Wildgrove Circle

05/19/2026

I got this amazing picture of the moon last night!

05/19/2026

I would like to show you pictures of Friday’s new moon, but it was raining hard most of the night. But here are a few pictures of previous new moons….always beautiful.

05/19/2026

She was beautiful on Friday….

05/17/2026

Look! It’s the Big Dipper!

05/17/2026

Goddess! Look at those stars!

05/17/2026

A group of us went to the Fort Nisqually living history museum today for the birthday celebration of Queen Victoria. It was a re-creation of what such a celebration would have been like back when most of what would become Pierce county was owned by the British Hudson Bay Company. We had a blast! (Sometimes literally when they shot the cannon!)

05/12/2026

So, a little history on tarot cards can shed a bit of light on some of the symbolism, etc.

The original tarot decks were developed in the mid 1400s as card games. The oldest surviving tarot deck is the Visconti Storza Tarot that was commissioned for noble families in Milan, Italy. However, there were not really any “pictures” until the Marseille deck. The Marseille tarot deck was also the first deck with 78 cards. It is a commonly held belief that the Marseille deck’s Major Arcana cards were a strong influence on the imagery of later tarot decks, including the Rider-Waite.

There are some historians who credit the change of tarot from “card game” to divination tool to the Etteilla Tarot created by Jean-Baptiste Alliette in the late 1700s. The Sola Busca Tarot was the first deck to have fully illustrated number cards (called “pips”).

The Sola Busca tarot deck and several others were created during the “Occult Revival” period of the 1800s. Ceremonial magic and its symbolism increasingly influenced tarot decks created then, which all pre-dated the development of the Rider-Waite tarot deck in 1909.

The Rider-Waite tarot deck was actually created by Arthur Edward Waite, who commissioned the illustrations to Patricia Coleman Smith. There has been a strong movement to honor the woman who actually did the illustrations, working from Waite’s content and instructions by referring to the tarot deck as “Smith-Waite”.
(Most of the facts here were taken from articles in Wikipedia)

I am awaiting a reproduction of the Sola Busca tarot deck and will post further pictures with its comparable card from the Smith-Waite deck when we reach that card in our study and discussions.

Do you have an older or reproduction of an old tarot deck? What do you like or not like about it? Would love to see a picture!

05/09/2026

This looks like a blast! Anyone interested?

Join us at Fort Nisqually Living History Museum for a day of revelry in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday! Celebrate with cannon fire and Victorian finery.

05/06/2026

Learning about the Tarot:The Rider Waite deck
I have identified as a Pagan since 1998 and embraced being a witch about 4-5 years later.

But I have never “clicked” well with tarot cards. I could generally do a reading for myself, using a few books to interpret the meanings, but readings always felt awkward. And sometimes my feelings about a card and what it meant didn’t match the description in any book.

So, I put divination tools aside and focused on other aspects of my craft.

But recently I have had some great discussions with a few friends about the meanings of specific cards. This encouraged me to start actually studying each card, discussing the cards with a friend or two, and really focusing on learning the tarot cards.

So, I am the Fool, just starting out on this journey. I am using a few books to help me with understanding some of the interpretations:

* “The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot” by Johannes Fiebig & Evelin Burger, copyright 2013

* “How to: Read the Tarot” by Sylvia Abraham, copyright 2004

So, I would like to ask you, Circle followers (and others) what books do you recommend?

05/02/2026

Beltane and May Day!