Coming Soon - Tarot inspired story

In Tarot Nerds, a FaceBook community, someone posted asking us to share our favourite card(s) from our primary decks. Since I use the Zombie Tarot, I pulled 6 cards that I find aesthetically pleasing, art-wise.

A quick shuffle of the cards before laying them out and they fell into place to look as if the images were telling a story.

This sparked some inspiration in the hobbyist writer in me, and a short story has started floating around in my mind.

I'm unsure about word count, but I'm aiming to have a short chapter for each card. I'm also unsure about how often to post each chapter; right now, I'm thinking once a week primarily due to my work schedule.

Deck Lust Wednesday - Erotic Tarot of Manara

In one of the Tarot Groups I'm in, someone posted some of their collection. One of the decks being the Erotic Tarot of Manara (CW: This has explicit sexual imagery!! 18+ deck!!)

The image of the trio sitting on the bench is what really jumped out at me and caught my attention. So far, I only have a Thoth deck (that's missing the Wheel of Fortune), a few different Oracles, and all of my other tarot decks are based off the RWS system, so this Manara deck would be a whole different system to learn as it's a Lo Scarabeo deck.

I don't have any erotic decks in general, but this is definitely one that I would love to have.

Podccast Saturday - Menage a Tarot

Menage a Tarot is a monthly podcast, and is also about an hour long per episode.

It's a podcast between three people: My Own Minister, Daily Tarot Girl, and Modern Oracle Tarot.

June 26th, 2017 I listened to two of the episodes as I had some time to listen to and focus on a couple of hour long episodes.

The first episode was essentially getting to know the trio involved with bringing the podcast to life, the second was more about doing third-party readings (i.e. reading for someone that's asking a question about a spouse/partner without said spouse's/partner's consent) as well as other questions that each reader refuse to answer.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about hour long podcast episodes, but I thoroughly enjoyed the longer length and listening to three different viewpoints all at once.

Free Print Your Own Decks - Lenormand

I don't own any Lenormand decks, much less having read any sort of spread with that formula of divination. However, I do have an interest in learning to read with Lenormand decks at some point.

This came into my radar today, thanks to Tarot Nerds: Free Holiday Learning Deck by Carrie Paris. It's a good place for beginners as she included some keywords on each card to help assist in learning Lenormand.

I have these bookmarked for now, but am thinking of printing them out on regular printer paper and taping them to index cards so I can add other keywords that also resonate with me. As for when I'll be able to get it done, I don't know as I currently don't have a car to visit the library to do some printing.

Deck Lust Wednesday - Thea's Tarot

Being a lesbian myself, I've been casually keeping an eye out for a specifically lesbian based deck. So far, one of the few decks that's popped up is known as Thea's Tarot.

It's an out of print (OOP) indie deck that was published back in the 1980s by Ruth West.

Since it's an older deck, as well as being OOP, it's fairly pricey. I've seen a copy for sale on ETSY for $75+ and am not sure how much the deck would sell for on eBay whenever it crops up.

For now, I'll be admiring the artwork via Google and waiting until I'm able to acquire this deck either via trading, payments, or both.

D.I.Y. Decks, Pt. 2

Along the lines of my other D.I.Y. decks post, I'm sharing this website that also offers a colour yourself deck; Dark Tarot: Archetypes Deck to Print.

The deck loosely follows the RWS decks, but has a whole different art style all together, as do all decks that are influenced by RWS.  This is another deck that I'm considering printing out and colouring with colours that have meaning to me.

I know I can print them at the library on standard printer paper, which isn't the best, but I'm unsure if they allow printing on card stock paper if I were to supply my own paper.

I think the next time I'm able to visit the library, I will talk to them and ask if they allow card stock printing, then I can take enough of my own card stock to print the two decks out on and bust out my coloured pencils, markers, and paint pens.

Blog Sunday - Tarot Prose: What I Wish I Knew

Over in Tarot Nerds, one of the regulars in the group posted a blog that they had recently typed up;

What I Wish I Knew

I gave the blog a read and found it to be quite useful in the realm of getting a new tarot blog up and off the ground, while keeping it consistent and true to oneself.

There are a few subtopics in the blog that cover different areas on blogging:

Dare to Be Different: essentially staying true to yourself and your own tarot journey through blogging.

Deck Lust: Keeping a public wish list of decks to add to your collection (I will be doing this eventually, especially as most of my decks can be found on Amazon easily).

The Follower Game: basically keeping your blog mostly for yourself, not for mass followers.

