Category: Reviews

Image Courtesy of Living Magick

As most of you know, in November 2010 I started “The Living Magick Tarot Challenge”. The folks at Living Magick were kind enough to send me a copy of their tarot self study flash cards, and so I decided that I would chronicle my attempt to once and for all learn the tarot with monthly updates here on The Magical Buffet.

I’m pleased to say my progress has been slow but steady. About 10-15 minutes a day has me on track to eventually have a general understanding of the traditional interpretation of the tarot cards. Something that has been a long time coming. And something, thanks to my horrible memory, will be a long time to fully achieve. Recently I found myself thinking that perhaps having you all read these updates monthly might get a little boring. Of course, there was the larger realization. One that I suspect real tarot readers have known all along.

I don’t think you ever stop learning the tarot. You learn all the traditional meanings and interpretations, but every time you spread the cards there is going to always be something else to learn. The way one card influences the others seems like it will be an endless learning experience. One that I’m sure will take me years to even brush the surface of. And as much as I like knowing what one article a month will be about, I don’t think I’m going to have enough entertaining or enlightening insights to warrant a monthly update for the unforeseeable future.

However, I do want to say a few things before I step away from the official “Living Magick Tarot Challenge”. First, I want to say what great folks are over there at Living Magick. They are filled with enthusiasm for their work and incredibly kind for giving me their cards to play with. Second, The Living Magick tarot learning cards are just wonderful. This really is a product long over due. It seems like something useful for beginners like me, and even for seasoned tarot readers. If I was well versed in the tarot, I would consider the occasional run through this deck as a tarot “check up”. Perhaps a way to get a fresh perspective on the cards themselves. Lastly, as always, I want to thank all of you for reading my monthly updates! I can’t claim as to know why, but you all kept reading them, and I appreciate it!

And now, the future!

Images Courtesy of Living Magick

Yikes! Is it the end of February already? Where the heck did this month go? I’ve had a busy February working on The Magical Buffet, dealing with my assorted health dramas, and trying to learn Spanish, but more importantly, I’ve also had some time to work with Living Magick’s “self study flash cards”!

I’m afraid the rest of this article is going to seem anticlimactic, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a success. This month I worked on retaining what I’ve learned so far, which is the Major Arcana (but not their reversals), and I added the Page, Knight, Queen, and King of Cups into the mix. At first I thought I would add in the entirety of the Cups suit, but quickly realized that I was biting off more than I could chew. I opted for slower, but hopefully more meaningful progress.

As you can see here, the art for the Minor Arcana is still minimal. I think these days who knows what the art for any given tarot card will look like. For me, I feel it’s better to try and associate with names in case you decide to change decks or haven’t yet committed to a particular deck, which makes these cards perfect.

Looking at the back you can see why I opted for the less is more approach. You’re given what Pages represent, what Cups represent, their association with water and the astrological correspondences, along with keywords. That’s a lot of totally new information for each card! However, by learning these I can now already be steps ahead on other cards.

My routine of 10-15 minutes of practice most days seems to have me slowly but steadily progressing. My next challenge will be adding in the rest of the Cups while still working on retaining all the information I’ve already learned. This will be a pretty big jump, I’ll let you know how it goes next month!

Curious as to what the heck this is all about? See how the Living Magick Tarot Challenge began here.

Image Courtesy of Living Magick.

Here we are again folks, but I’m happy to say I’m back on track. You may recall that last month I confessed to doing just about nothing with my cool Living Magick tarot learning cards, despite committing to working on it just one month prior. I may lack discipline, but at least I’m honest.

This month I did a much better job of working with the flash cards, but it was frustrating because I’d forgotten much of what I had learned in November! So January was about relearning the Major Arcana, and I’m pleased to say that with regards to that I’m now in good shape. I know the general theme of each card, its astrological association, and some other keywords associated with each card. Once you remember the general theme, the keywords are pretty easy to recall since they’re generally off shoots of the general theme. The astrological associations were a bit tougher until I remembered what I had learned from “The Magical I Ching” by J.H. Brennan.

For a class I needed to learn the basics of working with the I Ching and Brennan’s book was the main text for the class. In learning the trigrams he suggests coming up with visual cues for each trigram, and the more bizarre, the more likely you are to remember the meaning. For example, his text about the trigram of Gentle or Wind is as follows:

To help you remember the trigram itself, I noted that it was broken at the bottom. There are few things you could imagine quite so rude as breaking Wind from your bottom.

I know, I know, this sort of image is thoroughly unsuitable for a sober tome on a spiritual oracle…but you’ll never forget that trigram now, will you? And by the way, if you must break wind, do it gently. That way you’ll remember the other title of the trigram.

I love me some Brennan! Now Living Magick’s tarot learning cards do not have images, which I rather like because these days who knows what image will appear on any given card of any given deck. However, I was still able to use absurd associations to help learn the astrological signs for each card.

For example, the astrological association given for The Fool is Uranus. I immediately thought about how young kids (and well, many adults) will always chuckle at Uranus. You said Uranus…heh, heh, heh. So obviously a fool says Uranus. Is it sound logic? No. Has it worked? Yes. More bizarre still was while learning a favorite card of mine, The Hanged Man, its astrological sign is Neptune. What odd string of logic did I use to remember this? The Hanged Man’s legs are generally drawn with one leg straight and the other bent. It’s kind of trident-esque and the trident is often depicted with the god Neptune. It’s totally weird and embarrassing to admit to, but it’s getting the job done.

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to apply this “logic” to learning about Cups in the Minor Arcana, but I’ll obviously let you know how it goes. And again, thanks to Living Magick for the great deck! It’s a real boon for a beginner like me!

You may recall that last month I started “The Living Magick Tarot Challenge”, where I use Living Magick’s awesome “Tarot Learning Cards” to finally learn the tarot and chronicle my progress monthly. November had a very strong start and I felt confident that by the end of December I would have the Major Arcana down cold, and would be well on my way to knowing the entire suit of Cups from the Minor Arcana. Yep, that was the plan.

Well, we might as well call this update what it is, bull crap. I have loads of excuses and no results. My illness from November is still a problem in December. My husband has spent the better part of December sick on our sofa. My work situation got pretty crazy in December. And of course, there were the holidays. Not only did I fail to maintain even the slightest bit of discipline with using Living Magick’s “Tarot Learning Cards”, I just fell off the wagon entirely and didn’t even touch the cards the entire month of December.

So why on Earth am I writing this update when I have nothing to share? Essentially to keep me honest. I could sit here and lie and odds are good no one would ever realize I hadn’t learned anything, but what’s the point in that? I dropped the ball. I suck. And now I’m moving on.

The holidays are over. My health, although still shaky, is certainly manageable for the moment. The husband is out of sick days to use for work. And my overall work load has become something I have much greater control over. Enough about December and all its failings, and on to January! We’ll talk about this again soon, I promise.