All Hallows Eve ~ Dia De Los Muertos ~

October 31st is Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, and known to many pagans as Samhain (pronounced Sow-en).

On November 2nd is Dia De Los Meurtos, translated Day of the Dead and also called All Souls Day.

Halloween has been known as a day of setting out jack o' lanterns, dressing up in costume and collecting candy from door to door and other fun traditions.

Dia De Los Muertos is a day when the living honor the dead with alters and offerings.

Very different traditions but both a bit spooky in their own way.

What is interesting is that these days hover around a time when the veil between the living and the dead, the Otherworld, is very thin.

This is when those who reside on the other side are more likely to be seen in our dimension. We become more sensitive and receptive to those in the spirit world.

For those that celebrate Dia De Los Muerots, they communicate and 'touch' their past loved ones with their offerings and alters.

For those that run around in costume saying 'Trick or Treat', are doing so from an older tradition that served a different purpose than a bag full of candy.

People dress up to hide their true identity so that those spirit that walked among them when the veil is thin will not recognize that they are of the living.

Halloween is not the only time that spirits and loved ones who have passed on can be communicated with or will communicate with the living themselves.

There is a phenomena known as After Death Communication or ADC for short.

Many people from all walk of life will have stories about butterflies and coins, token symbols that seem to be present at times when one has died.

I had a ADC with a deck of tarot cards.

A Bit of History~

It was Spring in the late 1990's and I met a man who was one of my soulmates.

I am one who believes that through living past lives, we have several soulmates that we encounter in a single lifetime.

I had been through some rough relationships and what a bit jaded.

As a matter of self preservation, I came up with a question that I would ask all my suitors.

"What are your intentions?"

I had asked this of my soulmate several times when we first met, his reply always was,

"All Honorable". All the other guys just fumbled over their words.

Shortly after we met and after asking him that question numerous times, I pulled out my tarot cards, the Native American deck.

If some one wants to be with me, they need to know everything about me and if someone is not comfortable with my use of cards and my intuitive ability, then it is not a good match.

I fanned out my tarot cards the way I normally do when I want to feel for a single card by waving my hand over them. When I told him to pick a card he waved his hand back and forth over the cards in the same manner. In my mind I thought, 'wow'. Then he picked a card and turned it over, and big "WOW".

The card's title was "HONOR".  He just looked at it and then looked at me with that delightful goofy smile.

The Universe had spoken!

I knew for sure that he was my soulmate. I was also able to relax and enjoy and not be so fearful with a big armored box around my heart.

The ADC~

Fall, same year.

The relationship was short lived for my soulmate was taken away from me by the hands of another.

At that time he was officially just a missing person but I knew that he was dead for I had felt it the moment it happened. It was the saddest, deepest sorrow and emptiness I had ever felt and it came out of nowhere. 

One night I was home alone and lonely, missing his company and the sound of his voice. I was wanting to have some sort of a connection with him. Being a sensitive, able to feel ghosts and sometimes connect with the dead, I was a little disappointed with the fact that I was not feeling anything from him. He was my soulmate after all and it puzzled me. So I thought I would break out my tarot deck and use it to make that connection.

I spoke out loud and said, "I have no question for the cards. Just want (name) to talk to me, tell me something for I miss listening to you."

I decided on 5 cards for this pull for we had been born almost exactly 5 days apart. I was born at just before 11pm and he was born just after 11pm 5 days later.

The first card I pulled, "HONOR" all I could do was cry. Cry because he was gone and I missed him, cry because I had made that connection that I so needed. I whispered 'I love you' and continued to pull the cards.

The 2nd card was VII Strength. Pictured on the card is a mountain lion. Both of us have mountain lion as one of our animal totems. The constellation lynx is also depicted on the card.

As a totem, the Mountain Lion protects my sacred space, the place where the heart is kept. The answer to my 'intentions' question was the key to my sacred space- give the wrong answer and you are not invited in. Here he was telling me to be strong, stay connected and listen to my totem animal.

Lynx had meaning as well. Lynx made an appearance out of my Medicine Card deck when I pulled cards just after he disappeared. I asked "What happened to him?" and Lynx showed up and represents secrets. Being a missing person at that time, there was a lot of secrets surrounding his 'situation'.

I felt that here, he was telling me that his death and location was to be a secret for a while and this is why I needed to be strong. It was also telling me that what I felt about his death was indeed very real, that I 'knew' the secret.

The 3rd card I pulled was the 5 of Vessels, which is known as Cups in traditional tarot. The title to this card is Warrior Woman. I would get this card a lot in my personal readings, so much that I called it MY card. This continued the message of being strong and to keep my 'fighting' spirit. That I would be challenged emotionally but possess the strength and will to continue on.

The 4th card was the Maiden of Shields, Pentacles in traditional tarot, and the maiden is equal to a Page. This card is a card that I related to much like the Warrior Woman and also made me aware of one of my past lives. With this card he was telling me that even though the relationship was short, that it was meant to be. We where soulmates in a past life, in this life and will be again in a life to come.

