Making Sense of Cards When They Look Like Hunh?

The symbols and scenery on my Postcard Tarot—or any traditional deck—can be confusing at first. But I’m your guide, here to help you decode them. Such as—literally, mentally, intuitively, experientially, figuratively, metaphorically, nominally. Enquiring into an image through various perspectives can be very rewarding.

This spread of six cards can be read left to right as a sentence. I drew the cards blindly from my collection of hundreds shortly after the Chinese New Year to get a read on how things will go this year.

We can’t see the whole of every picture but the first card reads, ‘In a crowded room my eyes will always land on you’. It’s from a greeting card one might send to a lover. Is this a genuine expression of affection or fawning loyalty to an insecure authority?

The second card is of a Vietnamese tabletop hot pot. I don’t know why Americans don’t embrace this Asian restaurant tradition where a fire is lit at the center of a table and fresh ingredients are thrown into a pot or small wok. Everything cooks before your eyes, and fast!

Then we have a fully armored soldier on an armored horse, ready with javelin, for battle. A soldier from such a medieval time served a King. Horses carry men faster than they can run. It reminds me of horsepower. Hey, the way that hot pot is just behind the horse it sure looks like he’s got a fire under his ass. Beneath him we see beams of light streaming down onto people traveling through Grand Central Station. The way the lights rain down behind the diva like that reminds me of a Taylor Swift concert.
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She’s featured in a poster for a production of Ken Ludwig’s screwball farce Lend Me A Soprano, a female version of his earlier farce, Lend Me A Tenor. A key feature of most comedies and tragedies is the feature of last minute tension. Disaster has struck the Opera House. Will the show go on? It must. Replacements fill in. Huh, seems to have some September dates on there. My favorite month to go to the beach, usually on my birthday, September 2!

Seashells. Finally! After all that firepower, we have water. Shells are protective, hard exoskeletons. Hey, that reminds me of the armor on the soldier and horse. created by soft-bodied marine invertebrates known as mollusks. These creatures, including clams, snails, oysters and scallops secrete minerals to build their shells, using them for protection. When the mollusk dies, empty shells are often inhabited by hermit crabs, fish, or octopuses. A shell is a home. Time to go crabbing!

You may have already intuited why I bolded certain words. I see them as keys. And how they play into an archetypal story or how they play out in reality is very interesting. As the year plays out, it’ll be interesting to see what correlations you can make between the cards and big ticket events. Some I mentioned. Here are a few more. Can you see others? Mark Your Calendars To Revisit This Reading After September!

Loyalty — Trump Notoriously Demands It
Authority — Debate About Where It Lies In Branches of Government
Fire + Horse — Isn’t This The Year of The Fire Horse? Artemis II Rocket
Everything Cooks — Record Heat, Bombings
Fast + Swift —Epic Fury, “In Two Weeks”
Medieval Times — Like The Stone Ages?
King — Like The No Kings Rallies?
Fire Under His Ass — What Leader Doesn’t Experience Extreme Pressure?
Grand Central — I Think It’s Called ‘The Grand Ballroom…’
Beams Of Light Streaming Down — Missiles Over Middle East, Meteor Fireball 3/17 
Screwball Farce — Features Surprises. Very Odd. (Must Find The Hilarity)
Comedies + Tragedies — Heightened This Year
Last Minute Tension — Ceasefire? No Ceasefire. Stay Tuned!
Disaster + Opera — War And Unbelievable Drama
Replacements — Trump Cabinet Figures, Jimmy Kimmel? Steven Colbert.
Birthday — It’s America’s 250th! And Iran’s 6,000th+
Water — Flooding in Hawaii and Elsewhere
Protective Exoskeletons — Iron Dome
Shell Casings — At The Crime Scenes Everywhere