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The Tower Takeover Tarot – Deck Review and Thoughts

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot Deck Reviews, Tarot Decks, Unboxing

I think that everyone can agree that 2020 was one heck of a year.

It was the year that brought us Covid and along with that there was so much upheaval as our lives changed forever. It was as if someone had hit some kind of a restart button and we were left to pick up the pieces.

After Covid began, I had seen this meme and laughed. 2020 really did feel like it was a year full of Towers where we had to constantly shift our perceptions as our foundations shifted beneath us. At the time, I thought a deck full of the Tower card would be funny and very kitschy and very appropriate for what we were all going through.

Kaylani Perisho, the creator of the Tower Takeover Tarot, took that original meme idea and instead of having a deck simply full of Tower cards, the infused the Tower card with each different Tarot card. This changed the meaning of the cards I knew so well. It took the idea from being funny and kitschy to being transformative and introspective. It added a depth to the cards that hadn’t been there before.

I was surprised that the Tower Takeover Tarot wasn’t simply another clone deck, but a deck that stood on it’s on merits. Take the Ace of Swords for example

Normally, this card marks the beginning of a new journey. The Sword brings mental clarity and perhaps a mental breakthrough as it cuts through all the mental thoughts that try to drag us down. It is a card of writers and philosophers, thinkers and doers. However, looking at this card I was stuck by it. The hand had let go of the Sword. What did it mean if the Sword was falling? After thinking about it for some time, what occurred to me was that maybe I was afraid of the clarity that a mental breakthrough would bring. I had chosen to let go of what the Sword promised instead of facing the change that needed to happen. See how much that changes the meaning of the card?

Or take the Strength card. The woman and the lion fall through the air from the Tower. I typically read this card as choosing to be courageous to love yourself. The woman normally befriends the lion who represents all the wild parts of herself. Loving yourself can be a difficult thing to do and the Strength card asks you to consider all the ways that you are worth of love. Well, what does it mean if they are falling from the Tower? I read this version of the card as turning away from self-love, choosing fear instead of choosing to love yourself. Self-love and self-compassion can be difficult to achieve, especially if our foundations have been shaken. When I look at this card, I read it as that I’m being asked why I would turn away from self-love when it is the one thing I truly need?

How about the Ace of Wands? Normally it is the start of a new creative journey, one that will take your spirit to new places and bring light and hope. It asks you what you will create and how that will change you and make your world brighter. Well, what does it mean when the hand lets go of the Wand and lets it fall from the Tower? Well, I read this card as turning away from what brings you joy, walking away from a creative endeavour that would bring light to your life, maybe out of fear for where the new creative project would take you. It’s a lost opportunity and you have to stop and think of why you’re letting it go instead of holding tight to the joy that it brings.

See what I mean? The tradition meaning of the card is turned on its head and forces you to take a deeper look within yourself and what is going on in your life. Far from being funny and kitschy, these cards are deep and introspective. I love how the cards in this deck make you really think about the different and deeper meanings of the cards.

I was honoured when Kaylani asked me if I wanted to be in the deck. Of course I said yes. I had no idea which card she had put me on until I received my deck the other day. I was thrilled to see that I had been placed on the Page of Wands card! Normally, the Page of Wands is at the start of a new journey, one that brings possibilities and new beginnings, inspiration and new ideas. However, what about the Page of Wands falling from the Tower? When I look at this card, I read it as a fear of beginning on a new journey, turning away from inspiration and what I’m capable of. When I hit the ground, I’ll have to begin again anyways. Why try to turn away from inspiration when it will always find me?

I love everything about this deck. It comes in a hard cigarette style case and the cardstock is fabulous.  The cardstock is wonderful and the deck shuffles so well, both regular and riffle shuffling. I love how bold the card backs are, more of that lightning striking across the back. It also comes with a small guidebook that is full of information, including spreads and different draws you can do as well as questions to ask. For such a little book, it packs a whole lot in there.

All in all, this is such a wonderful deck. I didn’t think that a deck full of nothing but Tower cards could be such a life changing, inspiring deck. Kaylani Perisho calls it a transformative deck and it certainly is that. The Tower Takeover Tarot is a wonderful deck and I love everything about it. So take a chance and get yourself one. You can buy it directly from Kaylani here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/868030256/tower-takeover-tarot-deck

Kaylani has done such a fantastic job taking something that could have been tacky and turning it into something that is a lovely tool for introspective guidance and counsel. She has paid so much attention to the quality of the cards and has taken so much care with the Tower Takeover Tarot every step of the way.

Take a chance and see what the Tower can teach you!

Free Holiday eBook! A Very Tarot Christmas!

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot Books

Hey Everyone!

I’m so excited for you all to read my new holiday novella A Very Tarot Christmas! I write one every year as a gift to all of you for following me along on my journey and as a thank you for reading my work. Writing can be a very lonely profession and because of all of you, I don’t feel so alone.

When I sat down to write this year’s novella, I knew that I wanted to write about the pandemic in some way. The only worry was, how did I write a pandemic Christmas story? One of my friends gave me the idea to write about something that had the feel of the pandemic and the story took off from there.

Here’s a bit about A Very Tarot Christmas:

It doesn’t feel like Christmas, even with all the snow.

It has been snowing for three years and the snow-demic shows no signs of stopping. Joyce would feel totally alone if it weren’t for her best friend Bruno, her cat Anna and her clients. She works as an online Tarot reader, trying to provide guidance to those that need it. The only thing she won’t answer questions on are health issues and how long the snow-demic will last. No one knows the answer to that, not even Spirit.

