PCO: I want love, pero ni tanto.

A few days ago i did a relationship reading for a close person, a divorced woman near her fifties. Actually, i did two. One of them was about their love life in the present (and the reading showed with poignant clarity that right now she was more concerned about taking care of her business than looking for love. So i did another, using the Cat Spread taught by Ana Cortez in the book of the Playing Card Oracles.

The point of this spread is to use the deck as the calendar that it, in fact, is. The deck has 52 cards - a lunar year has 52 weeks. It also has 4 suits, just like the year has 4 seasons, Each suit has 13 cards - each season, 13 weeks. Therefore, each card of the deck represents one week. These are some of the many correspondences between the calendar and a deck of playing cards. If you would like to read more about this, I highly recommend Ana Cortez's article on the subject.

The purpose of the Cat Spread is to find within the range of one year when what the sitter asked is more likely to happen. Or when something of significance related to the sitter's question will happen. And the cards show how it'll (or won't) happen. Why one year only? Because the deck is a one year calendar, so it cannot see beyond that. It can only see up to 52 weeks from the present.

So, i did this reading to know if she would find a partner within the next year.

The timing was seven lunar months and two weeks from the date of the reading (which happened last weekend). So the reading is indicating, approximately, the second week of September.

"September???", my sitter cried. "That's almost an year from now!"

I told her that she's welcome to challenge this reading, for not everything is written on stone. What most of readings show is a tendency, change your present path and you may also change the outcome of the situation.

These were the card for her reading:

Head (♦/Fire): 4♦

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Throat (♣/Air): 11♣

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Torso (♥/Water): 6♠

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Feet (♠/Earth): 13♥

Geomantc Figures

Because Geomancy is used with the Playing Card Oracles, one of my main reading decks, i think it's important here to post a table with the 16 figures, so people will know which is which.

Here's an overview of the figure's meanings. If you wish to learn more about them, the wikipedia has a marvelous page on the meaning of the Geomantic Figures - you should definitely check it out.

On how to deal with "obsessive" sitters...

This was part of a thread posted in the Aeclectic Tarot Forum, about a querent that just wanted to know if her ex-lover (a married man) was still thinking of her. The reader who posted it was annoyed (with a reason), because he/she wanted to give a in-depth reading and the sitter would not listen. She wanted a quick and dirty answer - preferably a "yes".

I'm the kind who usually gets annoyed at this kind of people, but lately I've been giving the whole matter some thought... and it changed the way I see it. Here's my opinion, answering the reader's post.

PCO + The Pentagram Spread

Here's the reading I did using the PCO with the Pentagram Spread.


~*~

................5♣.............

..................................
....13♠................14♠

..................................
........11♠.......13♣.....

Your reading is full of earth - almost the entire Earth family is there (Morgana, Mardoc and Pampero). Are your an Earth sign, like Taurus, Capricorn or Virgo? That might explain the amount of earth cards! The five cards are black suits - the can mean that you have been feeling more introspective as of late, or more serious. Or even a bit melancholic.

There's a lack of Diamonds and Hearts, which are the more impulsive and spontaneous elements. Maybe you are lacking of spontaneity right now, or energy (real life can be a vampire sometimes). You don't have to become crazy and hyper, not at all. Just look for people and environments that make you feel more comfortable, so you can loosen up a bit when you are more tense.

The Pentagram Spread

A while ago, in one of the reading circles at AT, we used a spread called "The Pentagram Spread", taken from the companion book to the Druid Plant Oracle. I do not own this deck - the person who suggested the spread does.

I was surprised at how well it works with the Playing Card Oracle. I believe that it's because each position had an element related to it, which makes possible to relate to element of the card itself.

Here's the layout of the spread:

.............................................5...

........................................(Spirit)...

..............3...........................................................2....

...(Air/thinking)......................................(Water/feeling)....

....................4............................................1.....

......(Earth/sensation)........................(Fire/intuition)......

1: The Place of the Inner Flame: the role of intuition in your life, how it may be developed, or how it may relate to a new idea/direction that is about to dawn.

2: The Place of the Well: the role of emotions in your life, how emotional maturity may be developed, or how it may relate to influences that are affecting your feelings or the life of your heart.

3: The Place of the Sword: the role of intellect in your life, how your mind might be developed, or how influences are affecting your thoughts and judgement.

4: The Place of the Stone: the role of your body and senses in your life, how your health might be developed, or how influences are affecting your health and physical circumstances.

5: The Place of the Spirit/Soul: gifts or advice coming from the spiritual world and your essential Core Self (ideas that can help you achieve a sense of wholeness, balance, and integration).

Source: Carr-Gomm, Philip; Carr-Gomm, Stephanie (2008). The Druid Plant Oracle. New York: St. Martin's Press. 

I'll soon post the reading done with this spread - it was very interesting!

PJ Lenormand - we meet again!

Last week a participated of an oracle reading exchange at the Aeclectic Tarot Forum.

I usually participate of this exchange to do some PCO readings, as I still don't have many opportunities to read with it in real life for other people. Last week, however, my exchange partner asked me to use a deck I hadn't used for ages: the Petit Jeu Lenormand.

Here in Brazil, we know it by the name of "Baralho Cigano" - gypsy deck.

I must admit I wasn't very happy with the prospect of using the PJ. And to think I used to study it and read with it so often in the past! I was afraid that my skills were completely rusty after such a long time without any practice. But my partner had asked me to read with this deck, I said okay, so no turning back now.

Review: Tarô dos Animais - Arutam Wakanl

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything during the last days.

Last Sunday was my graduation ceremony, so during the entire last week I was very busy. And very nervous. All went good, despite the broken air-conditioning and the searing heat we had to endure wearing those black graduation gown. The summer this year is being nearly unbearable here!

I'm here to talk briefly about one of the decks i got a as a gift from my ex co-worker and dearest friend, Janina. It's a brazilian deck called Tarô dos Animais - Arutam Wakanl (Animals Tarot - Arutam Wakanl), that despite the name isn't actually a tarot deck, but an oracle.

It's not the sort of deck i'd buy, usually. I never bought any decks related to shamanism ever since my Medicine Cards and my Sacred Path Cards - the only two shamanic decks i ever owned - sadly fell in a bucket of water and were destroyed (actually i forgot them at dad's place and when i came back, the cards were cockled as they had been wet and then carelessly dried - but i digress).

But it was a gift, so it wasn't my choice. Janina said i could exchange for something else. But for some reason, the cards attracted me.

Now they aren't the prettiest cards in the world. But then again, i have this attraction for decks that are not the prettiest (like the Tarot of the Witches by Fergus Hall, one of my favorite decks that is usually described as "rather ugly"). Also, they are a deck made by brazilian authors, which is rather uncommon - most of decks are usually imported, translated and published.

Something made me keep this deck - and it's not the fact it was a gift.
The reason? Beats me!