Sunday, August 21, 2022

PCO: What to expect of my new internship?

I did this reading about my new clinic internship in Psychology, which has just begun. I'm going to stay in this program for one year and a half and it'll be my first time working individually with patients (in my last internship, I only worked with groups). Anyway, before I even started there, a lot of changes happened: the last internship coordinator was fired from the University, so now we are under a new leadership and also have new supervisors.

This made for a rather shaky start, but things are going well and the new supervisors are great people, who are making positive changes in the program. Still, the prospect of finally exercising what I have so far only studied in theory has been making me really nervous, so I decided to do a reading. My question was "what can I expect from the internship in these initial weeks?"

The top card of the spread is the 5, which is usually remembered by its most negative connotation of being a warning in finances and transactions. But it has other meanings and, being in a dignified position here, in the place of its own suit, it can refer to changes in one's financial plans and even in one's identity (Diamonds is the suit of ego and identity after all).

I feel like this card is telling me things will not go exactly as I am expecting, but also that this new experience will change how I see myself or present myself to the world. My self-confidence will be tested, but it's neither a positive nor a negative thing per se – it all depends on how I choose to respond to the challenge. Combined with the 10 (Tendra) right below it, I also get the impression that this will be a very demanding undertaking at first, requiring a lot of my energy.

The A♣ is all about thoughts and perceptions, and in the Heart position this card tells me that, indeed, my powers of perception will be in the "heart" of the matter here. When I posted this spread in the Discord Server, Ana Cortez gave me yet another possible interpretation to this card – a wish for a heartfelt fulfilling relationship with this internship! This spread surely lacks Heart cards, so the A♣ occupying this position could represent my desire to really create emotional ties to this place and the people in it, which apparently will not happen so naturally at first (but the potential and the desire to is definitely there).

Lastly, we have the Q♠, Morgana, in her own suit position. At first, I thought Morgana was telling me I would have to build some strong roots in order to not be swayed by the things I see there (we deal with many difficult cases there). Ana,complemented my interpretation by noting how the Earth Queen is upside down... she's trying to get her feet back to the ground, but that is not happening, which is a rather uncomfortable way for her to be. So there's this impression of rootlessness, of taking a while to find one's footing. The lack of Hearts once again plays its part, since Morgana is lacking her complementary energy and needs to work with the rather elusive A♣.

I think that this new internship will be challenging at first, not in a negative way, but in the sense that I'll take a while to adapt and to become comfortable there. Also, it will demand a lot of me in terms of physical/energetic resources (Q♠ and 10). The Geomancy is Amissio + Fortuna Minor = Conjunctio. Again there is impression of tiredness and deflation at first, with a lot of hard work. But, eventually, a better connection to the place and situation will be built.

Both the A♣ and the Q♠ are cards of 'secrecy', which perhaps relates to the fact I'll be a position to know people's secrets. But I can't shake the feeling that these cards are also warning me to be careful on how I communicate there... not that I need to have a hidden agenda, but that I need to know when to speak and when to keep quiet. I tend to be too talkative and that often causes the wrong impression on people, so it's a good advice.

I pulled two witch's runes to complement the reading, and I got Waves + Rings. At first, it points to an unstable relationship, idealised even, but the Waves can also represent profound ties. Once more, I see the oracles saying that my connection with this new place and with my colleagues there may start a bit on the shaky side, but it has a great potential to grow into something deep and true.

Friday, June 24, 2022

To read or to not read... for free?

For a long, I read card for free to practise. Things were usually fine when that happened in a "safe environment", such as the divination communities I have been a part of during the years. There, people had the same goals, so everyone (with some rare exceptions) took exchanges seriously and helped each other through feedback. All was good.

Then, I started the venture out into the "real world", to do reading face to face. While not all experiences were bad, I noticed a trend: people did not really take my reading very seriously. Not that I expected to be regarded as an oracle or anything special, but many times they would forget what I told them in a matter of minutes. Also, I was often left in a depleted state, because when people heard I knew how to read cards they immediately lined up in front of me to ask for a reading that, ultimately, they did not really want or need. And they never offered anything in return.

Recently, we had a discussion in the PCO Discord Server that touched upon this subject. How good is it really to practice by giving people free readings. Again, I am not talking about exchanges done in learning communities, but rather the readings we offer to random people, either live or on social media, in exchange for feedback.

I'm posting below my opinion. I'm not saying it's the indisputable truth, only what has been true to me after years of reading cards for others, both free and paid.

~*~

Most of people don't value what they get for free – that is, what they received without having to give something material or measurable in exchange for. This is because we live in a society too concerned with taking, rather than giving. 

