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A Veil of Ravens – The King of Swords 

Last night, I went to the cinema and saw a beautiful movie based on Tim Conigrave’s memoir entitled ‘Holding the Man’. Being the emotional empath I am I knew it was going to eventuate in me in the cinema blubbering away while trying to hold as much composure as I could. To give you a little background, in 2012 I was in my last year of Drama School and was lucky enough to do a reading of ‘Holding the Man’ for the State Theatre Company of South Australia. I was given the role of Timothy. As soon as I read the play I felt a deep connection to the subject matter, so I knew how much of an impact seeing the movie was going to have. This morning when I woke up I felt quite emotionally drained, both from the movie and the fact that I got a little stuck in thoughts after it about what had been happening in my life over the last five months. This nearly stopped me from picking up my cards for my daily draw, but I held fast and picked up my deck (secretly hoping for a nice calming card such as The Star or something of the sort) and drew.  And what did I receive, why the King of Swords of course 😛

King of Swords – Shadowscapes Tarot

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A Vixen’s Defiance – the Seven of Wands

Today’s  Card of the Day, the Seven of Wands, is all about aggression and defiance, standing your ground and asserting yourself. I absolutely adore Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s interpretation of this card in the Shadowscapes Tarot, which shows a vixen and badger in a head on clash.

Seven of Wands - Shadowscapes Tarot
Seven of Wands – Shadowscapes Tarot

There are times in life when we need to stand up for what we believe in, these can be simple views, or they can be very dear to us, which is what I believe we see in the card above. The Vixen is not just fighting for herself, but in order to protect her kits. Her love for them burns in her heart, and the fear for their safety makes her fight with all her strength. Badgers can be very vicious animals, tough adversaries indeed. But when we have conviction and a strong character we can withstand any obstacle.

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First ever Card of the Day…Page of Pentacles

Now for those of you new to tarot, you may not know what a ‘Card of the Day’ is. Put simply it is a widely used exercise in the tarot community, where you draw a card each day, and contemplate how it’s energy may be playing out as the day progresses. To expand upon this you can also take the card as being representative of something that may happen during the day, or how I think I will proceed with this excercise, as possible messages of things to work on/towards.

I’ve put this practice off for quite some time for various reasons, but it is a big part of The Alternative Tarot Course so I wouldn’t be doing the course justice if I didn’t partake in this ritual. Let alone the fact that it is a really good way of learning the cards 😃. So this morning before getting ready for work I took out my deck, shuffled my cards and drew my first Card of the Day…the Page of Pentacles.

Page of Pentacles - Shadowscapes Tarot
Page of Pentacles – Shadowscapes Tarot

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The Alternative Tarot Course – Week 1, Exercise 1

So I’ve decided that it is high time for me to really commit myself to this whole tarot thing. It’s been floating around in my mind for so long now, but I’ve always put off a more precise and thought out study of the cards for the much more ‘safe’ option of reading about them on blogs, and the occasional reading when I’m feeling really adventurous. No more trepidation. No more procrastination! Today’s the day I step out of my comfort zone. I said to myself Adam, stop being so scared of putting yourself out there. If you really want to be good at this, you have to try hard. And with that I signed up to The Alternative Tarot Course, created by Beth Maiden at Little Red Tarot 😊. It’s a beautifully designed course where you can discover and develop your own, personal approach to tarot through a series of 8 chapters. Even though I’ve only just had a quick flick through I would definitely suggest you check it out in my link above 😃.

So here we go, Exercise 1 – What is Tarot?

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Hello, my name is Shadowscapes. How are you? … My first Deck Interview.

So a couple of weeks back while reading through the Little Red Tarot blog I stumbled across a few posts in which Beth interviewed her decks to learn a little more about them. After a quick perusal I thought that it would be fun to interview my Shadowscapes deck, and hopefully become closer in the process. And here is what she had to say about herself…

Six of Wands, Nine of Cups, Three of Pentacles, Knight of Cups, Nine of Pentacles, Knight of Pentacles - Shadowscapes Tarot
Six of Wands, Nine of Cups, Three of Pentacles, Knight of Cups, Nine of Pentacles, Knight of Pentacles – Shadowscapes Tarot
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A Reappearance – Welcome back to Miss Dryad…