There are a few other topics, but I'd rather the blog itself be read as a whole piece and not just my own breakdown of it.

Definitely some words of wisdom here for new tarot bloggers.

Podcast Saturday - Biddy Tarot

Since I started going a little more in depth with my tarot studies, I decided that podcasts would be a great way to glean more information.

My first podcast is Biddy Tarot. I'm only 15 episodes in out of approximately 80 (at the time of this posting). Each episode is about 30 minutes long, and is a great listen while I'm driving to and from work.

So far, I've really enjoyed the first few episodes and am looking forward to slowly getting caught up with the rest of the episodes as time goes on.

Also on the list of tarot based podcasts, I'll eventually be checking out Karen and Kira Can Read. Their episodes are a little longer; an hour long, give or take a few minutes. It seems like still a fairly new podcast, so I won't be delving into it too much right now.

I'm also open to other tarot podcast recommendations! Feel free to contact me over on Twitter on my tarot account, coyote_tarot, with what podcast(s) you're currently listening to.

Birth Card

(Fenestra Tarot (c) Chatriya, Photo (c) Coyote Tarot)

Life card, Birth card, sometimes even Soul card depending on who you ask. It's said that ones life card can reflect quite a bit of who that person really is. There are a few different ways to find out what your birth card is, the method I use is one of the methods Tamera (my Tarot instructor) included in the packets she handed out for class:


M+M+D+D+Y+Y+Y+Y = XY, X+Y =Z
0+2+2+0+1+9+8+5 = 27, 2+7 = 9

or there's the following:

MM+DD+YYYY = ABCD, ABCD = X (sometimes can equate to XY)
02+20+1985 = 2007, 2+0+0+7 = 9

From here, I did more research, and gathered some more information from Angelorum in regards to the Zodiac and Archangel relations to my card, The Hermit.

I did a whole page in my Zombie Tarot sketchbook journal focusing on aspects related to The Hermit.

Zodiac: Virgo (Earth)
Archangels:  Raphael, Uriel
Planet: Mercury (Raphael)
Colours: Emerald Green (Raphael), Yellow (Uriel)

From this, I've learned a bit more about myself. Zodiac wise, I don't know my entire chart, only that one of my signs in Pisces (Water), but seeing as how my card is an Earth sign, it finally makes sense as to why I've been told how grounded I am. It had always confused me as the sign I knew I fall under is Water, which isn't a grounded sign/element.

I've also learned that this is also why I tend to enjoy sitting to the sidelines and observing things, since The Hermit can be observant when it comes to his surroundings. I can also see how The Hermit can also relate to my Power Animal, Coyote.

Over past years, I've come to fully embrace my inner Coyote, and I'm sure Coyote will help me learn to embrace my Hermit traits.

Music and Tarot - The Fool

(Fenestra Tarot (c) Chatriya, Photo (c) Coyote Tarot)

Those that know me rather well know that I'm a rather musical person. It's no surprise that I'm aiming to create a playlist with songs that I feel best represent the Tarot. I'm still unsure if I want to do the Major Arcana only, or attempt all 78 cards and break it down between Major Arcana, Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, thus creating a compilation.

For now, The Fool will be my starting point as he is in Tarot journeying.

When I first  heard this song on the radio, The Fool along with his imagery and what the card can generally represent just vividly popped into my mind. I had a flash where I could see him making his way down dry, dusty dirt roads all while keeping a positive outlook. Although the only difference was that it wasn't in the real world that I had this vision, it was like I was sucked into the card itself.

Road Less Traveled - Lauren Alaina

If you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle
Don't be afraid, take the road less traveled
Wear out your boots and kick up the gravel
Don't be afraid, take the road less traveled on
Oh, ooh-whoa, oh, ooh-whoa
Take the road less traveled on
Oh, ooh-whoa, oh, ooh-whoa
Take the road less traveled on

Colour Your Own Tarot

I've been rather inactive when it comes to updating this blog, for that I apologize. My job has been keeping me incredibly busy and with rather early hours (up at 4AM to start work at 6AM). I've been working on my International Tarot Day story and have pushed my other planned short story to the back burner for the time being.

As of recently, I'm finding myself with a little more free time, thanks to the Universe making it known that I really needed to take a break from traveling for work. I will hopefully be able to keep this blog more regularly updated, or start doing scheduled posts to keep the blog "active" when I'm offline or unable to post myself.

