Cut the Deck

Last night I shuffled my Golden Tarot deck and pulled cards to see who I am in this new collaboration with my daughter, Lisbeth, and who she is. The tarot never ceases to amaze me with its story telling power. In my reading, Lisbeth turned out to be the card pictured here, the Two of Swords. I like to look at the tarot card and first interpret what I see, before shuffling through books of traditional meanings. And when I look at this card, the first thing I see is those crossed swords. SCISSORS! And the figure is a bit slumped, and sad. She has a halo, so she seems to be a sort of martyr figure. She is outdoors by the sea, alone, and it is night. But the ground beneath her feet is glowing gold, and there is a moon in the dark sky. There is light!

Off the top of my head I do know that the Two of Swords can be about working with intuition (in the Rider Waite deck, the figure in the Two of Swords is blindfolded, and I read it as giving a feel the Force, Luke! message...). This is befitting for Lisbeth, considering what she is able to do despite her "blindfold;" her disabilities. I did then take a peek at the little book that comes with the Golden Tarot, and one line that popped out at me in the description of the Two of Swords, was this: You have the ability to make the best of a bad situation.
As Lis would say, Mmmmmm Hmmmmm. Mmmmmm Hmmmmm. True...

And this is the card that came up to represent me in this endeavor with Lisbeth. The Queen of Wands. Again, I first interpreted the card by myself. A queen - a mother figure...and then the RED - heart, passion, fire, blood, hell. These all describe my love for my daughter, and yes, this includes the hell that she and I have been through together. (I have written here about the heartbreak and pain of having a child with chronic illness, and some of the art that I created to deal with this pain...). I also saw the crossed hands echoing the crossed hands and swords in Lisbeth's card. Like daughter, like mother. And the bits that stand out in the Golden Tarot description about this Queen: She is flanked by red angels glowing in the darkness. Passionate and creative. Mmmmmm Hmmmmm. True.

After the tarot reading I went on-line and googled paper cutting. WOW! What a world of gorgeous art is out there! This dress looks like it could be worn by the Queen of Wands...

And so does this skirt!!!

And then I found this artist. Wow, wow, wow. Her work is enchanting. Scroll down and see for yourself...

!!!!!!

AMAZING!!!

(One of Lisbeth's perseverative phrases is, Oooooooooh, little monkey, monkey! :*)
Have a great weekend, folks!