As I mentioned a few posts ago, I recently acquired a couple of new decks for my collection. Both are utterly unlike anything I’ve seen before, and both, while visually stunning, have drawbacks that I’ll have to find a way around if I am to use them at all. I discovered these in the bargain section of my local bookstore, priced very reasonably indeed, insofar as they both came to less than the average price of one new deck purchased elsewhere. On looking at the artwork on each, I was hooked, and decided there and then to part with my hard-earned and add them to my collection.

The first deck is entitled ‘The Grail Tarot’, and features some breathtaking medieval imagery, painted in a renaissance style on each card. This one shows the Major arcana as a procession of pictures following the quest of the Holy Grail, along with four suits, Lances (Wands), Vessels (Cups), Swords, and Stones (Pentacles). The unique thing about each suit and the Majors is that each card in the suit, when arranged in order, joins together to form a frieze telling a story. In the case of the Major Arcana, this is, as mentioned, the quest for the Holy Grail, and each suit depicts various activities within different chapters and orders of knights. The whole theme of the deck centres around the concept of knighthood and chivalry, and the Major Arcana have been renamed to fit the Grail story accordingly, with cards like The Gnostic Christ instead of The Magician.

Major Arcanum I- The Gnostic Christ (The Magician), The Grail Tarot.

The main drawback with this deck would be that I would have to relearn everything from scratch, from the new names of the Major Arcana and the suits, to the fact that the imagery on each card bears no relation to standard RWS or other kinds of tarot imagery, so the various card meanings will have additional values and layers of subtlety. Nevertheless, this is a stunning piece of work, and well worth looking into for study or meditation, which will have benefits for when I read with other decks.

The second deck, and my favourite of the two, is called The Enchanted Tarot. This deck comes with a lavishly illustrated hardback book, and a set of beautiful cards that just took my breath away. The imagery for the deck is traditional RWS themed, and coloured in subtle pastel shades of blue, purple and pink which remind me very much of the colurs and tones used in my beloved Cosmic Tarot. Each card’s image looks as if it were made of a photo-montage of differing fabrics and embroidery, which makes for some vividly textured and evocative artwork. Major Arcanum XIV- The Devil, for example, looks like a Balinese god, and hints at the spicy temptation of forbidden desires, which makes a great change from the traditional horned beast. Major Arcanum XIII- Death, looks like an embroidery depicting the Mexican Day Of The Dead, and conveys the joy of new beginnings rather than lingering on the sadness of the endings that preceded them.

Minor Arcana card 2 of Hearts (2 of Cups), The Enchanted Tarot.

The only major difference between this deck’s suits and traditional RWS-themed decks is the renaming of the suit of Cups into Hearts. Since the suit of Cups deals with emotions, relationships and the subconscious, (As well as becoming Hearts when the Tarot deck was reduced down to the standard 52-card deck of ‘normal’ cards) this is no biggie. The only drawback I have with this deck is that the cards are a fair bit larger than those of most other decks, which makes them difficult to shuffle, especially with my arthritic hands! I have no doubt that this will become easier with time, and experimental readings with this deck have shown much promise. I’m getting similar ‘vibes’ off this deck that I first had when I started off with my Cosmic, so this is most encouraging indeed. I’m confident that you haven’t heard the last of this deck on my blog, and I’m already considering using this for daily readings in the future.

It is with great sadness that I read of the death of Barry Letts this weekend. Barry was the producer of Dr Who at the time when I began watching as a child, and it was his ideas that cemented the show into my consciousness forever. When he was in charge of Who, Jon Pertwee was the Doctor, and part of me will always think of the Doctor as a dashing hero, swishing his cape and downing a glass of port whilst swordfighting the Master.

Jon Pertwee, the third actor to play the Doctor on the TV screen, who first appeared when Barry Letts was producer.

Perhaps Barry’s greatest contribution to Dr. Who was his hiring of Tom Baker for the role when Jon left, making most of my generation’s image of the Doctor being the man with crazy hair, staring eyes and a twenty foot long scarf topped off with a huge floppy hat. Tom was the Doctor longer than any other actor, from 1973 to 1979, and made the series dear to the hearts of the British public all over again.

Tom Baker, the fourth and arguably the most popular Doctor, who was recruited by Barry Letts.

