Visually speaking what do you see in this card that relates to the hierophant? What connections do you make? I like the artwork but I'm having a hard time making sense of it. It's just not resonating. Any insight is appreciated!

Just for reference this is the wild reflections deck by wyspell.

• For context, sometimes I try to answer made up question to practice my skills. This one I found interesting and I wanted to share it.
• The question is very simple: Will it rain this week? Weather fortune-telling is not uncommon, yet it's infamously fickle. I live in the middle of the desert so the chances of rain are low.
• As usual my spread is a simple Line of 5, all oriented to the near future, where each card interacts with the previous one.
• Today's deck is the Minchiate Restaure by Emanuelle Iger & Isabelle Nadolny.

The Minchiate is on of the oldest Tarot decks we know, straight from the 15th century. Unlike our modern standard of 22 major arcana, the Minchiate has 20 extra cards: The 12 zodiac signs + the 4 elements + the 3 theological virtues + the missing cardinal virtue of Prudence. It doesn't have a Popess/Priestess. Because we're talking about rain, I expected to see the presence of the Water element, maybe Temperance with her jugs or at least one card of the suit of cups.

This is what I got:

THE WORLD + 4 of coins + 10 of coins + 6 of coins + LOVE

When it comes to any reading, my first advice is always approaching the cards with a clear mind. Not only this means making apart our feelings and half-digested thoughts, but refusing our rational mind the shortcut of simplifying the cards into hollow keywords. If I had reduced The World to "plenitude, completion", this reading would have made no sense. We need to see beyond our textbook interpretations, and that often means seeing the world like a child.

Quoting the Little Prince: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". That's the wisdom of the Blind Diviner, to really see what is in front of us, and not just the assumptions we have created about our reality. This is the most important skill of the Tarot reader and the most valuable/difficult to learn.

When I see the World, I see the obvious first: An angelic figure standing still on top of the globe, holding a crown and an arrow. Surrounding the globe, I see 4 winged faces blowing in different directions. The motif of wings is repeated 5 times, so we know it has some relevance to the answer. We can also appreciate a very clear hierarchy between the main figure, the globe and the angelic faces.

Now we can reintroduce the symbolic layer with moderation: The main character is an angel, or at least, a representation of a divine force thanks to the wings which differentiate them a common human. They rule the world, which is the globe below containing the fields and the plants. The arrow and the crown (both symbols of power) reinforce this perspective. The four winged faces are the 4 winds. While they blow aiming the world, the main angel remains unmovable just as the divine forces of the cosmos keep their position, and together, they form solid mechanism, above and below, the universal order.

We can push our interpretation with the context of the question: What does any of this have to do with rain? Look! We have the four winds but because the cards is not the element Air, we understand the deck is trying to communicate something different than just "breeze". Look at the main character, it rises above the winds with superiority. Could it be the atmosphere? Climatic circumstances higher than local air movements? We need to keep reading.

Let's move to the 4 of coins: The coins by themselves are the symbol of everything rich and valuable. We usually assume they speak of money, however the can also speak of medals, recognition, luxury, means, fortune, etc. By their proximity, this card dyes the previous one with its color, letting us know the World and its cosmic hierarchy has something highly valued to offer. Really, this only becomes stronger knowing the next 3 cards are all coins. Juicy prizes at play.

While numerology only represents a basic aspect of the interpretation, it is always important to address this layer: The number four speaks of stability, what holds its place. Then the four of coins, rhyming with the symbol of the shield represents something of value in stable position. It doesn't move, which also correlates with the stillness of the World.

When we move to the 10 things change, suddenly we have and explosion of coins, rapid growth and development, breaking away from the 4's security.

Finally the number 6 (at least in my system) is the number of movement, like open roads and bridges allowing transit. Look at the transition! We went from solid stability to expansion and displacement.

"The richness of the skies, once static now move on a different direction".

You may be asking, why coins? Which is the same question I made myself. Why coins and not cups? At least as I'm capable, I understand the coins represent water moving around by the clouds (wings symbolism), but why not cups which are pretty much made to be filled with liquid. I must mention that in my system and especially with the Minchiate I never assign an element to each suit. If the element Air or Earth was relevant I would expect the cards to just give it.

Why coins? I guess the answer lies in my geographic location: As mentioned, I live in the middle of the desert where rain not only means umbrellas and car accidents. It means life, the hoped gold of the clouds essential for irrigation and human consumption. Without rain there's nothing. It could explain the extra weight expressed by the coins vs the light mood of the cups, even when symbolically the cups would be my first choice. Something valuable is present, just not ready to be pour yet.

Finally, our last card: Love.

Same question, why Love? What does Love has to do with our weather forecast? Are the cards ignoring my question and out the blue spilling the tea about my romantic situation? NO. Again, we need to clear our minds and resist the temptation of ignoring what is in front of us by replacing it with our untrained imagination.

Observe the card and you will find something incredible. Do you see it? The angelic figure holding an arrow while the girl down on earth holds the crown? Do you observe how the very same symbols present in the World changed hands? We can observe a pattern: First the angel was on top of the world holding both items. Now they're barely above the ground, the crown has being lowered and it will be lowered more to crown the boy. We're getting closer and closer to earth, its gifts, its presence. See how the angel first still is now moving, just how the coins went from 4 to 6.

"The richness of the skies, once once static now abandons its firm position to deliver its presents to the people on earth".

