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deirdreI knew I'd like Thalassa when she opened with the line: "At this convention, I assume that crackpot theories don't daunt you."
When someone offered a crackpot theory of their own, Thalassa retorted with, "If that sorts your sock drawer, okay."
Someone asked about astral travel, and she pointed out that she called her soul "Fred," and then went on to say, "it's not about astral travel; it's about giving Fred walkies." That image still sends me in fits of giggles.
"I loved the DaVinci code — it's like a b-tree for metaphysics."
"We are polluting the groundwater of consensus reality."
"[Tarot] is the clothesline upon which we hang our metaphysical laundry. It'll hang anything, even bad art."
She loves problem cards, because they are the cards that cause us to look deeper for alternative meanings and help us look at the story the cards are trying to tell rather than the immediate "omg" sort of reaction.
She says there's four cards of change (which frighten us in part because we are "comfort-seeking missiles" and change disturbs us):
She gave a card to everyone, and someone got the Devil card. Thalassa, loving problem cards said that the Devil card is often about what we resist, and if we resist it long enough, it'll develop the "three Fs" (fur, fangs, and phosphorescence).
Needless to say, it was great fun to spend an hour and a half in Thalassaland, "which is a lovely place with a waterslide."
My take on the major arcana: it covers the story cycle pretty well (the path of the hero). In fact, there's a tarot book on same. Within the 1-10, there's also a beginning (ace) to end (ten) cycle.
After the panel, I was sitting across from someone who was doing a reading for herself that had what several people would consider "alarming" cards (three of swords being one of them, stereotypically the "heartbreak" card). The one that worried her, though was the five of pentacles because she disliked fives. I pointed out that if you look at them like they're going 1-10 around the path of the hero, five is at the bottom in the underworld. You're halfway there, but you don't feel halfway there.
That seemed to give her some comfort.
As a writer, sometimes I like to pull out cards for plot points (based on what I think the most appropriate card is for that point in the plot), so I can sort of see the plot visually. It can help me see plot problems. Sometimes, if I'm stuck, I'll try cards in different arrangements until one seems right.
Another thing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
agormley and I have done: a 7-card spread on Algis Budrys's classic 7-point plot, picking one card each for:
When someone offered a crackpot theory of their own, Thalassa retorted with, "If that sorts your sock drawer, okay."
Someone asked about astral travel, and she pointed out that she called her soul "Fred," and then went on to say, "it's not about astral travel; it's about giving Fred walkies." That image still sends me in fits of giggles.
"I loved the DaVinci code — it's like a b-tree for metaphysics."
"We are polluting the groundwater of consensus reality."
"[Tarot] is the clothesline upon which we hang our metaphysical laundry. It'll hang anything, even bad art."
She loves problem cards, because they are the cards that cause us to look deeper for alternative meanings and help us look at the story the cards are trying to tell rather than the immediate "omg" sort of reaction.
She says there's four cards of change (which frighten us in part because we are "comfort-seeking missiles" and change disturbs us):
- Death: long change
- Hanging man: we're waiting for change
- Judgment: planning for change, moving forward
- Tower: sometimes, you have to burn the crops
She gave a card to everyone, and someone got the Devil card. Thalassa, loving problem cards said that the Devil card is often about what we resist, and if we resist it long enough, it'll develop the "three Fs" (fur, fangs, and phosphorescence).
Needless to say, it was great fun to spend an hour and a half in Thalassaland, "which is a lovely place with a waterslide."
My take on the major arcana: it covers the story cycle pretty well (the path of the hero). In fact, there's a tarot book on same. Within the 1-10, there's also a beginning (ace) to end (ten) cycle.
After the panel, I was sitting across from someone who was doing a reading for herself that had what several people would consider "alarming" cards (three of swords being one of them, stereotypically the "heartbreak" card). The one that worried her, though was the five of pentacles because she disliked fives. I pointed out that if you look at them like they're going 1-10 around the path of the hero, five is at the bottom in the underworld. You're halfway there, but you don't feel halfway there.
That seemed to give her some comfort.
As a writer, sometimes I like to pull out cards for plot points (based on what I think the most appropriate card is for that point in the plot), so I can sort of see the plot visually. It can help me see plot problems. Sometimes, if I'm stuck, I'll try cards in different arrangements until one seems right.
Another thing
agormley and I have done: a 7-card spread on Algis Budrys's classic 7-point plot, picking one card each for:- a character
- in a context
- has a problem
- s/he tries to solve the problem
- and fails — tries and fails twice more, stakes escalating (one card for each attempt, btw)
- victory or death
- validation (denouement)