Category Archives: Dark Carnival Tarot

by

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/19/12

wo of Duckets (=Coins/Pentacles)

This day was my 10th wedding anniversary, and I was initially a bit disappointed that I hadn’t drawn one of the Major Arcana, but the more I looked at the 2 of Duckets, the more I appreciated it!

Description: A tightrope-walker crosses the uppermost heights of a big-top circus tent, carrying a Duckets symbol in each hand like a tambourine. Flowers (lotuses, pinks and what looks to my botanical eye like smartweed) burst from the rims of the tambourines and spring into bloom on the rope beneath her feet. Far, far, FAR below we can see one of the rings of the circus, with two tiny figures – I suspect it’s the lion tamer and the lion from the Strength card. The tightrope walker is confident, smiling, grinning even; there’s a net below her, but I get the feeling she’d be just as happy if it weren’t there. She’s performing a balancing act but it’s one that she loves, and there’s nothing she’d rather do.

Interpretation: First of all, I have to get the huge numbers of coincidental (???) numbers and symbols out of the way. The more I looked at this card, the more it WAS our relationship. Ten rungs on the ladder for ten years. She’s carrying two tambourines – we were married in 2002. The pole holding up the tightrope has six white stripes and six red stripes for a total of 12 – this year is 2012. Lotuses bloom all around her – the name of my engagement ring stone, the padparadschah sapphire, literally MEANS “lotus flower.” Wow. All that aside, people sometimes say marriage is a balancing act; balancing the needs and desires and difficulties and strengths of two people isn’t easy, and it hasn’t been an easy ride for either of us. We’ve definitely done the “in sickness” and “for poorer” more than “in health” and “for richer”, for one thing! But the heck with that. We’re grounded in strength and mutual understanding and respect (that lion & lion tamer team at the foot of the tightrope pole). We’ve learned to do the balancing act (we’re actually both jugglers, literally!), and although the first steps may have been rickety, we’re confident and those flowers are blooming all around us now. We made it through the fear and confusion. Our eyes are straight ahead at the future together, not down at the fragile net or the distant ground. I could not be happier than I am with him, and vice-versa, and this was the perfect daily draw for this day and for the end of this Deck of the Week cycle.

by

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/17/12

Warrior of Gats (=Knight of Wands)

Description: A figure in black body armor and a black gas mask, with a huge bazooka slung at his hip, stands atop the roof of a burning building. Behind him, three additional buildings are going up in flames. He doesn’t look alarmed, though – whatever side this warrior is on, and whoever started the fire, he’s calm, collected, ready to do what he needs to do. In my head I hear the songs “I don’t want to set the world on fire” and “We didn’t start the fire” – but I’m not sure that’s what is in the warrior’s head! He’s the raw power of pure energy, he burns his candle at both ends, and the middle too. But if he’s not careful he’ll be consumed by the flames he thinks he’s mastered…

Interpretation: WOW. High-energy day for me, I suspect. One where I’ll be called on to wear all my different hats, be the jack of all trades, and try to put out a lot of fires (which may or may not be set by others…). The card promises a very busy and active and challenging day, but it also promises that I HAVE the energy; that I can get everything done, if I just stay focused. To cross a burning roof, you can’t run at top speed – you need to step deliberately, see where the weaknesses are, put your foot someplace solid. I need to be structured and control the energy, not controlled by it or overwhelmed.

 

by

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/16/12

Joker of Axes (=Page of Swords)

Description: Amid swirling gray mist, a jack o’lantern headed figure raises a double-headed axe. It’s hard to tell if he is smiling a bizarrely-toothed grin, or has a gag or mask over his mouth – I get the feeling that he can’t speak for some reason. His axe has a tiny jack o’lantern finial; unlike his own pumpkin head, the one on the axe is frowning.

