Sunday Night (or Monday Morning) Tarot Hoedown

First, (since I don't have much to offer this week,) I thought I'd share some Tarot links that I think are really good. With the exeption of Aeclectic, these are ones that don't usually get the
airtime they deserve.

Aeclectic Tarot

Church of Tarot

Supertarot

Tarot Corner

Tarot Traditions

Tarot Passages

Tainted Tarot


Next, as promised, I will demonstrate the use of the Soul Questions spread. I did the reading for this on Friday night, when (as usual--you guys know me) I was up waaaay too late since I had to be up and ready to go somewhere at 7:30. You will note that the cards seem to take me out to the woodshed.

While a sound drubbing might make for an interesting evening in some quarters and at appropriate times, you've heard me say it before: sometimes the cards just kick my ass.

Consider this an object lesson: When you get a reading that is not quite a happy affair, you may not want to discount what the cards are telling you out of hand. After all, this is your subconscious speaking to you, saying things you might want to say to yourself if you had yourself sitting in a chair right in front of you.

1. King of Pents, reversed--Danger, Will Robinson! Your faculties are dulled and open to corruption.


2. Four of Cups--Possiblities are there, but you need to get out of your own way first.


3. Moon--Your overactive imagination is working against you, kid.


4. Nine of Swords--You are wallowing in the mire of
   despondency--once again, get out of your own way and have a little
   faith in yourself.


5. The Hermit--You have the capacity to share the secrets you have with others.


6. King of Swords, reversed--Don't be selfish and cruel--you could be setting yourself up for a fall.
   

This is basically saying, "Listen, silly, I'm not gonna give you a reading when you are up so late when you have to get up early the next day!"

I am abandoning my purpose by staying up late. I wasn't feeling right about doing the reading. I was decieving myself and so not utilizing my talents well. I was very unhappy about not having enough time, just need faith in my abilities.

One bright spot about this reading was it told me I could utilize this to share my foibles with others, and thereby pass on a little knowledge that way.

It tells me that my staying up late is a manifestation of bad selfishness.

So Thursday was the first meeting of the Intro to Philosophy class.

I know there are some of you out there that go to REAL college, and I envy you. There are some reasons why many people laugh about community colleges, and they were exemplified by some of the people in my class.

First I was in the bookstore, picking up my textbook, and some woman came up to me, the way many women before have come to me, in various vocational school classes and similar venues, they come to me wanting something, and having the feeling that I am someone with the ability,
if not the inclination, to help them out.

Of course it was a very small thing, no skin off my nose to answer the question, but it was what she did after that really frosted my ass. Again, what she DID wasn't huge either, but still...

She noticed that I was getting a text for the same class as her, and asked me what room the class was in. She knew where the building was, just not the room, she said. Thinking she might walk with me to the building, and thus save me having to check the map, I told her. I turned around to sign for my stuff, and when I turned back, she was gone. Like it would have killed her to wait another 10 seconds for someone who had helped her out.

"That's the last time I help her!" I thought. I have had a snootfull of what these kind of women do in schools. These goofy housewife type bitches will come wheedling and simpering and whimpering for you to help them with their papers with no regard for the fact you are busy working on yours. These kind of bitches really screwed my sister over when she was going to Notre Dame. I'm not that generous and will ignore anyone who doesn't take no for an answer (I've had to do so before, obviously I may have to again.)

No thanks to her, I found the building, got there a little early, and found about eighty percent of the class sitting in the dark. That's right folks, none of these future ontological pontificators had
the presence of mind to flip on the lightswitch. I did so, decrying, "Let there be light!" And there was light.

Tuesday Morning Tarot Hoedown

Hello, fellow babies out there in the blogosphere, this entry is brought to you by the beverages: Red Bull and Coke. When you absolutely, postitively, have to get something done. The
Hoedown will return to Friday this week at it's regularly scheduled time.

The first item of business will be a review.

Divinatory Suite Software

I've tried other Tarot software and been slightly disappointed, but this gets a big thumbs up from me! Not that it's entirely without an iffy side--my Spybot Search & Destroy ping-ed
a few times while it was downloading, and if I didn't have Firefox I don't know what shape my browser would be in now, so this is probably not for people without good protection. That said, however, the features are worth the "price of admission"--which is "free to download and use forever!" which makes my cheap side very happy.



