Tarot Blog Hop Imbolc 2019: Odd Associations

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This Hop recognizes the unique characteristics of the many different decks, different reading techniques, and different associations brought into play by each and every reader of Tarot and Oracle cards. In the words of our Wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein: "As readers and users of the symbolism of the Tarot and oracle decks, we create a string of associations with the emblems and mythology of divination. For instance, with the cards of the Tarot, a reader can associate them with events, people, feelings, places, etc. Those who dive into the esoteric systems will sometimes also have dates and locations, zodiac symbols, kabbalahistic ideas, etc. associated with the cards. Basically, divination systems are like a giant filing cabinet that we toss imagery into, so that later we can use the symbols as a hint of what is going on." And so each of us has been invited to share our personal experience of discovering "Odd Associations" as we delve into the esoteric meanings and resonances of our cards.

My own experience is connected on several levels with the Sabbat, Imbolc, that is the time of this Hop. I am a Priestess of the Goddess Brighid, and Imbolc is Her primary festival. And the associations of this Sabbat, whose name means, literally, "in the belly", have to do with the beginning of new ideas, the birth of images and connections with events, deities, and the actual energies of the person for whom I am reading. And for me, one of my primary and constantly occurring "Odd Associations" is the resonance of the aura of the person for whom I am reading with the basic meaning of each card, and the numerological associations of each card with all the others, and with the "soul numbers" of the client, which simply emerge in the process of the reading.

As an example of this phenomenon, and how the associations work, in my 34 years as a Tarot reader, I have had interactions again and again with people who are of significant "crossroads ages" in their lives, and many of them do not know the exact meaning of these guideposts until they appear in the reading. But the cards seem to be fully aware, not only of the phase of life that the person is entering or leaving, but of the new birth of ideas, events, and insights that occur "in the belly" of the person whose reading we are doing, and which need to be examined and "given birth" in order to manifest the new viewpoint and new actions that will assist the person in dealing with the events of this moment. As an example, I did a reading recently for a young man who was about to have his 22nd birthday. He wished to have a reading to give him some insights into what the next year would bring, but he was unaware of the resonance of 22 as a "Master Number" in numerology, and was also not familiar with the concept of reading someone's aura as a guidepost to the way the seven chakras of the individual were focusing and guiding the events of their current state of being. But the "Odd Association" of the cards which were drawn in this reading was that each of the seven cards we drew was one of the cards that represented a particular auric state and a threshold of change for the young man--and when they all were connected in the order of their appearance, we could link each of them to one of his seven chakras, and adding their numbers in both the suits that occurred and the Major Arcana cards, each group of cards added up to 22. Much of my interpretation of the cards had to do with explaining to the young man the numerological resonance of each individual card and the connections as we grouped them to the phases of his current threshold of being. And as we finished the reading, I shuffled the entire deck, Major Arcana and Minor Arcana, all 78 cards in one random stack, and asked him if he would like to draw a "threshold card" to answer the concept of "All right, then, what next? What do I focus on?" And he said that he would like to draw 2 cards, one that was about where he should go next, and the other saying what he should avoid doing or experiencing. And he did so--and, just to underline what the reading had already spoken to him, the two cards he chose added up, of course, to 22. 

Experiences of this kind have occurred so often that when I read cards, whether the Tarot, my Ogham Oracle, or my Spirit Deck, I always apply the numerological significance of the cards and the resonance of the auric connections to my interpretation of the reading. And even though on many levels these connections represent "Odd Associations", they keep reminding me that in psychic readings, nothing is fixed and immovable, and the reader needs to ride the constantly changing tides of flux and flow, both in interpreting the reading for the client and in focusing their own insight and awareness of how the Spirit works in psychic readings. So--I don't consider these associations particularly Odd, much of the time. I am more likely to hear Spirit saying to me, "So, you thought you understood how these cards connect and how they need to be interpreted, eh? Well--here's a new one for you. Take THAT, and see what you can do with it!!" And I do, and I will, because of all the insights of psychic reading that have presented themselves to me over the years, the one with which I resonate the most deeply is that nothing is set in stone, and if I think I know exactly what a particular combination of cards means--guess what? I just found out something brand-new about it. Odd Associations are the insights which make it possible to understand the aspects of a given set of cards, and realize that even the same set of cards is going to be able to be interpreted differently, every single time. So--as a reader, every time I  teach, I am also learning. May it be so, always!

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