Barry was always an engaging and charming man, full of ideas for the show. The Master was his invention, and his idea was that the Doctor and the Master would be two aspects of the same being- the Doctor being the embodiment of all that was good, with the Master being all that was evil. The final story that was planned during Jon’s reign was to be a final showdown between the two, when their strange link was revealed, and in which the Master sacrificed his life to ensure that the Doctor lived on. Sadly this never came to pass, as the actor who played him, Roger Delgado, was tragically killed in a road accident. The Master didn’t come back until much later, and this idea of him being a part of the Doctor was forgotten. Barry Letts always had time for his fans, and those lucky enough to meet him at conventions told of how kind he was, and what a memorable experience it was to meet him. Even when he was suffering with the cancer that eventually took his life, he seemed to light up whenever Dr Who was mentioned, and fans were near. He will be sorely missed, and the series has lost a great luminary in its’ pantheon. Sadly, in real life, we don’t get to regenerate, so this will be the last we see of him. RIP Barry, and thanks for a truly magical childhood.

I decided, firstly, to place this post in the ‘Metaphysical Musings’ category rather than ‘Tarot’, as it follows on from my review of Anthony Peake’s book, rather than being a straightforward posting on Tarot per se. To summarise from the previous post, Peake has formulated a theory based on extensive research, which claims that many of us have relived our lives time and time again; each life essentially being a construct made from memories of the previous one, with those memories sometimes acting as pointers to redirect our life path in each successive life. This theory is called Cheating The Ferryman, as each successive life begins just before we reach the moment of death, leaving the mythical Charon short-changed, and minus one passenger across the river Styx. I suppose you could say that each successive life fits inside the closing minutes of the previous one like a succession of Russian dolls. This collective life-memory has a personality of its’ own, and in accordance with Gnosticism and Greek myth, Peake refers to it as the Daemon, with our conscious self being called the Eidolon. Sometimes, in Near Death Experiences, the Daemon appears to us in various guises; one of the most familiar being some kind of guardian angel.

Going on this theory, the book shows that our Daemons sometimes give us clues as to how our life path will unfold as mentioned above, which sometimes take the form of precognitions, Déja-vú experiences and so on. Given that many famous seers from history, as Peake noted in his book, were able to accurately predict future events, (Although the accuracy of predictions tails off when future events fall outside the timeline of the person making the prediction, as Peake notes.) it would be logical to conclude that communication with the Daemon is possible, and beings such as spirit guides that give these insights to the seers must therefore be a form the Daemon assumes to make its’ manifestations less traumatic to them.

With all this in mind, I pondered over the implications of how this could tie in with Tarot, whether divination methods like this would enable us to directly contact our Daemon, and how does the Cheating The Ferryman theory tie in with other occult practises. My first thoughts were directed toward the notorious occultist and creator of one of the most popular Tarot decks, Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley, creator of the Book Of Thoth Tarot deck.

Crowley’s main claim to fame, apart from his notoriety as ‘the wickedest man alive’ and his contributions to the field of Tarot, was in the founding of an occult system known as Thelema. This began in 1904 while on holiday in Egypt with his then wife. She had begun to behave strangely, which made Crowley believe that she was being contacted by some kind of entity, and on her instruction, he attempted to invoke the god Horus. This led to his contact with a strange being that called itself Aiwass, which claimed it was the minister of Hoor-Paar-Kraat; one of the many names Horus was known by to the ancients. Over a period of three days, Aiwass dictated The Book Of The Law to Crowley, and this became the lynchpin of  Thelema. The object of Thelema, which Crowley called the Great Work, or goal of each adherent, was to obtain ‘the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel’, and through this to ‘manifest their true will’. It is from here that his famous epithet ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.. Love is the law, love under Will’ comes from. Crowley believed that everyone has a personal guardian angel, and through communication with it, we could realise our divine potential and manifest our true, or divine will.

The above paragraph, when analysed through the Cheating The Ferryman theory, gave me much to ponder on. Firstly, there is the case of Aleister’s wife, Rose. During her marriage to Crowley, she had often experienced trance states that had led to visions; one of which, coupled with odd behaviour, led to the invocation of Aiwass in 1904. Although I can find no evidence that Rose or members of her family ever suffered from epilepsy, and it is evident that some of her experiences may have been hypnotically induced through rituals performed by Crowley, these behavioural patterns are redolent of classic Temporal Lobe epileptic seizures, as described in Peake’s book. This, along with many coincidential events (Described by Crowley as synchronicity) that helped to direct Rose and her husband towards that fateful contact with Aiwass, could all be ascribed to her Daemon; events like these, that seemingly by chance coincide and direct a person’s actions can, according to Peake, be triggered by the Daemon, and are referred to as ’synchrondipity’- a combination of synchronicity and serendipity, or meaningful coincidence. It could be that Roses’ Daemon knew of her eventual marriage to Crowley and his founding of Thelema, and directed her towards that goal.

