Morwenna
When I first read the book (in 1967!), two things that struck me in that familiar verse:
Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne...
were, first, why did they skip Five?, and second, they forgot the Hobbits!
Well, the other day it dawned on me: That's a Tarot spread! And here it is:
**********20***********
********1**2**3********
*****21*22*23*24*25*****
***4**5**6**7**8**9*10**
11*12*13*14*15*16*17*18*19
This shows areas of one's life at the moment, and where problems may lie.
1-3=Elves: lore, wisdom, memory, beauty, stargazing (in both senses!), preservation, detachment from the world
4-10=Dwarves: craftsmanship, stamina, perseverance, stubbornness, avarice, secretiveness
11-19=Men: power, ambition, haste, impatience, curiosity, science, abstraction
20=the Dark Lord: the obstacle or the trap, or the shadow self
21-25=Hobbits: home, food, comforts, coziness, childlike spirit, down-to-earth attitudes
The Hobbits were the downfall of the Dark Lord; therefore in this spread the Hobbit row shows how to avoid or defeat the obstacle or the trap. The Hobbits are the corrective, that which brings balance.
It's also interesting to read the columns for more insight.
I tried this out with my trusty Hanson-Roberts, which is probably the closest I'll come to a hobbit deck in this life, and it worked quite well.
Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne...
were, first, why did they skip Five?, and second, they forgot the Hobbits!
Well, the other day it dawned on me: That's a Tarot spread! And here it is:
**********20***********
********1**2**3********
*****21*22*23*24*25*****
***4**5**6**7**8**9*10**
11*12*13*14*15*16*17*18*19
This shows areas of one's life at the moment, and where problems may lie.
1-3=Elves: lore, wisdom, memory, beauty, stargazing (in both senses!), preservation, detachment from the world
4-10=Dwarves: craftsmanship, stamina, perseverance, stubbornness, avarice, secretiveness
11-19=Men: power, ambition, haste, impatience, curiosity, science, abstraction
20=the Dark Lord: the obstacle or the trap, or the shadow self
21-25=Hobbits: home, food, comforts, coziness, childlike spirit, down-to-earth attitudes
The Hobbits were the downfall of the Dark Lord; therefore in this spread the Hobbit row shows how to avoid or defeat the obstacle or the trap. The Hobbits are the corrective, that which brings balance.
It's also interesting to read the columns for more insight.
I tried this out with my trusty Hanson-Roberts, which is probably the closest I'll come to a hobbit deck in this life, and it worked quite well.