A Tarot Mnemonic

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Hi everyone! Welcome to another installment of that insanity that we call the Tarot Blog Hop.

(Yes, I said that. I have wrangled this thing, and it can drive any wrangler insane. And I am sticking to that opinion.)

Today's theme is Office Party. And at a Xmas office party, there is always someone who gives out a present that the only proper response is "Oh...you really shouldn't have."

And I am that guy.

I thought about sharing my latest project....but that might actually not be a white elephant.

I really like how this looks. 

Then during a reading for a friend, I caught myself using the mnemonic titles that Golden Dawn uses for the thirty-six cards that are associated with the decans of the zodiac. And the thought went though my mind, that a mnemonic is exactly the type of thing that some people will go, "Oh, you really shouldn't have."

So here is my gift to you, a completely useless mnemonic for the thirty-six decan cards (keyed to the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck and Book T of the Golden Dawn system).

The thirty-six cards that are assigned to the decans. 

The titles of the decan cards from Book T.

Wands

Two rulers oversee the creation of dominions.
Three merchants await groundbreaking vessels.
Four celebrating dancers practice perfection.
Five day-traders chaotically compete to build.
Six Caesars parade in justified victory.
Seven outnumbered warriors bravely holdfast.
Eight meteorites swiftly communicate omens.
Nine prisoners survive backstage might.
Ten looters protest selfish oppression.


Cups

Two lovers unify in harmonious mirth.
Three maidens overflow with fortune.
Four yogis mediate on passive endings.
Five mourners stress over treachery.
Six children exchange vain pleasure.
Seven dream poison perception of success.
Eight travelers moan seeking of goals.
Nine bankers brag of sins and conceit.
Ten rainbows rain down lasting pleasure.


Swords

Two hostages sacrifice to restore peace.
Three hearts lament Loki's discord.
Four coffins shelter honored causalities.
Five vultures cowardly slander allies.
Six ferries cross troubled waters.
Seven thieves spy on exhausted combatants.
Eight prisoners impulsively hammer trifles.
Nine nightmares burden with cruel despair.
Ten murderers plot disruptive ruin.


Pentacles

Two jugglers foolishly gain and lose.
Three bureaucrats design impossible infrastructure.
Four misers covet their petty prejudices.
Five beggars suffer toil and trouble.
Six patrons distribute alms.
Seven gardeners slave over miserable barrenness.
Eight apprentices carve talismans cautiously.
Nine songbirds sing of sweet increase.
Ten siblings plot over ancestor's wealth.


So there you go, one white elephant Xmas present. Yes, I know--I really shouldn't have.

But hopefully, the rest of the tarot office party is not as bad. Why don't you check out some of the other blogs by clicking on the links below.


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Memory problems part 1

Ok, I will admit it---I have a few memory problems. And no, I do not believe that it is early onset Alzheimer's disease either (that comment is directed at a friend who d*** well knows who he is). I first became aware of these problems a few years ago, though I view them less as a problem than other people do.

For instance, I remember very little of my life before certain dates. It is either brain damage from an head injury or simple suppression of unpleasant memories. I am betting on the suppression part, though I have taken more blows to the head than I like to think about.

Other people have memories of high school and the people they went to school with; I have few memories of that time period. Oh, if I really think about it, I could draw you a map of the school. But don't ask me to name my teachers, for I can only name two of them. And forgot me recognizing someone from high school without heavy prompting...the exception being a handful of people.

Why the difficulty here? Well, outside of classes, I really did not interact with more than a handful of people. Most of the time, I was too busy dealing with another drama. So it is not so much a memory problem as the simple fact that there are no memories to actually access in the first place.

Now, we have a myth that everything that we experience is stored in the brain. This is not true. There are several stages where memories can get lost between the experience and actual recall of the memory. For instance, if you don't get a good night sleep, you can lose a lot of potential memories as they are transferred to short term memory to long term memory.

Of course, my short-short term memory is like swiss cheese when it comes to certain things. I have a devil's of a time with phone numbers. It is not that I can't remember phone numbers; it is that I can't remember them in the manner most people do. For me, someone firing off a seven digit phone number leads to a blank look on my face. My very own phone number is not remembered as a seven digit number, rather it is remembered as three numbers. For instance, I remember the last four digits of it as 66 and 84; there is one more step there, but you get the idea.

A few years ago, a friend caught how I rememebered a phone number that I dialed every day. She noticed that I could not remember the number unless my hand moved as if I was actually dialing the number. The memory of the number was actually stored in my muscle memory, and not in the normal usual place.

And that is something I always wonder about magical workers in general. Where are we storing our memories in the first place? For instance, according to occult theory, everyone has an astral body, and everyone astral travels (ok, I do know a theory that argues different, but it is a testing theory). Yet few people remember astral traveling on a regular basis before they get trained to astral project. And that includes people who have been witnessed by other people.

If you cannot remember astral traveling, then as far as you are concerned, you have not astral traveled. Much of learning to astral project is not figuring out how to leave your body as much as it is learning to be able to recall that you did so in the first place.

Look sometime at the number of energetic bodies that occult theory says that we have. Each one of these bodies potentially has its own set of memories. What is in our head is more than the circuits of the meat suit that we are wearing, or at least it should be if we are a magician. Which means that the memory problems that I am aware of are merely the tip of the iceberg. And that makes alzheimer's look like a welcome change from my normal experiences.