Another Luman Thread

I wasn't sure where to put this thread, because ultimately I think what I did was a reading, but I'm not sure...

I began sorting the deck tonight. I had just put the children to bed, rather late for them I must admit, and I pulled out the Luman. I was looking at the cards and thinking all of the "Sun" cards might go together, then I noticed that some were Moons. And before I knew it little piles began to emerge.

The Moons went together easily. And I have a large grouping with the water cards...and then I found that not all of the water cards wanted to stay together. So I played with that for a while, and I noticed Anger didn't want to be with any other card, it just wanted to be all alone. At first Power was in with some other cards...and then it seemed to move into other piles...moving across the bedcovers like a silent yet stealthy cat.

I was wondering where She would end up...thinking that she was truly the most different color in the deck. Not green, not purple, not even pink or red. Power was the only brown colored card in the deck. But the golden tones, the hint of a brighter buttery yellow deep inside of her keeps her in the deck.

The Sun cards were another source of deep inner engagement. I sorted the Sun cards into Sun on left, Sun on center, Low Sun, High Sun...and then they drifted out of the their tidy little piles and into other groupings that I couldn't name or identify...and all of this sorting was without even looking at the names of the cards. It was as if the names on the cards didn't exist...just the colors, the flowers, the suns, the water, the moons, the swirls the Light.

So the sorting and sifting continued until I had about 15 or maybe 16 piles of cards. And I wrote them down, but can't post it all now. A little too tired and spent. The interesting part was that I pulled the cover off the box so that I could read the LWB. But the cards are just too tempting.

It's like opening a box of chocolates just to smell them. You promise yourself you won't touch any, not even a single one, just a little inhalation of sweetness. And suddenly you have one in your mouth and another in your hand. That is what happened tonight with the Luman. I thought, I'll just read the book, won't do a reading or play, just study the book. And before I knew it I had 16 piles of color and my fingers were saturated with their light.

I must say that I love the cards, and sometimes when I look at them I do wonder what their brighter sister looks like. I have satisfied myself with their richness tho, because by the end of every session with them I am not thinking about them as less vivid or lacking. I am wondering where the light that seems to spill off of them comes from....

Luman from a child's point of view...

Satori, what a beautiful post, thank you for sharing!

I took out my deck today to see if my daughter (5, almost 6 years old) was interested in exploring the cards. (She was!) I asked her if she wanted to sort them, and told her there were different ways of doing it, and she said she wanted to try different ways.

So first, I asked her to make three piles. A pile for the cards she liked, another pile for the ones she was uncomfortable with, and a third pile for when she couldn't decide one way or another. She did this pretty quickly. I then picked up the middle pile, of ones she couldn't decide on and shuffled them, then asked her to look through them again and see if any leaped out to her, wanting to now be put in the "like" or "dislike" pile. She did this, and was ultimately left with only one card that she just couldn't decide on. This was the Blindness card. She kept going back and forth with it, saying she didn't like the red in it, but she liked the design of the flower petals.

(By the way, she can read, but she can't read cursive/script yet, so she had no idea what the keywords on the cards said.)

Here are the cards she disliked (some she even winced at and retreated from as she quickly put them into the yucky/uncomfortable pile.)

Anger
Avarice
Awakening
Duality
Emotions
Foreboding
Gifting
Hate
Journey
Loss
Manipulation
Messages
Resentment
*Upheaval*
Withdrawal

(These are, not surprisingly, most of the dark cards.)

*I asked her to choose the one card that made her feel the worst, and she chose the Upheaval card. I asked her how it made her feel and she said, "I feel scared and lost and nowhere to find you guys. I'm not safe and I'm scared."

So then I shuffled all the cards back together and handed her the deck and told her she could put the cards into any piles she wanted to, however she thought they belonged grouped together...like Satori's experiment above. She ended up making eight piles. (I forget the groupings she made, I should have written them down.) So then I asked her to tell me how she felt when she looked at the top card on each pile.

Emotion: "Sucked in."
Breakthrough: "Feels like I'm home."
Anger: (she covered her ears) "Like music's playing too loud."
Joy: "Like my eyes hurt. Too much sun."
Manipulation: "Uncomfortable - looks like something's doing a horrible dance."
Chaos: "A field of pointy, spiky flowers - hurtful, painful."
Protection: "Looks like a baby." (her favorite card)
Depression: "I feel lost and not where I belong. This is my spirit and it's doing terrible (pointing to the orb in the center), and not like home."

