CARD OF THE WEEKEND: April 30-May 1, 2022

Queen of Arrows

Greenwood Tarot

by Mark Ryan with art by Chesca Potter

April 30-May 1, 2022: Sometimes we stumble upon entirely different universes when we visit decks crafted by artists who see traditional Tarot archetypes in unique ways. Greenwood Tarot, created by artist Chesca Potter and writer Mark Ryan, has enough idiosyncrasies to make convention-bound Tarotistas throw their hands up, but it is l-o-v-e-l-y none the less and beloved by many.

Why is Tarot's Queen of Swords--here styled as Queen of Arrows--represented by a white doe resting on grass beneath a hectic sky of swirling yellow/orange spirals? Why do her antlers resemble lava erupting towards that sky and yet also perfectly embracing an airborne valentine? There's a red arrow stuck in the ground by her flank, but the doe seems completely unconcerned with it. 

Where is the austere, brainy, challenging Swords/Air Queen we've come to expect? Though, do notice, below, Pamela Colman Smith's own use of yellow, orange, and red. I believe I've talked about this before. Her strong Queen of Swords is not completely without passion.

Queen of Swords

Rider-Waite Tarot

art by Pamela Colman Smith

Reader, I beckon you into Potter and Ryan's world and suggest you ground yourself in what is. Look around and find out.

That sky blazes with the bright fires of Celtic and Wiccan holiday of Beltane (May 1) as does the doe's flaming antlers. Ryan and Potter associate the suit of Arrows (Swords) with the period from Beltane through Midsummer to Lammas (August 1). The appearance of this card on this Beltane weekend definitely has quite a lot of woo to it.

Our queenly doe has charm galore and might have a very special message for you at this particular moment. Sit with her and listen.

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEK: April 25-29, 2022

 

Bear

Gilded Reverie Lenormand Expanded Edition

by Ciro Marchetti

April 25-29, 2022: Here's a majestic Lenormand Bear from Ciro Marchetti! This is Lenormand's "Mom" card. Mother Bear is here for you!

Honor--and pay attention to--your solemn dignity and inner authority this week. Something of the weekend's concerns around the personal qualities it takes to survive and thrive in a changing environment carries over into this week.

Marchetti makes this specifically a polar bear. We've long known how polar bears are threatened by this planet's damaged climate and environment. Can you sit with the energy of this Bear and feel its fierce determination for life?

Find a way to imagine yourself into Bear. It is a powerful model, also a protective spirit (Mama Bear) as well as a symbol of abundance (motherly care and generosity). Draw Bear's energy around you and see the results manifest as you go through the events and encounters of your week.

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEKEND: April 23-24, 2022

 

Ivy

The Celtic Tree Oracle

by Liz and Colin Murray with art by Vanessa Card

April 23-24: From one of our kitchen windows, we keep track of the seasons of a neighboring building's wall of ivy. How lovely to watch and breathe in this gleaming expanse of green as it unfurls each spring.

Our Card of the Weekend, Ivy, comes from The Celtic Tree Oracle and reminds us of our hardy resilience and ability to adapt to the conditions of different environments. The labyrinthine spiral near the bottom of the image signifies an inner journey to the true Self.

For this weekend, set out or continue on that journey. Meditate on the many resources you have within. Perhaps, write a list so that you can see them in front of you, appreciate them, and not forget. There's powerful spellcasting in what you write.

See if you can breathe warm energy into those aspects of yourself that need encouragement, new life, new spirit. Make a good accounting of who you are--an invincible summer, as Albert Camus wrote:

"Au milieu de l'hiver, j'apprenais enfin qu'il y avait en moi un été invincible." (L'Été)

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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READER REQUEST: RIDER-WAITE LOVERS and JUDGEMENT

 

The Lovers and Judgement

Rider-Waite Tarot

art by Pamela Colman Smith

 

Big thanks to hummingwitch reader Gloria Carol who sent a request for treatment of two Rider-Waite (Pamela Colman Smith) images--The Lovers and Judgement.

I don't know if Gloria deliberately chose this pair for their visual similarity, but you'll notice that an imposing angel presides over each scene. Both angels have scarlet wings so thick and lush, you know their arrival stirred up the whole of the environment. They signify an urgent intervention. They have broken through the sky with exhortations to humans below to unite (The Lovers) and rise back to life (Judgement).

Also, I absolutely covet the royal purple shawl The Lovers' angel is wearing...but I digress.

With its Adam-and-Eve imagery, The Lovers, in the context of this Major Arcana pairing, can indicate a beginning while Judgement brings us closer to the end--or perhaps the revival or high-level advancement--of a significant process.

One message coming through is: Remember your origins--remember the design, purity, connectedness, and hope--and now answer the call for transformation. 

The angels command us to raise the "dead" within ourselves and the "dead" out in our communities, societies, and world before it is too late.