Aleister Crowley's wife, Rose Edith Kelly.

This brings us to Crowley himself. His encounter with Aiwass could very easily be a meeting with his own Daemon; a meeting that, as mentioned above, may have been arranged and set up by Rose’s Daemon. Crowley, in his writings, was ever one to put subtle clues to hidden meanings in the texts, and if this being was indeed Crowley’s Daemon, we must also assume that it, too, would have a predilection for giving subtle clues as to it’s true identity. The name, I think, is a fairly big clue in itself; Aiwass. It looks strange, but say it out loud- I Was. This being also claimed to be the minister for Hoor-Paar-Krrat, or Horus, and when later Crowley founded Thelema, it could be argued that he, also, was a minister for this god. Is this Crowley’s Daemon telling him, and therefore us, that it was Crowley in a previous life? When it dictated The Book Of The Law to Crowley, it could have been a memory from Crowley’s previous life of having written the book before, however, it told Crowley (And this is noted in the book itself) that this work should never be passed on to anyone, yet Crowley published it anyway. Why? Possibly, as Crowley claimed, he didn’t want this work to be embedded in dogma like so many other religious works. Maybe, in his previous life, Crowley was unable to get the book published. Maybe, this time around, Crowley’s life path may have been nudged into a different timeline due to his choice to publish the book. I suspect that Crowley eventually knew the true nature of this being, as the basis of Thelema hinged around the communication with one’s Holy Guardian Angel, in order to manifest their true divine will. Crowley, I think, suspected the true nature of this angel and of Aiwass, and believed it was possible to use the foreknowledge of one’s own future life, gained through contact with one’s Daemon, to turn events to one’s own advantage.

Crowley knew a great deal about Tarot, having learned the craft while a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck, arguably the only deck more famous and widely used than Crowley’s, was made by Golden Dawn luminary Arthur Edward Waite, in co-operation with fellow member Pamela Coleman Smith. Many practitioners of Tarot believe that this, like other methods of divination, can be used to communicate with an aspect of ourselves that exists on a higher plane of reality. Others say that it enables us to contact our spirit guides. Since our Daemon often chooses a different form in order to communicate to us, maybe the spirit guide is one of those forms. It is certainly very telling that some practitioners believe that we contact a higher aspect of ourselves on another plane!

There is the distinct possibility that the act of divination enables our conscious mind to escape the fetters of mundane reality by using a random element of selection, such as shuffling a deck of cards, and establish contact with our Daemon through use of symbolism, such as the images on Tarot cards, or the inscriptions on Runestones or Ogham sticks. Many of the great seers gained their future visions through lucid dreams, and according to Peake, this is the most common way in which our Daemon can communicate with us; due to the disjointed nature of the dreams that many of us have, it is also evident that this communication method is rich in symbology, hence the ready market in dream interpretation books.

According to Peake’s book, the Daemon tends to reside in the right hemisphere of the brain, which dominates the left side of the body. I also began wondering about whether this may have had an influence in occult matters, especially since, in olden times, left-handed people were often branded as witches, and witchcraft was often referred to as the left-hand path. As the majority of people are right-handed, I wonder what the proportion of right-hander to left-hander is, and also how many of these have Daemons in the right brain hemisphere or the left, taking ‘virgin lifers’ into account, which won’t have Daemons yet, and account for around 30% of the population. I would be very interested to know if there is a correlation in these figures.

I say this, as in many conversations with the good folks at Aeclectic Tarot, I have found that most people tend to shuffle and cut their cards predominantly with the left hand. Could this be a way for our Daemon to influence the outcome of the reading by directly selecting the cards? There is much to think long and hard about here, and I hope to return to this aspect of Tarot as I find out more. At the moment, I am experimenting with my own daily readings by using my left hand to cut the deck and draw the daily card, and I’m noting the accuracy of each day. At the end of the year, I’ll look back and compare with my readings before this experiment began.

In the meantime, I shall conclude this marathon-length article by returning to Crowley, and some other clues I think I have picked up through his work on Tarot. Tarot is traditionally very heavy in Gnostic and Quabbalistic symbolism, and the Gnostics believed in the dual aspect (Daemon-Eidolon) of man. Crowley used all this in the symbolism of his cards, together with Thelema and scientific principles, when he created the Book Of Thoth Tarot deck with Frieda Harris in the late 1930s. Looking at one card in particular, I think I can see some Daemonic influence in the imagery. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you exhibit 1, Major Arcanum (Crowley called these Trumps) XIII, Death.

