The Barkana is meant to be a joyous and gentle tarot deck. Dogs are a light in our lives and this deck captures their spirits.
Every single card is inspired by a real dog and their stories, infusing deep meaning into every single illustration. This entire project was a journey of getting to know some amazing dogs, putting their stories into paintings, and now (finally!) sharing it with the world.
I have so much gratitude for all of you who have joined this project and supported the Kickstarter—and I can’t wait to send you all a deck! If you know anyone else interested, please share our Kickstarter with them. We have less than a week left!
Ah…you can breathe! There is finally some stability in your life, whether that’s a break from tumultuous emotions, financial strain, work overload, or perhaps even just the recent antics of mercury retrograde.
As this week arrives, you’ll notice an increasing feeling of “I can do this” and a sense of centering. Bask in this, but don’t become possessive of it. Greed, especially around material wealth, it never a good thing–for you or for others. Just take a moment to celebrate how long of a journey you’ve traveled on and how blessed the stability coming your way is.
P.S. The Barkana is on Kickstarter for just over a week more! Visit the link here to get all the goodies and discounts exclusive to this campaign. ✨ Post link
The Barkana has always been a project about disability activism. I navigate this world as an openly disabled and traumatized person. This project has been about service dogs, a type of assistance for disabled folks.
I wanted to share a few of the tarot cards from this deck that represent my journey with disability. Some was inspired by a blog written on marandaelizabeth.com
The 5 of Cups: Representing disappointment & grieving how you wished things have been, I think this captures the hardship of disability and trauma. I often wish I hadn’t been trafficked and hurt as a child. Grief over what my life could have been like sits with me every day, as I work to make peace with my reality. I do love who I have become, yet I struggle with this too–a feeling I’ve found many disabled folks share.
Death: Life as a disabled person is filled with change. There are many “little deaths,” accompanied by both hardships & joys. Death is such a neutral card all about change, and it highlights the undercurrent of unpredictability with disability, especially with dissociative identity disorder and how time and identity itself is constantly in flux for me.
5 of Pentacles: This card often represents illness, loss, and hardship…trudging through the cold weather in search for some warmth. Disabled people are frequently marginalized and outcast, and I feel this card represents the challenges of living with that identity. Yet, it also shows we are not alone, as we can find loving companions on our journey.
3 of Swords: This one features a disabled tripod pup, so I had to include it! It also represents trauma, invalidation, and silencing–something so many disabled folks experience. Our identities are erased, left out of activism, & we are gaslighted about our experiences.
It’s my hope, by talking about this, it inspires reflection on how you think about disabled people. Feel free to comment with your thoughts!
A beautiful way to honor the journey you shared with a pet is getting a custom watercolor portrait of them.
Available ONLY through the Kickstarter (link here), I’m offering a limited number of custom pet portraits, which you can have in a specific tarot-inspired landscape of your choice (or a different landscape, if something else floats your boat!). You also get a bunch of tarot goodies with the portrait, making it quite the discounted package!
Each painting will be bright, vibrant, and focused on capturing your pet’s unique personality. It’s a wonderful way to honor them if they’ve passed on, or admire them if they’re still with you.
Simply visit the Kickstarter and scroll down to the last tier, select that, and pledge.
P.S. If we can reach $35K, I’ll be making a guidebook for the deck too! Help share this or another post to spread the word.
If anyone is interested I’ve opened an Etsy shop for tarot readings. It’s called The Soul Tarot. Look forward to reading you all! ✨ I’m also willing to do them on here! First five inboxes free
I haven’t been keeping up on posting my daily card pulls but I am trying to change that. This one is from yesterday.
When I pulled this card yesterday I couldn’t help but laugh. Even though walking the high road can get a bit exhausting, I am happy that I continuously do the right thing and distant myself from toxic and negative people. A couple of people in particular come to mind automatically.
I do not wish harm to others, but seeing their actions get turned back onto them and seeing them have to deal with it has put a smile on my face. Maybe they will learn from this and become better people, maybe not. But I will continue on with my life. I am happy, I am healthy, And I don’t need people who threaten that.
Based on they are based on Kisuke’s bankai, Kisuke is the only character that will be placed on two Tarot cards. The Hermit is the other. Lets be honest, he is a hermit lol.