What have you allowed to wither or die, to go without sun or nourishment? What have you denied because your environment, your society, denied it?

This is heavy recovery work, requiring determination, focus, courage, and stamina. Not every individual or collective of people will be up to the task. But, clearly, the time is now.

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEK: April 18-22, 2022

 

Five of Pentacles

above: Morgan-Greer Tarot by Lloyd Morgan with art by Bill Greer

below: Rider-Waite Tarot with art by Pamela Colman Smith

 

April 18-22, 2022: In artist Bill Greer's conception, the hardships experienced by the Five of Pentacles figures have brought them closer together in compassionate embrace.

Whenever I see the very different Rider-Waite image, I'm struck by the way the stained glass window floats in the snowy air like an apparition representing...what? A church, perhaps, passed along the way, one in which the card's two bedraggled figures can expect no shelter or solace. The hint of a plain white building behind the tree of five yellow pentacles in the stained glass further suggests an institution--religious or otherwise--that remains remote from people and their needs.

And Pamela Colman Smith's figures for the Rider-Waite are clearly on the outside, trudging through a heavy snowfall. For all we know, Greer's figures might have made their way to shelter. There's nothing in Greer's warmer image--warmer in color and feeling--that indicates which side of that window they're on, and there's nothing illusory about this window or the sturdy, earthy wall surrounding it. In any case, they have one another, a different kind of shelter.

Compassion might be the watchword for this week--compassion towards yourself as well as others. What does (and what does not) offer compassion? How can you make a warm space for vulnerability and healing?

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEKEND: APRIL 16-17, 2022

 

 Father of Cups

The Wild Unknown Tarot

by Kim Krans

 

April 16-17, 2022: Kim Krans's Father of Cups (King of Cups in conventional Tarot) speaks to me of my own late dad, born under the sensitive water sign of Pisces. We shared the same birthdate number, six months apart. And he was noted for precisely the qualities Krans' highlights in her Father of Cups--support and diplomacy. I'm going to take things a step further, since the animal Krans chose for this image is a black swan. You actually don't want to go messing with a lovely swan thinking, "Oh, what a sweet, gentle, elegant being!" Swans can quickly spring into action to protect their territory and their young.

Tarot's kings always speak to me of the past, of history. This might be a good weekend for reflecting on highlights of your own history, seeing what continues to influence and shape you and your life path, for better or for worse. Cups indicate emotions, relationships, and creative energies. So, that might give you a clue about how this father/king might play out in your past, present, and potential.

In my case, my birth father--I had a stepfather, too--lived a life of service to others, dedicated to family, always there with his time and energy, striving to understand and support. I have to watch how those tendencies in myself, though admirable in a human, can go overboard.

It's a good weekend for journaling or, if writing stuff down is just not your thing, use other forms of creative expression to source and explore memories and the insights they raise.

A religious, family-oriented weekend for many, it's also a great weekend for ancestral work with ancestral messages and affirmations flowing easily.

****** 

I've offered this before and did not get responses, but I want to try again:

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEK: April 11-15, 2022

 

 Flying into Spring

Triple Goddess Tarot

by Isha Lerner with art by Amy Ericksen

 

April 11-15: "You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." -- Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Flying into Spring starts off Isha Lerner and artist Amy Ericksen's Triple Goddess Tarot with the exhilaration of flight and freedom. She is Tarot's Fool given new form, and she is a guide and model for all, no matter where you situate yourself on the gender spectrum.

Has your Spring taken off yet? Do you feel the airiness and the sense of new energies and possibilities?

If not, what is it that continues to weigh you down? Can you face it and handle it?  What is calling you today, and this week, to drop that weight and surf a current of fresh air?

Look for new opportunities, especially those you might have pushed aside in the past for whatever reasons. Perhaps the surrounding conditions have already changed while you were involved in something else and did not notice. Or perhaps you can find a key to make these opportunities work more in your favor and according to your particular needs and standards.

After all, you might be feeling new life rising up within yourself now.

Wishing you a lively new week!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEKEND: April 9-10, 2022

 

 Wheel of Fortune

The Gill Tarot

by Elizabeth Josephine Gill

 

 Wheel of Fortune

Rider-Waite Tarot

by Pamela Colman Smith

 

April 9-10, 2022: Elizabeth Josephine Gill's Wheel of Fortune brings us not the four winged beings of biblical scripture--lion, ox, man, and eagle, as we would find in many conventional Tarot decks--but, instead, Tarot's four primal elements. Air/Swords, Water/Cups, Earth/Pentacles, and Fire/Wands unite to manifest and empower all dimensions of reality. Gill's wheel bears the colors of the rainbow--again, equal in length and space and firmly conjoined.

The Wheel of Fortune, as a Major Arcana card, can indicate pulling oneself together or, perhaps, pulling a larger system together in a profound, transformative, invincible way.

Ask yourself, then, what needs this level of unification, strengthening, and/or massive change?

