A New Year, a New Blog

Greetings, Happy New Year, etc.

So, for 2019, I joined in a writing challenge, and while most people participating are working on a novel, I'm working on a blog.  Why? I want to try to find my voice.

The writing challenge is the 365 Writing Challenge, sponsored by the 10 Minute Novelists, and the goal is to foster an environment where you set up the habit of writing every day, even if it is only for 10 minutes.  I've set up a personal goal of 3,500 words a week.   This is pretty must the equivalent of two days of writing for NaNoWriMo, so it's not an unreasonable goal.

The first 78 entries (after this one) will be an exploration of a tarot deck -- The Tarot of the Cat People.   I'd like to thank US Games Systems for granting me permission to use images from the deck, because it is a beautiful deck.

My intention with the exploration is the following:  talk about the traditional meaning of the card, talk about what this particular version of the card is saying, and use the card in a tarot reading. 

Why would there be a difference between the traditional meaning and the specific card?   The imagery lends itself to additional interpretatios, otherwise why even have more than one deck?  Each deck has a voice, because of the variety of the imagery and the different symbols that the artist chooses. 

Long before I settled on which deck to use, I knew I would be doing a blog to explore a deck from start to finish, but picking the deck itself was difficult.  I have over 50.   I use about 5 of them regularly, and Tarot of the Cat People is actually not one of my current "go to" decks.   Right now, I primarily use Every Day Witch, Shadowscapes, Revelations, Tarot of the Mystical Cats, and Tarot of Pagan Cats.

So why Tarot of the Cat People?

It's kind of simple, actually.   Tarot of The Cat People was my very fist deck.  I didn't buy it for myself.  It was a gift from my ex-husband, and is actually the most thoughtful gift he ever gave me.

He bought it for me in 1998, so I've had it for 20 years. 

I never asked for a tarot deck, but I wanted one.  He worked in a B Dalton Books.  Every time I went there to visit (or shop), I would linger over the tarot decks, but I never asked to see one.  I lived in a conservative town, and I didn't want word getting back to my parents that I was messing around with those kinds of things -- as I knew nothing about tarot cards at all, but I knew my parents would not be happy.

But he noticed this, and he bought me a deck out of the blue -- it wasn't a birthday or an anniversary gift.  It was a just because gift.

And just like that, I had my first tarot deck.

At that point, I thought that the meanings of the LWB (little white book for those who don't know) were sacred, holy, and exact.  That there was no variation away from it.  I also thought the only spread was the Celtic Cross, as that was the one shown in the book.

I started doing readings in email with the Tarot of the Cat People.   Over the course of the next two years, I did well over 50 readings for other people using this deck. 

But I have never taken the time to really get acquainted with the individual cards of the deck.   So if I'm going to do a card by card daily review, looking at each card in detail, it seems that the first one is the most deserving of that review.

So tomorrow, we'll start to get to know The Tarot of the Cat People by starting our journey at the very beginning -- with the Fool.

Daily Word Count:  660