Share Your Tarot Card Readings!

[Front-Ranger]

The Brokeback Tarot Deck isn't completely built yet, but I can't wait any longer to start having readings. Here's my first one, and I invite you to comment on what you might think it means because, as I've said before, I really know very little about it! I did my very first reading on January 1, 2008, and I was very pleased with it. However, I've misplaced my notes so I won't be sharing that reading for the time being.

I shuffled and then separated the cards into four piles, drawing the top card from each pile for the four cards in the layout. In the top center (What's at hand) card is the VII of swords, reversed. In the bottom left position (past influences) is the VIII of wands. In the bottom center position (ponder this) is the knight of pentangles or disks. In the bottom right position (what to do) is the V of pentangles. All of the bottom cards are upright.

[Front-Ranger]

The name of this card is "Finding Solutions." Oh goodie. I could use a solution. Brokeback Mountain has entered my life in such a big way that I find I am no longer able to just go about my everyday business in the usual way. My Brokeback life and my ordinary life are clashing and merging and I have to find a way to make them meld. I believe that my Brokeback life is simply a return to my roots, the way I was before life, work, and obligations intruded.

On the card I have drawn is a rat standing on six swords with another sword going the other direction. Four of the six swords are arranged in couples and the other two are by themselves. To me, this stands for seven of my closest friends, especially since the swords each have a pink heart on their hilts. This reminds me of when I was making CDs for my friends the other day and I put a heart on each CD except for one. The rat reminds me that this is the year of the rat. The card is reversed, which says to me that things will probably not turn out like I plan. But when do they ever?

[Front-Ranger]

The card in the "past influences" position is the VIII of Wands, upright. Over in the other Tarot thread, I wrote about this card:

VIII of Wands: Greater responsibilities. Your increasing energy makes more things possible than you ever imagined. Projects can fail if you lack the resolve to say good-bye to the old. Old habits can be like a wall. If you know what you really want, you are free from obstructions and limitations

Yes, indeed. The card has the wands arranged like the spokes of a wheel. In the center of the wheel is a clicking clock set at 10 o'clock. Some of the wands have leaves sprouting on them.

More from Tarot Basics: "You will have experiences and encounters that you never thought possible before. You will widen your horizons and expand your personal frame of reference, achieving new perspectives and insights. Your ability to assimilate these new awarenesses and to work with them is now possible and will be the secret of your success."

I feel like Not Dead Ned in Spamalot, who cavorts across the stage singing "I'm not yet dead!"

[Front-Ranger]

The card in the "Ponder This" position is the Knight of Pentacles. This card is called "chaff and wheat" and represents my possessions and material goods with all their advantages and disadvantages. Tarot Basics uses the example of the horse on which the knight rides. The horse's manure must be hauled out of the barn and spread on the fields, so the sweet grapes and golden wheat can grow. Likewise, I must stop sweeping my own shit under the rug but instead use it productively. I should not be afraid of disagreements or discomfort between me and my friends because that is how people grow by dealing with it, not just standing it. "If your own and other people's 'manure' is that useful, how much more beneficial will your talents be!"

Food for thought...

[Front-Ranger]

The last card, in the "What to do" position is the V of Pentangles. There are more Pentangles than anything else in my reading. Here's how oilgun explained the Pentangles one time:

Pentacles: (Earth) Money, industry, material gain. Except for the 5 of pentacles these cards all depict people either working or enjoying the fruits of labour.  The coinlike disks are incribed with pentagrams - five pointed stars that are time homoured symbols of man.  In ancient days, people wore pentacles decorated with magic symbols as a protection from the evils of life.

There are a lot of "V" things associated with Jack: the Pentacost, stars, the swather that Meryl pointed out was visible outside his window. And I am a Jack, so it seems like this card is speaking directly to me.

Pain is often self-inflicted. If you want to change a bad situation (a GDBOAUS!) you simply need to accept certain things about yourself and others. Be considerate and remember that everyone grows at a different rate, and don't compare apples with oranges. You can remove personal pain by sharing it. By sharing the journey, we can cancel out our personal handicaps and multiply our strengths. Looks like I am doing the right thing by sharing my reading!

