An Awesome Tarot, Piero Barone and Greek gods, and Strange Egyptologists

I don’t know who it was who said never to do a tarot card reading on yourself ... whoever it was:  pfffft!

I’m not really sure what the objection is ... if you’re shuffling the cards face down, it’s not as though you can pick and choose your favorite cards to toss into the spread.  Perhaps it’s because you tend to interpret cards in favor of your own best outcome and may not see things realistically, or something?

Nonetheless, as I didn’t have anyone around to do it for me, I pretty much had no choice but to toss Piero Barone singing “No Puede Ser” into my earphones for erotic inspiration (I mean, c’mon – he’s Piero Barone!  He  sings “No Puede Ser” like a Greek god!*  Who better for erotic inspiration, I ask you!) then ask a question and see what happened.  (*Fine.  You're right.  I have no idea if Greek gods sing like that.  They should, if they don’t, I’ll say that much.)

If you’ve been reading the last few entries, you’ve no doubt read my lovely experience with a certain spirit who dazzled me completely with a glance.  This particular lovely spirit is known for his gift at orchestrating memorable romantic erotic sizzling hot encounters ... I just could not figure out why someone (which is to say, moi) had to go through the entire Enochian catalog of nonsense just to ask him a simple question.  In my (albeit rather limited) experiences with him (2 at last count; 3 if he actually WAS the ankle grabber, which I doubt) – if he was comfortable enough to suddenly appear without all of the circle-drawing, sigil drawing and unpronounceable name yelling that Dee and Crowley thought necessary ... why did I have to go through all of that, myself?  (Although his sigil is rather attractive, I’ll give it that).

Basically, the question I asked of the cards was, “Is asking him to help me accomplish what I want to accomplish in my best interests?”  Truthfully, I was rather hoping he’d take on the task himself, but if not – help me to find what I was looking for.  The cards could just have easily answered with an obvious, “That would be the most disastrous thing you could possibly do!” – and as the gods can verify, I have had plenty of those types of spreads before.  So, I really didn’t anticipate the response before I shuffled and laid out the celtic cross.

Don’t you love it when you get an answer that looks like the equivalent of winning the World Cup singlehandedly?  Well, I suppose if you’re not a soccer fanatic, you probably wouldn’t know what that did feel like, but trust me, it’s awesome.  In order:  Prince of Disks, Ace of Wands, Hermit, Five of Cups, Ace of Disks, Knight of Wands, 4 of swords, Queen of Disks, Queen of Cups and The Fool.  (The 5 of cups, by the way represented my unconscious thoughts about it – I guess I was semi-expecting disappointment, wasn’t I?)  The only other non-court, the Four of Swords, was my attitude.

I couldn’t help it – I burst out laughing.  Way to undermine myself, isn’t it?  All of the outside influences were awesome.  YES!  GO FOR IT!  DO IT!!  TIME FOR A NEW ADVENTURE!  Well, ok, I’m paraphrasing somewhat.

One of the things I try to do with important readings is record them in the BOS, with interpretations, which takes a bit of work to pull together.  Still working on that, but in a very happy state of mind.  And I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

The Real Witches’ Year uses this day’s entry to discuss creating an astral temple.  In a way I already did that – although I neglected the part about filling it with intent and protecting it with blessings ... which will come in handy with the exercises on protection and talismans.  I won’t go into many more details, beyond saying it’s in Venice, where I find such inner peace, and near the space where I experienced one of my most powerful past-life regressions.  I even mentioned it in this blog a few years ago although at the time I was considering it a “dreamscape” more than an astral temple ... or maybe they’re the same thing, I’m not sure.  I certainly don’t use it regularly, although I should.

Meanwhile, The Witch’s Book of Days says, “Seek wisdom in water.  Gaze  into a cup or bowl.”  The Pagan Book of Days, somewhat similarly mentions this, the Nones of February, as a day honoring Tyche, Fortuna, Wyrd and (in another usurpation by our friends) St. Agatha – a day potent for fortune telling and all forms of divination.  Hmmmm.  Well, this was the day to shuffle the tarot deck, wasn't it?  Oh yes, and Between the Lights, which often provides lovely poetry and quotations chose instead to sing praises to the virtue of obedience.  Right.  I harrumphed and tossed that one aside pretty quickly.  Obedience is definitely not one of my stronger innate qualities.

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 – 1942), "commonly known as Flinders Petrie, was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artifacts." according to Wikipedia.

That may be, but he was unfortunately also a dues-paying member of the Plymouth Brethren ("Among other beliefs, the group emphasizes sola scriptura, the belief that the Bible is the supreme authority for church doctrine and practice over tradition...")

And yet this is the swashbuckler who thought he was eminently qualified to write Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt in 1898 ... filled with such sweet observations as, "We must feel that the greater part of mankind has ... systems of religion which may be a horror to us; ideas of gods which would be monstrous to us; their ways of life would make them flee into the fields from our dwellings; their systems of propriety would bring them into the police court; and their systems of morality would land them at once in the law court." (pages 12-13)

Actually, no – to me, that sentence was more horrifying than anything ancient Egypt ever produced, or maybe  that’s just me.  (Fling)  So much for Mr. Petrie.