She said very similar things about the Depression and Upheaval cards, so I showed her the cards side by side and asked her what difference she felt in them. She said Depression made her feel more sad, while Upheaval made her feel scared.

I asked her, if the Depression card made her feel those things, why she had earlier put it in her "like" pile. She said, "Looking at my spirit makes me feel good. It's like I'm protected. It's okay if I get attacked by a jaguar because I'm already dead, it won't hurt me. It cannot hurt me, because I'm already a spirit."

So I asked her to clarify...did the Depression card make her feel like she was already dead, and in spirit form? And she said yes. And I said, "So that makes you both sad and good?" And she said, "Yes, both of them. I can't see my family, but I'm protected."

I was really impressed with how aligned her emotions were with the cards. It was really neat to experience.

Satori, I know your daughter has more experience with the deck, and would love to hear some of her input if she'd like to share. (If you don't want to post it here, though, I totally understand!)

How beautiful

I wished my deck ha already arrived, can't wait to try this! Please, tell me more sites, and i'll tell you mine when my deck arrives

M.

I've been reading about this deck and now I'm going to order it for sure! I'm loving all the colors and emotion.

pippi said:

Satori, what a beautiful post, thank you for sharing!

I took out my deck today to see if my daughter (5, almost 6 years old) was interested in exploring the cards. (She was!) I asked her if she wanted to sort them, and told her there were different ways of doing it, and she said she wanted to try different ways.

So first, I asked her to make three piles. A pile for the cards she liked, another pile for the ones she was uncomfortable with, and a third pile for when she couldn't decide one way or another. She did this pretty quickly. I then picked up the middle pile, of ones she couldn't decide on and shuffled them, then asked her to look through them again and see if any leaped out to her, wanting to now be put in the "like" or "dislike" pile. She did this, and was ultimately left with only one card that she just couldn't decide on. This was the Blindness card. She kept going back and forth with it, saying she didn't like the red in it, but she liked the design of the flower petals.

(By the way, she can read, but she can't read cursive/script yet, so she had no idea what the keywords on the cards said.)

Here are the cards she disliked (some she even winced at and retreated from as she quickly put them into the yucky/uncomfortable pile.)

Anger
Avarice
Awakening
Duality
Emotions
Foreboding
Gifting
Hate
Journey
Loss
Manipulation
Messages
Resentment
*Upheaval*
Withdrawal

(These are, not surprisingly, most of the dark cards.)

*I asked her to choose the one card that made her feel the worst, and she chose the Upheaval card. I asked her how it made her feel and she said, "I feel scared and lost and nowhere to find you guys. I'm not safe and I'm scared."

So then I shuffled all the cards back together and handed her the deck and told her she could put the cards into any piles she wanted to, however she thought they belonged grouped together...like Satori's experiment above. She ended up making eight piles. (I forget the groupings she made, I should have written them down.) So then I asked her to tell me how she felt when she looked at the top card on each pile.

Emotion: "Sucked in."
Breakthrough: "Feels like I'm home."
Anger: (she covered her ears) "Like music's playing too loud."
Joy: "Like my eyes hurt. Too much sun."
Manipulation: "Uncomfortable - looks like something's doing a horrible dance."
Chaos: "A field of pointy, spiky flowers - hurtful, painful."
Protection: "Looks like a baby." (her favorite card)
Depression: "I feel lost and not where I belong. This is my spirit and it's doing terrible (pointing to the orb in the center), and not like home."

She said very similar things about the Depression and Upheaval cards, so I showed her the cards side by side and asked her what difference she felt in them. She said Depression made her feel more sad, while Upheaval made her feel scared.

I asked her, if the Depression card made her feel those things, why she had earlier put it in her "like" pile. She said, "Looking at my spirit makes me feel good. It's like I'm protected. It's okay if I get attacked by a jaguar because I'm already dead, it won't hurt me. It cannot hurt me, because I'm already a spirit."

So I asked her to clarify...did the Depression card make her feel like she was already dead, and in spirit form? And she said yes. And I said, "So that makes you both sad and good?" And she said, "Yes, both of them. I can't see my family, but I'm protected."

I was really impressed with how aligned her emotions were with the cards. It was really neat to experience.

Satori, I know your daughter has more experience with the deck, and would love to hear some of her input if she'd like to share. (If you don't want to post it here, though, I totally understand!)

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Beautiful! I will talk to my little one and see what she comes up with.

Pippi, I'm interested to know if you did the exercise???? The sorting...would love to know how it goes for you as well!

