TAROT MAGIC FOR THE HARVEST SEASON

With the ancient festival known as Lammas (or Lughnasadh) coming up on August 1^st, I’ve been thinking about how one might lay out tarot spreads, not just for purposes of prediction or tarot spells, but as focal points for commemorating the cycle of seasons on a celebrational altar.  (Note: Lammas is a cross-quarter day, because it is halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox.)

“Lammas” is from an old English word that means “loaf mass,” so it is very much a celebration of the wheat harvest.  (Here in Michigan, the wheat harvest runs from mid-July to early August.)  Wheat was genuinely held sacred in many European cultures, and they had many different types of ritual festival breads and pastries.  This is also the time of year when many local fruits and vegetables are coming into season, so that we can enjoy fresh, locally grown produce.  We will also soon be entering the wine grape harvest season, (which runs from late August through October in Michigan).

So, I have been going through my collection of tarot decks to see if their graphics lend themselves to colorful harvest images for a Lammas celebration, and have scanned these three cards from the Tarot of the Golden Wheel by Mila Losenko, (published by U.S. Games Systems), which draws from Slavic folk culture.

The Sun card is featured because Lammas is a solar festival, (and August is the height of summer’s heat).  Combined with The Empress card’s image of an Earth Mother sitting in a field of wheat and holding up a sunflower as well as a cup of wine, the two cards evoke the union of Sun and Earth that brings forth a plentiful harvest.  Note the graphic resonance between the images of sunflowers in both cards; sunflower seeds are also an important nutritional source for Slavic peoples, (and sunflower seed bread is my favorite.)  The Nines are cards of multiplicity, so the Nine of Wheels, (Pentacles in other decks), shows a woman--perhaps a farm wife—enjoying the material rewards that a generous harvest makes possible.

By the way, if you are planning a Lammas celebration, you might want to look up my article on the Animal Cracker Oracle.  This is an article about old Prussian festival customs that were practiced at Christmas and New Year, but the Animal Cracker Oracle itself is very appropriate for Lammas as a celebration of the grain.

Also, check out Margie McArthur’s blog, “Brigid’s Hearth,” which has an article on Lughnasadh, http://www.brigidshearth.org/seasonalhearth-autumn.htm, which is the Celtic cross-quarter festival that coincides with Lammas.

TAROT SPELL FOR EMPOWERING THE YEAR 2026

As mentioned in the previous post, the tarot card correspondence for the year 2026 is the Wheel of Fortune.  An interesting thing about this card is that it is part of a “constellation” that includes The Magician and The Sun cards.  That’s because The Sun is card number 19, which in magical numerology can be broken down to 1 + 9 = 10, the card number for The Wheel, and that in turn can be broken down to 1 + 0 = 1, which is The Magican’s number.

If you take these three cards together, you can make a spell out of them:

First, lay down The Magician while thinking about how you are in charge of your life.  (This can be a New Year’s resolution, if taking charge has been an issue for you.)  You can say an affirmation like, “I am the Master [or Mistress] of Magic!  All I need to make my own magic is before me, and within me.”

Then, lay down The Wheel while thinking how you as the magician can take advantage of opportunities for change.  Think about what sort of opportunities are likely to come up in 2026, perhaps in your career, relationships, or creative endeavors— and how you'll recognize and seize these moments when they arise.  You could also affirm, “Fortune’s wheel is turning, carrying me onward and forward, with blessings revealed at every revolution."

Finally, lay down The Sun while thinking about how good you feel as your forward momentum helps to generate happiness and harmony.  You could affirm something like, “Let 2026 be a year when I enjoy my time in the sun, a time to bask in life’s brightness.”

As a special talisman for 2026, you could glue these three cards to a piece of cardboard, frame that, and mount it to the inside of your front door, (or other convenient location).

By the way, the concept of tarot constellations has been developed by Mary K. Greer in her book Tarot Constellations: Patterns of Personal Destiny.  I also think it would be interesting if aspiring tarot artists kept these constellations in mind when coming up with new card designs, because you could use cross-referencing graphic imagery for cards within a constellation.

The Magic of Opening and Tarot

Last Sunday’s workshop theme was “the magic of opening,” in keeping with the month of April’s association with the word, aperio, “I open,” (because at one point, it used to open the year, and because spring equinox opens Nature’s year), as well as the month of April’s being dedicated to Aphrodite and her divine powers of opening. Our tarot exercise therefore involved posing questions and doing a card search to find areas in your life where you can find a magical opening. This was more involved and subjective than other April card searches we have done, (such as searching for the Fool card to identify some area of life where you may feel that the Universe is playing a cosmic joke on you, but where you might also encounter rewarding synchronicities), because people had to go through their decks until they found a card whose imagery conveyed the idea of opening for them. So, here are a few thoughts and observations on images of opening in the tarot, (using the RWS as the standard).

Because the Judgment card shows people who have risen from their graves, it can denote a change in status or a new phase in life that result in things opening up for you. It is also apropos of Easter/Springtime’s theme of emergence.

Another card that hints at emergence is The Moon, which portrays a crayfish, (which can represent impulses that come from some very deep, primitive part of the Self), partially emerging from the water (of the Unconscious). In her book, “Tarot as a way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot,” Karen Hamaker-Zondag discusses the rising of symbolic images from the unconscious, when, “In The Moon stage we open up to these inner images” [168]. Notice, also, that the road shown leading off into the distance is an “open road.”

A card that conveys a very reassuring sense of openness is The Sun. The Sun’s face is gazing straight outward with its extended rays like the open arms of the joyful child. The “idea” of the Sun can also suggest being out in the open, in open country, the freedom of nature, etc. Yet, there is that wall there, though it suggests not so much a barrier as a protective enclosure, and although the sunflowers echo the sun-face, they are a cultivated plant.

Some of The Sun’s imagery is echoed in The Lovers, where a sun image is the background for the angel, whose arms are spread in blessing, and the man and woman, whose arms are also outspread. The man and woman in this card are nude, suggesting their openness and honesty with each other, as well as their essential humanity. We see similar body imagery in Judgment, The World, and The Star.

Some cards can have images of openness, yet remain somewhat equivocal. In the Star card just mentioned, the woman is out in open nature under an open sky, but her preoccupation with her task makes her slightly closed off to the viewer, and although there is openness in The World’s joyful dance, she is enclosed in a sacred circle. When cards have mixed imagery, you have to think about how the themes of open and closed play off of each other in your particular situation.

The Fool is another tarot figure who is out in open nature under and open sky and a radiant sun, with arms spread in an opening gesture, but the chasm he’s about to step off into represents a more dangerous open. Unlike the figures whose nudity suggests a lack of social pretensions, he is fully clothed.

Some Minor Arcana cards may hint at the idea of openness, though overall, they have a more closed-off quality, with their human figures confined within their own little worlds, (or elemental spheres). An interesting example is the 8 of Cups. The Number Eight has a very organized character, which can contribute to a sense of comfort and security, but which can also convey the feeling of being locked in. This can conflict with the very fluid, emotionally expressive nature of the Cups, which can then lead to the desire to leave an emotionally confining situation. The RWS card illustrates this with a person who has turned his back on the cups, and is wandering off into the wild, following the path of the river. That he may have found some emotional opening to pursue this adventure or make this escape is suggested by the arrangement of three cups on top of five cups, with a gap in the top row. The symbology might have been different if the cups had been in two tight rows of four, as that would have suggested more of an emotional holding pattern. This shows how the little graphic decisions made by the artists/designers can bring in quite different nuances.

Well, I have more to say about themes of openness in the tarot, so I will carry this into my next post. TO BE CONTINUED …