for The Sun (“growth, energy, positivity, life-giving power”).

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

Strength in the #GroundedWisdomTarot becomes ‘Th

Strength in the #GroundedWisdomTarot becomes ‘The Root’, demonstrating the card’s anchoring power, its tenacity and resilience; and The Hermit becomes ‘The Mulch’, emphasising the messages of “regeneration, introspection, protection, [and] recycling of life”.

The Devil is portrayed in The Grounded Wisdom Tarot as an invasive species, and in my head this is definitely my husband’s arch nemesis, Japanese Knotweed. Just as the creeping tendrils of our own bad habits are hard to extract ourselves from, and our destructive behaviour patterns are difficult to root out, so invasive species like Japanese Knotweed are extremely tricky to eradicate. Causing chaos on the local ecosystem, they damage building foundations and impede water flow. The Devil indeed.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

The Chariot in the #GroundedWisdomTarot is instead

The Chariot in the #GroundedWisdomTarot is instead ‘The Irrigator’. Not only does the river flow forward with The Chariot’s drive and energy, but showing this body of water specifically as a nourishing flood plain also focuses on the concepts of “control, flow, the ability to direct growth [and] balancing resources”.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

The Emperor as bedrock in the #GroundedWisdomTarot

The Emperor as bedrock in the #GroundedWisdomTarot is inspired! As a feminist I struggled a bit with The Emperor when first coming to Tarot, and focussing on the card’s message of strength and stability, of providing a secure foundation so that others might flourish, has really helped me come to appreciate it.

The Emperor is, in many ways, the ‘sturdiest’ card in the deck (and certainly for those who take a numerological approach to Tarot), so the idea of the card as ‘bedrock’ really resonates. Jessica Dore points out in #TarotForChange that The Emperor is the 4th card in the Majors, and four is associated with grounding, like the four corners of a house. She suggests that the Emperor’s message (or at least part of it), is to take that strength and sturdiness and apply it when times get tough: “make your body into a house when you feel afraid. A house whose walls can withstand many, many things, the joys and the terrors, with thick oak floors sturdy enough to bear the weight. See whether, the next time you feel overwhelmed with a feeling or thought pattern that’s telling you to do something that will betray your own interests, you can be still. Even if it’s just for five minutes. That’s how you practice power”.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

And the Majors from the #GroundedWisdomTarot! I’

And the Majors from the #GroundedWisdomTarot! I’m now going to gush a bit about my favourite Majors, though all 22 of them are superb so it was hard to pick!

First up, I love this chunky, healthy earthworm as the High Priestess. Anyone who gardens knows that earthworms are a key signifier of soil health, even if much of what they do is unseen. But they’re always there, beneath the surface, enriching our lives and ensuring our survival. As the guidebook explains, earthworms represent “the mystery and magic beneath the surface”.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

Much as I love the art style of the #GroundedWisdo

Much as I love the art style of the #GroundedWisdomTarot, I also find the Minor Arcana cards a bit tricky to read from. Within each suit, the cards aren’t hugely visually different from each other, and the numbers/titles are very small and discrete (if you look at the above images you’ll see the tiny white numerals at the bottom of the cards). Additionally, unlike some pip decks (or even playing cards), it’s really hard to quickly count the number of leaves/fungi/minerals etc to ascertain which card you’re looking at (it takes me at least 5 seconds to count the 9 fungi stalks in the above card, for example). This is the reason I probably wouldn’t use the deck to read for others – it’d slow me down to read from it, and even if I got really proficient with it, I’d be reading alone. I personally like it when a querent is able to look at an image and intuitively chime in with their own observations.

Having said all that, the deck feels to me like it’s designed for self-reflection anyway. It’s a deeply internal deck, concerned as it is with the layers of life beneath our feet, and the messages around growth cycles and spiritual nourishment feel very personal.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

When I first backed the #GroundedWisdomTarot, Swor

When I first backed the #GroundedWisdomTarot, Swords were re-imagined as Microbes. This changed shortly before the deck went to print, with Morris explaining: “It’s taken a lot of time to get [the cards] to where I wanted them and there have been some changes, I removed the Protozoa from the Suits and that was incorporated into Microbes – I wanted them to feel distinctly different but also fit the soil. Protozoa just didn’t feel like it fitted the suit, now we have Minerals and it’s great”. She explains that “minerals aptly take on the role of the swords, symbolizing the clarity, action, and intellect that guide us through life’s challenges”.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

The artwork for the #GroundedWisdomTarot is a shee

The artwork for the #GroundedWisdomTarot is a sheer delight. It’s inspired by 20th century modernist farming posters, and is so gorgeous I’d like many of the cards as prints to put on my wall.