The last card I pulled was XVII The Star. The image upon the card was of Grandmother Spider and her web of fate. This continued the message of the card before, of past lives of soulmates and of fate and what is and meant to be. It is also a card that speaks of dreams and hope. After my bad relationships, he was the one who brought me back to that place of hopes and dreams and he wanted me to know that even though he was gone, that I was not to ever give up hope in finding a love like ours in the future.

The two Major Arcana cards that showed up here are connected through their numbers. Strength is number 8 and the Star, 17, when reduced is also 8.

The shape of the number 8 is used in tarot by turning it on it's side to see it as the well known symbol for Infinity.

Again, this ties to the life cycles that go on after we have left this life-time. I also see it as his way of telling me that he would always be with me even if I could not feel his presence and energy.

More on ADCs

A bit About Tarot - plus a bonus

THE EDUCATIONAL PART

The History of Tarot~

Master researcher Stewart Kaplan states that tarot started as a card game in the early 1400's, 'Tarocchi'. However, it would be another 200+ years before tarot would be used as a means of 'parlor fortune-telling'.

These fortunes where very much tongue and cheek. 'In early spring, you will meet an older man who will take you as his bride'.

Another 100+ years later, an archeologist associated the pictorial of the cards to the Egyptian book of the Dead. Several years later the deck was given occult meanings by Eliphas Levi, a master in Kabbalah, who associated the cards to the magical aspects found in the Hebrew alphabet.

This was the beginning of where today's tarot used for divination gets its magical associations.

The most popular tarot deck published specifically for divination was in 1910. This is the popular Rider Waite Smith deck. Rider being the publisher, Waite being Arthur Waite, a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and Smith being Pamela Coleman Smith the artist commissioned to create the decks imagery.

Shortly there after, Aleister Crowley had the Thoth deck published. He was also a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and his artist was also a woman, Lady Frieda Harris.

Where the Waite deck is more European and medieval in look and feel, the Thoth deck has more of an Egyptian/Kabalistic feel to it.

The Tarot Deck~ ‘What defines a Tarot deck?’

There are no hard set rules in tarot other than the structure of the deck itself. The Tarot is a deck of 78 cards which are divided into two Arcanas; the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana.

The Major Arcana is a small deck of 22 cards numbered 0-21. They are considered the Trump cards of the deck. The Minor Arcana is very much like a regular deck of playing cards, having four suits and a set of four court (face) cards. The Minor Arcana are numbered from Ace to 10 and have Page, Knight, Queen & King for the court cards. Some decks will give different names to the court cards and the Trump cards.

Any deck that falls short of this format is not really a tarot deck, with the exception of a Trumps only deck.

The Tarot is just one of many kinds of divination decks in print today.

Myths of Tarot~

Two common areas of misconception are how one gets a tarot deck and who can touch it.

It is often said that you should be given a deck for it to work. I can personally tell you that the process of choosing your deck can be a wonderful experience. However, gifted decks are often found to be special in some way.

There are three different lines of thoughts on people handling tarot decks.

1- ‘Never let anyone touch your deck, their energy will enter the deck and not work for you..’

2- ‘The person getting the reading MUST shuffle and cut the deck to put their energy into the reading.’

3- Energy is energy and it does not matter who touches them.

I agree that there is energy, that is a fact, and energy does transfer from one object to another, that is life. Energy is constantly in motion.

For some readers having the clients shuffle the cards is how they connect to the energy of that person.

Lastly-

‘OH NO- I got the DEATH card! Am I going to die?’

The Death card is often feared because so many think that this card means that they or someone close to them will die. This is rarely the case. If the Death card shows up in a reading, it is usually a card that reflects a message of change. Out with the old and in with the new.

How Tarot Works~

Each individual card has a very specific root meaning to it and while it may be similar to other cards- it is still different.

For example, all Ace cards speak of new beginnings. If the card is a Cups card then it is about some emotional beginning and if it is a Swords card then it is some new way of thinking. The depth of the cards meaning just builds from there.

The finer details are found in the numerous symbols that are seen in each card, as well as how several cards interact with each other.

View a written reading report HERE

'How does a person read for another if they are not sitting with them?'

This is again about energy, the collective unconscious, the Anima Mundi which means World Soul. There are many who believe that we are all connected in spirit. It is this place of connectedness that a psychic will reach into and gather the information that is needed. Some use guides to help them through the Ether, others will use runes, tea leaves, what ever.

THE PROMOTIONAL PART

~ Who I am as an Intuitive Reader of Tarot ~

My love of playing cards started when I was very young. I was a challenging player in any game taught to me.

My interest in card reading started when I was 12 and my aunt read for me with a pack of playing cards. It would be a few years before I had an actual Tarot deck and that was over 18 years ago.

When I do readings, all I want is the question or focus for the reading, I can also do a ‘general’ reading where no question is asked and the cards are just drawn and the message from spirit is relayed.

The card images and symbolism triggers my connection to the Anima Mundi. It may be a vision, a smell or some other impression I feel that brings more depth and color to the reading.

BONUS - You could WIN a reading!

If you have a question about the art of tarot reading or the tarot deck itself, you could win a Tarot reading.

To enter you will need to join Under A Magic Moon

(you can un-join after the contest is over)

Read the contest rules and ask your questions in the Common Questions About Tarot.

Good Luck to All

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