Trump XIII- Death, The Book Of Thoth, by Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris.

As well as looking at the illustration, it is interesting to read Crowley’s notes on the card from the companion book to the deck. My emphasis in bold:

“This card means redemption through putrefaction, the seed in the ground decays, but rises again to new life.  Death, crowned with the headdress of Osiris, is raising from his scythe the reincarnation bubbles of life.  Behind him is the eagle, symbol of immortality, and below him are the embryonic amoeba.”

From this, it could be inferred that as the present life approaches the death point, we rise again to new life, making new choices that will give us a chance for redemption of our actions as our new timeline unfolds. Since our new life begins before we reach actual death, we are, effectively, immortal. Each ‘reincarnation bubble’ that appears from Death’s scythe indicates a new cycle of life each time the point of death is approached. Some more interesting points come from the notes Crowley made on the meaning of the card, again, my emphasis in bold:

“Transformation.  Change voluntary or involuntary, perhaps sudden and unexpected.  Apparent death or destruction that is illusory when viewed from a higher perspective.“

Again, this could infer that at the death point, we transform back into our newborn selves, and death comes when we least expect it. When looked at from the viewpoint of the Daemon, death is but an illusion, as we never reach that point; returning, instead, to the moment of birth. Traditionally, the Death card in most Tarot decks very rarely means literal death, and usually means the end of a current situation, or the beginning of a new one. Given Crowley’s experiences with Aiwass and Thelema, however, and especially looking at these from the perspective of Peake’s theory, the notes and meanings of  this card in Crowley’s deck are suddenly thrown into a new light, and I, for one, am left wondering if the great beast new more about the Daemon and the Eidolon than he openly admitted.

I will add more posts on the subject of Cheating The Ferryman as time goes by, and as more thoughts and ideas surface with my growing understanding of the subject. For now, at least, I hope I have given you some interesting points to ponder over.

At 8:00 this morning, the BBC unveiled the new logo for the 2010 series of Dr. Who. Gone is the bright orange ‘taxi’ logo of the past five years, and instead we have a bold, simple design that once more harks back to the Hartnell and Troughton eras- with a modern twist.

The new BBC logo for the 2010 series of Doctor Who.

What’s been added is a rather neat DW logo, shaped like the iconic TARDIS, which sums up the show nicely and gives the series an iconic, superhero-like watermark.

The original Dr Who logo of old, now reborn and re-styled for 2010.

Given that the theme tune has also evolved over the past few years, having first the middle-eight added for The Christmas Invasion, then Peter Davison-era style flourishes after every phrase added for series four, I wonder what the theme will sound like next year, and will Matt’s face appear in the title sequence, just like the titles for every Doctor from Pat Troughton onwards? Next year looks more promising as the days go by- can’t wait!

Another month, and another post. Sorry I haven’t been too prolific with content recently, but Dr Who related stuff has been thin on the ground recently, and I have two juicy new Tarot decks I will review for you all in the next couple of weeks, I promise. The main reason I’ve not been online much here, is because I’ve been reading a book. Not just any book, but one that has given me a prime opportunity to make a first post in my ‘Metaphysical Musings’ category.

The cover for Anthony Peake's book, Is There Life After Death.

This is the book I’m talking about- it’s called ‘Is There Life After Death? The Extraordinary Science Of What Happens When We Die’ by Anthony Peake. It’s a very interesting read, and delves into quantum physics, psychology, near-death experiences and other such things, and uses scientific data to propose an amazing theory of what happens to us at the point of death, which Peake refers to as the ‘Cheating The Ferryman’ hypothesis. (I bet you thought the title was a Chris DeBurgh reference, didn’t you? Well, shame on you!)  

The book builds, chapter by chapter, explaining such diverse subjects as Quantum physics, Near Death Experiences, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and other things, which then pieces all these things together to propose the Cheating The Ferryman hypothesis in the final chapter. What is proposed is an incredible thing to grasp, but I’ll attempt to explain what little of it I understand for you here.

The universe, at the quantum level, is made of sub-sub atomic particles which are essentially vibrations of energy. Quantum physics has determined that particles of matter can exist in more than one place at the same time in potential until they are observed, which is when they become fixed points in space. You’ve heard of Schroedinger’s Cat? This is a demonstration of that conundrum. Time, as such, is an illusion created by our conscious mind as a way to make sense of the universe in a linear fashion, as time is simply our movement through the universe in a probability curve, and we exist at every point in our timeline simultaneously. Time essentially tidies things up into a sequence of events that we can make sense of.

