Lisa Sterle

Preliminary thoughts: I was in Barnes & Noble wondering if I should re-buy the Hoodoo Tarot—that had been an experience, as I’ve always been into tarot and at that time I was interested in race and undoing the kinda Alabama Celt attitude when I was first into the Craft (my dad lived in Virginia at one point, and so somehow I was raised on the Great War of the Confederacy, which bled into my early witchy attitudes), but eventually I discarded the deck as at that time I wasn’t into tarot ~that much. (I was kinda a dabbler, and didn’t feel the need to invest in something I only did because I just did it, you know.) But I felt this money thing about spending money on the same thing twice, so I decided to buy the Modern Witch tarot.

I was a little put off by it at the first two second flip through each card, you know, although it’s funny. The Modern Witch tarot has technology and people of color, and is basically without men, you know; what could be more modern than that. (There are also giant crystal formations jutting out of the ground, as common as trees.) But as I slowly meditate through the deck, I find that it’s not as…. unfaithful, as I initially expected it to be, you know. (Not that I’m always Prince Albert the Good, the faithful lover of the prisoner-queen Victoria—the Good Man lionized by the good white British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in the Arthur book, right.) It doesn’t seem…. trivial, I guess; it’s fine. And I do like the ‘Everything Is Fine’ card, and will keep it in addition to the more standard Ten of Swords card, so for me it will actually be a 79-card tarot deck, despite not being as impenetrably divergent as say the Crowley tarot, right.

But I will probably have to buckle down and rebuy the Hoodoo Tarot, as some point, since that seems like a more, serious, diverse tarot, you know. Although this is, I don’t know, a little fun, almost. Probably more so for a girl, lol. “What fun there is, when no boys there is!!” 😝

…. Often the symbolism not related to gender or background is obviously retained, but I feel like sometimes there is less, careful, numerological etc. symbolism, less fancy if you like, less frilly about color symbolism, for example. On the other hand, aside from the background issues—and Arthur probably did have this Edwardian idea that Tarot is men being masculine, etc., despite that not being the sum total of his ideas—the (albeit kinda feminism-means-I-don’t-hafta, wanna-be-sexy thing…. And after all, there are no boys anymore! 😹), less churchy and occasionally more love-centric images give it a more cheerful disposition; Tarot isn’t trad churchy, of course, but it does kinda in the 1909 form have (although I don’t know the details of the connection) the ethos of the old Masonry—the wise old men of the Middle Ages are here to share their guild-professional maleness with you, you know. The Modern Witch tarot deck dispenses with that completely. Exaggeratedly, almost.

…. And the other thing about say the, MW 10 of Cups is, it must be really hard for super-divergent people to believe this can really be true for them—a happy family without a man to underwrite its success, etc. Even many people in straight white couples have trouble believing in the possibility of this card; they deny that feeling (of mistrust of the fates or whatever), but then act out against the super-divergent to purge their despair. The super-divergent also feel this, of course, which leads to the whole “ban money promote socialism/Jesus/street fights, etc (or, my book, lol)”.

It takes a certain amount of bravery to see this, despite the fact that sometimes we get caught in the 7 of Cups—the dreams that stay dreams, you know.

…. As non-fancy as MW is, it is a ‘faithful’ interpretation of the tarot, (not that it wouldn’t be fun to make a tarot that is mischievous or ‘bad’ or transgressive; but of course usually one needs real advice and not bullshit advice; and of course, the fires of persecution are still simmering: one has one’s reputation to think of; and the fact that most people are still idiotic, and would not know how to process bullshit advice correctly, you know); in the booklet they do talk about all the ordinary grown-up themes of real advice and not being a bullshitter, basically. Of course, I’m throwing away the booklet at the end to make room for a selenite crystal in there: it comes with its own box, although it isn’t that big, lol….

…. I like the nature/plants/growth on the Ace of Pentacles card; money energy, in its healthy form, is at one with the energy of nature and biology and so on.

…. I think it’s also clever how the Five of Pentacles retains the image of a church in the background, even though most Christian symbolism has been removed from MW. People who are in need still often find themselves confronted by the symbols of the institutional church, you know. One way to express that is to say that many people now (perhaps always) only allowed themselves to “darken the door of a church” when crisis tossed them through an open window into the sanctuary. The other, of course, is that many, perhaps most, poor people have to accept Christian charity even if they’re non-Christians who have been wounded by the church. (shrugs)

…. (5 of Pentacles cont.) It’s like if you have money you have to give to the poor to erase some of the stain of being comfortable, and if you’re poor you have to take money from a minister and be more Christian than the rest of us to erase some of the stain of being poor, and if you’re a jolly country boy with an old truck, you can listen to sinful tunes on that beat up old radio and not give a hoot about the church and its poor, not knowing the “sins” of poverty and comfort, you know.

…. It’s funny how the MW Nine of Pentacles girl is this homely farmer chick who ever-so-obviously isn’t trying on dresses or going to a garden party or cultivating subtle chic, you know. And why not—there are no boys in MW, so why dress up? (I guess it’s not lesbian, lol.) Which is actually kinda flattering via being non-flattering, you know: because many girls out there ~do~ dress up and try to seem like they’re going to a garden party (perhaps one in France or, indeed, set in 1909, lol). Not every girl all the time, of course—you do see girls go out and about with a half-scowl on their face and a sci-fi sweater that says they worship the ruler of dragons and kill gossips in its name, you know. (Maybe their last boyfriend was a normie, lol.) But many girls do dress up and look pretty—it’s more common than not for a young girl to be pretty, and I suppose the youth is only the half of it, really. It’s not uncommon, because there are men out there….