So here’s the thing about interpretation with any divination method: it’s all about synthesizing. What do I mean by that? I mean that coming up with an interpretation requires (1) understanding all the elements that come together to (2) create an answer that (3) makes sense within the context of the reading.
In Lenormand, these elements are:
The individual card meanings,
The positive, negative, or neutral orientations of the cards,
The specific situation and question being addressed,
How the cards combine meanings, and
The person being read for.
For this week, we’re going to focus on the individual card meanings, their orientations, and how they address different situations. Why? Because I want us to start learning how to shift the card meanings to address the question as early as possible. Next week’s posts will focus on how to ask clear questions, how to read cards in combination, and practice 2-card Quick N’ Dirty readings (thanks, arcanemysteries!).
This week, however, we’re going to work on three foundational pieces:
Learning the numbers, names, meanings and vibes of the cards
Assigning our own personal keywords to each card, and
Applying those keywords to different situations.
Notes on reading Tarot vs. Lenny
First things first: one of the key differences between tarot and Lenormand is that tarot is visual, Lenormand is verbal. When you read tarot, you don’t just rely on the standard meanings of the cards - you look at the image, see how it interacts with images on the other cards, suss out additional meanings based on the specific symbols on the card, and so on. Because of this, the same card from two different decks can mean vastly different things depending on what the artist included in the image. Pretty fucking awesome, IMO! It allows for some lovely variations in personalities between decks and gives tarot readers the opportunity to learn and focus on different aspects of the card meanings.
Lenormand don’t play that though, because Lenny operates via key words. It doesn’t matter how the artist drew the card or what symbols they added to it; the cards will always mean the same thing across decks. As long as you know that the card is The Rider or The Sun or Fox, you have the meanings. The additional pretties don’t matter. The card interpretations can and do shift based on the situations being addressed, how they combine with other cards, and the questions being asked, but they still rely on those essential meanings. And those meanings don’t change based on the card image across decks.
The list of card names and meanings I’ve included here pretty much comes from Donna Leigh’s post here. They’re general one-card meanings and are easy to boil down to a few simple key words. If you have the ability to check out Rana George’s The Essential Lenormand, she takes a slightly different tack to organizing the card meanings and provides a lot more options for exploring them in chart format. I’ve included the card orientations in this list as well - that comes from Rana. If you’re doing yes/no questions, orientation really helps figure out the answer to the question!
Here, Have Your Card Meanings
Thanks, Donna Leigh and Rana George!
1. Rider (neutral): messages, moving along, happens quickly, transportation but without an engine (Ship card has a motor), horseback riding, lover who moves through quickly
2. Clover (positive): little luck, good, small amount of good fortune, small gamble. Grass or greenery. Not the big outcome (which would be bouquet or sun), but a little perk.
3. Ship (neutral): transportation, things with an engine, travel, foreign or foreigner, moving, commerce, International.
4. House (neutral): family, tight group of people, property, house, home
5. Tree (neutral): health, legacy, long time, slow but steady growth, family history or lineage
6. Clouds (negative): confusion, misled, storms, depression, unpleasant person, someone who stirs things up by causing misunderstandings, in a fog, smoky
7. Snake (negative-neutral): deceit, overt lies, envy, jealousy, the other woman, a competing person, a scam that is recognized or seen for what it is. May describe something long and thin like wiring, a hose, cable. A hurtful bite, snake oil, hurtful person. Nemesis.
8. Coffin (negative): over, painful ending, sickness, a box, grief, done for good (whereas Stork may be gone but coming back).
9. Bouquet (positive): big luck, a gift,talent, present, flowers, something beautiful, surprise
11. Rod/Whip (negative-neutral): repetitive pattern, over and over, sweeping away, painful, punishment, abuse, debates or verbal altercation, sex, criticism, to belittle.
12. Birds (neutral): voice, talking, gossip, singing, small meetings of people, two people, used to mean an older couple, talking by phone, some use for “pairs” or two of something. Next to a harsh card like the Scythe it can mean gossip, chatter, negotiations, using the phone. Traditionally showed 2 owls, so 2 people, usually an older couple.
13. Child (neutral): innocent, naïve, just starting out, youth, a son or daughter, small, child-like, new, literal child.
