So, because I am feeling such an incredibly strong connection to this Oracle, I am going to begin working with it here, on the Dancing Sparkles Blog. Once a week, hopefully on Sunday, I will be throwing three cards and interpreting them. I am hoping that this process will help me to connect with more depth and texture to this incredibly powerful deck.
For those of you who do not know of the T-O, it is a circular Oracle deck (in other words, not broken down in the traditional Tarot manner, with Majors, and Minors and Court Cards broken further into four suits). Instead of the 22 Majors, 40 Minors and 16 Court Cards, this deck has 70 cards, printed on transparent plastic. The 70 circular transparent cards (did I mention that they are transparent??) are divided into seven categories: East, South, West, North, Above, Below and Within. Absolutely awesome!! Within those categories are several sub-categories. For the four cardinal directions, we have element, weather, time of day, season, elemental, and several guides. Above connects to the stars and planets, Below offers guides and grail hollows, and Within offers connection to our senses. Talk about a meditation tool!!!
I am participating in a class that is focusing on a deep connection to these cards, and it is working. What I love about them is that I am learning how to see these cards in a non-Tarot way, which takes a bit of focus. The added change in perception involves the ability to stack the cards and create a “mandala” by overlaying the individual images. This means that the cards can be interpreted in a linear fashion, the same way that we interpret a Tarot spread, but then we can create a unique image from the combined symbols of the individual cards. Exciting, eh?
So, I think that generally, I won’t ask a specific question, besides “What do I need to learn from the T-O today?” After shuffling the cards, I threw three:
11, Gateway: Summer. This card is of the direction of South, the image on the card is a square made of long stem roses, alternating red and white, with the stems making up the side of the square and the roses making up the corners. The square shape tells of stability and depth; the season tells of peak performance, good health, and bounty manifesting in the outer world. The alternating colors of red and white tell of polarity, of male and female, and thus of the fertility and potential that are associated with this card and Season. The energy of this card is intense and successful and profitable, but it can’t be expected to last for a long time and it may be predicting that a brief time of rest may become appropriate.
16, Guide: Snake. Another South card. The ability of Snake to shed his skin and thus renew himself seems to be important here. This is also a card of fertility, as well as healing and regeneration. Snake is a physical world representation of the dragon, as well as the kundalini energy of the subtle body and all its powers. Snake traditionally appears with my Patron, Cernunnos. The snake that accompanies Cernunnos and other Celtic deities is something of a mystery. Snakes in general are associated with fertility, death, and regeneration or healing. Cernunnos' serpent is a horned or ram-head serpent, sporting a pair of curved horns. Within Celtic symbolism, horned snakes are often associated with healing, especially healing springs. Snake also tells of sudden and intense energy, usually resulting in some kind of healing transformation. And if an Above card shows up too, the Snake can indicate the leaving behind of unnecessary complications in order to forge a stronger connection to Deity. Hmmm . . . .
44, Moon. This is an Above card. It is associated with one of my Patronesses, Hecate. This is the card of illusion, and illusion can be a gift or a curse, depending on my own mind and how it interprets the illusion. Our moon is much closer to our planet than our sun, and yet through a cosmic accident, they appear to be the same size. Our sun is actually the source of the moon’s light, and the moon can totally eclipse the sun’s light, allowing us to see its beautiful corona of gasses. Moon is connected to cycles, to tides, to ebbs and flows of energies; Moon is connected to mystery and illusion and imagination, and of intuitive messages. Moon also is deeply connected to the Sacred Feminine.
Once I layered the card, my mandala gave me an immediate sense of some contained power breaking through a barrier. Thinking out of the box, maybe?
The circle which is the Moon is at the center of my mandala, and each of the Snake’s tails touch (but are not bound to each other) in the center of the Moon. Each Snake radiates outward, one to the left and through the waxing crescent, one through the crescent at the top, radiating downward and looking like a shallow bowl, and one through the waning crescent on the right. The heads of each of the Snakes are outside of the Gateway of Summer, one head poking out the middle of the upper side of the square that is the Gateway, and one each poking through the bottom left and right corners of the Gateway. The Snake at the lower left corner has looped through the red rose on the corner, like a thread through the eye of a needle, and the Snake at the lower right corner is arced around the white rose, as if protecting it. The Snake at the top has looped towards the left but is facing right.
I separated the cards and then stacked them once more, watching the mandala as it transformed. Snake covered the Gateway of Summer, blocking the entrance to the Gateway like a curvy wrought-iron gate door. Perhaps the Snakes would withdraw if they were touched, allowing entry.
Now, I added Moon, and the whole feeling of the mandala changed. The power was not breaking through, it was being held in. The full moon at the center of the Moon card was binding the three Snake tails together, and each of the crescents were holding the three Snake heads in place. Now, Moon feels like the Gatekeeper, while originally it seemed as if Snake was the gatekeeper.
It appears that the key to unlocking this mystery and accessing the powers of healing, transformation and power in order to manifest bounty and stability will be found within me. This is a generalized statement, but I think I do know how to apply it to my day.
Perhaps tomorrow, I will visit the Ancient Altar again.
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