I need some help. I’m sick of falling into sadness without a way forward. I feel as if the energies are better today than they were last night so I’ve decided it’s time to consult the cards about the issues I have been having, which I outlined in yesterday’s post. I decided to go with a simple three card spread asking “How best can I deal with my thoughts and feelings around my breakup? This is what came up…

Four of Swords, The Moon, Ten of Wands - Shadowscapes Tarot
Four of Swords, The Moon, Ten of Wands – Shadowscapes Tarot

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A slave to my heart…

What is it about heartbreak that holds you in and refuses to let go? One moment I feel fine, as if I’m starting to move on, and then suddenly it all falls apart and I’m once again a slave to my heart. I thought that with this much time passing I would be able to think about my ex, or see a picture of him, and not feel the love I felt when we were together. But I was wrong. I just wish there was a switch that I could flick to turn it all off. That I could finally move on with my life. But I guess this is what happens when you are not the person who chooses to go. When you are simply forced by circumstances to no longer give your heart to the person you love.

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How can I move on from this stage of sadness?

So for those of you who haven’t read my previous three posts the last four or so months have been really hard for me emotionally. In May my partner and I broke up, and this truly shook me to my core. I always saw us moving through our lives together and when I thought of my future I always saw him by my side. Travelling to Europe for the first time together, having a place we could call our own, getting our first pet, all those small things that you take for granted until you realise they are no longer possible. And while I wish things didn’t have to be this way, and that I could speak to him again, unfortunately we only have true control over ourselves and our own actions. We have no real power when someone has made up their mind.

Before I came to realise this, I decided that I needed some guidance, so I pulled out my deck, and using a lovely spread I found on Little Red Tarot, which I believe Beth got from a friend of hers, I asked, “How can I move on from this stage of sadness?”

Two of Swords, Ten of Wands & Two of Wands - Shadowscapes Tarot
Two of Swords, Ten of Wands & Two of Wands – Shadowscapes Tarot 21/08/15

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Whispers from The Empress – What my Tarot Stalker has taught me. (Part 3 of 3)

So you may be wondering, why all the posts about Tarot Stalkers. Well when you do over six readings in a row, over an extended period of time, and every single time one specific card comes up, you know that something higher is going on. I am personally so very grateful that The Empress gave her time to be with me over all those readings, for it has taught me a lot. 

Because I am only just starting out on this journey with the tarot, and I’m definitely still only skimming the surface of what there is to learn, it is easy to fall into the trap of a shallow interpretation of the cards. Instead of spending time to see if there is more they are trying to tell me, I would often just take hold of the first thing that sprung to my mind. Now looking back over the last couple of readings, I can see why The Empress kept coming up. It was because I wasn’t listening to what she was really trying to tell me.

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A reprimand from my Tarot Stalker – Why won’t you listen to me! (Part 2 of 3)

As I said in my last post, it took me a very long time after my break up to feel centred enough to even think about using my cards. Three months in fact. Those months were so clouded with pain and heartbreak, and it seemed that I was getting more and more lost in the fog as each day past. I had lost the man who I had thought I would spend the rest of my life with. And in such a way that I was left with so many unanswered questions.

I wonder, looking back, what cards would have called to me if I had done a reading sometime during that period. I bet you more then anything that The Empress would be among them 😝. 

Come late July I was beginning to feel compelled to hold my deck in my hands again, I must have been healing, unbeknownst to me at the time, for I still felt as saddened as ever by the events of May. My soul’s call was answered one day at work, when a customer of mine brought out his deck to do a reading for a friend of his. This had never happened at work before, and it must have planted a seed in my mind, awaiting a little watering from the universe. That seed didn’t have to wait very long at all, for that evening my mother and I were watching an episode of a series we had started (Penny Dreadful I believe) and for the first time the main character brought out her own deck to do a reading. I thought to myself, ok universe, I’m going to take this as a hint that it’s time for me to jump back out there, and continue on the adventure I began in March.

So the next day after reading a few posts on the beautiful and inspiring Beth’s Little Red Tarot blog, I decided that it was time for me to pull a card, and see what the universe had to tell me. So I shuffled my deck and composed myself, opening to the knowledge I was about to receive, and lo and behold, The Empress was back to say hello. 

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