Now it is candles, nubby woolens, shearling slippers, woven textiles, pastries, blond wood, sheepskin rugs, lattes with milk-foam hearts, and a warm fireplace. Hygge can be used as a noun, adjective, verb, or compound noun, like hyggebukser, otherwise known as that shlubby pair of pants you would never wear in public but secretly treasure. Hygge can be found in a bakery and in the dry heat of a sauna in winter, surrounded by your naked neighbors. It’s wholesome and nourishing, like porridge; Danish doctors recommend “tea and hygge” as a cure for the common cold. It’s possible to hygge alone, wrapped in a flannel blanket with a cup of tea, but the true expression of hygge is joining with loved ones in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere.
Of course it is easy to get carried away with this Hygge thing. It is a bit like Catnip to those selling socks and all the other items associated with Hygge! Everyone has such brilliant suggestions about how to get into the mood. For example, Moody Moons offers some ideas about how to Hygge like a Witch.
The bottom line is that Hygge is all about self nurturing and it is no state secret that many of us are not so good at caring for ourselves.
This post is all about ‘the deck’ that is the one you will turn to when you need to self soothe.
So pull out the comfie socks, set yourself up by the fire place, toast some marshmallows and Chill It with your most soothing decks.
Try doing a Self Love Spread – there are tons of these to be found on Pinterest.
The deck I will turn to is a recent acquisition. It is Into the Lonely Woods by Lucy Cavendish and Dan May. But others that always offers comfort are The Arboridium and the Oracle Deck I created using images from fantasy magazines and second hand children’s books.
Over to You
What is your reliable self soothing deck, the deck you turn to when you need to be comforted or cheered up? Share photos of your deck and your Hygge space.
If you don’t have the right Hygge deck get out the craft supplies and spend quiet time making one for yourself
2 : someone or something that provides strength and support He is the family’s anchor. anchor. verb. anchored; anchoring. Kids Definition of anchor (Entry 2 of 2)
anchor something to fix something firmly in position so that it cannot move Make sure the table is securely anchored. [transitive, usually passive] anchor somebody/something (in/to something) to firmly base something on something else Her novels are anchored in everyday experience.
a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay.
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist from the 20th century, was the first person to bring the application of archetypes into modern psychology. Jung noticed that people and life situations are marked by primary patterns reflected in symbols, images, and themes common to all cultures and all times. We see archetypes as recurring images in art, literature, myths, and dreams. Mother, Father, Home, Stranger, Betrayal, Anger, Love — these are all archetypes expressed in characters, stories, images, and symbols in all cultures and all times, and, these are all universal experiences in human life.
Identifying which archetypes are influential in our lives can thus lead us to self-discovery, self-awareness, growth, and self-actualization. Consciously choosing the right archetype for each chapter in our life story can create a more fulfilling, successful life, where we use our archetypes instead of being controlled by them.
Reasons to work with archetypes
Increasing self-awareness
Finding greater fulfillment and meaning in life
Improving personal, family, community, and workplace relationships
Expanding abilities, perspectives, and options
Helping people to escape habitual archetypal patterns that have become limiting ruts rather than empowering paths
Enabling people to be actively engaged in charting the course of their journeys
Aside from checking out the archetypes in the Tarot there are specific decks which help us work with these aspects of self. Two decks that come to mind are the Archeo by Nick Bantock and the Archetype Cards by Carolyn Myss. These are a fantastic resource for personal reflection or for working with characters if you are writing or making art.
Nick Bantock provides a number of spreads and ideas for working with Archetypes. Here is just one of those.
Another way to work with Archetypes is to ask a Show Me Deck what one needs to consider. My extension deck which includes Shadow Cards called on me to work with a ‘bad trait’. Now I don’t happen to believe any trait is completely bad and so it was no surprise when the ‘Eccentric’ emerged. It is not bad to be eccentric but it can alienate us from others.
So I decided to explore a simple Past, Present, Future spread using my most eccentric deck and low and behold its all there to show me how ingrained this archetype is.
In 2018 I did a ‘Danse with the Macabre’ when I visited Sedlec Ossuary (aka Kostnice Ossuary Beinhaus). It was one of the highlights of my week long stay in the Czech Republic.
“Known to most as “the Bone Church,” it displays some of the world’s more macabre art. In addition to a splendid bone chandelier composed of almost every bone in a human body, the ossuary displays two large bone chalices, four baroque bone candelabras, six enormous bone pyramids, two bone monstrances (a vessel used to display the Eucharistic host), a family crest in (you guessed it) bone, and skull candle holders. Festively looping chains of bone are hung throughout like crepe paper at a birthday party.”