All that aside, this has been on my mind for a while now; Colour Your Own Tarot. This is something that I've wanted to do for some time now, but have heard mixed reviews in regards to the card stock on already printed decks sold on Amazon.  I did some searching on my own and reading D.I.Y. threads in Tarot Nerds and the "Colour Your Own" deck that's on TarotTaxi.com had been popping up.

Once I can find my tablet and get it reinstalled on my laptop (lost everything in regards to it when my C Drive needed to be replaced a while back), I'm planning on downloading and colouring the deck digitally, however, I'm leaning towards straying from the traditional RWS deck colouring and going more the route of using colour therapy meanings that I feel would also "fit" each card. I also have a website bookmarked that I can submit my re-coloured cards to in order to have the deck printed. If their cardstock is a good quality while still being easy to shuffle, I'll gladly use their services again to get prints of the D.I.Y. personal decks I have planned.

Tarot Class

This afternoon was part two of my Tarot Class down in Taos, New Mexico. Due to it being a holiday weekend, the class consisted of myself, the instructor, and one other student.

The focus of this class was primarily the Minor Arcana, and how the numbered cards related back to the Major Arcana cards starting from The Magician through the Wheel of Fortune.

(Photo (c) Coyote Tarot, taken in class this afternoon)

I used my secondary deck, Fenestra Tarot, for this class. Tamera, the instructor, helped me lay out the ten Major Arcana cards, then showed me how to lay out the numbered cards in relation to their Major Arcana archetype. She used her Thoth inspired deck for her layout and we discussed colours and symbols that carry through from the Majors down into the Minors.

The four seasons/elements/directions were also covered in this class, though we didn't go too in depth with colour, she did skim over it and said how colour can be used to tie in the Minors with the Majors along with other hidden clues.

The other student got there a little late, so she and I had already had our decks laid out by the time he arrived to the class. Since she and I had taken up the vast majority of floor space between our two decks, he sat to the sidelines and studied the archetypes off of my deck with me.

This was a very informative class, and packets were handed out with even MORE information, plus a yearly spread that Tamera designed herself and went over how she reads it.

There is a chance that she will repeat this class in the autumn, when her own studies have ended, before doing a few other Tarot based classes.

Perhaps if she decides to redo this class, I will take my Zombie Tarot deck (as I'm hoping to make a pouch for it sometime soon to make it easier to carry) and see how those look with this layout.

(Fenestra Tarot (c) Chatriya Hemharnvibul, more information on the deck can be found at Aeclectic Tarot)

Tarot Blog Hop

For the upcoming International Tarot Day on July 8th, I, along with over 80 others will be focusing on bringing our cards to life in one form or another.

I was one of the lucky ones to be selected for a card from the Minor Arcana, as to which card I got, I will be keeping it secret until the day comes. However the others participating will know which card I was assigned.

I'm planning on hopefully writing a one-off short story for my card, so I need to start getting it fleshed out.

D.I.Y Decks

For a while now, I've been thinking about designing a few different RWS inspired decks.

1) This is going to be a personal deck consisting of my personal characters. This one will most likely be the most difficult to work on, but I want to try and make it happen.

2) A deck done in Italian. I'm casually teaching myself to speak Italian, and haven't found an Italian language deck that has spoken to me yet...

3) A coyote only deck. I've wanted a canine deck that is all 78 cards, not only the Major Arcana. Since Coyote is my spirit animal, I would love to have a deck focusing on these wonderful wild canines.

4) A collage deck with magazine images that I feel would best represent each card. This might be a bit tricky to make happen since I might have to measure and cut poster board in a decent enough size to allow for multiple images to be glued on and not look too cluttered.

Out of these deck ideas floating in my head, I might start off with the Italian deck first. In a Tarot group I'm in, someone shared their deck that they designed on index cards, and some scrapbook paper.

Of course, once I'm able to get started on this, I will be sharing progress pictures on my Instagram.

Hopefully when work slows down, I can get started with one of my projects.

Untitled Zombie Tarot Story

Chapter 1 - Justice

 Let's catch some zombies! With their lack of advanced motor functions, they should be easily trained as our servants, right?

Chapter 2 - The Chariot

 Zombies, zombies everywhere. Was this such a good idea, trying to capture one?

Chapter 3 - Two of Hazards

 I don't know about the doc. Hopefully his experiment works and won't be the death of us.

Chapter 4 - Ten of Hazards

 Things seem to be going well.

Chapter 5 - The Hermit

 Things aren't going as well as we thought...

Chapter 6 - Two of Cups

All's well again, or is it?

Zombie Tarot (c) Paul Kepple