When one of Joyce’s Tarot clients turns out to be her mother, Joyce’s world is thrown into disbelief. Her mother died when she was a teenager. What could her mother possibly have to say to her now? She turns to Bruno for help. He tells her that she will have to open her mind and listen to what Spirit has to say.

Things are about to change for Joyce and she realizes that, though she often feels alone, there are ways to come together. With a little bit of magic, Tarot cards and cats, it might finally feel like Christmas after all.

You can get your copy here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1059007

I’ve chosen to give it away through Smashwords because you can download the book in all the different formats for the different types of eReader. It’s free for you to download!

Out of all the holiday stories that I’ve written, this one is my favourite. It has everything you could need for your holiday: Tarot cards, magic, cats and a little love thrown into the mix. I really hope you enjoy Joyce’s story and that it brings the magic of the holiday alive for you.

Happy Holidays!

The Triple Moon Tarot Event!

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Tarot Readings

Candice Arseneau, Christine Gilmour and myself have an event coming up today! It’s the Triple Moon Tarot event! We will be doing tarot readings on Zoom from 2pm to 4pm. If you feel moved to do so, please feel free to donate to one of our three charities. 🙂

www.minlodge.com 

Minwaashin Lodge – Indigenous Women’s Support Center in Ottawa, ON Canada

www.felinecafeottawa.com –Charity for Rescue Cats in Ottawa, ON Canada

www.artscape.ca/donate – Provides Covid-19 relief to the Arts Community in Toronto, ON Canada

Our intent for this event was to raise the spirits of those around us and those that needed help. We wanted to help those who needed help and to bring light to everyone around us.

Make sure to tune in from 2pm to 4pm today! Just click below

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82188976990

I hope to see you all there. Sending love and light to all of you.

The 5 of Cups and Letting Go

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Personal Growth, Tarot Dreams

It has always been a dream of mine to end up on a tarot card, I just never thought it would happen.

Earl this year, I fell in love with the Harley Spenser Tarot Deck. I have a short review to come, but I loved the cards and how vibrant they are. Harley Spenser makes very deck by hand and it takes her up to three days to make one of her decks.

I got both the Harley Spenser Tarot Deck and the Bad Ass Tarot Deck. They are both fabulous and I love how they take the cards that I know but force me to think about them differently. They have deepened my relationship with tarot and the journey that I am on with the cards. They are also so much fun!

Harley was running a contest to appear on one of her cards. Well, I had my husband take a few photos and sent them in. Harley later contacted me to tell me that the pictures I had sent were perfect and that I was going to be on the card! To say that I was ecstatic was an understatement of epic proportions.

The card was the 5 of Cups. I thought of all the cards I would end up on, I did not resonate with the 5 of Cups but I really took a look at it. She had placed “Old Feelings” on the ketchup bottle that I held.

The 5 of Cups can be a difficult card to get in a reading. It symbolizes mourning and emotional adjustment, regret and disappointment. However, Harley Spenser really took a different look at the card. It’s about letting go of the old feelings that we hold on to and actively deciding to get rid of them, let them go and to move on and fill your body and bottle full of new healthy emotions.

I realized that this was the perfect card for me to end up on. I grew up in an abusive home and have weathered several abusive relationships. I have been working on viewing myself in a different way and have been trying to let go of the thoughts that those abusers left within me. The feelings of not being good enough, of not being attractive. Even though I was able to get free of the relationship, I was still carrying the negative emotions within me.

I was thrilled to have ended up on this card! When Harley Spenser sent me a card in the mail, holding it was an unreal experience. I was on a tarot card! What’s more, it represented me in ways that I hadn’t before realized. I have continued to work on letting go of old feelings and negativity. I got a few extra copies of my card and I keep one on my altar and one propped up on my desk when I write.

It’s good to have the reminder to let things go!

Check out The Harley Spenser Tarot Deck HERE.

Buy my 5 of Cups card HERE!

The Path of Tarot

by Jamieson Wolf, posted in Personal Growth

I came back to tarot in an odd way.

When I was hit with Multiple Sclerosis in January of 2013, I was lost within myself. For the longest time, I didn’t know what was wrong with me or how to cope with it. The shadows came and I found myself in a dark forest of depression.

I had to learn to walk again and speak again, I even had to wait for my vision to clear as I had gone temporarily blind. It was a long uphill battle which I almost lost. When I was able to find my way out of the dark forest, I knew that I had to find a way to heal my spirit, just as I had been trying to heal my body and my mind.

I took a few workshops on spiritual development and ended up having a tarot reading on Halloween. I had read tarot cards back in my teens and walked away from them. Finding them again was an awakening.

Within the seventy-eight cards, I found windows into my soul and my spirit. I began drawing cards every day and began to use them as part of my spiritual healing process. Within the cards, I saw pieces of myself and as I got to know them, I used the cards to put myself together again.

I write about this whole experience in my memoir Little Yellow Magnet which is the whole journey that I took to finding myself after waking up in one morning in December of 2012 with Multiple Sclerosis.  You can find that memoir HERE.

Finding the tarot again when I did was no accident. I’ve come to learn that fate has a way of steering us in the right direction, whether we realize it or not. I’ve continued to read every day for myself and for others and tarot has become such a large part of my life, not to mention my every growing tarot deck collection.

I am still walking on my path and discovering new things about myself with every step that I take. Tarot is like the signposts along the path marking the progress that I’m making. Every card that I pull every day is a mark along the road. I can look back upon those cards and realize how far I’ve come.

As I continue with tarot and the joy it brings me, I try to bring joy into the lives of other people by helping them with their personal growth. None of us are perfect and there is always work that we can do on ourselves. It’s always my focus to use tarot to help others on their journey as much as tarot helped me on my own.