I was so interested to read this. I wonder if all children are that sensitive and expressive of their thoughts? Your daughter may be a particularly thoughtful child.

My niece is nearly 5, and I swear she has more fun with this deck than I do! And really, watching her interact with the images is such an amazing experience! She doesn't understand most of the more complex emotions, but her responses to her are eerily appropriate.

She loves to sit at my tarot table (because it makes her feel special) in my lap and go through the cards one at a time and tell me how they make her feel. The Blindness card is always one that she floors me with...she talks about how her eyes are drawn to the center of the flower and it's hard to move them away.

And she loves the Journey card, because she says it makes her feel like a mermaid swimming through the ocean. If you really look at the card and try to think like a small child, it DOES look like a mermaid tail and some water or waves.

It's amazing just how intuitive and sensitive little kids can be. She used to want to look through my tarot decks all the time, but now she wants to play with the "Dream Color" deck, as she calls it.

Aww, Promise, that's lovely. But who can blame the little lady?

I've had the cards a long time and they still fill me full of wonder.

Satori said:

Beautiful! I will talk to my little one and see what she comes up with.

Pippi, I'm interested to know if you did the exercise???? The sorting...would love to know how it goes for you as well!

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No, I haven't done it myself yet. I have been really absorbed in my playing cards in my spare time, I can't seem to drag myself away from them. But if I ever do play around with sorting the Luman, I'll let ya know!

Alta said:

I was so interested to read this. I wonder if all children are that sensitive and expressive of their thoughts? Your daughter may be a particularly thoughtful child.

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My middle daughter has many of the traits associated with Indigo Children. She came into this world with a very strong sense of self worth and importance. She has always confidently and fearlessly voiced precicely what she thinks, feels and wants. This began when she was in the womb, when she communicated to me that she would be a girl, what color eyes she would have and what her name was (first and middle)! (And who was I to argue with that?!) I was indeed pregnant at the time I received this communication from her, but I had no idea I was pregnant until about a week after her "message". Then it all made sense. Until then, I had no idea why I was receiving this message from out of nowhere about some girl. My son is the more sensitive and thoughtful one, and he and I have always had a psychic connection, ever since he was a toddler. We read each others' minds all the time. I don't like to compare them to other children though, so I can't say whether they are any more or less thoughtful, sensitive or expressive than other kids. I think all children have this nature in them, and their development depends on how they are allowed to express themselves growing up, and whether their intuition is nurtured or discouraged. I think it just comes naturally to children until they are taught otherwise.

As Promise writes, her niece has similar experiences with the cards, and Satori says her daughter is really amazing with the deck as well! I think the children of AT members are likely to be pretty tuned into intuition, simply because they likely have parents who believe in and encourage it. But I believe it's something that every child is just naturally born with. It was never something I was raised to even think about, so I had to remember how to listen to intuition as an adult. My kids have the advantage of being raised in a home where their views, feelings and intuition are valued and respected.

I read a story somewhere about a boy who had a weird feeling about a trusted family friend. His parents and siblings absolutely loved this man, and so the boys' feelings were dismissed. So he didn't verbalize his feelings anymore, but always continued to feel uncomfortable around this man, despite everyone saying he could be trusted. It turned out that the man had molested children before and was caught doing so again. When I read this story, my heart went out to that boy because no one had given his feelings any merit, which makes me so sad. My kids know that if they should ever have a bad feeling about someone, that feeling is very valid, no matter what anyone else says. They know that I will always believe them and trust what their heart is telling them, and that they never have to be afraid to express to me what they feel...I will always take their side. Of course, I hope they will never experience meeting someone like that, but the same goes for good situations as well. They know the importance of following their own interests and trusting in their own path in life. This is one of the many reasons we unschool...so that they are each free to follow their individual bliss. When children are made to conform, it teaches them not to trust in their intuition, because they aren't always allowed to follow where their inner guidance would lead them. Only they know what their heart is calling them to do at any given moment in their lives, so I give them the freedom to make their own decisions based on their passions, rather than blindly following what others think they should be doing.

Anyway, I didn't intend this post to turn into a novel. Alta, in short, I wouldn't say that my kids are an exception, I just allow them to be completely who they are, and so they feel safe expressing their emotions, because they know their feelings will be valued and respected.

This deck has supposedly been used with children in therapy sessions, helping them to open up in situations where they are afraid to speak out. So it's a great tool for those who aren't used to expressing themselves, as well as a beautiful outlet for those who are already comfortable with such...adults and children alike!