Atlas Obscura
In the Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, skeletons escort living humans to their graves in a lively waltz. Kings, knights, and commoners alike join in, conveying that regardless of status, wealth, or accomplishments in life, death comes for everyone. At a time when outbreaks of the Black Death and seemingly endless battles between France and England in the Hundred Years’ War left thousands of people dead, macabre images like the Dance of Death were a way to confront the ever-present prospect of mortality.
Though a few earlier examples exist in literature, the first known visual Dance of Death comes from around 1424. It was a large fresco painted in the open arcade of the charnel house in Paris’s Cemetery of the Holy Innocents. Stretched across a long section of wall and visible from the open courtyard of the cemetery, the fresco depicted human figures (all male) accompanied by cavorting skeletons in a long procession. A verse inscribed on the wall below each of the living figures explained the person’s station in life, arranged in order of social status from pope and emperor to shepherd and farmer. Clothing and accessories, like the pope’s cross-shaped staff and robes, or the farmer’s hoe and simple tunic, also helped identify each person.
The Death card is one of the most feared and misunderstood cards. Spread by movies trying to sensationalize drama and abused by the occasional unscrupulous reader, the Death Card strikes fear into the heart of anyone who doesn’t understand it. The Death card frightens many people, for they think it means that they, or someone they love, is going to die — although when they hear it signals great change, they can become frightened of that, too, even if they need it.
Rather than fear the Death Card embrace it by taking a deck of cards and visiting a cemetery like the one I visited in my region.
I stopped at the headstone, erected for Pte Alfred Frederick and contemplated the impact of his death at just 20 years of age, the utter waste of war. All around me was evidence of change, which is actually what the Death Card is all about.
Over to you
Lay out some Death Cards and meditate on the message
Consider taking the opportunity to ‘Danse Macabre’ by visiting a cemetery with a deck of cards and doing this spread.
So you’ve decided you love Tarot and Oracle, but you can’t quite find a deck that resonates with you. Or perhaps you’ve found some that are okay, but you really want to tap into your creative spirit and make a custom deck of your own.
Creating your own set of cards lets you understand what each card means and how you can interpret it during readings.
Can you do it? Of course you can. The most challenging part is finding the images.
Many people have made Tarot cards throughout the course of the centuries. You can purchase blank ones in a set, already cut and sized for you, and create your own artwork to go on them. Or you can print them out on photo paper or card stock and cut them yourself.
Years ago I facilitated a group who exchanged Trading Cards and I have a lovely box filled with ones that were sent to me.
During a 2020 lock down I made a set of my own Oracle cards. I had an incomplete deck I had picked up in a Charity store and I repurposed this card stock using images from old fantasy art magazines that I had. Because I am using the imagery of artists whose work was featured in those magazines, I make it very clear that this deck is strictly for my personal use.
It was more challenging to draw the 78 cards for Bonnie’s Skool of Tarot but it certainly helped me learn more about the meaning of each card.
The FoolAce of WandsFive of WandsThe MoonThe MagicianThe Hierophant
I think I am not the only one intrigued by the picturesque of early Tarot cards. What do they really represent? Who drew them? Who put all these icons together?
Then I saw Dario Fo, the great Italian comedian of Comedia dell Arte, play writer and Nobel Prize winner, acting on stage playing the hilarious figure of a barbarous Pope (I cannot recall who) and I thought that something of the medieval feasts, mysteries and banquets were radiating from the stage… from Origins of the Tarot Cards from Medieval Mystery Play
Whether you are an experienced Tarot reader or a beginner there is no doubt that lovers of cards love to play with their cards. This Advent Calendar is primarily about spending time with and playing as though you are playing with a good friend.
Hudson explores, in some detail, the history of Mystery and Morality Plays
As early as the 14th century artists were painting the heroes of Miracle, Mystery and Morality plays on to cards. In his book, Mystical Origins of the Tarot, Paul Hudson explores the ancient roots that lie within these plays.
Typically, Morality plays, for example, tried to teach through a theatrical point of view. These plays were allegorical dramas that personified the moral values and abstract ideas to teach moral lessons. The plays were used to educate the masses on Christianity.
A unique dance production featuring the deck of 22 cards, in their traditional order, is just an example of how artists make use of the Tarot.
Here is a setting for a Medieval Style Play using a Magnetic Theater my daughter had as a child.
Imagine you are writing for a Medieval Theatre Troupe. What cards would you choose to use for a play set in a Royal Court or conversely for a Chaucer, Canterbury Tales style character like the Wife of Bath? Check the link to be reminded of the characters that peopled Chaucers work.