During our lifetime, one half of our brain records everything that has ever happened to us, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, thoughts- every little detail. There have been cases where people have been regressed via hypnosis or various traumatic events, to previous times in their lives, where the memory is so vivid that, for all intents and purposes, they were actually back at that point in time. It could be argued that since they were re-observing that particular event, and since matter only becomes fixed when observed, they were recreating their own personal universe at that point in time. There have been many incidences, some of which are documented within the book, where patients that have undergone hypnotherapy, have experienced many hours or even years in their previously remembered events, yet have only been unconscious for mere minutes in the laboratory. From the patient’s perspective, they were actually at these previous events, and reliving them. Where is all this leading to? I’m getting there!

Most people who have had near-death experiences have told of how they meet a white, glowing figure- some call it God, some say it’s a guardian angel- which then takes them back to a review of their life, at which point they are then told ‘it’s not your time yet’, and come back to tell the tale. By examining these experiences, Peake discovered that what happens to the brain in these instances is very similar to phenomena like Temporal Lobe Epileptic seizures, Schizophrenia and migraines, but to varying degrees. (This does make sense in the book, honest.)

From these observations, Peake has formulated his ‘Cheating The Ferryman’ hypothesis: At the point of death, as also happens during migraines and epileptic seizures, the brain is flooded with a chemical called Glutamate. This effectively breaks down the conscious mind’s perception of time, to the point that time slows down infinitessimally for the observer- to the point where the moment of death is never reached, from the point of view of the person dying. During this time, the ‘glowing being’ detaches from the conscious mind- it is actually the collected sum total of that person’s entire life experience, which they see as an angel, or God, during an NDE. (NDE’s are essentially occasions when the ‘glowing being’ gets it wrong, and mistakes a near-terminal experience for actual death.) This then rewinds and plays back the total life experience of the person from the beginning, in real time relative to the viewer, and they begin to relive their lives from the beginning. Since matter exists only when it is observed, they have effectively recreated their own personal universe from scratch, and are reliving their lives all over again- but with a difference. The sum total of their life experience is still there, but the knowledge of what happened before is kept away from the new conscious mind, which is effectively as blank as it was when they were first born.

Taking his cue from Greek mythology and Gnosticism, Peake refers to the conscious part of the mind as the Eidolon, (Pronounced Eedolon) and the subconscious part that has lived before as the Daemon (pronounced Day-mon). Sometimes, the Daemon’s knowledge of events ‘leaks through’ to the Eidolon, which is where we get ‘Deja-Vu’ and precognition experiences from. Sometimes, these events prompt us to make slightly different decisions this time around than we did previously, which changes the course of the probability curve and creates an alternative timeline, which we then travel down until we reach the death point again- and again, and again. Events that usually trigger the intervention by the Daemon are life-changing ones, such as fatal accidents the person gets a warning of- usually by a ‘bad gut feeling’, ’strange twists of fate’ that trigger the person into responding differently, or even hearing a voice in their head warning them to avoid something or do something.

The book obviously goes into much more detail, and is well worth a read. The book really blew my mind when I first read it; it sounds fantastic and hard to believe, but Peake has collated a lot of scientific data that builds a compelling case for his theory. I’d recommend any of my blog readership to read it- it’s one of those rare things that is pure science, embraces science yet also offers scientific theory for the basis of any religious experience. So much so that it’s compelled me to re-think a lot of stuff from my perspective, and I have already worked out how it could explain things like my Tarot card readings, for example. I’ll go into that bit in more detail when I do some more Tarot posts; I’ve already begun discussing this with other members of the forum at Anthony Peake’s site. If this idea fascinates you as much as it does me, go read the book, and have a look at Anthony’s site.

Those of you who don’t like spoilers, please don’t read any further.

It seems that as filming for next years’ series continues, there are more references to classic Dr Who coming through. When Patrick Troughton took over the TARDIS helm from William Hartnell in 1966, the series producers decided to start off with a Dalek story in order to keep viewers’ attention and give Pat a chance to settle in to the role, thus helping the viewers to accept a new actor in the star role. While nowadays, we’re familiar with the idea of our favourite Timelord regenerating and changing, this was the first time it had ever happened, and as such it could make or break the series. As history and the viewing figures have shown, it proved to be a very popular move that has given the series a unique selling point- that of regularly changing the star actor in the cast.

Since David Tennant has been in the role now for four years and won the series an army of new fans, some may find it hard to adjust to a new face in the Doctor’s shoes- especially as David has been in at least as many adventures as the long-reigning Tom Baker, whom many older fans regard as the greatest Doctor due to his long tenure. (Despite being in the role for the best part of seven years, Tom’s stories were multi-episoded, whereas modern stories are usually one or two episodes long.)

