About the Tarot of the Saints

Kiama

I got this deck a while back, and loved it, except for two cards...

Tower and Wheel. I thought they were quite sick actually. What does St Catherine have to do with the deeper meaning of the Wheel of Fortune? Not much, IMO. Okay, so she was martyed with a wheel, but why does that qualify her to be put on a card of luck, fortune, change, and cycles? Same with the Tower card and St. Barbara.

So, maybe I'm overreacting to these cards, and I do understand that any Saint deck is going to be slightly morbid (since most Saints were also Martyrs.) But these two just seemed too morbid...

Kiama
 

NightWing

Saints Alive!

I'm not so sure about St. Catherine and her connection to the Wheel of Fortune. It seems tenuous at best, though I may be missing some other factor here.

But St. Barbara is considered to be patron saint of architects, builders, stonemasons, and fire prevention. I suppose that is where her connection to The Tower is seen. It may not be fully representational. But how is that morbid?

All the best.
 

Myrrha

NightWing said:
The origins of this connection between Mary and the Moon are biblical. It stems from part of a vision of St. John on the isle of Patmos, recorded in the New Testament book of Revelation. Check Revelation chapter 12, verse 1, and thereafter. For Gnostics, Catholics, and the Orthodox, this is believed to refer to Mary. She is "the great sign that appeared in the sky".

That's a starting point, anyway.
All the best.

Thanks for answering, Nightwing. :) I do know the verse although Protestants tend to interpret it differently, but wondered if there might be more to it.

Anyway, I traded for the Tarot of the Saints! I'm not sure it will be a deck to read with (decks where the images are people with their own stories rather than the tarot personalities confuse me) but am looking forward to learning about the saints and about the Gnostic point of view.

--Myrha
 

tarobones

study group

Has anybody thought of a study/discussion of the Tarot of the Saints? I know that it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I have the deck and book and enjoy it. Perhaps others would like to share their experiences with the deck? BB, Michael
 

Emeraldgirl

I got this deck on a whim a while ago and although it may not be everyone's cup of tea the book is very interesting and the cards are well done IMHO. It's not a deck I would recommend to everyone but I think that if you have an interest in the Saints and their stories it could be a very benefical deck.
 

la-luna

Well having the deck i must say to get a good reading with it i must be in a very religious and meditative mood (in the positive sense of the word) that day .
And not one with whom you can do a reading for many people
I love to discuss it and share experiences good and bad and views on it with others
 

Genna

I agree with la-luna.I´ve just started doing three card spreads with it,and it´s very readable.The spread in the book seems rather complicated to me,but I would use it for spreads like The Celtic Cross,until I understand his way of reading the cards.He makes much of in which direction the characters on the cards look,and that is difficult for me.

I´m not a Catholic nor Gnostic BTW.I do think Protestants,Pagans,and everyone benefits from learning about the saints.It´s what our ancestors have pictured in numberless paintings,as someone said,and the stories give inspiration,as well as giving a key to understanding art.

The book is very,very good,explaining Tarot history,Gnostic history,and Sophia,wisdom(The World),the female side to God.Protestants can have favourite saints too,and I got mine;St. Térèse if Lisieux in my first reading;(she is The Star).

The Sun is a picture of Christ,the Divine Mercy icon.Sister Faustina painted it from a vision.Christ said to her;that all who looked on that icon with trust would receive His mercy and forgiveness,and spread that mercy to others.

Since St.Helen was mother of the Emperor Constantine,made him and the whole Roman Empier convert to Christianity,and went on pilgrimage to Palestine to find out where Christ was born before everything was forgotten,she´s a suitable Empress IMHO;mother of the Church as The Virgin Mary is too of course...

The Wheel and The Tower are not in any way frightening.St. Catherine holds her Wheel,and St.Barbara her Tower.Some might not agree with the choices for these cards,but at least no card shows anyone being tortured.The exception is The Hanged Man;St.Blandina hangs upside-down,but so do all "Hanged Men/Women/Ones...
 

darwinia

Saints Alive

After reading and commenting in this thread:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=33653
I ordered both the Tarot of the Saints and the LS Voices of Saints Oracle and they should get here in early October.

I think they'll be fabulous to work with.

Genna said:
It´s what our ancestors have pictured in numberless paintings,as someone said,and the stories give inspiration,as well as giving a key to understanding art.

I agree and it's a key to understanding human history in general. I am planning to pair single cards of these two decks with other decks as I'd like to keep each saint separate when studying. I don't want to smoosh them all together in my mind, I want them to stand out as individuals with real lives and history.

It will also be interesting to relate them to general political and social trends and events of their time and country.
 

darwinia

The Saints Came Marching In

darwinia said:
After reading and commenting in this thread:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=33653
I ordered both the Tarot of the Saints and the LS Voices of Saints Oracle and they should get here in early October.

I was lucky and they both came yesterday. The Robert Place book for the Tarot of the Saints is one of the most wonderful books I've read on tarot. I also like the cards very much.

The Voices of Saints is also fabulous and yesterday I did a reading where I placed a saint at random in the centre and surrounding him like a halo I placed 3 cards from Robert Kalin's The Compass of Fate. I didn't assign any particular meaning to the positions, I just let the cards inter-relate. Such a pleasure to work with different things.

I was using St. Lucas and then was delighted to see the same Saint Luke on the 3 of Pentacles in the Place deck, as I consider that card one of my personal cards and it meant more to me after studying Luke in the Voices deck. I also discovered what the Winged Ox meant in relation to Luke as it's depicted on the Voices card.

Anyway, much satisfaction here. I consider both decks to be treasures and very refreshing and different.
 

arachnophobia

ncefafn said:
Unfortunately, on my first look through this deck, I found it to be completely unusable for me. Mary, the mother of Christ, is demoted to the Moon, while a virgin saint who never gave birth to a child is the Empress. This absolutely flabbergasts me. Speaking from a Tarot standpoint, the Empress (for me) is the mother of all life, the feminine creative force, the nourisher and protectress of her children. Speaking from a Catholic standpoint, Mary -- the blessed Virgin Mother, the Queen of Heaven -- is the Empress of the Church. This demotion is, to me, so fundamentally wrong-headed that I simply cannot touch this deck anymore. Consequently, it's up for trade in the trading forum.

As a fully recovered Catholic myself, who said this represents a demotion? Imo, all major arcana cards are equal; the Empress seems no better or worse than the Moon, which in herself includes the whole Triple Goddess (maiden, mother, crone)...and have you not realised that Mary must have been quite a crone when Jesus died? lol