She's Gone

I was flipping through The Favole last night, which is why it is out on my desk today. As I was also online at the time, I punched the title into the search engine to see if there was any seasonal offshoots (I noticed journals and the like on sale before Christmas last year). One link took me to some chat about the pack on a forum.

It really does get my goat how people state that decks like this one are 'unreadable' (yes, that was the actual word used). Someone had posted how it is worth getting for the collection, but you'll never have a hope in hell of reading with it. People read with playing cards, sticks, stones, clouds, and even the junk at the bottom of their handbags. Why should the Favole be so difficult? Ok, I admit that the pip designs are not the most inspiring I have seen, but I do love the colours and emblems used for each suit. I sometimes think that a fully-scenic deck would be too much. The space in this minor arcana allows a reader to breathe in a session without choking on too many of the big chunks. There are a lot of big characters here and they need room to move and play their parts.

For today, I draw The Hierophant. In this deck, he is the vampire Abel. Abel pops up two times in The Favole Tarot. He is also The Devil. Some might see this as sloppy, since the paintings were created before the deck, but I actually like the fact that he was chosen for these two cards. We can see The Hierophant as the committed and moral side of ourselves, where as The Devil can encourage us to be reckless and throw caution to the wind. We all have the possibility to be both sides of Abel. I am starting Pierre Dukan's diet today. A lot of my friends have been working at this and it seems to take real commitment, since the food options are so intensely dull while you are in the first phase. The temptation from The Devil is not chocolate cake, but just about anything with a smidgen of taste or that which resembles a normal meal. I am glad that the good Abel comes to visit today because it kind of confirms that I am on the right path. I always thought of The Hierophant as the sort of guy who doesn't cut corners.

As I woke up this morning, I turned on my mobile and waited. A message came through at that exact moment. It was from my boyfriend, saying 'She's gone, babe'. He and his parents went over to visit his aunt Julie yesterday evening straight from work. After we had been to see her, she had got much worse and had fallen into a coma. We kind of expected last night to be her last, so even though I am deeply sad that she has died, I kind of expected it. My boyfriend is working from home today, since he and his family are very much affected by the news. I don't really know what to say. From now on, we just need to be here for Julie's husband and three teenage children. I liked Julie a lot and always told her she was my favourite of my boyfriend's aunts. She had a real personality about her and was very generous. The world doesn't look the same without her in it.


Illustration from The Favole Tarot by Victoria Frances