2009: A Devil of a Year

It's been a while here, hasn't it? I have been working on a journal intermittently, but just haven't had the time or energy to blog about it. It still amazes me how stressful graduate life can be!
But enough about stress; it's the new year! Now as a general rule, I'm not much for resolutions. My resolve falters on a regular basis and I find it disappointing when I let myself down. Instead, I've opted to make some goals. These things are arguably one and the same, but semantics-wise I am much more successful at accomplishing goals.

In terms of tarot, I've decided to actually follow through with an intensive deck study on my Magical Forest deck. (Hooray!) Over the last 7 or so months I have discovered several things about reading with my deck. The first is that I am utterly unsuccessful at doing a daily spread if I do it in the morning. The second is that I still don't know most of my deck! And the third is that I am not too shabby at reading the flow of cards together even when single card meanings elude me. After lurking about some blogs and forums, and in order to deal with my discoveries from last year in this fresh year, I've developed a plan.

In my intensive deck study I will:

• do a 1-3 card draw each night to inquire about the next day
• choose a single card each day to explore. Since this deck is pretty nuanced and has a tendency to speak specific contextual details clearly, this exploration will include several print and online resources regarding the general (traditional) meanings of the card as well as my own personal interpretation of it.
• practice reading on various questions over the weekends (if time allows)
• journal in detail my daily explorations and weekend spreads, and at the very least list my daily draws (assuming I don't have time to write in depth on those as well).
  

Pretty simple, no? We'll see how well I stick to it and how much blogging I manage this year!

Moving forward...or backwards I suppose. I did a 12 card spread on New Year's Day to have a peek at my 2009. However, I realized as I was making note of the spread that I accidentally dealt a 13th card: my old nemesis the Devil, reversed. After looking over the cards, El Diablo was most certainly meant to be there as he neatly summed up the overall vibe my cards were giving me. January's card, Queen of Cups reversed, was also quite informative. My intuition on the rest of the year decreased the longer I read, which could have been due to the actual time I spent interpreting, the distance into the near future I was asking about, and/or my unfamilarity with some of the cards.

So my haunting card in 2008 was Strength. She came up all the time, frequently in context of something I should rely on or a major part of my day(s). It is a card I think I'm well in tune with and one whose lesson(s) I learned this year. Throughout my yet brief foray into tarot she has offered me excellent guidance and I have grown quite fond of her. And here's the part where this relates to the new year! Today I decided to give Arwen's nice balance spread/numerology exercise a try. Frankly, I'm distracted today and the cards aren't making too much sense on the whole (particular 7 of Swords as what's in balance for my heart), but the card representing my most (or alternatively, least) balanced area right now came up as Strength. We really are quite good friends these days I think. ;)

Cheers!