Zen master is a somewhat vague English term that arose in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes used to refer to an individual who teaches Zen Buddhist meditation and practices, usually implying longtime study and subsequent authorization to teach and transmit the tradition themselves.
Natalie Goldberg, whose work I have always admired, wrote the Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America, a memoir about her Zen teacher.
When I was young it was a thing to go off to India, meet a Guru and ‘find yourself’. Not everyone has the opportunity to spend time in retreat working with a Zen Master or a Guru, but collectors of cards will know that amongst their decks lies a true Zen Master.
I have a couple of decks in my collection that could earn this title but the stand out at the moment is Morgan’s Tarot, which isn’t really a Tarot anyway. Sometimes I suspect I may get more sense out of my colourful pansies.
Out with my Zen Master
My new Zen Master, the Morgan’s Tarot, and I went out together for a private session at a local labyrinth. Before going I painstakingly numbered all the cards in the order in which their descriptions appear in the booklet. This ritual is the closest I will ever come to modifying a deck. Scissors and I don’t go well together, but at least I now get what this deck modification is about.
But I digress. When we reached our destination I explained to the deck that I wanted to know more about my path.
It seems that my master is intent on baffling me, for nothing made sense, at least not at first. Perhaps bafflement is the point. “Zen koans are statements which, on their face, make no apparent logical sense. The intention of the koan is to crack-open the seeker’s habitual thinking, so that new ways of thinking can seep in through the crack. Morgan’s Tarot seems to invoke some of that spirit”.
Over to You
Check out your collection of decks, experiment and decide who is your real Zen Master. To do this you might use this relationship spread with each deck.
Some Exercises:
Think of a question to ask your Zen Master. Decide on a lay-out to use to answer the question, three-card, five-card, Six-card Hungarian, Celtic Cross-and-Wand, your choice. The thing is, you’re going to ask this same question of both your Zen Master deck, and your choice of one of the other symbol-system divination methods available. Note which cards landed where in each spread. Do a comparison and contrast of both decks. Was there a fundamental agreement in their answers? Did one deck seem to focus on one aspect of your situation and the other deck, another? Source: Divination Lessons
Head out with your Zen Master, preferably in some outdoor space, and seek advice. With any luck you will not be told you are experiencing illegitimate feelings, whatever they are.
Morgan Tarot Online
Sleepbot, whoever they are, has a wonderful divination generator featuring these cards, which reminds me of Willa’s Tea Leaf Readings, a fun generator that was around back in the early days of the net.
Bonding with your tarot deck is a great practice you can use, along with cleansing your cards, to attune to your new, or old, deck’s vibe for more powerful and accurate readings.Search online and you will find plenty of suggestions about how to connect with your deck. Here is just another fun suggestion.
In this instance I have used the Cosmic Tarot, and chosen the Princess of Cups to be the primary protagonist.
One way to build up your connection with Tarot decks is to use the suits and court cards to tell spontaneous stories.
There are many advantages of using the storytelling process to connect with your Tarot cards.
You really get into the picture of the cards and observe the details of the imagery.
You can really internalize each and every aspect of the card’s pictures.
You can get creative and let your imagination run wild while writing the story.
its an opportunity to let imagination and Intuition mix really well together
Lay out a full suit from your Tarot deck and choose one of the Court Cards to take the role of primary protagonist.
Set a timer for twenty minutes and just write.
Here is an example of a tale, written in twenty minutes, using the Cosmic Tarot for inspiration.
After having been through a trying time, having emerged from a sustained period of loss and grief, Sonia, a young Princess in the House of Cups, visited a local Gypsy tarot reader. The Gypsy told Sonia that her cup was actually overflowing with potential and suggested that she might try to find delight in life by observing simple things. She told the Princess that this would sweeten her life and open her up to positive experiences.
Sonia took the Gypsies advice to heart and began to take more notice of her environment. In no time she began to see the world of the palace in a different light. She watched her mother, Queen Isobella working tirelessly in the Court gardens. Sonia decided that instead of sitting by her window, waiting for yet another, disappointing, entitled, narcissist prince to come, she would take her art supplies and slip into the Enchanted wood that she had loved as a child.
As the days passed her demeanor transformed and her parents and brother noted her flushed cheeks and the transformation that had taken place. Sonia suggested that it was all due to the fresh air and her passion for her artistic endeavours. What she did not reveal, over the formal evening dinners, was that while she was in the woods she had met a very handsome huntsman and that each day she was making sure to set up her easel where he would find her.
