azurelunatic | You know you live in a witchy household when...

Come to think of it, I bet people do the same thing with Futhark; they've got about the same complexity of meaning that's good for conveying abstract concepts quickly. Or by mentioning kinds of crystals, since they're like that too, although they don't sound like they'd work for that quite so well; maybe better for explaining personality or emotion than a situation. I only have personal experience with the Tarot thing, though, since my mom and I are familiar with them and not so much with the others.

Yet another thing Tarot is useful for, I suppose. :)

I can only pass notes in class with the Elder Futhark; I have not learned its symbolic properties.

The card that symbolizes me most often is Strength. Which is interesting.

I'm not yet as familiar with the minor arcana as I am with the major. ...Though I can certainly freak people out enough as it is with a simple deck...

*giggle* The time to draw Three of Swords is not during a plasma donation.

...I use the Dragon Tarot. You?

The deck I learned on was a Rider deck. My mom and I had Xeroxed the lineart and handcolored it together, and then laminated it. She ended up throwing it out after having gotten a layout that freaked her out. (Dealt with someone's death.) Recently we tried to replace it, but none of the Rider decks are colored quite as prettily. Mom felt pretty guilty about that.

The one I've got now is Hanson Roberts, which is very much like Rider (and conveys a lot of emotion too, though it's sometimes cropped oddly) so that I could remember what I was looking at; I might get a drastically different one sometime, like the adorable Halloween Tarot if I can ever get to it before it's sold out. This one I'm using as my learning deck, I suppose.

The Dragon Tarot I've looked at, but the simple minor arcana were mostly the 'pips' kind, and I'd decided to only buy the sort with a very pictorial minor arcana until I learn them by heart well enough. Makes sense.

Bother is, in usage, I'm never really divining anything with Tarot. Just enjoying the cards for what they are; symbolism, meaning, art. I've collected unusual layouts for a while, but I just don't really use them. (:P Usually when I've asked for advice I get an answer that was pretty much what I already knew, and I don't want to prophesy the future since I don't like doing that kind of thing. There's other interesting uses, though, I'm sure o' it...

Was taught that using the Tarot to give you a specific answer on what was going, absolutely going, to happen in the future, was a misuse and was not good. Doing a "most likely outcome" reading on certain decisions ('What would be the most likely outcome if I went to this college versus that one?' 'What would be the most likely outcome if I went to the other college instead of the first one?') is a good use. Using it to figure out what the hell is happening on an issue that you're unclear of what's going on is a good use.

...Amusingly, I once gave a very good reading using the Sesame Street deck.

My roommate's mother came over for 4th of July one year, and saw me absently shuffling Little Fayoumis' Sesame Street flashcards, and asked me to do a Tarot reading for her. So, I did. With the Sesame Street flashcards, since I didn't feel like getting up and getting my Tarot deck, and also because my opinion of the woman wasn't so great.

The cards drawn for a Past Present Future were "Stop", "Don't Walk", and "Up". The past: something that was so not going anywhere, a place of personal stagnation; the "Don't Walk" was the present, not going anywhere, but far more impersonal, as the Stop was a specific person holding things up, but the Don't Walk was just going nowhere... and the future was Up, things going places, and looking up from where it had been: not only not stagnation, but getting better!

Throughout this,

votania's mother's eyes had been getting wider and wider. The thing she'd been thinking of was about whether or not one of Votania's aunts should be going on the world tour thing she'd been planning. Said aunt had been going nowhere fast in her marriage for a long time, and had recently moved out and gotten an apartment of her own, and was still doing nothing, but was thinking of just going to see the world and get out and get something she'd always wanted to do done.

Not only proved Tarot to her, but demonstrated that someone who can interpret these things right can do it without the deck...

I had no idea there was a Sesame Street Tarot deck.

I've heard someone mention being able to tell fortunes using any weird card deck they could find. Pokemon cards, for example. Can't remember where I saw that article, though... beh.

Not a Sesame Street Tarot deck as such... just flash cards.

But yes, any old deck. I'd be amused to see what came out of a Pokemon Deck reading.

You know you live in a witchy household when...

very four-of-wands weather we're having

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