The second offering of The Moon and Stars Tarot, is the Ace of Swords, which simply states Understanding. That is the crux of this journey, believe it or not this entire journey of rediscovery has entered into its seventh year, which considering earlier with the Seven of Wands, bringing up Resilience, says something about the nature of this deck.

Understanding is a three edged sword, which is a line from a bygone era of TV, but to this day I still stand by it. There is my understanding, there is the other persons understanding, and then there is understanding on its own, which is a paraphrase but its not untrue.

This Ace of Swords is simply stating, that through understanding all the angles and all the reasons, you reach a conclusion, which may not be liked, but at least its someplace to work from.

Reaching the Seventh card of this hop, we're returning to the Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti, this time its the Three of Cups, an interesting minor card, with a great deal occuring within it.

You have a variant of the astrological symbol for Pluto, which features in Natal charts, and Solar Returns, its a place of power, transformation, change, rebirth, and release. There is also a balancing act happening in this card. Look at how the cups are balanced delicately on to one another.

Observe the face masks, a full face, and the eyes only. There is the sign of Cancer in the opposing corner, which is a place of nuturing, empathy, intuition, emotions, and moods.

As I said a card with a lot happening within it, so how does that all translate? I don't actually need to do any translation or interpreting, as this card speaks volumes just by breaking it down.

All that really needs said, is that this card can sum up a day in the life.

Lastly, staying with The Tarot of Dreams; we have The Hermit, which is my card. So we've come full circle in a manner of speaking, this entire blog hop post has been a retrospective, working through different stages, aspects, and parts of a seven year journey.

The Hermit is my shadow, as well as how I stand in the world itself. The observer, the watcher of events, and yes I even actively engage with the world and work within it when circumstance allows.

There is something to be said for The Hermit, he's a wisdom and knownledge seeker. Yet, he actively works with all that he gathers, you just may not know that he is doing it.

There is a power in The Hermit, but he decides when the time to use this power is, he's not dictated to, but rather walks and forges his own path.

The Hermit also see people for who and what they are, he witnesses the truth in events and see the souls of the people, and reads the energy of the moment.

That is why he chooses to be The Hermit, people and their dharma/karma relationships, are messy, and they don't always heed warnings or offerings of solutions.

Well that is me for this hop, I have enjoyed taking the time to go through and work with the chosen decks, randomly selecting cards, or in some cases actually selecting the ones that fell out of the shuffle.

You should try it sometime, see what is thrown out of the deck and how relevant it is to the moment, or situation.

I'll explain below how to do it :-)

Until next hop x

How to Start

Okay, to begin with decide on your deck or decks if you are going to be brave. What you do with the first deck, you'll repeat with the second.

Good, now split the deck and select either the right or left hand pile. Whichever side you are using keep in front of you and put the other part to one side.

Right, shuffle that part of the deck as gently or vigorously as you like. When/if cards fall out then align them side by side, until no more fall out.

You may have 1, 5, or 10, likewise maybe none will fall out, and that is fine but let's deal with that in a moment.

So you have the line of cards, just start turning them over one at a time, and see what they have to say for themselves.

Repeat this for the second deck, but try using the other side this time, and see what if anything falls out. 

Now look at all the cards together, and see if you get their meaning and bigger picture.

None Fell Out

Not to worry about that happening, what you are going to do here, is fan out the side you chose, and select a number of cards, let's say you go with 8, or maybe even 9. 

If you have used two decks, then half and half, take 4 or 5 from one, and similarly 4 or 5 of the other deck.

Now turn them over one at a time or all together and see what comes out. Take notes, ask questions and be open to the answers.