What elements within yourself--or outside of you--require shoring up and/or reconnection to other elements so that the whole entity integrates, heals, and flourishes?

Moving away from an old idea of Wheel of Fortune indicating that some folks or things are up while others are down, can we look at this archetype in a way that encourages understanding of the necessary role each distinct part plays in the integrity and success of the whole?

With two mysterious eyes--one floating above the wheel and one at its very center, perhaps Gill is hinting at the importance of a unifying perception of self, life, and reality.

Take some time to meditate on all of this, and have an exhilarating weekend!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEK: April 4-8

 

 Ace of Cups

Neo Tarot

by Jerico Mandybur with art by Daiana Ruiz

 

April 4-8: Beginning with this week, hummingwitch will share and explore one or more CARDS OF THE WEEK instead of daily cards. There will also be a CARD OF THE WEEKEND and the occasional reader contest.

This new arrangement should prove be more sustainable for me and, I hope, will give more of you sufficient time to keep up with, contemplate, and benefit from these posts. Take your time with them over the week and enjoy. Let me know what you think!

Recently, a hummingwitch reader noted the presence of the Ace of Cups reversed in his daily draw of cards, and I suggested that he imagine what might happen if, as a therapeutic measure, he were to turn that card right-side up.

A reversed Cups card often makes me think of a few things:

• how a turned-over glass or cup indicates you're finished and want no more to drink
• and, more than just being finished with something, the gesture can indicate refusal
• how turning over a vessel spills out whatever--good, bad, or indifferent--was held within
• how, by turning down a vessel, you can trap and restrain something within it.

At times, some of these possibilities can be positive. At other, they may have negative connotations and consequences. One needs to look at the situation in question--and, in an extended layout reading, other cards surrounding the Cups card--to take its temperature and meaning. Or simply ask Spirit: How am I to understand this reversed Cups card?

Your CARD OF THE WEEK, Ace of Cups, is, of course, right-side up. Hooray! So, you want to think about what this vessel brings to you from Spirit. It is definitely a Spirit-borne gift. See the disembodied hand emerging from a cloud?

Despite the minimalism of Daiana Ruiz's art for the Neo Tarot, I find incredible energy and charm in this image, and I immediately want to seize that goblet! Yes, this is for me!

The Ace of Cups encourages that affirmation. So, this week, look for the surprise of wonderful things and opportunities you might not even be aware you needed or wanted. But, especially regarding things you've been actively striving for, please settle down, breathe and receive. Believe in yourself and your worth. You may have already done the hard, preparatory work to make things happen as they now will with generosity and grace.

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEKEND: April 2-3, 2022

 The Dreamer 

Daughters of the Moon Tarot

by Ffiona Morgan

 

April 2-3, 2022: Ah! Here is our Fool, at last, in the shape of The Dreamer by feminist artist Ffiona Morgan. We see Tarot's Fool archetype afresh, here at sunrise at river's edge, dipping her finger into the water and communing with its spirit. A clear day of many possibilities lies ahead.

That's a great way to start off your weekend. Take a deep breath, hold it lovingly, and then let it go, taking with it anything stale and unwanted from the week prior. What do you want and choose to release?

I love sitting by the Hudson River and always feel refreshed, no matter how my day or days have gone.

What special practice eases your heart and mind?

Enjoy your weekend!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE DAY: April 1, 2022

 The Hermit

The Nigel Jackson Tarot

by Nigel Jackson

 

April 1, 2022:  Oh, my! It's April Fool's Day! Perhaps we should have had The Fool for today's card. But instead, we're revisiting The Hermit, this time through the sensibilities of artist Nigel Jackson and his eponymous Tarot deck.

When last we saw The Hermit, it was in the shape of an orange elder kitty, perched on a stack of books, gazing down on an inquisitive black kitten--potential mentor and mentee. Jackson's image is more traditional, of course, showing an aged sage making his way through a high, cold, forbidding environment where he's guaranteed the solitude he desires.

I do want to draw your attention, though, to the tiny bag our Hermit wears around his waist. Recall that The Fool, traditionally, also carries a tiny sack or satchel. Both archetypal figures travel light, refusing to be weighed down with too many things in the hand, on the back, and even in the mind--despite the access that The Hermit has to a reservoir of knowledge through daily meditative practice. Or, perhaps, because of the need to make space for that knowledge from the universe, not clogging the mind with the stuff of busy life among mortals.

The gleaming stars and lantern recall the element of fire and light the way, and the magickal wand (also related to fire) has become a helpful walking stick.

Understand that sometimes holding space for yourself, your privacy, your sacred time is the best gift you can give yourself (and others). Understand that times of solitude need not be perceived and experienced as loneliness. Understand how truly and profoundly you are connected to the All and how typically society's restrictions, demands, and distractions keep you from being aware and drawing on that knowledge and power.

The Hermit holds the lantern and shows the way.

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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