Interpretation: Traditionally the “student card,” this possibly-speechless apparition makes me think of the literal meaning of the word “sophomore” – “wise fool.” When it turned up in a reading I did for someone else, I also used the phrase “the Headless Non-Horseman.” There’s something unfinished about the figure, despite his I-dare-you grin and boldly-wielded axe; I’d say he’s all bark and no bite, but I’m not sure he can bark either! He’s still learning – for instance, that’s NOT the way to hold a battleaxe – even if he thinks he’s learned enough. And this really did resonate with me today, I am in charge of training new employees at my company and apparently I haven’t kept up with the company’s newest procedures. I’ve been authoritatively telling new hires to do things that are no longer technically correct, although they were correct when I learned them myself several years ago. My self-confident attempts to cut through the fog for others have belied the fact that I’ve been in a bit of a fog myself! I need to get more humble and learn more from the company’s decision-makers about what they’ve designed and implemented over the past few years. I need to be a good student so I can continue being a good teacher.

by

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/15/12

3 of Duckets (=Coins/Pentacles)

Description: A young graffiti artist spraypaints three Duckets symbols onto an ivy-tangled (and already graffitoed) brick wall. He seems to be perched on a ledge, but not all that high from the ground. Around the corner of the building is a police car, red and blue lights flaring. The seats of the car are empty – the cops are out of the car and looking for malefactors. The ledge he’s on is low; he can jump down and run easily. He doesn’t look worried about being caught, just grouchy that he has to hurry his art!

Interpretation: Performance under pressure. Unlike the traditional card where the artist seeks approval from the authorities, he knows he’ll be in trouble if the authorities find him here – but he is also determined to do his best, he’s not running before he finishes painting! My day has just taken a turn for the “gotta hurry, do everything by noon because we have to leave” worse; I thought I’d have a full day to relax and enjoy a vacation, but the person driving me has to return home sooner than she expected. Time to cram everything into the next few hours….the souvenir buying is going to be a rush trip, not a pleasant browse, for instance. On the other hand, maybe that’s a good thing. I can linger too long over something; a kick in the pants to finish Project A and move onto Project B isn’t necesssarily bad. The young graffiti artist might have spent all night painting one wall if those cops hadn’t shown up. He’s been forced to say “I’m done here” but the night is young for him, just like the day is young for me. Heck, I might get something interesting and enjoyable done this afternoon that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise!

by

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/14/12

Temperance

I was somewhat cautious about starting to work with a deck so different from my usual style, and far removed from my own cultural background; I didn’t know if I should look at each card and read the entire book to try to get a more academic understanding or jump straight in and start playing. Well…a deck with this many counterculture clowns is a deck that wants to play! So I read the introduction to the book and then shuffled the deck and Temperance jumped out at me.

Description: A man with dark glasses mixes strange, colorful liquids in a variety of oddly-shaped vessels under the glaring light of a single fluorescent bulb. He looks like he might be cooking up illicit drugs or mixing drinks for a very singular bar clientele. The colors of the liquids and the light form a counterclockwise rainbow effect: containers of red liquid on the right, a yellow lightbulb spreading orange light at the top, containers of green and blue liquid on the left, and purple spilled liquid on the bottom.

Interpretation: The elements of the classic Temperance card are still here: the rainbow (even if it is going backwards), the mixture of fluids, the otherworldly alchemist presiding. Whatever the style of the artwork this is still a deck I can understand and work with. The alienness is tempered by the familiar. The new things in my life that I’m concerned about being “too big of a change” (returning to my Tarot journey, reaching out in my path of recovery, making more friends outside my current social circle) are not scary or weird if I can temper them with the more familiar, older things in my life: I worked with Tarot before, I tried to help people in recovery before, I’ve reached beyond my comfort zone before. And it all got me to wonderful places – it will again. Maybe that man is wearing those dark glasses because he’s afraid of being blinded by the strange colors and blazing light, but as his eyes adjust, he’ll be able to take them off. I can ease into the strangeness and newness too, one step at a time, and when I’m ready I’ll be able to take off the glasses and look directly at that glorious rainbow…