21 Ways To Read A Tarot Card -- step TWO

dadsnook2000

This thread is addressing STEP TWO in Mary Greer's book, "21 Ways To Read A Tarot Card." If you have not selected a card as required in Step One, please go to that step/thread and do so.

STEP TWO is all about really looking at your selected card and describing it in great detail. The book gives an example and several cautions about not making assumptions. The book suggests that you need to place yourself into the card and refer to its visible contents within a first-person frame of reference. Since this forum is a textual-based forum, the description you offer may want to include colors and any implied other presences, attitudes, actions or motions, or situations. Good luck. Dave

Edited to add:
I have scanned my selected card at 150% size and stapled it inside the back cover of my book such that I can fold it out and view it while reading any portion of the book.
 

dadsnook2000

Fey Tarot -- The WORLD

My chosen card is the World from the Fey Tarot.

I am a large, pinkish-red dragon. I say "large" because I'm as big as the circular grey-stoned tower that I'm sitting upon. My tail hangs almost to the ground. My tower is atop a green hill or small mountain which is surrounded by a meandering wall that has towers and buildings abutting it. This land area covers more than an acre in size but less then three acers -- I'm not good at measuring stuff. This whole little walled world sits upon the back of a very large, brown snail -- I say "snail" but it has a spiral shell of pinkish-brownish colors with fine lines radiating out from the center of the deep spiral grooves. What strikes me as strange is that this snail-like shelled creature is proceeding through space -- I see stars, a Moon or Planet, a yellow glowing Sun against a dark blue background.

While the towers and buildings imply "people" I can see only a small green Fey with wings spread hovering above me as if he/she wishes to land upon me. My attention, however, is focused upon several bird-creatures flying near a pointy-top tower some small distance away. A worn path leads from my tower's arched doorway down and across the hill towards a building beside the tower and flying creatures that I'm watching.

I'm not going to remain in this small space framed world. I'm obviously too big to exist here and the population seems to be hiding from my presence except for the Fey hovering above. Perhaps some information or advice will be offered. The varied nature of the buildings, their roofs and numbers of windows suggests a diversity that could be helpful to me. The pine-cone like roofed tower behind me has a flag -- an official of some nature may be there. The host-creature has two protuberances on his head but no ears and mouth so I expect no help there as he/she/it travels on its way.

***
At this point I have used up the five or so minutes that is allotted to write a description of the card. This is what Step Two asks us to do, describe our card as if we were in it and with as much detail, actual and implied, as possible. Dave
 

Cocobird55

Step Two: Hudes Tarot, Temperance

Step Two: Hudes Tarot, Temperance

I am standing in a garden, in front of a cement pool of water. Across from me, on the other side of the pool, is a magical looking woman wearing white robes. She has white wings, and long auburn hair. She is quite lovely. She is bending over the side of the pool, looking at her reflection in the water. She is holding a cup of water in her hand, which she is pouring into the pool, blotting out the image of her wing, so that just the reflection of her face appears. She is very intent on her task. Behind the pool is a grassy area, and I can see a tree in the distance. It must be early spring, because the leaves on the tree don’t appear to be lush as they would in summer, and there are no leaves on the ground.. In the background, I can see a mountain rising in the distance. The mountain is still covered by the last snowfall of the winter on the top. The sky is colorless, except for a yellow looking cloud directly over the mountain. This is a very watery looking sunset.
 

intellem0s

Step TWO: Golden Dawn Deck: The kind of Wands

I am a staring, red faced (facial hair?) man with a golden crown that has 3 red beads on top, and a horse with red hair and white wings ontop of my crown. i am riding a black horse that has red hair but black fur, and its harness matches the color of my armor on the torso part, which is green. i am holding a..three branched object that branches off into three more minature branches, high into the fiery red sky. there are green reptiles beneath me burning in a more red colored (flames?) portion down below. i have a red cape, and theres a little green in my background.
 

