I’ve had a love affair with petroglyphs for
decades, to the point that I spent one Thanksgiving weekend on a petroglyph hunt in Southern Arizona. I took hundreds of photos, marveling at the difference between the glyphs there versus the ones I’d seen in Northern Arizona and New Mexico. The image above was taken at the Crane Petroglyph Heritage Site located just east of Sedona.
Back in 2014, I had the opportunity to visit the Crane site, which features more than 1,000 petroglyphs done in what is known as the Beaver Creek Style. Thought to be done by the Sinagua band, one of the thirteen panels includes - not surprisingly - a solar calendar. The hike in is an easy half-mile over even ground.
Returning to these sites has been on my mind lately, but with temperatures in Phoenix soaring to 110 degrees F right now, our Arizona trip will have to wait til autumn. The good news is, the desire to go there reminded me of a deck I received years ago from Jessica Macbeth. Called Hands of the Ancients (Jan Wright), it’s a twenty-two card deck featuring petroglyphs from sites all over the Southwest.
Since I had a burning question in mind, and glyphs have been on my mind, this is the deck I chose to use.
Deck out, I shuffled and did my favorite
three card reading: The Situation, Do This, Don’t Do This.
I was shocked (not shocked) that the situation card was the Great Bear - the card of physical healing - as my question had to do with health. And this is why I say your choice of deck really does matter. That bear would not have appeared in any other of my decks, save for the Great Bear (Major XX) in the Wildwood Tarot.
Next card, Do This, was about Spiritual Renewal, and speaks to taking time for healing without being sidetracked by ‘the chaos of our daily lives’. Doing nothing is - without a single doubt - the hardest thing ever. Why I fight it, I’m not sure.
The last card (Don’t Do This) is Owl Medicine. I interpret this to mean don’t stay up late at night. It’s also a warning of sorts about slowing down with my intuitive work. How appropriate, as I’ve recently decided to only do one or two question readings until mid-September. At that time, I’ll return to offering ancestral messages as I did last year.
I then started wondering about what other ways
we make deck choices. Do you always use the same deck or do you switch depending on the type of reading you’re doing, or even the client you’re reading for?
I’ve often chosen the Inner Child Tarot if I’m doing a reading on a difficult topic. I’ve found that a lot of the pain we carry is a hold-over from childhood and this deck seems to go straight to the heart of the issue.
I think the only other time I consciously (rather than intuitively) choose a deck is when I’m going ancestral work. Then, I actually use several, including Relative Tarot and the Beloved Dead.
Aside from those two conscious choices, I give my intuition free rein. Or, as Jessica Macbeth would advise . . . just follow the energy. So I do.
Confession
It was my hope when I sat down to write this that you’d share your favorite decks, or comment on how you’ve found the choice of deck to be important in your own readings. I think the many readers of The Hidden Path would love to hear your stories - I know I would.
xo
Nancy
P.S. The one or two question readings I’m doing right now involve tarot, an oracle deck, and charms. Which decks I use won’t be known until I sit down and enter the energy of the question. It’s how I work.
I am mostly intuitive with my deck selection, from purchasing them to using them. Only one instance did I Google a specific deck because I wanted to use one to inspire the genre I was writing. As an artist, however, the artwork is always what speaks to me foremost. Now, when I'm doing readings, I think about the purpose for my reading and I almost immediately envision the deck I should use. My intuition never fails; whichever deck came to mind is exactly what I needed.
I use the deck that seems to fit the client, situation, or question, depending. I chose a particular cat tarot (Mystical Cats) to connect with my mother after she died. When my uncle died, I used a dog tarot, again, choosing one that fit him best. Otherwise, I use the deck that I'm currently favouring, and these vary; they're also sometimes a small community of decks. Some follow me through the house as I relocate from room to room, others stay put.
At the moment, I'm drawn to the Erenberg Tarot, Golden Art Nouveau tarot, and use Druidcraft for my daily pull. I have more than one copy of the latter. I choose by looking at the artwork, refreshing my memory, and choosing the one that feels easier for the purpose. I prefer to work with ease and not fight with images to interpret messages.
I have a couple new decks coming in the near future, some indie decks, some not. I'm sure some of those will become the flavour of the week or month. Some become favourites, some become part of the collection, and some eventually get passed along.
And yes, I agree, it can be uncanny at times when you choose a deck that had a specific image that just amplified the message for you, like the bear card that you pulled. Or the white cat card that showed up in answer to "are you there?" when I read to connect with my mom.