CARD OF THE WEEK: March 20-26, 2023

Five of Cups

Modern Witch Tarot

by Lisa Sterle

March 20-26, 2023:  This traditionally gloomy card reminds me of my city and one of my riverscapes. It also reminds me of how I've often taken my sorrows to the riverside and sat there feeling increasingly nourished and healed.

The black-clad figure in this card is doing the same, perhaps mourning whatever those three toppled goblets represented to her life. The two standing upright just behind her, though, speak to holding something untouched in reserve for the future.

Or they could mean a resource or blessing she's not even aware of now which she could discover at that point in time when she turns away from her grieving. They suggest "This too shall pass," and there's still something to which you can look forward.

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IMPORTANT NOTE

After today's post, I'm suspending hummingwitch's CARD OF THE WEEK for an indefinite period. It has been a pleasure to share these Tarot explorations with you, and I hope you'll take the opportunity to continue your engagement with Tarot, revisiting cards that had strong meaning for you or delving into others you might have missed. (See CATCH UP! below.)

Please reach out if you're interested in scheduling private sessions:

• readings
• coaching sessions for beginning and developing Tarotistas
• guided meditation with Tarot archetypes
  
• workshops for your group

(See READ ABOUT MY TAROT SERVICES below.)

Thank you for your enjoyment and support of hummingwitch!

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VENMO ME: @Eva-YaaAsantewaa

CATCH UP! 

If you missed any of the CARD OF THE WEEK/WEEKEND posts or want to review a post you read, visit my updated list of posts here.

READ ABOUT MY TAROT SERVICES:

https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/p/eva-yaa-asantewaaseance.html

CONTACT ME!

See the "Contact Eva" form in the right-hand column! 👉

CARD OF THE WEEKEND: February 25-26, 2023

 

Four of Pentacles

Modern Witch Tarot

by Lisa Sterle

 

February 25-26, 2023: Notice the orange puffer jacket on this urban dweller--a go-getter who, seen here, keeps earthly rewards carefully gripped and locked down. Orange is a color of dynamic activity. Lisa Sterle finds the Four of Pentacles a bit too controlling. Perhaps the figure here fears that what has been steadily gained--likely through so much feverish, headstrong activity--can easily slip or be taken away.

While this is just one way to approach the Four of Pentacles, it might indeed have relevance to your current situation. Where (and why) might you be holding on too tightly? Is that necessary--or could you ease up on things--and on yourself?

If this resonates with you, consider if you're at the mercy of a deep-seated, haunting, self-sabotaging trust issue and in need of reassurance that you will not be stiffed, not be exploited, not be hurt or left without again. Or consider if you've undervalued yourself and the value of your work. Do you need to speak up on your own behalf more clearly? Or do you need to set a firm and convincing boundary?

Journaling around any of these questions can be helpful as writing moves all sorts of jumbled items out of an anxious mind and onto a blank page where you'll have adequate space to see and sort them.

And, hey, you might feel more comfortable with the puffer off. Your feet will move off the pentacles when you go searching for paper and pen. And you'll need at least one hand to write with!

So, there you go!

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NEXT ZOOM SÉANCES COMING UP:

Saturday, February 25, 1pm to 2:30pm Eastern

Saturday, March 25, 1pm to 2:30pm Eastern

Contact me for the Zoom links!

 

VENMO ME: @Eva-YaaAsantewaa

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If you missed any of the CARD OF THE WEEK/WEEKEND posts or want to review a post you read, visit my updated list of posts here.

 

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https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/p/eva-yaa-asantewaaseance.html

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See the "Contact Eva" form in the right-hand column! 👉

CARD OF THE WEEK: February 6-10, 2023

 

 Four of Cups

Modern Witch Tarot

by Lisa Sterle

 

February 6-10, 2023: "OVER IT," declares the wording on our Tarot friend's grey hoodie. Just as in more conventional Four of Cups paintings, she looks totally uninterested in what she has (the three goblets arrayed before her) and what she could have (the fourth one, proffered by a spirit hand floating in mid-air). Even her cellphone, on the ground beside her, goes ignored.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, sometimes it pays to follow clues that arise as you gaze at a Tarot card. What details draw your eyes? What words, sounds, or music do you suddenly hear? What energies do you feel in your body?

In this case, I'm being drawn to certain colors--the yellow bricks, the placid blue sky seen through a large window, the grey floor. Though yellow is usually a high-energy color associated with the intellect--quick, bright, uplifting, and motivating--this orderly arrangements of bricks into a strong wall, combined with the figure's closed, refusing body language, suggests lack of movement, being dead-set against whatever might be newly offered. In the little box that comes with her deck, Sterle mentions cynicism.

The grey of the floor and hoodie--Wait... Is that grey lipstick, too?--suggest this person is wallowing in a limbo state of indecision or even depression. The blue of the sky does what blue does. It refreshes. Or, at least here, it offers refreshment.

The "cups" in Sterle's suite of Cups are all simple, modest in form and of a mid-toned pink, not expensive, precious metal goblets. They're there for anyone who needs them. Anyone, that is, willing to open mind and heart and take the gift.

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VENMO ME: @Eva-YaaAsantewaa

GET POSTS BY EMAIL:

Get Eva's posts by email...free! See the subscription box in the right column and never miss another CARD OF THE WEEK/WEEKEND post! 👉

 

CATCH UP! 

If you missed any of the CARD OF THE WEEK/WEEKEND posts or want to review a post you read, visit my updated list of posts here.

 

READ ABOUT MY TAROT SERVICES:

https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/p/eva-yaa-asantewaaseance.html

NEXT ZOOM SÉANCE COMING UP:

Saturday, February 25, 1pm to 2:30pm Eastern

Contact me for the Zoom link!

