Tracing tarot wheels

For the last couple of months, I've been doing an online course on the Greenwood tarot, led by the incomparable Aeon. Now that it's out of print, the Greenwood is getting very rare, and I'm privileged to own a copy. It differs from most tarot decks, in that rather than following a linear structure, the cards are mapped to the wheel of the year. Each of the four suits is associated with a different season, and there are two major arcana cards at each of the seasonal festivals. The number cards of the minor arcana are also each associated with a seasonal festival, and the court cards are arranged around the wheel according to their suit and season. So for example, at Imbolc we find the Pole Star, the Ancestor (close to the Hierophant in traditional decks) from the major arcana, and the Aces from the minor arcana. The season of spring, from Imbolc to Beltane, is linked to the element of fire and therefore the suit of Wands. The Page of Wands (the Stoat - the court cards are depicted as animal helpers in the Greenwood deck - that's a whole other post!) heralds the season at Imbolc, and the King of Wands (the Adder) bids it farewell at Beltane. The Knight and the Queen of Wands are linked to the peak of the season close to Spring Equinox, where we find the Archer (traditionally the Chariot), Justice, and the Twos. And so it goes around the Wheel. Some of the cards, including the Nines and Tens, the Fool and the World Tree, sit at the hub of the wheel, in the centre. Naturally, this adds even more layers of juicy symbolism to the images and associations of the individual cards, as well as the deck as a whole.

Working with these seasonal positions and this deck got me thinking about the other pagan tarot decks I work with, given the the wheel of the year is such a key symbolic concept for pagans. Surely other pagan decks must link to it as well? Rooting through my boxes of decks, I've discovered some that reference the wheel of the year, but the Greenwood is the only one to make the wheel part of the structure of the deck.

For example, the creators of the Sacred Circle tarot explicitly state that the Circle of the title of their deck is the circle of the wheel of the year. They give a circle spread in which the card positions are laid out on the wheel. Interestingly, the numbers of the positions for each festival in the reading are the same as the minor arcana numbers allocated to the festivals in the Greenwood. For example, position four in the reading is Summer Solstice, and in the Greenwood the fours come at Summer Solstice. Position seven in the reading is Samhain, and the Greenwood sevens come at Samhain. So clearly the numerology has similar resonances for the creators of these two decks.

Beyond that, in both the Sacred Circle tarot and the Druidcraft tarot (another favourite of mine), some cards are associated with particular stations on the wheel. Both of these decks, and also the Greenwood, place the Lovers at Beltane. The symbolic links there are clear. All three decks put the Judgement card (re-named as Rebirth in both the Sacred Circle tarot and the Druidcraft) at Winter Solstice. Again, the energies of rebirth in this card, and at this time of year, are clearly linked. Both the Druidcraft and the Sacred Circle put the Sun card at Summer Solstice, another seemingly clear link, but the Greenwood places the Sun in the centre, alongside the Moon. The Druidcraft and the Greenwood both place the card usually known as Temperance at Beltane, although both make changes to this card. In the Druidcraft it becomes the alchemical Fferyllt, and in the Greenwood is Balance - both much more powerful, and appropriate to Beltane.

Neither the Druidcraft or the Sacred Circle tarots cover all of the seasonal festivals. It's more like the links are mentioned when they are obvious, or already there, rather than each card being explicitly placed on the wheel as in the Greenwood. Both decks do also mention more general seasonal associations. For example, the Druidcraft Star is depicted as being dawn on a spring morning, close to Imbolc which is where the Greenwood Pole Star is found.

Beyond a general linking of the suits to the four seasons in the Sacred Circle deck, the minor cards are not given seasonal associations as they are in the Greenwood. This is a shame, as the minors can be powerful in grounding the archetypal energies of the majors in our everyday reality. By putting every card in the deck at a specific point on the wheel, the Greenwood allows us to experience these energies at every level, from profound archetypes to everyday events. This is truly a unique deck, and I have had profound insights from it these last weeks.
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Lightening the load

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Earthing the fires of the season