14. Fox (negative-neutral): covert lies, undercover, manipulator, wears a mask, deceiver, liar, scam artist or conman, clever, charming with bad intent, using cunning street smarts, could mean a small job or source of income, avocation or work, clever, cunning, street smarts, doing slick acts to get by. May be an entrepreneur.
15. Bear (neutral): Boss or authority figure, manager, strength, burly, large job, motherly, financial worth, watches over, protective, burly
16. Stars (positive): hope, aspiration, visible, networking, internet, metastasizing, a wish, many of something, something at night, spreading
17. Stork (positive): migrates, moving, relocating, changes, long legs, birth/delivery, cycle. “If it ends, it may return.”
18. Dog (positive): loyal, friend, trustworthy, dependable, a pet, there for you (but look at surrounding cards).
19. Tower (neutral): corporate, large office job, hierarchy of people, solitude or isolation (Rapunzel), boundaries, alone, structured rules, big business.
20. Garden (neutral-positive): Groups of people, conventions, large meetings or gatherings, celebrations, parties, events in public.
21. Mountain (negative): obstacle, long climb, difficult process, uphill climb, heavy process, hard to do, lots of effort and time, roadblock. Something in your way.
22. Path/Crossroad (neutral): choice, decisions, discernment, two of something, approaching a time of change or choices. A split of something.
23. Mice (negative): taking away, thief, stealing, making less than, disease, sickness, worrisome, pests, makes less than.
24. Heart (positive): love, romance, passion, can be a literal heart (heart and scythe would be heart surgery).
25. Ring (positive): promise, commitment, relationship, marriage or long-term relationship, binding, contract, can be a literal ring, earring, or other piece of jewelry, engagement
26. Book (neutral): diary, secrets, learning, knowledge, studies, college or school, training, authoring, publishing (book and tower is a publisher, school or library), literal book.
27. Letter (neutral): correspondence through writing, emails, texting, letter, prescription or written message, printed materials, fax, a written record of something, prescription or diagnosis in writing.
28. Man* (neutral): Man client or someone significant to the story who is a male
29. Woman* (neutral): woman client, or someone significant to the story who is a female
30. Lilies (neutral): trust, harmony, elder, innocence, purity, peace, well-intended, honest, older mentor, takes time to develop (like a 401K).
31. Sun (positive): joy, happiness, enlightenment, exposure, electricity, ego, out in the open, shining one’s light, seen,in the spotlight.
32. Moon (positive-neutral): reputation, the face we put on for the world, how we are seen, psychic, nighttime, dreams, with the Sun and Stars = fame
33. Key (positive): The answer, what unlocks the mystery, the pivot, the important thing to note, enlightenment, the way in, the secret knowledge, ability
34. Fish (positive-neutral): money, abundance, an increase, sperm, attention, entrepreneur energy, assets, the person’s “currency of need.”
35. Anchor (positive): setting port, staying put, stable, security, hard work, may mean near the ocean. Can potentially lift the anchor in the future.
36. Cross (negative): burden, sacrifice, martyr, oppression, spiritual, fate, oppression, metaphoric “cross on your back.”
*A note on the gendered cards: Lenormand, the traditional system it is, relies on the Western gender binary. It also assumes heterosexuality. I dislike that so. damn. much. Some newer decks have additional man & women cards, which allows for readings on same-sex relationships. That rocks like whoa. However, I have yet to run into a deck that has a non-gendered Person card (child isn’t really gendered, but it doesn’t indicate an adult, so…). If I ever get around to putting together my own deck, you best believe it will have Person, Man, and Woman. Because fuck the binary. I’d like to be represented in my divination systems too!
(yes, I dohave Crowley level feelings about that)
TL;DR Tarot is a visual divination system whereas Lenormand is a verbal divination system. Keywords make the world go ‘round when it comes to learning Lenny. Check out the meanings listed above and see if you can distill them down even further - our first activity this week will be creating our own personal list of keywords!
Here’s a drawing I’ve been meaning to do for awhile. Two of my DnD characters, my cleric Millie and her patron, as the strength card. Inspired by the Rider Wait Tarot deck. I’m thinking I might make a short series with this concept for some of my other characters.
I’m making some Oracle cards. Does anyone remember that website where you can print your own playing cards?? I want them professionally printed bc ink is expensive and my printer hasn’t worked in 2 years lol.