To help Matt Smith into the role, it seems that there is every likelihood that the first story of next years’ series will also feature the Doctor’s ultimate nemesis, and from what has been heard at the location shoot, it sounds chillingly familiar. Pat’s first story was a classic tale called Power Of The Daleks, in which a future Earth colony discovers two deactivated Daleks, which they reactivate for research. The Daleks, being cunning, make the scientists believe they are friendly, despite the Doctor’s warnings. They were frequently informing the scientists “We-are-your-ser-vants”, and before the poor humans knew what had hit them, the Daleks had set up a factory behind their backs, and were churning out evil pepperpots by the hundred, intent on domination once more. Needless to say, the good Doctor saved the day and went on to be one of the all-time favourite actors in the role.

The Daleks assure Lesterson of their friendly intentions in 'Power Of the Daleks', 1966.

It seems that our new Dalek story is set in World War Two, as the location shooting was on a set crammed with barbed wire and all sorts of period military paraphenalia, and one source has heard the Daleks utter a line of dialogue, which has been claimed to be completely scripted and not prank. The line they uttered chills the blood: “Would-you-care-for-some-tea?” It seems that the wily motorized dustbins are up to their evil tricks once again, and only the Doctor will be able to save the day. All this sounds most intriguing, and if all indications are correct the new series will be off to a stonking start. Why can’t it be 2010 already?

A few years back, when I first joined the Aeclectic Tarot forum, I decided, for a spot of fun, to write a Tarot-themed spoof song lyric based on Billy Joel’s hit ‘Piano Man’. I’ve been looking back through my posts there, and rediscovering this jogged my memory. I recall that it was quite popular, and ended up being reposted on other messageboards, and various Tarot newsletters run by the members of Aeclectic Tarot. For a blast of nostalgia, I’ve decided to repost this here for your amusement. To the tune of Piano Man, I give you…

The Tarot Man (With profuse apologies to Billy Joel).

It’s three o’clock at the psychic fair,
The usual types passing through
And an old man walks in to the tarot booth
And asks ‘what the hell can I do?’

He says, ‘son, can you lay down your tarot cards,
And help me to deal with my woes.
Please help me to work out where I went wrong
Since I wore a younger man’s clothes’.

La la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Chorus:
Lay down a spread, you’re the tarot man
Tell me, what things do you see?
Well, I need your insight to make my life right
And the cards hold the secrets for me..

Now the tarot man sets out to lay the cards,
Now the reading’s about to begin,
He don’t need no rehearsals to deal with reversals
As the cards show their secrets to him.
He says, ‘sir, I don’t think you should worry much’,
As the smile spread all over his face,
‘For the majors and minors show life will be finer
And things will fall back into place’.

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

It’s late afternoon at the psychic fair
And the tarot man has some more guests
And the incense adds spice as he gives his advice
To help them all with their life quests.

Now the querents are coming to see him
As the tarot man builds up his trade
Yes, they’ve come for a cure for their loneliness,
And it’s better than being afraid.

Chorus:
Lay down a spread, you’re the tarot man
Tell me, what things do you see?
Well, I need your insight to make my life right
And the cards hold the secrets for me..

It’s a pretty good day for a Saturday
And the tarot man gives me a smile
’cause he’s never so glad than when helping the sad
To forget all their woes for a while
And the tarot, it gives out it’s wisdom
For any who seek its’ advice,
And they’ll pay and they’ll ask for some help in their tasks
While the room smells of incense and spice.

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Those of you who hail from the hills and valleys of Wales will no doubt recognise the song being referred to in the post title- the opening lines from ‘We’ll Keep A Welcome In The Hillside’. It’s an appropriate song that calls to all Welshmen (And ladies!) who yearn for home. Although I was born in England, I am actually half Welsh- my mother was born in Montgomeryshire, as was her father, and all his forebears back to before records can trace. I have recently been conducting research into my family tree and ancestry, and it was fascinating to discover my roots, and where the various branches of my family spring from. (This will need a post or two in a category of its’ own later, methinks.) Of all my mother’s family, she was the only person who wore her Welshness as a badge of pride, and thanks to her I also have a place in my heart for this lovely land. (I used to holiday there frequently many years ago, when I owned a caravan there, and I have promised myself to return there as soon as I am able.) The scenery is breathtaking, the language is poetic, the accents musical, and the sound of male voice choirs gets me ‘right there’, and can reduce me to tears of joy within minutes. It’s not often that I get the chance to revel in my Celtic heritage, but whenever the chance raises its’ head, I simply cannot refuse.

