Weekly Creativity Challenge

Weekly Creativity Prompt – The Winner

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Pull up to three cards use them as the foundation to express and/or describe someone’s (real or fictional) reaction to winning the lottery.

The Astro Tarot

When the ticket turned out to be a winner, he couldn’t believe it.  He’d never had a bit of good luck in his entire life, and then the numbers were called and he’d won.  He’d really won!  He’d been buying the tickets so long that it was more habit than hope any more, and then his world changed in a moment’s stroke of luck that made up for all those unlucky moments that had come before it. (The World)

The funny thing about habits, though?  Is that even when your dreams come true, habits don’t die.  They live on and continue to influence us no matter what circumstances change in our lives.   And so even though he’d won the lotto he continued to play it anyway.  The one percent of his income he’d put toward it for so many years continued… but now?  That one percent was so much larger.   Having never learned to manage money, over time that one percent started to eat into his winnings… of course so did the indulgences he couldn’t help but purchase now that he had the money to do so. (The Devil)

In the end, he ended up back where he’d been all along.  The winnings gone, they had taught him a valuable lesson, but one that he’d learned too late. He knows now that it’s important to spend money wisely, no matter how much of it you have.   His bank now empty once more, the wisdom will carry on regardless.  (The Hierophant)

DECK USED: THE ASTRO TAROT

Weekly Creativity Prompt – The Queens

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Pull the Queens out of a deck of your choice. Consider… Do you have someone in your life that fits with one of these cards? Do you have people in your life that would fit with each of them? Then share that here and tell us about the connection you see between each Queen card and the person in your life it represents.

Luminous Void Tarot

Queen of Wands – Every day he wakes with a fire in his gut and purpose driving him forward.  He rushes into the office every day and finds his way to the desk where he meets with those that need help and hears their stories. He makes calls and helps them fill out paperwork.  He fights their battles because they are unable to fight those battles themselves, petitions courts and demands justice for those that would otherwise have none. He is an advocate for homeless youth, determined to save as many as he can… one one lost youth at a time.

Queen of Cups – Her laughter puts your soul at ease like a gentle balm on the senses.  She’s a hugger… a toucher… a smiling beacon of warmth.  She’s not a pushover by any means, but she’ll sit with you in silence if you need it, give you the hug you need or the shoulder to cry on when you reach for her.  She’ll then wipe your tears away when you’re done and give you a smile that lights up her face.  A smile that is so infections you can’t help the twitch of your own lips.  Giving you a light hug, she’ll then whisper in your ear, “It’ll be okay. Go get’em Tiger”.

Queen of Swords – Some would call him passionately shrewd.  Others would call him cold and ruthless.  People come to him for advice.  They bring not just their hopes and dreams, but their troubles and worries to him and he listens as they share with him what they want out of their future.  He takes what they give him and turns this into a plan.. a plan for the future, a strategy for success that he then explains to them in explicit detail so that they can follow that plan to the letter.  They are sent away more learned than they arrived, with the knowledge he’s there if they need him again.

Queen of Discs – They all come to her from time to time, her children and her children’s children.  They come to visit and pay respects, and sometimes to get practical advice on home and family matters… and always she has cookies at the ready.  Her truly shining moment, though, is the family picnic in the middle of  June each year. She spends days in the kitchen, cooking for the family that will fill her house and property with laughter and conversation.  Bowls and platters, plates and casserole dishes. Roast beef and a Thanksgiving worthy turkey, fried chicken and so many delicious things to eat.  All her old recipes brought to life again for those she holds most dear.

DECK USED:  LUMINOUS VOID TAROT

Weekly Creativity Prompt – The Teapot

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Pull (at least) three cards use them as the foundation to tell us about the life of a very delicate or fragile object or person.

22 Talismani in 22 ArcaniI once lived in the home of an old mystic (La Papessa – The High Priestess) that was skilled in many methods of divination (Il Bagatto – The Magician). I was trusted to hold her special herbs and serve them up in warm water’s embrace, so that she could read the tea leaves that fell from my spout.

Many that came to the mystic’s home specifically to have their tea leaves read, and they looked upon my rounded belly like shining beacon of hope. (Le Stelle – The Star)

One day, someone did not like the advice given in the tea leaves. They reported the mystic to the law (La Giustizia – Justice), who then came and told her that she had to shut down (La Torre – The Tower) and would no longer be able to take people into her home (L’eremita – The Hermit).

The mystic moved on from the path of the tea leaves (La Forza – Strength). She found other things bring her joy and became a great-grandmother (Il Sole The Sun). Soon after, she passed on and I was placed in gentle hands to be set upon a shelf (L’appeso – The Hanging). to watch quietly as the mystic’s family continued to grow and flourish in her wake. I am a remnant of the past, and a remembrance of a woman loved and now gone (La Temperanza – Temperance).

DECK USED:  22 TALISMANI IN 22 ARCANI

Weekly Creativity Prompt – Emotional Connections

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Pull up to three cards.
Create a piece of art, a crafted item, or a bit of writing that conveys the essence of an emotion expressed in each of the cards.

Potion Hunter Tarot

The Lovers – A grandfather and his young grandson decided to go on a journey to meet God. The grandson was excited and skipped a long, carefree and trusting in his father’s lead. The father was more practical and he knew that they would have to make wise choices on their journey in order to make it to the top of the hill where God lived.

Judgement – As they climbed the hill the child was full of innocence each step only brought more joy. But, as the father stepped one step after the other, with each step he considered and weighed every little thing that he had done in his long life and wondered if he was really worthy of meeting God.

The High Priestess – The higher they got, the more the little boy seem to chatter on and on, excited at the prospect of where they were going. The old man, though, became quieter and quieter, delving deeper and deeper within himself as he sought the answers of his faith and how he fit within it.

