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The Mythical Goddess Tarot deck & book set

by Sage Holloway & Katherine Skaggs

The Mythical Goddess Tarot deck & book set
Price: $24.95

Number of cards in deck: 78

Measurements: 2.72 x 4.74 inches, or 69 x 120 mm.

Back of card: I showed it to my 9 year old daughter: "Flowers!" "Apricots!" "Guacamole!" I told her to keep looking. You will eventually discover it to be eight nude female torsos, radiating out from the center. Like flowers. Each of the chakras, from the throats downwards, are decorated. So, there is a small circle in the center, made up of eight blue whorls, which are the throat chakras. Then there is a quite lovely circle made up of little red hearts & curly lines with dots for decoration, which suddenly become breasts & nipples. Then there is a still larger circle, not quite complete (the sides of the card cuts it off) that looks as if it is made up of radiating suns, with a rose flower right underneath, emerging from a "rug" of equilateral triangles. The suns are the solar plexus chakras, the lower parts you can figure out for yourself. Overall, pale oranges & yellows predominate. Rather busy. May be inverted & maybe your kids are as innocent as mine. On the other hand, I did have to look twice myself. Sometimes the back of the card gets a mention in the book, but not here.

Book included: Yes, 128 pages, 3.75 x 5.73 inches, or 95 x 145 mm. Instructions in English only. Full color on every page, which includes full color pictures of each card, as well as of both of the authors.

Publisher: Star Chalice/Sisters Publishing. Printed in China. This is the sort of Chinese deck that when you first get the cards, they're all stuck together at the edges. Once you've pulled them apart they won't stick again, of course, but cards like these have a certain stiffness about them.

Comments: In this deck, Cups are Seas, Swords are Wind, Pentacles are Earth, Wands are Fire. Early on in the book, Holloway comments that because we're modern we can give the real names of the suits, but I think everybody already knows that a deck with "wind" in it is the same as swords.

Face cards: Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone.

In this deck, the major arcana are All The Famous Female Deities You've Ever Heard Of!! And a couple of others, too. Including:

Uzume, Morgan le Fay, Isis, Kuan Yin, Sophia, Shakti, Athena, Crow Woman, Yemaya, Lakshmi, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Mother Mary, Kali, Lilith, Brigid, Mary Magdalene, Pele, Pleiadian Star Goddess, Chel, Amaterasu, Aditi, Gaia.

I was pleased by the inclusion of Mother Mary & Mary Magdalene, as Christian saints, aka deities, are so often overlooked. On the other hand, Mother Mary is described as Sacrifice, which, to this old New Testament Bible hound, seems a stretch. Mothers who lose their sons to judicial execution are said to be examples of self-sacrifice? I would have thought unconditional love to be more appropriate. Unlike virtually all of her son's associates, Mary died of old age.

Mary Magdalene, major arcana 15, is a revelation. She's given as Capricorn & Initiation. She anoints Jesus at the Last Supper & then goes on to be the first Bride of Christ. Which makes her the very first nun, as nuns were given precisely that title. Which, when I think of it, is exactly right. And she is shown in a green robe. I have seen the Virgin - or what was claimed to be the Virgin - given green robes in the healing chapels of the American Southwest. Such as at Chimayo, in New Mexico. Those who have been healed there sometimes paint representations of what they think the "healing angel" looks like. Some of them give her blue robes, but a great many insist on green. But the Virgin is always (always) shown in blue. So which was right, and why? I once asked a clairvoyant to contact the deva at Chimayo to determine the color. It was green. I then asked for its name, which turned out to be "Chia". (Hence, the town was named for her, which would not be surprising: Chia-maya, "Chia-mother", Chimayo.). But I didn't think to ask who Chia was associated with, as I presumed it was the Virgin. I wanted to link to a picture of the antechamber at Chimayo that you could see the many images, in blue & green, which I myself have seen, but in all of Google, there is not one picture.

In Googling pictures of Magdalene, I learn she left Palestine for France & spent 30 years healing the sick & was known for the emerald-green light of her healing hands. Paintings of her are in various colors, but the predominant one is green. Rarely if ever in blue. (Why all the early saints went to France, thousands of miles from their place of birth, is a mystery to me. Maybe the French invented it.) Which means the Cult of the Virgin, which started in France in the 12th century, overwhelmed the memory of Mary Magdalene. Overwhelmed the memory, but not her ongoing work.

(If you're curious, whenever I get the chance, I ask spirits & devas who they are & what they're up to. I, personally, never ask them for guidance or advice or to tell me the future. Those who ask such questions are fools.)

There are two suggested card spreads, a simple & a fancy. The simple one is a three-card draw, arranged in a triangle pointing downwards. The fancy one is a 13 card clockwise spiral. Both of these, spiral & triangle, are female, as both point downwards into manifestation, which is the female process. On the other hand, three is triadic, which is male. Thirteen is One plus Twelve, which is also male. What about those days when you need a masculine reading, whatever sort of masculine it may be? One where the energies rush upwards, say? The book is silent.

In this deck there are oblique references to the fact that we live in a world which, from time to time, has males in it. (Horrors!!) To the extent the book acknowledges the existence of men, reassurance is given that females are, have been, and always will be in charge. Which is as silly as insisting the opposite, that men are, have been & always will be in charge. I find both annoying. It is more interesting, more realistic, but a lot harder, to note the endless ways the sexes play off each other, depend on each other, relate to each other. It's hard because males & females are in no way opposing forces, but complimentary & transforming agents. And that's the paradox. In a deck full of bare breasts & the occasional vagina, one really good phallus would do wonders.

The Astrology Center of America

207 Victory Lane, Bel Air, MD 21014
Tel: 410-638-7761; Toll-free (orders only): 800-475-2272

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Established 1993, The Astrology Center of America is owned & operated by David Roell. Except where noted, this entire site (AstroAmerica.com) & its contents are Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by William R. Roell. All rights reserved. Tarot card images are Copyright © by the copyright holder (generally the publisher).