You may remember that I did a tarot layout using the Camelot Oracle to help provide a framework for my work last year. I expected to do the same this year, so when i got prepared to do a layout I went seeking the cards. I felt a strong aversion to using the Camelot cards! Oh! So, I went to my next set of cards – nope! What about the next set? No! I was down to my last set of cards – a set which had been gifted to me, and which I very rarely use for anything. Yes, these felt right. How strange!
The deck is the Tree Angel Oracle tarot – a deck which explores the spirit of trees and their associated qualities. I began to see that trees would be playing a large part of my activities in 2014.
I asked what type of card I should draw, and came up with two – either a “sign” or a “challenge“. A sign card shows me something that I will either be shown, or that I will receive, some information or sign that I can use to further my progress. A challenge card shows me something that I need to change or overcome in order to make progress.
I dowsed for how many points in the year I should draw, and the answer came back as eight. Each point of the eight-fold Celtic year. I drew a card for each station, and some stations ‘insisted’ on more than one card! I allowed that feeling to prevail, after all, it was that feeling which had guided me to the cards in the first place. I wasn’t going to insist on being right here – I was being guided.
The layout shows the eight points of the year starting from Winter Solstice at the top (North, if you will) and going round the year clockwise. Sign cards are shown vertically, and the challenge cards horizontally.
Here are the cards listed against their positions in the Celtic Wheel of the Year:-
- IMBOLC – Ivy (sign)
- SPRING EQUINOX – Rowan (sign)
- BELTANE – Blackthorn (sign)
- SUMMER SOLSTICE – Almond (sign) + Elder (challenge)
- LAMMAS – Hawthorn (sign)
- AUTUMN EQUINOX – Elm (sign) + Lime (sign)
- SAMHAIN – Juniper (challenge)
- WINTER SOLSTICE – Birch (sign)
Interpretation:
I have a feeling this year that I should interpret the cards as I get close to the date that I need the information. In the past when i have done tarot draws I have put the interpretations out as a kind of divination, a reading of the future. In this draw I feel that the threads of fate will come together close to the time of the event, rather than them being pre-formed and pre-destined. I think this is why I was shown a different tarot deck, because the information has to be treated differently.
Anyway – the only one that I want to make an interpretation from at the moment is the impending arrival of Imbolc. Here’s the card, and its meaning at the moment.
IMBOLC – Ivy – sign
Ivy is the giver of gifts without thought of reward.
As a sign card this is indicating some information to me, like a signpost on the path. As I have already found out that I will be giving up my current elementals, this seems to be a link in to that activity. I have decided, after seeing this card, that I should find an appropriate gift for each of the elementals. At Imbolc I should symbolically offer the gift to the elementals as a leaving present to them for all their help.
I’m arranging four ‘elemental’ site visits tomorrow. Let’s see what happens!