…. And it’s funny, because it is easier for me like women in the sci-fi/dissent culture (to take the general sci-fi culture; maybe not Star Trek, right), as opposed to the guys. The woman wearing her I Kill You Soon or whatever shirt (it’s dumb, lol) probably has had one too many bad relationships or thinly-veiled gendered insults; it’s easy not to feel offended. She’s not going to punch you in the face; it’s just her, No Dates All Week outfit, right. With the guy who’s a sci-fi freak, it’s a little harder not to reach for that assumption that he needs (ironically) a cute slogan to solidify male rule, basically. Maybe that’s not fair, but realistically that’s often what I think. “Street fighting for street fighting’s sake, art for art’s sake, and Street Fighter 17: Streets of Leningrad 1917, now on sale for 3.99 off, this weekend only!” And yeah: plenty of guys: (arms) Wherever I go, my choices are limited because I’m a dick! HOW can I not be a dick, if I’m a man! Men are dicks! Not treating people the right way is a necessary and logical attachment to that organ! I want my rights! (screws up face) You’ll just have to learn to live with it [inside you lol].”

Although, sure, there are differences between the way real men act online and in public: death threats to the generic rich person vs mocking admittedly repetitive lowest-common-denominator radio music for a skittish public, right…. Although I don’t feel like I’ve ever felt flattered because of an interaction with a real man, right. Tolerated: grudgingly, reluctantly, temporarily, but….

…. But yeah maybe one day Hermes will be a Modern Witch, too.

(Athene) Bro, I didn’t punch you to turn you on; I need my autonomy. I’m a complete person.
(Hermes) Aww, but now I’m just my penis. I love my penis; he’s like my son. Wouldn’t you do anything for your son?
(Athene) BRO!! (throws up hands, walks away)

😟

…. But yeah, it’s a modern tarot, and tarot is modern, for me; she talks of a “resurgence” of tarot, but really, while we might talk of a “resurgence” of runes, I don’t think there’s ever been a time before when tarot has blossomed to the extent it is now; it’s the unfolding evolution of tarot. Although I do think the images go back to an occult oral tradition to Egypt or somewhere, although not in their current form, and although there’s no tree except it has roots and obviously there was magic before—I think that sometimes magic evolves and the stereotype is wrong that Merlin is withered and half-dead at best, you know. As for that old Masonry stuff—oh the craft-of-men; there used to be more of us, in the Middle Ages!, you know—I hate to hate on the men, even the older stock of men, but if there’s been an age before that had the resources we have, there’s since been some mighty cataclysm of a wall in between to bar the way, you know. And we should be grateful for our evolution, for where it’s taken us, and wherever it takes us.

…. EVERYTHING IS FINE.

…. (The reading) (random number generator) Three. I’ll pick three cards.

This little “reading” is something I usually do to ask the deck about itself, although I know that’s kinda weird, but it’s nice for the purposes of my reviews, and my understanding, you know. It gives me a chance to take a sample of the deck and see what it’s like and how it diverges from 1909 and so on. I kinda did that with the reason in the earlier part—this card, that card, seems distinctive—but chance places things in the care of the gods, and is also helpful….

The three cards I got: King of Cups; Two of Pentacles; Ace of Swords.

I felt good about drawing these cards and what MW was communicating to me about itself. The King of Cups shows a masc-y influence, despite them all being women, but it’s also a masc-y person who has a feminine side, because of the suit, so I think it shows this sense of more flow, people not being walled in by barriers or lack of either respect or flexibility. The Ace of Swords shows a very strong masculine influence, and the hand grasping the sword is one of the very few really masculine or possibly masculine/not unambiguously female figures, of the feminine or masc-y varieties, in the deck. And in between is the Two of Pentacles girl, who looks very similar to the Rider image, despite the gender flip, and it is kinda a neoclassic deck, despite the superficially striking changes, you know. It’s not a complicated or ‘difficult’ deck or anything like that. And it shows the sense of gentle change that you look for in something that calls itself “modern”—as opposed to just literally updated recently or whatever—and in a serene, gentle way…. And all three figures are Black/African descent, which is kinda what I wanted; I didn’t consciously go in looking for a femme-y deck, you know; I just got the Hoodoo Tarot back in the mail today, and I’m happy about that, but as medieval or antique-y as Tarot is, or is somewhat, anyway, I felt weird about asking the Black people, in particular, to only be represented by antique plantation Old South culture, even in terms of the underground stuff. I’ve heard it said that (to use a musical metaphor) it’s a “post-soul” world, you know…. I hate to drag anybody down, but you’d almost have to be a Christian to say, These are the plantation blues recordings from 1942: they represented [past tense, lol] the underground, the alternative, the shunned…. ~It’s nice to have tradition without it being dead troublemakers rehabilitating the people who held them down under a tiny pool of water, you know. It’s good that tarot can change.… (meer)

This was sooo good, even better than I thought it would be! It’s like a mashup of Mean Girls x Teen Wolf x Promising Young Woman. The writing was so good, the art was fantastic! I loved how in the scenes with her mom, Becca would have an internal monologue of what each of them “really meant” when they said certain things. It really showed their misunderstandings and their need for better communication.

The dialogue in general felt real and not like how some shows or books will have teens talking that is totally overdoing it. Also, this being a sapphic werewolf story was really cool to see, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen an f/f relationship in a werewolf story before.… (meer)