Dressed as a maiden, the huntsman was oblivious to her true identity. He began to court her, finding small gifts to give her each day. Gradually she filled her box of wonder with delightful fragments, stones, gum nuts, flowers, feathers and crystals. Each piece had a story to tell and the fairy folk of the woods unashamedly supported their affair and shielded their passionate love making from prying eyes.
Alas, one day, courtiers, at the behest of the King, followed her and witnessed her meeting and walking off with the huntsman. After Sonia had returned to the court, flushed after her encounter, the courtiers returned to the woods and revealed Sonia’s identity to the huntsman. They threatened him and made him understand that he best make himself scarce for he was not eligible to marry her.
The huntsman, knowing their lives were in danger disappeared and Sonia fell into despair when he failed to meet their rendezvous. In desperation she went back to the Gypsy, seeking more advice.
The Gypsy, upon seeing the empty cups in the spread, pointed instead to the ten of cups and reassured Sonia that happiness could still be hers.
Being a determined young woman Sonia sought help from the Fae folk and was taken to the Huntsman’s cottage deep within the woods. They talked for hours, imagining the life they could share if she was prepared to relinquish her royal life and live with him in this idyllic woodland setting.
He was shattered when she made it clear that this was not possible, that her family, the courtiers would literally hunt them down and kill him for his insolence.
It seemed that all was lost until her mother, with a group of her Ladies in Waiting appeared before them. The Queen recognized the huntsman as the youngest son of her brother, the King of the House of Swords. King Eric had sent the lad into the woods to learn about life, to learn to honour all living things and he had been gone so long he had quite forgotten who he was.
Needless to say, sensing that Sonia was already with child, Queen Isobella wholeheartedly blessed the union, even although they were cousins.
To celebrate their marriage Sonia commissioned an artist to paint a portrait of herself. Everyone was taken aback when they saw that she had posed naked in the woods, surrounded by Fae folk and overflowing cups to celebrate that her cup runneth over – at least for now.
All Tarot and Oracle Deck collectors will have at least a couple of decks that they have disconnected from. Yule is the time when many people reconnect with friends and family. If we think of a deck as a person who we have a relationship with it might just be time to reconnect. It may sound slightly crazy but you can take the time to hold the deck and explain why you’ve been out of touch. You might briefly describe what has been going on with you if you must explain your disappearance, but don’t put yourself down. No mea culpa about how bad or shameful you are. Just reconnect — don’t try and solve all the relationship issues of the past.
Engaging in the challenges that appear in the Instagram Community is a great way to reconnect, build a relationship with your deck and develop your tarot reading skills all at the same time. There are a vast number of challenges to choose from and most can be done at your own pace.
Two that have caught my eye this month are Deckember 21, which encourages participants to showcase their favourite Majors and Inner Landscape of the Dark which provides a way to mine your inner landscape.
Personally I love to work with Josephine Hardiman’s Challenges. She consistently posts thought provoking work which you commit to doing every second day. Her latest is the Goodbye to 2021, which is very appropriate for December.
Over to You
The Lions Gateway Tarot by Jessica Henry who has a new edition available.
The Lions Gateway Tarot is a beautiful Indi deck which I ordered in 2020 before the cost of postage spiraled out of control. I was very excited to get it but it has languished as, like a Wattle Bird I have taken off the feed on what has appeared to be juicier nectar.
I am not in to making New Year resolutions but I am prepared to adopt a different view with the decks I have in my collection and commit to building a closer relationship with them.
Identify a deck you are prepared to reconnect with and spend some time completing a challenge with this one deck.
Santa letters originated as missives children received, rather than sent, with parents using them as tools to counsel kids on their behavior. For example, Fanny Longfellow (wife of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) wrote letters to her children every season, weighing in on their actions over the previous year (“I am sorry I sometimes hear you are not so kind to your little brother as I wish you were,” she wrote to her son Charley on Christmas Eve 1851). This practice shifted as gifts took on a more central role in the holiday, and the letters morphed into Christmas wish lists. But some parents continued to write their kids in Santa’s voice. The most impressive of these may be J.R.R. Tolkien, who every Christmas, for almost 25 years, left his children elaborately illustrated updates on Father Christmas and his life in the North Pole—filled with red gnomes, snow elves, and his chief assistant, the North Polar bear.
Santa Claus may owe his earliest influence to Odin (also known as Wodan), a god revered by Germanic peoples in Northern Europe as early as 2 B.C.E. Odin was celebrated during Yule, a pagan holiday that took place midwinter. During this time, Odin was said to lead the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky.
While sending a letter to Santa Claus might seem like a pretty straightforward process, it’s had a colorful—and at times controversial—history.