First you have access to three different decks and the standard Runes, 21 different Tarot spreads (including three different versions of the Celtic Cross.) You can manage the particulars of the spread: do you want to use only major arcana? Do you want to use card reversals?

The choices given make for a much more usable interface, and though I still had to get my own cards out and go over the reading like I always do with a computerized reading, I didn't feel as "removed" from the spread as I would have if I was using that Tarot software I paid ten bucks for at CompUSA.

But wait, there's more! There is also a diary function, where you can not only store the reading, but post your own thoughts. There is also a section where you can learn card meanings. But the feature that really sold me was the "Create a Spread" function. Here you are given space to
create layouts, and a place to type in the meanings of every postition. Also, you are given the option to share it with the Divinatory Suite community.

All in all, this gets the Hermgirl Seal of Approval.

And now, without further ado, I give you the latest spread I have developed, and a reading on myself to demonstrate its use.

~ The Soul Questions Spread ~

This is probably a good spread for beginners to use, since it has less than seven card positions (as always in my spreads, you can add an extra card on a position to elucidate.) It is quite heady, though, so be sure you want answers to these questions. Also, you will probably only want to do this spread occasionally, say once a month or so.

Just lay your cards out right to left.

1. Your basic purpose in life--your True Will.


2. What makes you unique?


3. Where does your genius lie? Skills and Talents.


4. Life challenges (and how to overcome them.)


5. What you should know about current changes.


6. Life developments: What will manifest for you if you continue on the path you are going down?
   

Since it has gotten very late, I will continue with the reading demo tomorrow.

I wrote this last night but couldn't post it because my comp was going floopy on me.

Writing this in my notebook as the Bart train careens towards Berkeley...

I had two eggs for breakfast this morning, fried in olive oil.
They were perfect, and when I plated them out, I noticed that the way
they had cooked rendered them into a natural Yin-Yang symbol.

I am getting back into the swing of things. You know how when you
are really sick for a couple of weeks, you'll get well, but you are
slightly off your game for another couple of weeks? That's the
way it works for me, anyway.

So I took this morning's breakfast as a sign. Getting back into
the swing of things, I'm a member of the First Church of Hermworld with
Fire and Signs Following.

More after my Pathworking class.

Resumed today, due to last night's technical difficulties.

Last night we traveled from Yesod to Hod.

Hod can be thought of as the Realm of Nerds. The guided
meditation took us to the Library of Alexandria (and as a book nerd,
the Library of Alexandria is a place I've often thought I would see
when I got to heaven) and references made to Socrates, Jesus, and Da
Vinci, among others.

In the Tarot, Hod corresponds to the four eights in the deck. Here is what Crowley has to say, in The Book of Thoth:

"Being in the same plane as the Sevens on the Tree of Life, but on the other side, the same inherent defects as are found in the Sevens will apply.

Yet one may perhaps urge this alleviation, that the Eights come as (in a sense) a remedy for the error of the Sevens (the Sevens having been described as pertaining to Venus, and to Earth, which weakens the energy of Venus.)

The mischief has been done; and there is now a reaction against it. On may, therefore, expect to find that, while there is no possibility of perfection in the cards of this number, thery are free
from such essential and original errors as in the Lower case."

In the year 2005 I resolve to: Teach my dogs to fly. Get your resolution here

There are five of them, so I better get crackin'.

Happy New Year, Blogger Citizens!

Statements of Will for 2005

Rather than make "New Year's Resolutions", which are something you can make, then forget about by February, perhaps if I do it this way, I'll be more likely to keep them (it could happen!)

In 2005, I will:

• Stir more meat into the pot. I'm talking essay-entries here in this journal, as well as articles and a new look for my website.


• Become a raging health-machine. At any point I should be able to stop and ask myself, "At what percentage am I being the Ultimate Health Machine?" Getting hit with the flu over Xmas is my motivation here, while it afforded me the ability to opt out of a holiday I am rapidly growing disenchanted with, it's no fun having Twilight Zone hallucinations and thinking you're gonna die...


• Keep a magickal diary. There is a very convincing argument here for the benefits of doing it.


• Explore the depths of what I can do with my with my new digital camera. And no, sorry, that doesn't mean what some of you think that need to get your minds outta the gutter...