I know it sounds negative, and kinda non-humanistic of me to say so, but that's how I have watched it play in my life in nearly 15 years of card reading. When I used to read for free, people would forget the cards, even when they held important messages. And I'd often be left without energy, the effort I put into the readings quickly forgotten. 

I don't read for free anymore, except for people whom I know and trust very much. Anyone else has to give me something. If they don't have the funds, then they have to pay for my coffee, bring incense to my altar, give me a token of some sort or exchange something palpable (like a service). No, feedback and eternal gratitude will not do it, simply because people generally don't know the value of such things.

My advice to you is: do not read to anonymous people for free UNLESS you can do so in a very no strings attached manner, without expecting anything in return.

I have done quick readings in public events in which people gave me nothing, but I knew beforehand that's how it'd be. I chose to read in such places because what I "received" was the satisfaction of mastering my own cards, so it did not feel like a loss to me. I did not put so much emphasis on what came from others in these situations.

But if you cannot separate this… if your energy still feels much attached to what others give in return to your card reading efforts, then you are going to feel depleted very quickly. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin.

There is no right or wrong way, but you must always know why are you doing what you do and what your limits are. If you wish to read for feedback, then you need to be ready to demand said feedback from people, just like you'd do with money if your livelihood depended on it. You need to take yourself seriously so that others will.

Saturday, May 28, 2022

PCO: The Picture Book of Fate & Fortune

Finally, after waiting for nearly two months (why must international post be so damn slow?), I finally have in my hands the latest version of the Playing Card Oracles. It's called the Picture Book of Fate and Fortune, and it comes in 13 trading card packs available for sale at the Ana Cortez's Shop.

So, what about this deck? According to the site, it's the third and final deck designed by C. J. Freeman before the 'standard' Playing Card Oracles came out. Before it, there was the Alchemy Edition and another, very rare one, which I have the luck of owning, called "Kingdom of Outcasts" (from which the Fate & Fortune edition derives a couple of images from). In my opinion, it's a lot closer to the conventional PCO deck than to the Alchemy edition, though it's still different from both.

Each trading pack contains four playing cards (one from each suit), one instruction card with the basic meanings, one C. J. Freeman portrait card, one "blurb" cards and a sticker (you can see it all here). The 13th pack is a special edition, and comes with the two "joker" card, which are illustrations Freeman did of Ana Cortez and of Ladoux (a mysterious lady mentioned in the original Playing Card Oracles book). As you can imagine, if you buy all 13 packs like I did, you end up with tons of Freeman portraits and blurb cards, not to mention a few repeated stickers. I am still figuring out what to do with them...

The cards are small, truly "playing card" sized, but have a good quality. The cardstock is very similar to the Alchemy Edition  The backs show the usual 'swirly' design of all PCO decks, but this time in blue. Most of the cards follow very closely the structure of the standard deck, with only a few having different names (which I will list below), but it does have some unique aspects of its own. First of all, the Twos and the Threes are called "Deuces" and "Treys" which I loved... it gives such an enchanted, old-fashioned feeling to the deck! Also, the Eights are all "scales" in this deck. This is rather fascinating, because for the first time I see some coherence in the symbolism of the 8s, which are cards I often find challenging. 


As for the design, the images are definitely rougher than the standard Playing Card Oracles, and nowhere as detailed as the Alchemy Edition. That said, I have found them to be quite magical. The Fate & Fortune reminds me of those antique decks, like the Belline or the old Lenormands, which have a rather stark design. And I happen to love this sort of aesthetics to bits, so I am very happy about this new member of the PCO family.

The downside of this deck, should it have any is... the trading pack thing. Now, I know it's meant to be a fun novelty, but the truth is that buying 13 packs to get a full deck of cards, each of them costing around US$ 10, means ultimately paying US$ 130 for a single deck! Ok, you get stickers and tons of C. J. Freeman portraits, but it is still expensive (especially for me, since I live in a country with a devalued currency). I'd love to buy a second copy of it, but I don't think I'll be able to. 

Not that I regret buying it, absolutely not! As a Playing Card Oracles lover, I am super happy with my new acquisition. I do believe that this deck will help expand my views on certain cards, particularly those I still have a hard time interpreting sometimes.

Here are the cards that have different names (compared to the conventional PCO deck):

5 of Clubs = The Stormy Loop
5 of Spades = The Crossroads
8 of Diamonds = The Scales of Justice
8 of Hearts = The Scales of Woe
8 of Spades = The Scales of Reckoning
9 of Spades = Carnival of Lost Souls
King of Hearts = Nichomus
King of Spades = Khan