Hannah de Tora

Oh the shame! 54 days! Let's not dwell on it, though.

The Empress

She is woman personified. She sits in the lap of luxury in cushions and on a throne marked with the symbol for female within a heart - you don't get much more womanly than that! Well, actually, you do. This card is filled with symbols. The corn that grows up around her throne is strong, straight, golden and ripe and so the ground (the foundations for her throne) is very fertile. There are trees in the background, not too densely growing, which would allow for more fresh growth at their feet, especially since their roots are nurtured by a fast flowing stream which cascades into a waterfall that eddies at the base of The Empress's throne. The sky is a sunny yellow, success, happiness, a Good Day for it. And, this hasn't even touched on the Empress her self.

She, wears a fullsome robe of white, decorated with ripe pomegranates (I think) showing all their seeds and pulp - a full rich harvest. She is also pregnant, although my card doesn't show her swollen belly very well (I know that others do) but her pose is very much of a pregnant woman: legs slightly apart / leaning back / resting her hand on her knee. She holds a golden sceptre because she is a queen, no more than that, an empress. She has a crown which has 12 stars which symbolise the zodiac - her children, who are all present in the tarot. And at the base of her crown is a wreath of leaves, because she is in touch with nature (in case we forget it by her regality).

She is the fools earthly mother, The Emperor is her bf.

She is a symbol of fruitfulness, creativity (she is creating a child and she promotes growth), pregnancy (sometimes literally, sometimes in that an idea is brewing), she is joy (III), she is the beginning of something (III), she is perhaps symbolising the beginning of a period of creativity.

She is a GREAT card to start back with!!

HdT

6 golden pentacle discs sitting in a lushly verdant bush and 1 beneath his feet.

He has worked hard for this. And it's paid off. So, he's taking a moment to assess the fruits of his labour - which are many. He could pick the coins one by one now, or he could wait - nurture them more, see how they grow. See how he leans on his rake? He's not sitting down and relaxing, he's just pausing. And this looks like a pretty barren place he is in, I can't see any other trees around, or grass, or even water. He's made this out of nothing, on his own. There are purple mountains in the background, perhaps he had to traverse them to get to this good and bountiful place. He wears undergarments that are the colour of the sky on a good day, yet the sky itself is grey - this strengthens the idea that this is his own work which has caused such a good harvest, not simply a matter of luck.

Because this is the suit of pentacles, this is all about wealth / job / home / health - so maybe it means that the 'client' has done well in their job through their own hard work and it's paid off. Perhaps somebody has become very fit and healthy because they've been running every morning. But whatever has been worked hard at, there is more work to come, so the message is to keep on doing what your doing and all will be well.

I am off on holiday now, my trip will take me 3 days and cross 3 countries and will earn me a fortnight's holiday at my destination. I'll be continuing my tarot journal en route, on paper - and then post on the other side, if my destination doesn't proove too exciting, which of course it may well do. I worked hard to take this trip, I earned the money for it myself and I planned it carefully to make sure that I didn't harm the environment to get there. And yet my work is not yet done because I still have to make the physical journey - perhaps this is what the 7 of pentacles is telling me?

HdT

I love the dramatic cards. This card is one that turns up for me rather a lot. I have found that most people see this as a terrible card. But I quite like it.

The swords - of the air: representing thoughts / ideas / the mind - weigh heavy. They are hanging above the protagonist of the card who has just woken up from a dream. The protagonist is not, perhaps, aware of these many heavy, dominant thoughts. They certainly do not have control of them and are not using them to take action of any kind (as in the 2 of swords, where she holds the swords in her hands and is ready to use them to fight people) - so this tells me that these swords are metaphorical. The 9 swords are overwhelming, as they hang horizontally over the bed, they are causing this person anxiety and worry - perhaps to the extreme. But the person is not acknowledging or dealing with these swords/thoughts/ideas. So, they continue to hang heavy in the dark.

The number 9 is also significant. It is 1 before 10 and 10 is completion: the end. Sometimes, in the moments, or the time before finishing something, the idea of it can become totally overwhelming. And of course the 10 of swords is a pretty heavy card too (I got it on Saturday and didn't write very much because I was in a rush!) and perhaps this 9 contains that feeling too, that that is what could happen next - absolute destruction - but that card's full of melodrama too, as I already said.

Think about waking from a nightmare and those moments when you are totally alone, lonely, without comfort from another human - the topics of your bad dream going round and round in your head and you clutch it because you can't think of anything else to do. This card is that feeling. However, think about the moment after that, or perhaps, when the sun has come up and you feel a little silly for allowing yourself to be so overwhelmed by what was essentially just a bad dream - it is not as bad as it seemed. It was just a dream and most of the anxieties that woke you were dramatised by the night, over-the-top and nothing to worry about now that your conscious mind has been able to untangle them and work out what it's all about.

While this card is about anxiety, worry and feelings of alone-ness, it is a temporary state that will lift. That's not to say that these feelings are not overwhelming and sometimes even crippling at the time, it's just to say that things are not as bad as they seem.

HdT

Uh oh.

An armoured yellow skeleton riding a white horse with red eyes. He carries the tudor flag. A great loss, but then a rebirth - which you can see by the gorgeously bright sunrise in the distance, between the two pillars. These pillars are like the ones in The Moon card. All kinds of people succumb to death, the holy man, the king, children - doesn't matter how rich or poor you are. His horse is strong and it has cool skull and cross bones tack. Death is unavoidable, but this card doesn't mean death as in the end of life, but rather symbolises loss of some kind, which makes room for some sort of gain.

Planning. Planning to build something. A development card. Three's often mean coming together. All the pieces are in place and this is the start of something. The three pentacles are unusual in that they are carved in stone, embedded into the archway above the people (usually they are gold discs, like coins - which is what they were originally called). This card is about creating something solid, a house, work... and perhaps doing that with other people - a team.