New Car Stickers

Just a little thing to share today, but I’m excited about it. I bought some new stickers for my car’s back window!

Years ago, I bought an aegishjálmr, a vegvísir, and the name of Anubis in hieroglyphs. The first two are still fine, but my Anubis one had sort of burned up. My car just gets so much sun in the afternoons on the back window the way it’s parked here. I was just painting it back silver with a metallic sharpie every few months, but then it got too crispy and started flaking off. So, time for a new one.

I  was able to buy one from the same shop again, but I did dark red to match my car instead of silver to match its trim this time because often metallic fades faster and even if the red fades, it’ll probably bleach out instead of browning out and so still show on my tinted glass. I’ve been surprised how closely it matches my paint (just a teensy bit less orangey)  and how vivid it looks in sunlight—it’s so lovely!

And Isis had made it known to me for a while now that when I replaced that sticker, she would like to be included the next time around and specifically wanted some version of this winged image—and the same shop had one of those, also, so I was able to get them matching. Which was perfect.

I don’t have a ton of placement choices on my window if I want to keep them off the defroster lines, and this is the only one that felt right. Even though it means giving up my rear wiper—but I rarely used it anyway since it was broken for a while and so now I always forget about it. But it does seem…interesting…to me that of the four, it’s the only one I can see while I’m driving. The others are up so high that the headliner is in the way.

I also got these wonderful coordinated free gifts from the shop: Anubis name hieroglyphs, Isis name hieroglyphs, and winged Isis. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet, but they’re really cool. I’ll find something, I’m sure.

And so this whole things sort of feels Isis-blessed, maybe, and I’ve asked and She’s not saying no. I have my hopes and some theories about why, but…well, that’s thoughts for another day.

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*If you’re wondering, the shop is TheSamAntics on Etsy…looks like she’s moving to other non-Etsy shops, but all the links to those are over there in the shop description. (And I’m not being paid or anything, but if I’m going to have a whole post about cool things I bought from a small seller, then I reckon I should say who, is all.) 😉

Tarot Deck Review: The Raven’s Prophecy Tarot

Sharing another of my favorite decks with you today. This is the Raven’s Prophecy Tarot by Maggie Stiefvater. I only bought it at the end of last October, but I use it almost every day (it was purchased to dedicate to one of my spirit spouses who is Raven-affiliated) and have fast fallen absolutely in love with it.

The artwork is wonderful: both dark but also colorful, raw but beautiful. I also really love the symbolism of the suits (the standard cups, pentacles, wands, and swords) and how each one builds a full visual story that makes intuitive readings easy. And I appreciate that among the more expected imagery of water for cups, fire for wands, and blades/bindings/thorns for swords that the creator gave the less expected roses to the suit of pentacles. I’ve come over the years to think of that suit not just as money and possessions but more broadly as “resources” including also energy, time, etc. and both the artwork and the write-ups work very well from that perspective.

It comes with a lovely full book on meanings and symbolism and thoughts specific to this deck. No reverse meanings, but I’ve found this deck easier to intuit reversals than some. And it sticks pretty close to the standard Rider-Waite visuals and meanings anyway.

Overall, this deck tends to be pretty hopeful but realistic, although there are definitely a few very blunt (and even blunt-to-the-point-of-harsh) cards there. It’s been a really fantastic deck for spirit communication for me (and not all are) since it works well for telling stories, giving advice, expressing emotion, pretty much whatever you might want to chat about.

My only real complaint about this deck is that I wish the cardstock was thicker. I’ve only been using it a few months and being kind and already there are little nicks appearing around the edges of a few of the cards. It’s definitely a gentle shuffle deck. Then again, I am using it very often so despite the relatively short time, it’s already been shuffled hundreds of times.

Finally, because I can’t talk about this deck without mentioning it, let’s talk about the titular Ravens, shall we? First off, while they’re far from on every card, I was thrilled to find that they do appear on a lot of them, mostly in the Cups suit. Even more important, they’re *so freaking adorable* and emotive. Seriously, look at how expressive they are:

Tarot Deck Review: Chrysalis Tarot

I’ve come—quite unexpectedly, to be honest—to own quite a lot of tarot and oracle decks and since I use many of them so regularly, I thought I’d write and share some experiences and thoughts about them.

This is the Chrysalis Tarot, written by Toney Brooks and illustrated by Holly Sierra, and it’s my very favorite deck! I’ve had my cards since late 2015 and I use them all the time for so many different sorts of readings—advice, spirit communication, specific divination questions. They’re my go-to deck. These cards are absolutely beautiful and I never get tired of them.

The deck diverges a bit from the standard imagery and meanings, though not so far as to be unrecognizable and I really like the directions it’s been taken. The symbolism is varied and drawn from a number of different backgrounds, from Ancient Egypt to Druidry, to Hinduism, to Hellenism, and more. Despite the range of inspirations, though, the artwork style feels cohesive and I’ve never found it distracting or disjointed. Since I embrace multiple traditions myself, this has been an excellent deck for me for general readings.

The suits are Stones (Pentacles), Mirrors (Cups), Spirals (Wands), and Scrolls (Swords) and the Minor Arcana are full, vivid pictures that include the imagery of the suit.

It’s also cool that the “face” cards of each suit are fully developed characters unto themselves, kind of like additional major arcana characters.

The deck only comes with a little white book, but it’s definitely more in depth than most LWBs and it does a nice job of explaining the specific symbolism that’s unique to this deck. My only wish is that it included reversal meanings also, but it doesn’t. The first couple of years, I just used the deck without reverses (and sometimes still do for certain readings) but since then I’ve become comfortable enough with intuitive readings to change that and draw my own conclusions.

I can’t really even express how much the art and colors on this deck are absolutely awesome! It’s bright but not garish; it’s whimsical but not overly dreamy. And the thing I love most about this deck is its range. I bought it just after the worst collapse in my spiritual journey thus far, when I felt like I was in freefall, and it had the depth to convey where I was then without coming off condescending but also was able to offer the sort of hope and encouragement that was meaningful and helped me to move forward. It feels like there’s a card for almost everything.

So if you’re looking for a fun, colorful deck for general divination—especially if you’re eclectic or mutli-trad—then I really can’t recommend these cards enough. Also, as a side note, the artist has an Etsy shop that sells prints of the artwork from the cards and other works…and yeah, if I had more living space and wasn’t in the process of downsizing, I’d have so many of them on my walls right now.

Tiny, Tiny Tarot Deck

One of my favorite gifts I received over the holidays is this very (seriously, very) tiny tarot deck. Not super practical, maybe, but I still think it’s awesome. And it’ll be good for traveling.

I’ve had a chance to try out using it a couple of times now, and it works surprisingly well to be so small. It’s a Universal Waite deck so the imagery is straightforward even miniaturized (though it’s still a bit of a learning curve for me because though I have quite a few decks, I’ve never actually owned a “standard” one). Shuffling is a bit impractical at this size, but mixing them up like scrabble tiles works well instead. And it even comes in a cute little box like a keychain.

Hmm, now all I need is a trip somewhere…