I am pleased that you all still visit my site!! Thank you for your interest in my ramblings.
I have found a new Tarot deck and my connection to it is deep enough that I feel I should blog about it. The deck is called the Decameron Tarot, published by Lo Scarabeo, and it is an erotic deck based on the collection of novellas of the same name. If you are uncomfortable reading descriptions of graphic images or sexual acts, perhaps this is not the blog for you right now.
The Decameron (the book) contains 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men that are sheltering in a secluded villa just outside of Florence during the Black Death. The book was written by 14th century Italian author, poet, and Renaissance humanist Giovanni Boccaccio, who was born in Florence in 1313 and died there in 1375. The various novellas telling of love and sex found within the stories in the Decameron (probably written between 1348 and 1353) range from the erotic to the tragic, with tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons added to the mix. The Decameron has been translated many times over the centuries.
The artwork of the Decameron Tarot, beautifully created by Giacinto Gaudenzi, is inspired by the tales of the Decameron. These card images contain graphic nudity, sexual pleasure and sex acts presented in the style of Renaissance art. Several of the card images present their sexual messages in a light-hearted way, and others use sex and pleasure to poke fun at authority figures. The deck comes with a small LWB, 2 1/2" by 4 3/4", with 62 pages. The card meanings are very brief, mostly a sentence or a few phrases; they are presented in six languages, including English.
My plan is to pull two cards, one for an inner-focused message and one for an outer-focused message, and blog about the card images and meanings. Usually this kind of blogging allows me to create a deep and textured connection to a deck; hopefully that is what will happen with the Decameron Tarot.
My cards for today:
Inner Focus: 1/Ace of Wands. The image on the card shows a naked woman with beautiful curves and red hair embracing the symbol of the suit of Wands: a tree trunk with rough bark that on this card is growing from thick green grass. There are branches near the bottom that have leaves growing from them, but about halfway up the trunk the bark has been removed and the wood is carved into an erect circumcised penis. The woman's arms are around the penis and she is resting her cheek against the head, with her eyes closed and a gentle smile on her face. Her right leg is wrapped around the base of the penis and her left foot rests on one of the branches growing from the bottom of the tree trunk. According to the LWB, this card offers the possibility of the beginning of a loving relationship, and it reminds us that sex is a part of nature, and comes from within the cycles and workings of nature.
Outer Focus: 6 of Wands. The image on this card shows several structures with thatched roofs, one of which appears to be a church, located on a hill covered with green growth; a tree to the left of the image is heavy with fruit. A figure walks up the hill toward the structures, with his or her back to the viewer. The meaning offered for this card is married life, privacy, and everyday love.
Here we have two types of love and pleasure: love that is instinctive and without judgement or shame, and love that is in accordance with religious, cultural and traditional rules and expectations. Both of these are valid, generally speaking and as specifically applied to me.
Pleasure, including sexual pleasure, is a part of being human. Our senses can delight us and sate us, and they can torture us with pain and discomfort. The 1/Ace of Wands reminds me that the perceptions of all of those sensations are a part of life and living. Sex occurs throughout the living beings of nature; it is how life is created and maintained. Humans are lucky enough to be able to experience physical and emotional pleasure through sex as well as procreation. To me, nature is the robe that Deity wears so we can perceive Her/Him/It/Them. That in itself tells me that all types of pleasure, including sexual pleasure, are sacred as long as those pleasures are indulged with and through consenting adults.
However, we live in a world where Harming None is important, too. We can't always openly indulge in our own pleasures if we harm others, although again what happens between consenting adults in the privacy of their home is their business. Indeed, privacy is one of the keywords presented for the 6 of Wands, my Outer Focus card. Choosing a mate, standing before the community and proclaiming the connection between mates (whoever and how many of them there are, and whatever the mutually agreed-upon terms are) protects the mates themselves and creates a community that supports the family being created. Of course, it is assumed that the family will continue to conduct themselves in accordance with the religious, cultural and traditional rules and expectations that are condoning and protecting the union, at least in public.
I love that I am beginning with these two cards. We can be who we want to be in private, and still present a public persona that does not harm others, and that supports the community of which we are a part.
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