If one work can be credited with helping kick start the practice of sending letters to Santa Claus, it’s Thomas Nast’s illustration published in the December 1871 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The image shows Santa seated at his desk and processing his mail, sorting items into stacks labeled “Letters from Naughty Children’s Parents” and “Letters from Good Children’s Parents.” Nast’s illustrations were widely seen and shared, being in one of the highest-circulation publications of the era, and his Santa illustrations had grown into a beloved tradition since he first drew the figure for the magazine’s cover in 1863. Reports of Santa letters ending up at local post offices shot up the year after Nast’s illustration appeared.
Whatever your views there is no doubt that at this time there is a lot merit in identifying what you would really appreciate being given. Appropriate gift giving saves a lot of unwanted items ending up in landfill.
So let us turn our minds around to how we might repurpose the traditional letter to Santa and what sort of wish list we might generate.
A Courier Might Just Bring Me
I am very dependent upon YouTube reviews on decks now. After having been disappointed by some that I have purchased on a whim, I now take quite some time before ordering anything.
It will come as no surprise, given my habit of taking journeys of imagination, that I would love to acquire The Weaver’s Oracle, which has been around for quite awhile. The Weavers’ Oracle book and 52 cards are created from thirty years of Carolyn’s paintings, mythic tales and work with women’s archetypal mysteries. It forms a wild alchemy of images and words that lay down original and inspiring trails into oracle lands.
Two other decks, which like the Weavers Oracle feels out of my reach thanks to exorbitant postage costs when having things delivered to Australia are by Faina Lorah.
I would also like to find, on my doorstep, some recycled bits and bobs for my cubby/studio down in the back yard.
Chimes
Cool home made Tibetan style Prayer Flags
Unusual pots to plant lovelies that flourish in shaded areas
A full sized skeleton
Solar powered fairy lights
A Crystal Skull
Over to You
I can dream about getting something like this Crystal Skull. It would stretch the budget but, whatever! No one said I couldn’t lust for something like this.
Perhaps you will share your letter and let us see what is at the top of your wish list. For that matter, folk on Instagram love seeing stuff, so maybe go for broke and show a few witchy things that you would love to acquire.
A war has been raging between the two nations ever since, and Gulliver is asked to help defend Lilliput against its enemies. Gulliver does not feel that it is appropriate to intervene, but he nonetheless offers his services to the emperor.
He cried in the loudest voice, ” long live the mightiest emperor of the state”. Therefore, Gulliver proved his loyalty and he was made a great lord by the emperor.
The Hanged Beast broke the monotony of life in a dank cell by explaining some of the politics any traveller in the world of the Northern Animal Tarot should be aware of. Apparently, as can be seen above, there are four Royal Houses in these parts and they most certainly do not form an alliance. On the contrary there has been a long history of conflict and hostility. As is the case in some parts of our world, mediation has never quelled long held resentments and desires for revenge.
As I listened I contemplated some of the handy mediation skills I had acquired during my 71 years on planet Earth. I rarely produce this card, but I told the Hanged Beast that I had served a ten year stint in a rather complex political, often toxic, environment. It occurred to me that the skills I had acquired on the floor of the chamber, and in countless negotiations, might prove useful if I ever got the opportunity to justify my presence here.
“Oh you will get an opportunity” said the Hanged Beast. “I have already sent a message to the Court suggesting that rather than simmering you in a cauldron in cooks kitchen, you may be of some use here”.
I shuddered! Holy moley! Clearly groups to protect the well being of humans were needed here, but given how we humans treat animals I didn’t imagine anyone would listen.
So the Hanged Beast was actually some sort of double agent, or an informer trying to curry favour somewhere. How intriguing! This really is beginning to be more like being thrust onto the set of Alice in Wonderland or Game of Thrones, I thought, remarkably calmly given what some might deem to be a dire situation.
No sooner did the beast say this than a group of gruff guards appeared. I was marched off, still in chains, to the Royal Court of the House of Swords.
As I stood before the Royal couple I intuited that it was the Queen who held the power here and could feel an instant connection.
Our eyes met and she smiled at me. Then, not unexpectedly, she demanded that my captors explain why they had treated one of her close kin so badly and insisted that my chains be immediately removed, that I be given a nice bowl of steaming vegan soup to nourish me.
Over to You
Having entered the world created by the deck of your choice lay out all the Court Cards. Meditate upon these and decide which court you are compelled to visit. Consider which of your archetypes will prove handy as you face the court.
Fabric some yarn or rather tall, decidedly bizarre story about what you are doing there.
The Tarot Midwife 