 

CONTACT ME!

See the "Contact Eva" form in the right-hand column! 👉

 

CARD OF THE WEEKEND: February 4-5, 2023

 

Strength

Modern Witch Tarot

by Lisa Sterle

February 4-5, 2023: Thanks to a stop in New-York Historical Society's bookstore back in mid-January, I now own a copy of Lisa Sterle's Modern Witch Tarot, and I love it! You'll probably see a fair amount of it in coming weeks. This weekend, we're journeying with Strength.

Sterle associates Strength's lion with the sometimes scary, sometimes hard to control aspects of our inner selves, and I'll note here how gently the wise lady touches, calms, and protects her lion. You might imagine her speaking to him quite sweetly. I will also note, as Sterle does, they both wear wreathes of red roses, uniting them. They belong to each other.

And, further, check out milady's high-heeled sandals! Our elegant guide can do everything both forward and backward and in high heels!

 

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet (Library of Congress)

Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backward and in high heels. 

– Ann Richards (1933-2006), former Texas governor

 

So, class, what are we learning? An approach to those wild, scary bits that moves with respect and love. Do not beat yourself up for parts of yourself that have troubled you. 

How might you have fallen out of alignment? What needs gentle redirection?

How can you reconcile with yourself and find true, profound value in who you are as a whole human being?

Reach within and bring out that strength!

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VENMO ME: @Eva-YaaAsantewaa

GET POSTS BY EMAIL:

Get Eva's posts by email...free! See the subscription box in the right column and never miss another CARD OF THE WEEK/WEEKEND post! 👉

 

CATCH UP! 

If you missed any of the CARD OF THE WEEK/WEEKEND posts or want to review a post you read, visit my updated list of posts here.

 

READ ABOUT MY TAROT SERVICES:

https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/p/eva-yaa-asantewaaseance.html

NEXT ZOOM SÉANCE COMING UP:

Saturday, February 25, 1pm to 2:30pm Eastern

Contact me for the Zoom link!

 

CONTACT ME!

See the "Contact Eva" form in the right-hand column! 👉

 

Reader Request: The Hierophant

 

The Hierophant

Modern Witch Tarot

by Lisa Sterle

I hope you're enjoying our CARD OF THE WEEK! Now, here's a bonus Reader Request post!

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I was thrilled to hear from internationally celebrated performance artist Gabrielle Civil who sent a request for a look at The Hierophant in comic illustrator Lisa Sterle's Modern Witch Tarot. Gabrielle loves consulting Tarot with her women's writing group as they launch each new year of exploration, and Sterle's Hierophant has blessed this one.

Old school interpretations of The Hierophant associate the central, enthroned figure with religious authority--a pope to The High Priestess's papess, if you will. So let's revisit the familiar Rider-Waite image by Pamela Colman Smith for contrast with Sterle's depiction.

The Hierophant

Rider-Waite Tarot

art by Pamela Colman Smith

Papal imagery, to be sure. But in Sterle's Modern Witch Tarot, you'll find archetypes embodied by contemporary, racially-diverse characters. The "charioteer" of The Chariot straddles a motorcycle. The High Priestess sits with her open laptop, not a mysterious scroll, resting on her lap. And The Hierophant--here a tattooed, barefoot woman of color--is visited not by two monks but, instead, two apparently everyday people about whom we can discern little because they face her, not us. These humans could be anybody--not specifically two Roman Catholic monks--and that's a useful update.

Along with a variety of visual revisions, Tarot's Hierophant, like most classic Tarot images, has undergone evolutionary changes in how it is interpreted and utilized. Sterle has chosen to simplify and civilian-ize the Hierophant's garments, and even her scepter now becomes a quartz crystal at the end of streamlined wand. With her right hand, she makes the same gesture of blessing, though--because she can.

For me, the Hierophant is not a Roman Catholic pope but any central entity who bridges the communication/exchange gap between two different and differing entities. Because of the Hierophant's extensive knowledge of the realities, experiences, and languages of both sides, the Hierophant can explain one to the other, identify commonalities, and help forge potential connection and cooperation.

Think about this, and you can see how the role of this archetype might manifest in a wide variety of situations--from internal conflicts to external ones we experience or witness.

For a group of women writers, there are so many ways in which this could play out. But, as a lifelong writer myself, I know the struggles that women--especially women of color--can face as they seek to find and make meaningful space for their visions and voices in this world. Some of those struggles are indeed internal but all are impacted by external history and society.

To all for whom this message resonates, may The Hierophant help you find a powerful peace and pathway for your expression. May you find support and nurturance within community. And may you discover the many ways in which you can be a transformative Hierophant for others.

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You can suggest a Tarot or other oracle card for me to write about! Just send me a clear jpg along with:

• the name of the card
• the name of the deck
• the name(s) of the deck author and/or artist
•  and--if you have it--a URL for the deck or author.

hummingwitch@gmail.com

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If you missed any posts or want to review a post you read, visit my updated list of posts here.

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CARD OF THE DAY: November 5, 2021

 

Six of Wands, above: Universal Waite Tarot by Pamela Colman Smith with coloring by Mary Hanson-Roberts; below: Modern Witch Tarot by Lisa Sterle
 

 

November 5, 2021

Six of Wands: A moment of satisfaction and pride! You're steady and uplifted, buoyed by the support of those who deeply care about you, some of whom may have made a challenging journey with you. Who else deserves a piece of your success? Recognize and celebrate them, in turn, as you are recognized and celebrated. The radiant energy is multiplied in warm exchange and feels marvelous all around.