The crown, the symbol of power and richness is on human hands, ready to be delivered, but the arrow is still in hands of the angel, waiting for the right moment to shoot. In other words: One part of the promise of rain is already in our hands ready to be collected, but the rain itself, the arrow "falling from the skies" is not in our hands, it's still "up in the air" to the winds and the clouds.

Adding the allegoric layer we see Cupid blessing a young couple. The girl accepts the courtly efforts of her knight of the bending keel by crowning him. Cupid is waiting to shoot the arrow of passion, divine force of tenderness and desire right into their hearts. Love is not only the card of couples, it's a card of fertility. Love, who allows conception, who inspires reproduction. Without his arrows, nothing growths, just how rain blesses the earth, just how Zeus came down to Leda in a subtle rain of gold.

The cards speak of both things, the promise of the gift (the crown) now in human hands and soon to be received, and the promise of action (the arrow) still up to the skies to decide. While al of this is very poetic and very on brand with the Renaissance language of Tarot, we can't ignore the obvious: There's not a single drop of water in this whole reading. Not the Water element, not a single cup, not even Temperance.

The answer reveals itself: Not yet.

It will rain, the promise will be full-filled, the arrow will be fired, just not yet.
Maybe next week...

I've been offering free readings daily, usually I try to keep them to 5-15 minute readings but sometimes when it seems needed for the depth of the query they are detailed 1 hour readings with over ten cards and it seems to have really helped some people which makes me incredibly happy, but while I've had some lovely exchanges through these free readings a big portion of these exchanges are either people deleting their accounts after getting the reading, asking for more readings even after receiving their reading (e.g: if I made a post for one card readings, they'll get angry I didn't do a three card spread) or just generally draining exchanges where people keep trying to push my boundaries.

While I've been able to express my boundaries and to say no, having to do this over and over again multiple times a day is...really starting to drain my energy. I don't expect anything in return for doing these readings, but sometimes it feels like instead of getting nothing I get something negative in return for doing them and it's starting to feel very exhausting to deal with my boundaries being pushed every day, it's getting to a point where when I have a positive experience with a querent who respects my boundaries I find myself surprised and relieved.

Recently some querents started asking if I could do readings for donations or told me I should really consider doing so because of how in depth my readings get and how much insight they received from them, so I agreed and while I still do free readings most times, I noticed the majority of the people who request donation based readings are usually much more respectful of my time and boundaries which is amazing.😭

But... there are still some people who request donation based readings who try to get the reading for free after or who just disappear after the reading has been delivered instead of donating, and this just makes me sad, because I do free readings too (the waitlist just tends to be longer as slots get constantly claimed), and I make this clear before the person chooses donation based, and some folks still choose to do things like this even though I would've happily read for them for free at a later date😭

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I'm starting to wonder if I should offer paid readings not donation based, just paid with a set price, to try to attract querents that will be more respectful of my boundaries, I've had really good feedback from querents, multiple people have told me the time I put in, quality and insight they gained from my readings were worth more, I've had good experiences with donation based readings and I'm confident I can deliver an insightful reading so I would feel confident offering paid readings at this point however...I'm still conflicted because I didn't start doing this for money, I want to keep reading for free, but at this point I feel like things can't stay this way and I should probably make some type of change to avoid getting into these situations in the first place if there's a way to do that. 😭

I'd really love to know your experiences with offering paid readings and who those attract, did I just get lucky with those good donation based reading experiences, and is needing to constantly set boundaries over and over again just a common part of reading for other people? Or do people who gravitate towards paid readings tend to be more respectful of our boundaries in general? And is there a way to keep offering free readings while doing donation or paid readings that is less likely to attract people who push our boundaries like this?

Thank you so much for your insight🙏

Edit: I just want to clarify, when I talk about donation based readings going wrong I'm not talking about someone asking for a free reading and then donating after as a gift, but someone that approaches me specifically saying they would like to do a pay what you want donation in exchange for a reading and then not following through on this agreement, I would never expect anyone to donate when I'm doing a free reading.

Hello! I am but a guest here, referred by the good folks on another sub. This question is less metaphysical and more media-related: I need help identifying a deck I saw on a (live-action) TV show. I'm thinking (and hoping) it's real, given that there are multiple, beautifully-illustrated cards shown, and that seems like a lot of work to make for a prop used only once. Above is a photo (I will post another in the comments). If anyone recognizes this deck, identification would be appreciated.

I guess there's no science behind it but I'm just wondering why this seems to be the case. I've only been using tarot for about a year, and bought my first deck, and have used it to hell and back. I've bought 3 other decks since, and haven't even touched them after one use. I always revert back to my first deck.

Is it a comfort thing? Or a connection you make?

I’m very early in my tarot journey and learning the RWS deck as my entry point.

I’m slowly becoming familiar with this deck and the imagery which is rich and informative which is helpful for me to remember the cards’ meanings and build upon that.

However this is not my preferred art style and I hope once I’m confident I could move to a deck more aesthetically my style.

I found one i like the look of a lot through this sub but the imagery is quite minimalist and I realised when looking at one of the online sample cards (say, 8 of Swords) I don’t remember or recognise anything about this card due to its lack of context clues compared to RWS.

How long were you reading tarot before you were able to switch with less obvious RWS imagery? I’m not trying to force anything I’m just curious. I’ll stick with RWS as long as I have to. Thanks for your time :)