Tarot, Poetry, and Viceversa

No, there's not a second tarot reading this week. I haven't talked openly much about the tarot poetry collection I'm working on, other than to sometimes mention the fact that I'm working on it. I want to tell you about one of the card decks I'm looking at for inspiration. 

"Inspiration" might not really be the best word. It's more like filtering and refining the inspiration. While the booklets that come with tarot decks often keep things confined to the keywords, that is just a starting point. I've been reading tarot for over 20 years. Trust me when I tell you each card has many stories to tell. I can't put it all in the poems, so using a few of my decks to focus on different ways the same card can be depicted helps me narrow things down and weave them together.

Sidenote: I refuse to do the "I know, I know... I have too many decks!" thing. No, I don't. I have a bunch of decks! Each one serves me in different ways, though. 

Some of what I'm going to say may not truly make sense unless you are knowledgeable about tarot, both as a practice and some of the history of how different systems came to be. I am keeping in mind that I'm not strictly writing this for people who do have that familiarity with the cards, so I hope I at least give you what you need to start looking things up if it makes you curious.

I rarely use the Viceversa Tarot when I'm doing readings for other people. It's got a lot to explain that isn't usually what people who get a reading from me are looking for. It's categorized as being a Waite-Smith type of deck, and that is true - it's not a Thoth, Marseille, or Dowson's Hermetic Tarot deck - but it does have details I don't see often in the many Waite-Smith type decks that are out there. There's also the whole thing about having art on both the front and back of each card.

Here, we see the Fool setting off on their journey! The sun is rising in the mountains behind them, and they are facing us as they look out in the direction they'll be walking.

Wait... where's the dog? Does this Fool not have a dog going with them?

This is the other side of the same card. Now we see the Fool's back, with the darkness of the unknown in front of them. There are stars and a comet, though, so the Fool does have something to aim for or help them keep track of the journey.

And there's the dog! The dog was just lingering behind a little.

These cards aren't taking meanings of reverse cards and giving those meanings illustrations on the backs. If you're looking for a deck that has illustrations of reversals and come across this post, please know that is not what the Viceversa deck does! It's more like these cards give a broader view.

One of my favorite cards from this deck is Justice.

That's the view of Lady Justice often found on cards. Blindfolded, sitting on a throne, sword in one hand and scales in the other. I can't say I usually see Isis painted on the wall behind her, but this is appropriate for the meaning of this card. 

Let's flip the card over...

Now that painting of Isis on the wall carries more weight! The being engraved into the back of the throne is Ammit. Ammit eats the hearts that don't balance with the feather of Ma'at when Anubis (or Osiris, depending on which time period the stories you're following come from) weighs the heart in the Underworld.

There are so many details in these cards! I know I'm only focusing on things relevant to what I'm talking about right here and now. All of the details are meaningful, and this is why I said I don't usually use this deck for readings for other people.

There are also cards that connect to other cards. From the front, Strength is the usual woman and a lion.

I originally learned that the lion is part of you, and is also the beast you learn to tame. Life experiences made me not so comfortable with that interpretation. It became too simple for me. Research, more learning, and giving a lot of thought to how experience influences interpretation added more angles to how I read that card. I was delighted when I got this deck and saw the other side of this card!

Seeing the woman and the lion from behind, with the Devil in front of them, fit better with how I had learned to understand Strength! It doesn't erase what I originally learned, but adds to it, and it fits well with how I read the Devil card. (Spoiler: I'm not reading it the way mystics in movies do when they gasp and tell another character to leave as all the candles go out and a storm picks up outside.)

I want to show you one more. The Hermit!

Standard Hermit. The snake wrapped around the egg isn't in most Hermit cards I've seen, but if you understand that detail then you know it's not a random thing the Hermit comes across. For the most part, though... Yep. Old guy with a beard carrying a lantern and using a walking stick on a late night walk. Kind of looks like Moses. Or Gandalf without a hat.

Flip it over, and there's a reason I brought one side of the Moon card into the picture. We see the Hermit from behind, and that sunrise in the mountains off in the distance in front of him looks familiar! But we're not focused on the Fool's mountains right now.

That face on the Moon? The white dog and red dog together? The same ones from the Moon card! And the Hermit and Moon are connected because the Hermit is numbered as the ninth card the Moon is numbered as the eighteenth. Add the digits and 18 reduces to 9 (1+8=9).

None of this was new information for me when I got the deck. There are times I use these cards because having all of that information in a visual form helps me reflect on it in ways that are different from simply knowing meanings, connections, and correspondences. Writing poems about the Major Arcana cards has turned out to be another opportunity for that help.

I'm looking at cards from four decks for each card. I want to consider different illustrations and the details they draw attention to. Interestingly, that's not what the Viceversa cards do for me. They help keep me grounded so I don't get overwhelmed by the options. They help me consider how different details in art from different artists can all come together in the same stories.