Getting Back on Track with The Stunning Tarot

When I started this blog, I had such good intentions.  I’m going to post twice a week! I’m going to have a planner and schedule my posts! I’m going to keep a journal, and keep track of my post ideas! I am really going to commit! Sigh.  Life gets in the way sometimes, my friends.  I’m really busy at my real world job, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  I should be free and clear in two weeks, and hopefully back to my well intended regularly scheduled program.  One of the posts I have in the brain hopper (yep, I haven’t even had time to put it in my well intended planner or imaginary idea journal)  is a comparison between the Third Edition of Jonasa Jaus’s Stunning Tarot and the Fourth Edition, which came in the mail last week.  I don’t have time for a full blown compare and contrast post, but I can give you a peek at it, and if there’s any interest in the comments, I can come back to it.

So, let’s sling some cards.  I asked the cards, hey, what do I need to know/do to get back into my good intentioned blogging routine.?

First, I pulled some cards from the Third Edition of the Stunning Tarot:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Stunning Tarot, the deck is by a Galatian artist who goes by the pseudonym Jonasa Jaus.  She created her first deck, just called the Jonas Jaus Tarot while recovering from an illness, and then she created this one sometime after.  Both decks are intended to be Marseille decks, and she was heavily influenced by Alexander Jodorowsky.  When I first got this deck, and read her downloadable guidebook I was stymied and even a bit upset.  How do I read this thing?  The suits are all mixed up! Mermaids and water in the Swords? Egyptians with the Coins? Arabian Nights and Witches? Oh my.  I don’t know how this imagery fits the meanings that I know! I exclaimed.  And, I put the deck away for awhile, mad at it, like it was the deck’s fault.  Then, I discovered the Read Like the Devil method of reading, tossed aside notions of fixed meanings, and just read the damn cards.  Now, this deck is one of my favorites.  It’s one of those decks that I can have an actual conversation with – I’ll ask a question, flip three cards, go “I see,” ask a follow up question, flip another 3 cards, nod and say, “Indeed.” And I can keep going through the whole deck.

I didn’t do that today. Instead I threw a signature Read Like the Devil spread, the center line describing the situation, the top card is the “do/advice” card and the bottom card is the “don’t/advice” card.  So, yeah – here’s the situation – after a painful loss, I may find myself stuck in a rut, wanting to hide and not feeling like blogging.  To avoid that, I have to separate myself from that loss, be of two minds, look towards the future, and just do it.  In the don’t spot – I can’t get weighed down by those 8 coins in my pocket, and I can’t discount the need to communicate, and reenter the social media sphere.  Also, the 8 coins in this configuration resemble a mirror – so I have to remember that the stinking loss is not a reflection of who I am.

Perfectly good advice.  So, as an experiment, I pulled the same cards for the Fourth Edition.

So, the glaring difference, as you can see is in the do/advice card, the 9 of Coins.  In the 3d Edition, we have a dichotomy or a duality, the past loss was still a part of the thinking, separate and looking towards the past, but not severed, still connected to forward thinking.  Here, in the 4th Edition, the Anubis is looking straight ahead, forward! Any change in status is completely integrated, and that mythological creature is ready to be carried forward.  So, similar advice, but not quite.  The 3d Edition seems to express a process, and the 4th Edition, that process is done. and because the Anubis is on a structure that is meant to be carried, it’s waiting for something to lift it up.  So the advice might be wait until you feel like it, when something has lifted your spirits, and then off you go.  Wait until you’re ready.

So, at the end of the day, there are pros and cons of both versions of the deck:

The Fourth, top, version is longer, narrower and resembles a more traditional tarot card size.  It’s length, however, makes it difficult to shuffle.  The 3d Edition, which resembles oversized playing cards, is easier to shuffle, but the backs of the cards are not very attractive, that point would definitely go to the Fourth Edition.  But, of course, the important thing is really the imagery changes that should determine deck preference.  So, here are two examples, of course along with the one above:

Here, we have one of the cards that frustrated me most when I got this deck – the five of Cups.  This kid doesn’t look sad!  Where is that sorrowful character with his spilled cups at his feet, head down with grief?  Or what about just that it’s a five?  Isn’t this supposed to be a Marseille deck? Where is the disruption?  I’ve gotten over all that.  Now, maybe I see a kid sitting on a wall, with five cups, half of 10 hanging in the air.  Maybe he’s in the middle of something.  Maybe he’s seeing his cups half full (5 out of 10) or half empty, maybe he’s thinking of leaping (exercise, and seeing 5’s as the body)? His back is to the enclosed city,  Maybe he’s thinking about pursuing something out of the box?  Lots of different meanings depending on the context of the question.

In the 4th Edition, the body language and the different perspective, puts the imagery more in line with that traditional RWS meaning – the resigned figure, sitting on the wall, back to the cups, facing the enclosed city.  And looking at the 4 of Coins, the coins have been refigured from a straight line, to a square, more of a representation of  sturdy table or box.  That card speaks more to stability than the stacked coins, that could totter at any time.  Most of the changes are in the suit of Coins, but like I said, I don’t really have time (or energy frankly, and this post is already longer than I had intended) to go through the changes, and how they would effect my reading of them.

With all that said, I like the 3d Edition better.  I like the feel of the fatter cards.  I find it easier to shuffle.  I like the more muted colors (the red cards now have an overlay of purple on them, which ups the contrast significantly).  And the changes in the cards?  Well, let’s talk about the five of cups.  Do I really care how I read the card?  No I don’t.  Whichever card falls on the table will be able to answer the question, in the context of the other cards and within the realistic realm of what’s possible.  As kind of an intellectual snob (admittedly not a good thing, but it is what it is), while I’d like to lean on the idea that I don’t like the changes to the cards, I can’t; they’re fine.  I’m going with the 3d Edition strictly on aesthetics, which is not generally how I like to make my choices, but there you have it.

So, the 3d Edition for the win!  And hopefully, I’ll pop back in while I’m still under water, but if not, back to regularly scheduled programming in May.