One such opportunity struck me when I was out doing one of my favourite activities, namely looking for new Tarot decks to add to my collection. I was looking for a deck that had a ‘pagan’ feel to it, a timeless imagery that combined all the elements that I identify with my personal pagan path- harmony with nature, without too much emphasis on fluffy bunny rabbits or any of the usual imagery that glosses over the ‘nature, red in tooth and claw’ that we all secretly know the world is really like. I came to Paganism via Buddhism, so I am already well-versed in being able to view things objectively as they really are. Nature can be bleak and it can be cruel sometimes, but it is always beautiful- because that’s the way the universe works.

I’d seen quite a few decks online which just didn’t appeal to me; while the skills of the artists and authors concerned could not be denied, they just didn’t speak to me in the way I wanted a deck to. The Robin Wood’s artwork was too sketchy and comic-book style for me, and the Druidcraft lost me in a sea of green leaves and fluffy bunny rabbits. I wondered if there would ever be a deck that would capture what I saw in Paganism, which didn’t project images of Druidic or Wiccan overtones- I’m none of those, as my path is one I have found for myself- so the prospect of a special deck like that seemed to forever elude me, until I discovered this beauty on a shelf in my local book store.

The deck I’m talking about is the Llewellyn Tarot. The Llewellyn company, based in the USA, is well known in Tarot circles as they publish a wealth of excellent and informative books on the subject (I have quite a few of those!) as well as many different decks, such as the Gilded, which I also own. What I didn’t know until now was that the founder of the company, one Llewellyn George, emigrated to the US from Wales over 100 years ago, and that this deck was made as a tribute to him.

The artwork is truly breathtaking, being brightly coloured, although not overly-bright, and consisting of watercolour or acrylic painted images that come from Welsh mythology. The imagery spoke to me straight away; here are the bleak, rain-soaked hillsides, the beautiful sunlit meadows, the wonder and wildness of nature in all its’ terrible beauty. This was pagan imagery I could relate to, and what’s more, it reminded me of my visits to my ancestral and spiritual homeland all those years ago. looking at the images, I could smell the heather, and feel the damp chill of the morning mist on my face.  Anna-Marie Ferguson is to be credited for capturing the essence of Wales in a way it’s impossible to relate adequately unless you’ve actually been there.

Major Arcanum 10- Arianrhod, The Wheel Of Fortune; The Llewellyn Tarot, by Anna-Marie Ferguson.

The deck is a RWS-themed one, with the minor arcana all depicting traditional enough scenes in misty watercolours, but it’s in the major arcana where the deck truly shines. Each major arcanum is represented by a character from Welsh mythology, with the character name indicated at the top of the card, and the arcanum name at the bottom. Some cards have been subtly renamed to fit better with Welsh mythology such as XV- The Devil, which has been renamed The Horned One as this gives the indication of how this character relates to the mythos. Here, the Devil is not the tempter or the evil seducer- the Horned One is the primal nature spirit- natural instinct in the flesh. The card backs are also beautiful- simple, yet effective, and look like wooden panels such as you’d find on church pews or medieval wainscotting, with a red dragon sitting proudly in the centre. I’ve already done a few readings with the deck, and it’s proving to have a personality all of its’ own, which merits more posts at a later date. I love this deck, and I’m already considering making this my deck of choice for daily readings next year. Watch this space.

As Russell T. Davies hands over the reins to Steven Moffat for the 2010 series, those of us fans who grew up with the classic series will be in for a treat, as the Grand Moff has decided to pay a little tribute to years gone by with the casting of Matt Smith as the Doctor. While Matt is anly a little younger than Peter Davison was when he took the TARDIS helm, his costume- as revealed by the latest photos from the location filming for next year- harks all the way back to Pat Troughton for its’ bohemian chic.

Patrick Troughton, the bohemian Doctor, and the original TARDIS interior.

All tweeds, bow-ties and rumpled clothing, replete with scuffed boots. As if that wasn’t enough, the TARDIS has also had a make-over. The old girl now has a new roof light, (much more like that on a real police box), white window frames, and a St. John’s Ambulance badge on one of the doors! This harks right back to 1963, and the days of William Hartnell.

A rare colour shot of William Hartnell's Doctor, taken during filming for Marco Polo, showing the original TARDIS.