Together these two represent the duality of each card upon the path of one’s life.  With youth comes innocence and enthusiasm, a guilelessness that is tinged by lack of experience and naivety.

With age, though, comes experiences.  Decisions pile atop decisions, and the choices made become something to contemplate on.  Where the youth does not carry such a weight upon their shoulders, with age we come to a point where we must look within and seek out our inner knowledge and inner compass to tell us if we have lived a good life… or if there are changes that need to be made.

DECK USED:  POTION HUNTER TAROT

Weekly Creativity Prompt – Random Eight

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Shuffle your deck of choice, then pull out every ninth card.
Of the eight cards now sitting in front of you, which card do you relate to most strongly and why?
Of the seven cards now left sitting in front of you, which card do you relate to the least and why?
Extra Credit: There are now six cards left. Assign a real person in your life, a fictional character, a movie, a book, or a song to each of these six cards and then tell us why you made the choice you did for each.

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Part 1 (most relate to) –Ten of Swords – I am a survivor. I survived my father’s tyrannic rule.  I survived the accident that decimated the right side of my body and made it impossible for me to go through an MRI machine. I’ve survived sexual assault, betrayals, car accidents, impalement, a home invasion and near death experience, life-long chronic pain, ongoing physiotherapy, testicular cancer, and melanoma.

I have survived through years of suicidal obsession and urges, multiple major depressive episodes, and just this past year I survived a stalker that tried to kidnap me out of a Costco parking lot.  I have survived dropping out of university a mere three months before earning my degree, the crushing disappointment of discovering my mother is not the person (or mother) I thought she was, a metabolism that is determined to eat me alive, and the loss of loved ones.

I have survived, and learned from, all of these things and more. Each of these things was more than just a painful experience. Each experience brought me to my knees and made me bleed either from my body or my soul… and yet I have continued on.  The Nine of Swords connects me to these experiences, and my survival from them… as well as the fact that I continue to thrive not just despite them, but also because of what they taught me along the way.

Part 2 (least relate to) – Eight of Wands – I’m not getting anywhere fast these days, it seems.  In fact, life in general as well as the cards seem determined to teach me to slow down and take my time more often.  This is not something that is easy for me to do… and I struggle with it even at the best of times. 

Extra Credit:

Two of Wands – She makes lists.  Going on a camping trip?  She’s got a list.  A shopping trip?  She’s got a list. Need ideas for what to do next weekend?  She has a list for that too. If you need to get organized?  She is the one to go to.  She’ll help you make a list, and explain how to use it too.  There’s power in lists and she knows it well, and she wields that power with impunity.

Seven of Cups – A woman that sees outside the box, if you need ideas, she’s the one to go through.  Not that she’ll give you the answers, but sit and talk with her a while and you’ll soon find that your narrow view of what’s possible will begin to open up.  Options appear where none had been, just in the span of spending time in her presence.  Suddenly, the diversity of what’s possible is breathtaking and you wonder how you ever felt your options were so limited.

Five of Swords – He’s one of those guys that always has to have the last word in any situation. It makes him feel like he’s won, and that feeling is something he lives for. Whether it’s a debate or a disagreement, or even a physical fight, rest assured his voice will be the last one that sounds, and what he says will be sharp edged but probably not entirely unwarranted.

The Chariot – Single minded and determined, he plows forward with his eye on the prize. He knows what he wants out of life and he knows how to get it, he has both hands on the reigns and full control over the direction of his life.  Goals for this man?  They aren’t possibilities… they are already his reality as if he needs only to reach out and pluck them out of the air and they’ll be his.

The Tower – She’s spent her life catastrophizing every little thing. Nothing catastrophic has ever happened to her, and yet… to her even a splinter is just that.  The end of the world.  Her life is in chaos, her world in upheaval… and this is how she lives.  Each and ever day is one horrible thing, one disastrous event after another and she is unable to see beyond the cacophony to anything positive in any of it.  She’s trapped in this place… and refuses to try and escape.

Judgement – He lies in a hospital bed and waits for his family to arrive and surround him.  He has things to say, and apologies to make.  Weathered, with aching joints and years of hard work wrought in wrinkles upon his face… he’s had plenty of time to consider all that he’s done and all that he failed to do.  It’s time to make things right, before it’s too late to do so.

DECK USED:  MONSTAROT TAROT

Weekly Creativity Prompt – A Dream

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Pull (at least) three cards use them as the foundation to write about one of your dreams (either literal or aspirational).

IMG_5515In the dream I awake in the ditch beside an abandoned street (High Priestess). It’s night time and chilly but not cold.  There is a slope on one side of me and the street on the other and as I rise I find friends arguing with each other a short distance away (Justice beneath Strength).

They are arguing about going to a haunted house, and as they start to climb the hill, I can see the house in the distance at the top.  In order to get there, we have to take a zigzagging route with some wooden ramps and bridges made of wood that cross over deep cracks in the ground. (The Tower).

When we reach the house, there is a party going on inside, but each time you go through a doorway, you end up in an entirely different part of the house.  I go through the doorway from the kitchen to the living room, and end up in the attic. (Wheel of Fortune)

I get creeped out by the behavior of the party goers, which seems to be becoming more and more malicious the longer we stay.  None of my friends want to leave, so I decide to take off on my own. (The Chariot)

Getting down the hill and through all the different ramps and bridges, over the rocks and boulders, all seems much more difficult as I try to get back to the road than on my way uphill.  All the way down, I feel the need to go faster and faster, as if something evil is breathing at the back of my neck, ready to devour me if I slow down or turn around (The Moon).

And then I wake up.

DECK USED:  DARK SPHYNX TAROT