Well, this Tarot reading has shown me a lot, given me confidence, and confirmed what I suspected. Now, it's your turn...would you like to share your Tarot readings for us to mull over together?

[Front-Ranger]

I am planning on doing a new Tarot Reading on the 20th of March in honor of the Spring Solstice. Who would like to join me? We can do one reading for all of us, or we can have several people do their own readings and share them. It will be fun!

[Front-Ranger]

okay, here goes. My tarot card reading very close to the Spring Equinox. 

In the top spot: The Chariot

In the lineup below:

The Ace of Cups

The Knight of Pentacles and

The VIII of Swords


What an awesome lineup!! Your thoughts, everyone?!

[Front-Ranger]

In the "What's at hand" spot is The Chariot. Here's what oilgun wrote about this card:

The Chariot = Pickup Truck

Success, victory through hard work; the well-balanced life.  Triumph over ill health, money difficulties, or enemies of any sort.  Aresponsible nature, An ability to resist temptation.  Travel in comfort.

This seems to me to apply to BetterMost and to indicate that we will continue to grow and prosper as a vehicle to deliver the Brokeback message to all!

Here's the Chariot card

[Front-Ranger]

In the "past influences" position in the lower left is the Ace of Cups. Here's what was written about it on the main Tarot Card thread:

This card invites us to reenter the realm of water, dissolve the "I" and connect with primeval life. It is called the Rebirth of the Soul and gives us the feeling of liberation that we lost when taking on the yoke of the world, when we were first born. Ironically, by relinqueshing our fixation on the ego, we gain a better understanding of our individuality. Drawing this card is a gift, returning to us the richness of our inner personal life, reconnecting us to the source of life itself, and allows us to drink from the cup of fullfilment and satisfaction.

When did Ennis ever get to drink from his cup? It happened in the prelude of the story, which quixotically discusses the later events that happened after Jack died. " The liquid he drinks is leftover coffee, rewarmed on the stove over a flame swathed in blue. This is the ritual drink, along with whiskey, the drink of the reality-check. When you're living a leftover life, leftover coffee is your drink of choice (along with leftover cheap white wine for toasting, from Cassie!) Ennis also urinates, not in the bathroom, but in the sink in a pale echo of the way he and Jack would relieve themselves on the mountain in between campfire stories, songs, and whiskey-sipping. Ennis is content, he is actually "suffused with a sense of pleasure" because he has an inner life filled with the richness of Jack's presence. He has in a sense been born again, with the sacramental fluid sometimes wetting the pillow, sometimes the sheets. And his pleasure stokes the day, energizing him as long as he does not force his attention on it.

This scene appears in an oblique way in the movie, where we see Ennis' trailer, his bed (with a fan propped on it), the sink, and a collection of cups. After the visit from Alma, Jr., Ennis tenderly folds the sweater she left behind and puts it in the closet, pausing to look at the two shirts he keeps there along with a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. As he closes the closet door and moves away, the bleak ending scene comes into view. But wait, there is a ray of hope that Ang Lee catches at the very end. Have you seen it?

[Front-Ranger]

In the bottom center "ponder this" position is the Knight of Pentangles, or disks. This is the same card in the same position as my first reading in February!! So it must be very important. Here's what was written about it:

"Chaff and Wheat." Stop sweeping the inevitable blunders in your life under the rug. Instead, use them to fertilize the fields and gardens of your life. Tarot Basics uses the example of the horse on which the knight rides. The horse's manure must be hauled out of the barn and spread on the fields, so the sweet grapes and golden wheat can grow. Likewise, I must stop sweeping my own shit under the rug but instead use it productively. I should not be afraid of disagreements or discomfort between me and my friends because that is how people grow by dealing with it, not just standing it. "If your own and other people's 'manure' is that useful, how much more beneficial will your talents be!"

Ennis dutifully fed the cows hay throughout the winter, and was comforted by the sounds and smells of fecundity and life's continuance, the moans of sleepy Alma and the sucking sounds of his baby daughters. It moved him to work hard all those years when his heart ached to be with Jack.