The destruction of the Torchwood Hub set in Children of Earth has meant that the BBC can now redesign the TARDIS interior for high-def TV, and we’re promised a return to white walls, roundels and a much bigger, newer take on what we had in the seventies and eighties, with more rooms. All of a sudden, I’m five years old again, and looking forward to Doctor Who with childish glee. Moffat has consistently written the best episodes for the new series to date, and with such gems as The Empty Child and Silence In The Library to his credit, I’m sure that 2010 will be a new golden age for the good Doctor.

Matt Smith as the Doctor, with Karen Gillan as his companion Amy Pond, in front of the new TARDIS while filming for the 2010 series.

Torchwood series 3 fairly blazed across our screens earlier this month, and the new episodic format over consecutive nights was pure event TV. During the course of this series, I heard comments from a wide range of people, remarking on how good, how gripping, how terrifying it all was; people whom I’d never have thought would give science fiction or Torchwood a moment’s consideration. The viewing figures spoke for themselves- people watched this series in droves.

The new format was pure Quatermass in its’ execution, building up the tension, episode by episode, until you just had to tune in to the final episode to find out if Torchwood would save the day. They did, but by God, at what a cost! The premise very much reminded me of The Quatermass Conclusion; Nigel Kneale’s epic fourth serial filmed in 1979, when unseen alien entities harvested chanting humans and forced Quatermass to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save humanity. Except in Jack’s case, his ultimate sacrifice would be entirely of a different nature, as death gives him a wide berth- it was something more harsh, more brutal and more haunting, especially as we know that he will have to live with the consequences of his actions for billions of years to come.

From the moment that the children all froze, and began chanting “We Are Coming”, my blood chilled, and each new message ratchetted the tension up mercilessly, until “We Are Here” made us want to know just what the hell these things, the enigmatically titled 456, actually were. Cleverly, we were denied proper, clear pictures of them, as one three-headed horror materialised in a smoke-filled tank to negotiate with the humans. The only detailed, of sorts, view we actually got was one of the most terrifying and haunting images I have ever seen on TV; the image of the small child, gas-masked and harnessed to the creature by various tubes and wires, will forever remain burned into my retinas.

The mysterious 456 materialise on the 13th floor of Thames House, on Torchwood: Children Of Earth.

The image of the child was only the beginning of the horror. The poor unfortunate was one of 12 orphans given to the 456 in 1965, in the hope that they would then leave us alone, but as we learned that the aliens use our children as a sort of drugs fix, we soon realised that like any junkie that gets what they want, one fix is never enough, and the 456 came back. This time, they demanded 10 % of the entire population of Earth’s children. This sparked all kinds of conversations amongst the viewers- many of which I’d read in online forums, as well as took part in offline. “If you were in charge, what would you do- would you give the children to the 456 in the hope that we would get a reprieve from retribution, or would you risk all of humanity and fight them?” was the main argument- and there were many good points raised on both sides.

Some argued that since we now knew that the 456 couldn’t be trusted, fighting was the only option we had, and dying whilst resisting was better than becoming thralls to an alien menace. Others argued that if only 12 children gave us a 40-year hiatus from threat by the 456, some 35 million would surely give us a century or two to recover the numbers, and work towards an appropriate response or means to eliminate them, when they returned as we knew they inevitably would.

The final episode brought up new arguments to add further depth to that: the fact that humanity seemed to have become too dependent upon the Doctor to bail them out whenever they felt under threat; a dependance that could be seen as a weakness unless we knew how to fight our own battles. Also, there was the conundrum of how UNIT had changed from being defenders of Earth from alien threat to willing accomplices in the 456’s plot. I’m sure that if the Doctor ever gets wind of what they did, he’ll be having some very harsh words with them on that one.

The ultimate argument, of course, was Jack’s sacrifice of his own grandson to destroy the 456. Some viewers couldn’t forgive him for doing this, despite it being very clearly implicated on the screen that he was left with no real choice in what to do; it tore him apart to make this choice, but the stark reality was that his one, great personal sacrifice of only one child saved the lives of 35 million others. In many ways, he had become like the Doctor- both are practically immortal beings that have had to make great personal sacrifices for the greater good- the Doctor had to destroy his own world and his entire race to protect the universe from the Dalek menace, and Jack had to sacrifice his grandson to protect the children of Earth from the 456. I suppose, in a way, that Russell T. Davies had given us the Time War story all us Whovians have been clamouring for, although it was scaled down and made more human, immediate, and therefore personal to us. And in doing that, we got to agonise and argue over the true implications of those actions in a way we never would have with the Daleks. This was epic TV, and I sincerely hope this will not mean the end of Torchwood; this was, to my mind, what the series should have been about from the start. Utterly fantastic.