Today's the last day of my week with the Lover's Path Tarot - tomorrow I'll be switching to a new deck for the week (not sure yet which one). I am very attracted to the Lover's Path Tarot - visually, all the red and gold is both soothing and stimulating to me. The deck radiates warmth. I'm still deciding what I think of some of the symbolic and mythological connections being made on the cards - I think it may be stretching it a little bit to insist that every Major Arcana card be depicted by a couple, and some of the minor cards seem to point back to majors (because of the same characters being in both) in ways that don't exactly make sense to me. But in spite of that, I think it's very good at doing what it does - see the Fool's Journey as a journey through intimacy.
And I just plain enjoy working with it - the cards are too large to comfortably shuffle, but that means the pictures themselves are large enough to really examine in detail. Its message is consistant and hopeful - tough things happen to relationships, and sometimes the best you can do is learn how to say goodbye with grace, but at the root is always, always love and that love will sustain you through whatever comes.
As a final note on this deck - this week was my official introduction to the deck, even though I've used it before, and so, after a week of small talk, I am going to do a "New Deck Spread" to take a look at how to proceed from here with this deck. We'll be spending more time together, I'm sure.
New Deck Spread for Lover's Path Tarot:
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3--4
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1. The Bottom Line - what do you want me to know about you?
0 Innocence
This deck carries with it an air of innocent faith in the essential goodness of the universe. It takes risks (especially with some of its departures from 'standard' representations of the suits) but it does so with a sense of childlike wonder and trust. One may regard this deck as simplistic or naïve, but in spite of those traits, it can be trusted to shed new light on things. The reader should enjoy the trip more than focus too hard on any specific goal with this deck.
2. Height - what most will you teach me?
2 of Cups
This deck will teach me about - of course! - relationships, with other people as well as with dual aspects of myself. Each Trump is shown as a pair - couples rather than individuals - so that each step along the Fool's Journey is a step taken in duality rather than alone. Everything about this deck is designed to help the reader learn to walk together with others and to integrate parts of oneself that might otherwise be in opposition.
3. Core - what will the heart of our relationship be?
VIII: Strength
The heart of my relationship with this deck is the knowledge that strength comes from love, not hostility. That strength is a gentle taming of the forces of violence by melding with them rather than by overcoming them. The wildness within is acknowledged and respected and is tempered by love into something which cannot be defeated. Using this deck will help me learn how to do that, and remind me that it is a type of strength I can express without having to turn away and shut out my relationships to others or with myself.
4. Growth - what do I need to do in response to your aid, to further my own growth?
VI: Love
How simple is that? The Lover's Path Tarot puts my focus on love and in response I must take the lessons of this deck and apply them to my own life, learning to respond and to express myself within the context of love of myself and of those who are my companions along the way.
I have to say, I'm utterly charmed by the cards of this spread - I could not have possibly selected better cards for this deck than these.
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