CONGRATULATIONS DREAMS OF GAIA.

-
Dreams of Gaia @ Ravynne Phelan

2016 DECK OF THE YEAR
DREAMS OF GAIA.
AN AUSTRALIAN DECK
BY RAVYNNE  PHELAN.
Dreams of Gaia Tarot
@Ravynne Phelan

Quietly and with barely a murmur Ravynne Phelan's tarot for a new era has won Tarot Deck of the Year 2016 awarded by the Tarosophy Tarot Association, access by membership, based online and created by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin.
An Australian publisher in Blue Angel based in Melbourne produced the deck.
I am so excited by this award.
To be able to compete with the likes of tarot producers such as Lo Scarebeo of Turin and Llewellyn of USA is a huge feat from a small publisher in Australia.

Now we have acknowledged the formalities: what about Ravynne Phelan. Her story is a fantastic tale of knowing where her heart lay and being thwarted by others who can't believe in her dream to returning to the calling and producing wondrous material culminating in this fantastic tarot deck.
The book written by Ravynne Phelan reads like a novel. I can hear her speaking to me from a space of knowing the process. She knows her cards deeply. She has a heart felt message behind each one of the majors of which there are twenty four.

This is not a traditional tarot this is a connecting healing tarot. It begins with 0 which is choice. I love this concept; the Fool is not a random act of stepping over a precipice, it's a choice.  All paths begin with Choice. How true is that? In every chapter  I read in this book, there is the meaning of the card, the past, the present of the card, the future of the card and the potential blockage. Ravynne here is working the tarot as a process not as a divination. I agree with the statement this is a tarot of a new era.
Dreams of Gaia Tarot
@Ravynne Phelan
The philosophy of this deck is
                                                  To Seek...To Feel
                                                  To Grow...To Heal

 There is a gentle, vulnerability in this text. Let's talk about the things that happen to us deep inside. Lets discuss our knowledge, our love, desires, integrity, emotions and faith. These concepts all become Ravynne's Major Arcana. And whilst we discuss lets look back to the past and at what's present and onto the future and be realistic to the blockages. This is a Major Arcana with a new family. A family that does have the child, youth, maiden, mother and father but is also filled with stages of growth operating on a vibration underneath it.

TAROT SPREADS

Ravynne also creates for us four spreads to use the cards.
The Guide Spread is a one card spread. How many times do we readers grab a card to reflect a situation for us? Love the concept of the Guide.
Spread 2 is the Union Spread which uses three cards. This works with the duality of mind we so often experience when trying to decide something.
Spread 3. is The Dreamer's Spread- I totally get this spread when I read Ravynne's biography.
Spread 4. The Dreaming Tree Spread is a complex spread which " lets the reader have an in-depth conversation with self and the Divine."  Fabulous work here.
These four ways  of using this deck lets the deck become a member of our busy lives because it allows us to use it in varying time frames. If I'm busy I'll use the Guide or Union. If I have more time I will delve deeper and when I am in ritual space I will use the Dreaming Tree Spread.

MINOR ARCANA

 In the Minor Arcana the clarity of element is superb; the fire cards are vibrant, the water cards watery, the earth cards richly green and the air cards wispy blacks, deep blue and greys. Its an interesting portrayal of air. From meditation to learning by study to reaching Universal mind. A big step on from the tradition of swords.

Dreams of Gaia Tarot
@Ravynne Phelan
Dreams of Gaia
@Ravynne Phelan

 The Minor Arcana begins at Aces and the court has been transformed into cards eleven and twelve then there is a Queen and King.
Card eleven is a balancing and aligning card where earth is the balance between Heaven/Earth.
Air is the balance between Body/Mind. Fire balances between Feminine/Masculine and Water balances Emotion/Intellect.
Card twelve represents the Scribe of Air, the Seneschal of Earth, the Hero of Fire and the Counsellor of Water.

This deck is so complex and complete. Rarely do I believe that we need the book to be able to read a deck but in this instance the book is equally well written as the deck is painted. Such a complete project of balance between vision and words. The deck also operates on a structure that wanders from the traditional base, the original structure of tarot is present but often deviated from by the creator's experience of the process of life.
  Her gentle voice lures us into our own vulnerability encouraging the readers to be deeply honest with truths of our lives. This is the pathway to genuine healing.  
OF INTEREST.
Other decks in the final were
 Tarot Apokalypsis the second deck from Dunne and Huggen creators of Illumanti.
The Spellcaster's Tarot which I featured in Blog Prayers, Spells and Affirmations.
The Wild Unknown
Linestrider Tarot
Masonic Tarot
English Magic Tarot
After Tarot
Epic Tarot



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TAROT QUEST

-
Image
TAROT QUEST with LYNDALL MCQUINN The days of the Quest are a time to reflect and plan: to emerge stronger in resolve as to where you will guide your life path. These four tarot readings take us on a journey to examine from what point we are beginning and how over a twelve -month period we plan to implement our strategies. After deciding what the strategy is we look at how to commence and implement this blueprint. Lastly we review where your life is poised at the moment that you are stepping out. To begin. These four sessions guide our actions over the period of the twelve months.  We use Tarot to plot the journey; via four different readings we explore the terrain of our year ahead.  Ideally this is a spring retreat if we work with the seasonal integrity of the year. Believing that new seeds and ideas blossom with spring and summer is the time to build, autumn asks us to assess and reap the harvest of our planning, whilst winter lets us review and replan. This quest is the time
Read more

TAROT OF VENICE

-
Image
Tarot Venetian Carnival @ Eugene Vinitski TAROT SET IN VENICE. There are quite a few tarot decks set in Venice but they are not easy to get your hands on. This beautiful High Priestess by Eugene Vinitski and many other fabulously Venice iconic images can be found on Behance. Eugene is a Swiss illustrator and his work is magnificent. Is there an actual deck that I can get my hands on? I don't think so I suspect it is a deck in progress. I really love the deck so far. To confuse the matter even more there is another deck that comes up with a very similar title. This one is produced by Roxana Paul and can be purchased from her website. This is a new trend for tarot illustrators to have their own web pages and sell the deck directly to the buyer. This is a good idea but these decks are expensive. Not that I don't agree with the price but it makes one think a lot before buying.                                             This deck by Roxana Paul is also a beautiful deck of
Read more

READING IN THE TEMPLE

-
Image
TEMPLE WORK IS SACRED AND VARIED. The concept of working in a temple is a technique that encourages us to seek a broad perspective on matters. It usually begins with setting a middle feature altar and then forming the four directions around the altar to hold the space and offer protecting pillars or to give four differing perspectives to journey to and from.  This spread when used in Tarot is a way of delving more deeply into issues and fleshing out what's lying beneath questions.  Modern Spellcaster'sTarot @Melanie Marquis & Scott Murphy Using any deck the querant  usually sets the altar first. So for example if we were looking at the issue of seeking direction the first card is the Altar Card depicting where the situation of direction is to begin with. The Modern Spellcaster's is a great deck to use in this type of work as the fabulous text by Melanie Murphy has a spell to go with each card and as in this type of reading we are trying to flesh out and alter
Read more