Horace

STEO TWO- DruidCraft-Justice

I'm sitting upright on a rock solid bench. I'm wearing a blue gown with a bodice of mail. I keep my heart out of my decisions. This is a heavy purple robe I'm wearing. It doen't meet over my heart but rests solely on my shoulders. My headress is metal and rests over my brow on my third eye, giving me intuition and focus for the job at hand. I hold the scales in my right hand a little higher than the double edged sword in my right. My wise old owl companion sits on the bench beside me. His all seeing eyes look into the shadows for Justice.
On the rock under the bench lies a feather. It's a long feather that once started out on the Fool's cap and is now maybe used as a quill.
There is what looks like blood smeared on the rock holding the bench. Justice often comes with sacrifice.
A spider has woven a web in the bush at my feet. We use it for catching the f-LIES. And yes, they're big feet!- but well-balanced on that rock.
 

dadsnook2000

Great descriptions

Great descriptions so far. I haven't looked ahead at the next steps, I'm taking each chapter fresh as we move to each step. Two reasons for this; I'm backed up with several books and projects and slipping (timewise versus should-finish dates), and I want to experience this book as if I was reading it non-stop but doing each exercise as I went forward.

So, without knowing what's to come, I'm excited to see what we learn. This process of selecting a meaningful and complex card, then starting the process of really examining it seems like a good start. As I said, I haven't even peeked a little bit at the book in front of us, yet it seems in addition to describing and appreciating the illustration in all of its detail, we can probably expect that Mary will have us looking at implied situations, looking ahead in time and back into the past, imagining helpful added characters as well as disruptive characters to be added to the card to see how its meaning would be changed. Who knows, but I'm sure this will be an exciting journey of learning. Dave
 

Horace

I like this way!

Hi dadsnook2000..

I don't have the book yet and I find your way of explaining each step so easy. I hope I'm doing each step more thoroughly by not being able to jump beyond it. :) Hh
 

Apollonia

Step TWO: Druidcraft Prince of Cups

It is dawn. I sit astride my good horse, who has stopped at the edge of this lake, which I will name before I go. I have stopped to dip my goblet into the clear, cool water. My ride has been long and has taken me all night to accomplish. I did not know where I was to go when I started out; I chose the path my heart wanted. I hold my water-filled goblet up to the sky, night becoming day, and see that in my heart, what was dark and murky has become clear. I know my path, my heart’s desire, and it is not what I had thought. I thought myself pure, and driven by purity. Now I know why I do not wear the white of purity, of dried-up priests and those who do not hunger. That is not my calling in this world. I wear red for passion, blue to remind myself that the spiritual must accompany the physical, and green to show that there is always room for me to grow.
 

AprilFool

STEP TWO - Voyager Tarot "Chariot"

I am the statuary bust of a Roman Charioteer, and my eyes are staring out in a trance. One of my eyes is missing and the orbital cavity seems to be filled with a roaring bonfire, while the other eye is fixed in a stare of meditative awareness. I am looking out of the card toward the reader.

The sun's rays are bursting out from behind my head, and the top of my cranium is raised up, revealing a profusion of flowers inside my skull, arranged like a victory wreath INSIDE my head. There is a white etherial image of a horse speeding off to the right of the card, and a falcon in flight, soaring across the center of the card in front of my image. I am surrounded by a collage of images such as a surfboarder riding a wave, a hot-air balloon, a rocket ship blasting off into space, a blurred highway of headlights and tail lights, a teaming school of fish, and a moon buggy on the lunar surface. There is even a sphynx in Egypt that has been blurred as though it is moving quickly. There is a crab crawling on the planet Jupiter, and a bronze shield guarding the bottom of the card. It is elaborately inlaid and etched with an Egyption chariot drivine by a charioteer holding a bow & arrow, and being pulled by magnificent bronze horses.
 

Disa

Step 2: DruidCraft: 10 of Wands

Step 2: DruidCraft: 10 of Wands

The sun is setting. I've traveled so far today and these wands are getting heavy. I'm afraid I won't be able to balance them much longer. I thought I would have made it further at this point. Now I've come upon this rocky path. I think I can make it a little bit further before nightfall- I've got to get these wands where they belong, I'll keep going, I must keep going...
-----


(erm..I think I used up all my descriptions in step 1 :()