The four suits have been re-imagined as four soil-related elements: Fungi (Pents), Microbes (Cups), Leaves (Wands), and Minerals (Swords). Morris explains that she chose Fungi to represent Pentacles because mushrooms etc. “draw… [their] essence from the earth, and embody themes of security, reliability, and the material aspects that ground us”. Cups are Microbes because “microbes play a pivotal role that often goes unnoticed, much like the nuanced emotions and connections symbolized by the Suit of Cups in traditional Tarot”. And Wands become Leaves because “leaves emerging from the soil’s nurturing embrace, symbolise the fiery zeal of growth, the push for new life from the earth’s bed. This suit captures the dynamic energy of sprouting ambitions and the organic drive towards sunlight”

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

The #GroundedWisdomTarot comes in a simple but att

The #GroundedWisdomTarot comes in a simple but attractive lidded box, with a small colour guidebook. The guidebook shows an image of each card, a basic description of the card meaning, and then what it means in terms of soil/creativity and project design (so, perfect if you’re using Tarot to self-reflect on current or up-coming projects). It also has a selection of symbols which indicate what point in the ‘cycle’ that card’s energies are helpful (before, beginning, during, at the end, after). The cards are a good texture and thickness for shuffling – they don’t have that thick lux feel some have, but they’re sturdy and practical – and cardbacks are a nice simple stone blue. Think a no-nonsense design to match a no-nonsense deck!

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

Another Kickstarter-backed deck that recently arri

Another Kickstarter-backed deck that recently arrived with me is the gorgeously detailed #GroundedWisdomTarot. The deck was designed and drawn by @gabbyamorris, who takes a “polymathic approach*” to their projects, blending art and design with nature and ecological futures. (*My little ADHD magpie brain perked up at this inspired phrasing! My new goal is owning my own scattergun approach to knowledge by calling it ‘polymathic’! 💪) Morris’ website is full of really cool stuff from her Master’s project and subsequent work – it’s kinda chemistry-meets-cooking-meets-conservation-meets art & design-meets-am dram, and is well worth checking out. The deck not only has lots of crossovers with my own myriad interests and hobbies, but my husband has a PhD in Ecology and works as a local government ecologist – so I know a lot about ecology by osmosis! All this made the deck a must-have for me from the outset.

The deck explores how the Tarot archetypes fit with nature, and especially with soil (Morris’ specialist area), and it’s super smart and complex. I’ll unpack this more throughout the review, but, in short, I think this deck is far too abstruse to use for reading for others – even for a confident reader I don’t think it offers a querent enough ways in to see themselves in the cards – but for self-reflection it’s a corker.

“Each card offers questions that spark holistic, regenerative design thinking and offers us a way to consider how ourselves and our designs connect back to the earth”

- Gabby Morris

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #GroundedWisdomTarot

And here’s my favourite card in the #FatFolksTar

And here’s my favourite card in the #FatFolksTarot, the Seven of Pents by @daftpatience . This card is just so damn cute! When you’re working so hard you’re a sweaty mess with dirty hands but you still need to find a way to push your hair out of your eyes. The whole card also has a lovely, warm, gentle energy. The artist explains “The Seven of Pentacles represents growth, perseverance, patience, and results. To me this card felt like it encapsulated the process of creation, dedicating yourself to the labour, love, and time it takes. As a ceramicist, this card reminded me of how rewarding it feels to make something tangible“.

Full review on my blog #TarotCake, link in bio

#Tarot #TarotCards #TarotDecks #MyTarotJourney #LearningTarot #TarotReaders #TarotReadersofInstagram #TarotCollector

#NewTarotDeck #DeckReview #TarotDeckReview #FatFolksTarot

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Recent Posts

The Sun
In Major Arcana, Tarot Card Meanings
Readings This Weekend: SomersFest, Portsmouth
In Readings
Currently On Kickstarter: The Out Of Hand Tarot (Pocket Edition)
In Decks, Glorious Decks!, Indie Decks, Kickstarter Decks

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Decks, Glorious Decks!
Indie Decks
Kickstarter Decks
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