Dot-to-Dot Tarot

Now this is interesting. For many years, I associated the 2 of Cups with one particular friend. She is like my sister and I have known her for thirty-six years. In the past, whenever that card showed up, I either seemed to get a phone call from her or we had arranged to meet the same day. We have been good friends for all of that time, but in the last few years, our contact has lessened. This is probably due to her being pregnant at the moment and me having been tired with my fatigue. It was nice to see the 2 of Flowers (The Favole's variant of the same card) come up today, since we are going to see my friend and her husband this afternoon.

The 2 of Flowers is a card of emotional connection. The two black roses which sit in the centre of this card are the same. They are turned to face one another, so each can see their similarities. Even though I sometimes interpret this card as the beginning of new relationships, it is often just simple friendship that it denotes. Those two flowers have found something in common as they feel the presence of each other in the card.

My boyfriend and I drove over to my friend's last night. I wanted her help with something, so after that, we had some tea and chatted with her and her new boyfriend for a couple of hours. It was a quiet evening, sitting in her kitchen, which we enjoyed. They had a few drinks, but my boyfriend and I stuck with the chai, driving home around 11. When I got in, I sat on my netbook for a while, finding my way into a forum. I was interested to see that The Favole was mentioned, so clicked in to see what was being discussed. The thread mentioned that the Italian publisher Lo Scarabeo have taken on the distribution of the deck now and the questioner was asking if any changes might be made. Even though I like the dinky size, I can see why a larger and more standard sized deck might be desirable. Even though one poster suggested that there wouldn't be any changes, the remainder of entries centred around how gorgeous but unreadable the deck is. Some say that they traded The Favole because they couldn't read with it and one said that it houses made-up suits which have "nothing to do with tarot" (excuse me while I take a big yawn).

There are many decks out there which have turned the suits on their head or have renamed them, but people very rarely get this uppity; usually, because they have an accompanying handbook to spoon feed them through their journey. How many people wish to read with playing cards? From my memory, nearly every system views the 52 cards differently, especially regarding the suit elements. Nobody seems to give a fig about that, but if you make a slight alteration to the Rider Waite pattern, a deck becomes a no-go. I wonder if anyone has considered using their initiative and simply reading a deck as they find it. Tarot is what you make it. Is it that hard to find and design your own system or do we prefer dot-to-dot drawing and riding bikes without ever taking off the training wheels? One of the most beautiful decks I have is Lo Scarabeo's Tarot of Reincarnation; a world filled with animals, which of course, the majority have deemed unreadable. I think this is such a shame, since researching the creatures in the deck can be so much fun and often enlightening. I find that my interpretations often end up leading back to tradition, but there is so much else in them to find by our selves. I hope that my readings with The Favole hear have a hand in proving that this is so.

Illustration from the 'unreadible' Favole Tarot by Victoria Frances