New Year, New Tarot Journey

At the beginning of a new year, I always do the same thing: exploring my year card and finding my personal power word to guide me along.

If you are struggling to identify any meaningful goals or intentions, then don’t despair and read my article on this topic.

My year card last year was The Chariot, and my power word was ONWARDS.

Looking back at 2016, which was rather challenging at times, I can say that I have come a long way, not lingering in situations that weren’t good for me.

Each time I was hesitating or wondering, my special word ONWARDS reminded me of what I wanted to achieve. It was quite magickal.

This year, my year card is Strength, and my personal power word is CREATE.

Strength embodies qualities such as passion, creativity, resilience and soft power, which I am hoping to utilise and develop during 2017.

My special word CREATE indicates activities I would like to focus on, such as making and creating things, including arts and crafts.

Together with Strength, it also relates to becoming more assertive, ruthlessly expressing my values and opinions openly without fear, which is especially important in today’s divisive isolationist world of Trump and Brexit.

This means that instead of avoiding debate, I will engage in a constructive way and not turn away from people with different opinions.

You cannot CREATE change, if you retreat to the echo chamber full of like-minded folk.

Strength isn’t about running away from it all; it’s about having the courage (or CREATE-ing it) to face that lion and roar back into his face.

With regards to Tarot, CREATE will involve completion of my tarot deck and a new tarot journal ebook, Cosmic Journaling Through the Year.

I will also concentrate on offering more creative tarot journaling resources in order to provide ideas and inspiration to get you into visual and tarot art journaling.

Why creative tarot journaling?

If you love journaling, then you know how therapeutic it can be. If you haven’t really done any regular journaling yet, then perhaps because blank white pages in a notebook don’t inspire you, or you just don’t know where and how to start.

I am at a stage now, where writing down words alone is no longer enough, even if it’s in a pretty notebook. I need to express myself on a visual level, too.

Don’t worry if you think you’re not very good at art. You don’t have to be. The resources I am offering are designed to spice up your tarot journal and even help you create your own unique journal from scratch.

If you are learning the Tarot, then journaling is a powerful tool to help you connect with the cards.

Journaling can help you put your mind in order, relax, loose yourself in words and art, and switch off from an otherwise busy life at least for a while.

Cosmic Faery's Journal Workbook

Visual journaling with your tarot and oracle cards creates mindfulness and awareness in everyday living.

This is the kind of thing I want to work on this year, helping you to help yourself with creative tarot art journaling, and I hope you are interested in joining me on this venture.

You can access creative journaling freebies on my Ko-fi page, where you can also follow me for more free stuff and grab some fabulous creative journaling printables in my Shop.

Warmest wishes,

Christiane

Connect with me on:

Substack - Live more Magic

Medium - Simplify your Life

Ko-Fi - Creative Tarot Journaling

Cosmic Tarot Deck and Book Review

The Cosmic Tarot deck by German artist Norbert Lösche isn't a new deck; it's been around since the 1980s and inbetween it was out of print for a while.

But because it's one of my all time favourites, I felt the urge to write a little review about it, especially now that I've bought the companion book for it, too.

My copy of the Cosmic Tarot deck is an F.X. Schmid edition from 1988, and I connect fond memories with it.

It was the era of the cold war slowly coming to an end, my time at uni coming to an end, and New Age topics gaining more interest mainly due to feminist and green/alternative movements.

There was massive change in the air, which is reflected in the cards; the Cosmic Tarot is not a traditional deck.

Although many images bear some resemblance to the RWS (Rider Waite Smith) Tarot and its clones, others depict contemporary scenes and modern symbolism, such as men in suits and yoga poses.

The overall feel of this deck is one of inter-connectedness and the individual's connection to the cosmos.

We see celestial symbols  - the sun, moon and stars - on most of the images, and if not, there is at least a little sparkle somewhere in the scene.

Astrological symbolism based on the Golden Dawn correspondences has also been added, although not consistently on each image, and some is a little misleading.

For example, we see a lion in the background of the Nine of Wands, which can be mistaken for this card to be linked to the zodiac sign Leo. However, the Nine of Wands is linked to Moon in Sagittarius.

In order to make sense of some of the card meanings, it is worthwhile purchasing the companion book.

There is a lot of information on the Major Arcana cards, and each one is explored in relation to the cosmos, the human community and the individual, with keyword meanings as a summary.

The Minor Arcana cards are tackled more briefly, which is a little disappointing, but you will still pick up new insights on each one of them.

It's important to note that the meanings of some Minor Arcana cards in the Cosmic Tarot differ considerably from the standard RWS deck, which is reflected in the images, so again it does makes sense to buy the companion book.

The court cards - King, Queen, Prince, Princess - all depict people just like in a traditional deck. The companion book reveals that some of them are based on movie stars, such as the Prince of Wands (Tom Cruise) and Queen of Swords (Ingrid Bergmann).

Bygone movie stars are also hidden on other cards, but those are for you to discover 😃

There are also new spreads to try out, such as the Cosmic Pentagram and Human Community spread. Both involve a large number of cards (11 and 10 respectively).

Overall, I do love using this deck, and if you are looking for a deck with a more modern and inclusive feel, then this one is for you.

Nowadays the Cosmic Tarot is published by AGM Urania. 

The book is sold separately. Find out more on Jean Huet's website.

Warmest wishes,

Christiane

Connect with me on:

Substack - Live more Magic

Medium - Simplify your Life

Ko-Fi - Creative Tarot Journaling