Hello and Welcome! Let me introduce you to the Declarative Tarot Deck. There are a few things to take note of before diving into the wonder of learning to think outside of the box and the mystery school version of tarot decks.
As you will notice - if not take a quick radar check of the cards in the photo - and you will see that this deck is an open deck. Yes, we assure you it has not been colored with purpose.
One of the learning steps in the mystery schools was to own your deck through the personalization and memorization of the colors and symbols in the deck. However, as we continue to rise to the challenge of what it means to be Divinely Human over humanly divine, we come to terms with letting go of labels and constructs that limit us into prescribed living protocols and behaviors.
Deck Imagery - Letting Go of Icons & Stories
First let's address the deck 'arcana' labels. The traditional decks use the term arcana, which means hidden secret or mystery. The two sections are now called: PATHS & PRESENCE
Paths of Experiential Learning (formerly Major Arcana)
Flows of Presence (formerly Court cards of the four suites, also called Personality cards)
Layers of Presence (formerly the four suits, Ace through tens)
Experiential Learning
Why these changes? When we journey through our life, we experience a variety of people, places and events that we archive in our mind and body. This is the akasha (collective or library) of our Experiential Learning. These cards are descriptive of the path we are journeying and gaining experience. And we can be experiencing multiple paths at one time, which is truly a powerful way to grow and enrich our life on this planet. This change in description allows us to own the experience and bring it into a translatable way of remembering our journey as we Question and See our life experience. Here is where we take our work up a notch and begin to work on the inner secrets of our deepest fears, misconceptions, inner stories and masks to BE the change we are called to BE.
When we get to a point of greater understanding, we begin to realize that the questions we pose to the tool called tarot, no longer applies to the world on the outside, but instead of our own inner presence. Our choices and corresponding result we experience from those choices. This is why asking about the gender, age or description of another person is no longer important.
Four Flows of Presence
The four Flows of Presence are the four ways we approach our choices and experiences and how we apply them actively from moment to moment and day to day. These include:
Wisdom: the way we gain, hold and apply our knowing/intellect/experience (formerly Queens)
Authority: the way we authorize ourselves, give ourselves permission and hold presence (formerly Knights or Kings)
Focus: the way we take our knowing and permit ourselves to make choices (formerly the Prince/Knight)
Declaration: the way we take our knowing, permission and focus, and apply that into a declaration of presence by a response, reaction, action or utterance - to speak aloud.
Four Layers of Presence
The four Flows of Presence are integrated with the ten Layers of Presence. These structured in the four suits you are familiar with but, instead of using the alter or elemental symbols, the suits are about the steps taken to layer way you construct and deconstruct as you move-through and own your experience. How you think, feel, apply passion and then declare through presence. These include:
Mind: How you think about your experiential process, take notes, process and apply those patterns to our choices. This was the air or swords suit. These are still ten cards but, are now called Seed to Cathartic. In other words, the germination of where you started and the completion that created a cathartic moment that set you onto the next journey. The finish of a lesson or understanding.
Heart: How you feel about your experiences, the emotions, creativeness or loss of, the inspiration or swampiness you feel from your choices and experiences. This was the water or cups suit. This continues to be ten cards but, are now called Seed to Maturation. This change is to show that there is an initial feeling, the starting point you felt and how that matured into a wholeness of what it means and feels to embrace that experience or lesson in life.
Passion: How you bring your thoughts and feelings into an action or expression. Passion if the fire that sets things into motion. This can be either a reaction or a response, and it the passion that drives us into making changes or holding true to our presence. This was the fire or wands suit. From the first ignition or Seed to the Mastery of the inner fire, these ten layers of our life experience will show you what you are setting into motion in your life.
Presence: This is the suit that brings your thoughts, feelings and passion into the 'what, why, how, when and where' you journey. These cards show the Seed you planted based on what you thought you wanted or perceived, how you nurtured the seed - your feelings or creative/intuitive process, and the drive you had or have to continue with your choice. This is the Summation of the other three suits into the manifestation of your life experience.
Hints, Tips and Whispers
ASKING A QUESTION OF THE CARDS
When you ask questions remember to use the words: Show me, Tell me, Explain to me, or Help me to understand. Tarot is a language of imagery, and the question should begin with asking for a narrative that informs you to make informed choices. The tarot deck is not your go to to be told what to do, because that surrenders your presence - or power - to something other than yourself. Take time to understand what it is you are struggling with or confused about or feeling the nudge to inquire; to question. Another reason the first card of the deck is called The Questioner.
UPSIDE DOWN CARDS
When you use this deck, the cards that are upside down are not 'ill' or 'severe'. In this deck any card that is upside down is most likely indicating: you are not understanding something, you have chosen to avoid or ignore something, there are conflicts in your process that is stalling or diverting your hope, dream or understanding, you have taken an opposing view, what should have been problematic - as in having upside down Path No. 15 VEILS (formerly the Devil) = is no longer problematic...you have moved past this lesson and removed the veils of self illusion.
ADDED PATH CARDS
In this deck are three other Path cards and one added card. The three added Path cards were intuited and included after the deck was completed, reviewed and tested for understanding and release. These offer a more complex way to intuit into another layer into what it means to: Initiate a journey, Connect and engage in deeper communication with the layers of Self, and Reflecting on our journey and crossing thresholds. The fourth added card is bringing an esoteric card into a symbolic image of what it means to be in full flow of the Declared Self, Present and in the Now, and continuing to choose to live outside the Experiential Game of life on this planet. They include:
The Questioner No. 0, (Formerly The Fool) This card is the first card and represents the first time we journey from a more innocent approach. It shows all the past tools we have used up to now and where we are going to journey from and tip into something deeper to discover about ourselves.
The Questioner No. 0, (Formerly The Fool) This card is a bit more layered in imagery. In this card there are indications of asking more involved questions and that we are now a cosmic mariner asking deeper and more in-depth questions.
The Soul Bridge No. 17, ( Formerly The Star) This card is first intuited version of the seventeenth card in the deck. The winged-being with flowing hair represents how we traverse the inner realms of self-discovery, how we giver our self wings to expand and rise above the din of the games we encounter during our spiritual journey.
The Soul Bridge No. 17, (Formerly The Star) This card has the added layers of what it means to journey in multiple ways, to receive and release patterns of knowing, behavior and feelings to expand our journey into the greater depths of what it means to become Divinely Human.
Lunation No. 18, (Formerly The Moon) This card was intuited first and refers to how we use the cycles of life and reflective process to self-discover our personal process. Here there are representational images that remind us that not all we see is real, and we must learn to tell the difference of cycles from chosen experiences.
Lunation No. 18, (Formerly The Moon) This version came after the deck was completed and was in review. This shows a deeper layering of what it means to be conscious of our journey and how our inner reflections on that journey offer imagery or hints and clues to understanding that journey.
I AM - This is a card that only appears in the esoteric decks, and it comes from the western Qabbalistic concept of the Soul, Source or Whole-Being of Self. In this deck it as called the I AM card and represents when we have connected all the flows of the eternal self down through the material or corporeal self.