I’ve been on a bit of a lucky streak when it comes to the generosity of others, it seems. I’ve won a couple of small crystal giveaways in the last couple of months, I’ve been gifted the Deviant Moon, I’ve been sent a couple of crystal tumbles from an IG friend, a postcard from another… It feels like it won’t end, but I’m not complaining! I’m really enjoying feeling the love from the tarot community. All of you are such lovely people. Not to mention, they’ve all felt like early birthday gifts, haha, since that’s in a week. (Cue general sigh of discontent at the thought of aging though.)
This week I received the Spiral Tarot from @temperance_tarot on Instagram, along with a gifted Botswana agate that I’ve decided to pair with the deck. She held a generous deck giveaway in our Facebook group– Not only to clear out some decks that I’m guessing she no longer used, but to help those decks find loving homes. When I saw Spiral in a deck title, I jumped on it, thinking it was the Tarot of the Mystic Spiral to be quite honest. Once I saw that it wasn’t, I decided to still go ahead with this one. Intuition and chance still brought me to pick it, and who am I to deny that?
The first thing I noticed and liked was the backing of the cards. Simple, but there’s no mistaking it: this is the Spiral Tarot.
I had to wait a few days to be able to work with it due to life, but I flipped through the cards when I opened the package. The deck isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as I’m sure many would like, and I may take off the purple borders later. I’ll have to see how I like the deck after a while before I make the decision to modify it. The artwork, however, is better in person than it is when viewing on a screen. It’s pretty RWS based, but I like the way they went with it. You’ll see in the photo of the spread. It wasn’t something I thought I’d be able to work with at first, until I looked at more cards online. I’m a lover of different art styles, and I think it makes me able to appreciate art that normally I’d look past.
One more thing I feel the need to note: This deck does have symbols from Kabbalah in it. Kabbalah is something I am not knowledgeable of at this time. After doing this reading, I do think that basic Kabbalah may be something I would like to learn, at least to feel more comfortable working with this deck.
This deck seems a little shy right now, and it’s not quite like any deck I’ve worked with. It has a different energy to it altogether. Let’s dig into the interview.
Spiral Tarot Deck Interview – Done on 6/29/2016
1 – What is your general personality? – Ten of Pentacles
This deck is something that has been passed down from one person (at least) to me, because the previous owner had an abundance and wanted to provide for others. With the generations of family here, I also see that this deck feels that it has an abundance of wealth to share with me, possibly in the form of knowledge. Maybe this deck is just focused on helping me gain abundance wherever possible. Perhaps with time, it will feel as if we are family? Or even that the family may represent my ‘family’ in the tarot community, and every time I pick this deck up it will kindly remind me of them, and help me to not feel alone sometimes in this world.
You can tell that this card confused me a little bit in this spot of the spread, haha. I feel as if it goes a few different ways.
2 – Why were you gifted to me at this time? – Five of Cups
The LWB put this card as needing to let go of an old emotional issue in order to gain something greater. Maybe this points to the inner child work that I’ve been doing, and maybe this points to something to come up soon in my life that I don’t know of yet that the deck will help to shed light on. I personally think it’s pointing to something that I don’t feel comfortable sharing here, but we’ll see with time. The woman in the card almost looks pained to have lost her precious cups, but of course she’s still got two behind her. She just has to turn around and see them.
3 – What are you here to teach me? – Seven of Pentacles
This deck is here to teach me that if I want something, I have to plant the seeds to get it. Nothing comes easy in life, there’s always that first few daunting steps to take before you reach a result. No farmer wants to go till the fields to plant the seeds. They want the crop to spring right up, but they know from experience that it doesn’t work that way. I’m one of those people that like to give up halfway into something if it doesn’t work out in the time frame that I want it to… But knows that I won’t get what I desire if I do it. I’ve got to stop being so impatient. Any plan that I have will bear fruit, but only if I’ve done the preparation and have a little patience. Nothing happens immediately.
4 – What are your strengths as a deck? – The Magician
I don’t know if I have a favourite Magician, but if I don’t, this one probably just won the spot. I love how the tools of the Minor Arcana are portrayed on his cape, not on a table or shelf. They’re also portrayed in the background in the form of weather. You have to look for them a bit before you see them (at least I did), whereas most other Magician cards I see, the tools are the focal point.
Not this card. My full focus went to that pose. This Magician knows what he’s got to do. He knows he’s got the tools and knowledge. He has to now take those tools and manifest. This deck’s strengths are exactly that- It will provide me with the divine knowledge necessary to help me manifest my goals.
5 – What are your limits as a deck? – Three of Pentacles
Just as the Magician is the strength of the deck, it makes complete sense that the limit would be that the deck can’t actually manifest those goals or desires that I reach for. This ballerina was taught by someone, but they are the one actually on the stage performing, not the teacher. They were guided by someone else in order to reach their desire of performing. I must ultimately be the one to do the work. The deck just helps to guide me.
6 – How can I best learn from & work with you? – The World
I see ultimate completion in this card, not only in the general sense of the World card, but in a personal sense. I see this person as myself, floating and dancing in the tendrils of the divine spiral. This deck and I will travel together- Not in the physical sense. I’ve always seen my path as a spiral and that’s why I was drawn to this deck. We’ll swing together on this spiral.
The symbol of Saturn appears in the background, reminding me that this card is ruled by the scholar planet. It indicates that this deck will help me to learn and be an expert in a subject. I did want to use this deck to help me gain a basic understanding of Kabbalah, but I think this hints at something more. We’ll see with time.
I do feel that I’ll have to work with this deck more in order to form a good bond with it. Right now, I feel that it wants to help me on my path, but the connection that’s necessary for that to happen won’t come immediately. It will take time.
The Spiral Tarot was created by Kay Steventon and is copyrighted by the publisher, US Games Systems Inc.