Category: Tarot Interviews

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Soul Cats Tarot: A Deck Interview

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Soul Cats Tarot by Leeza Robertson and Adam Oehlers
Image by Victoria Constantino

This deck interview is based on the spread and corresponding questions by Katey Flowers.

Soul Cats Tarot is the newest deck by prolific author and deck creator, Leeza Robertson. The gorgeous illustrations are from UK-based artist Adam Oehlers. This deck releases from Llewellyn in April 2022 in the US and in May 2022 in Canada and the UK. 

It was a pleasure to sit with this deck for an interview. A deck interview is a wonderful way to get to know the personality of a deck. In my experience working with tarot and oracle cards, messages arrive in different ways from different decks, which can color our perspective and interpretation of a reading. 

After working with Soul Cats for a few days, I found it to have a strong healing aspect. It also provided a new (to me) way of looking at the cards through the interpretations written in the guidebook. The artwork is intriguing and captures the essence of the cats and their relation to each card. So, without further ado, the interview:

Q: What can you teach us? 

A: The Fool

The teachings of this deck offer fresh wisdom and new approaches, present new ways of thinking, and can provide guidance for the journey ahead. Every day is a new beginning, I am reminded, and our power is always in the now. Where there are new beginnings, this deck can be a touch point along the journey. It’s the guide that says, Take my hand, I’ll show you the way, and then I’ll show you how to find it for yourself.

Q: Describe yourself.

A: Justice

Where justice is an equalizer, this deck balances the scales, bringing clarity where there is confusion and harmony where there is chaos. More than simply shining a light on the truth, it provides understandings that help us to attain balance in our understanding and from there, to forge a better path ahead.

Q: Describe your audience.

A: Page of Swords

This card portrays a dreamer, a visualizer, someone creating a new path that originated long ago, perhaps with dreams and goals established in youth. Do journeys begin in the mind or the heart? The suit of Swords relates to the mental realm, and can have to do with where we are focusing. The Page of Swords tells of new beginnings gestating in the mind.

Q: How can we work together? 

A: Temperance

This deck can help with tapping into our own power and magic. Temperance specifically calls attention to opposing forces and may ask us to consider how we can unite those forces or use them both to our advantage. It also asks us to relax and flow to let the magic in. This deck encourages balance and helps provide perspective, all the while pointing us back to the greatest source of knowledge, which is within.

Q: Your strengths

A: The Sun

This deck’s potent capacity for delivering messages and energies of healing, along with its words and images, can be a balm to the heart, providing us with peace and the understanding we need to reach a place of greater harmony. This deck provides illumination and clarity, which we can make best use of from a place of receptivity. It has a sunny, cheerful personality and is a source of wisdom that can guide us to improvements.

Q: Your weaknesses

A: The Star

This deck won’t (and no deck can) do the work for you. It’s up to each of us to tap into our own inner knowledge and guidance. True radiance comes from within, and when we find that luminous place within, we shine from there. We can use this deck’s guidance to gain clarity and perspective, but from there, the rest is up to us. However, this is less of a weakness than an aspect. This card underscores the message that the deck will show you the way, but the rest is up to you.

Q: Our potential together

A: Two of Swords and Knight of Cups

This deck provides a new perspective that can help in broadening one’s outlook. We can ruminate on its unique teachings and how they might apply to our own lives. Feeling into its messages and what they have to teach us can provide deeper clarity and understanding. Above all, this deck rewards contemplation. When working with it, really sitting with its messages and using it as a meditation or journaling tool can yield valuable results. 

You can preorder this deck from Llewellyn.com and read more about the author and illustrator.

Blog, Tarot Interviews

An Interview with Kristine Fredheim

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Image by Victoria Constantino

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Kristine Fredheim, creator of the Soul Cards tarot. As it is easily my favorite deck and the one I use exclusively for my daily tarot draws on social media, I thought it would be nice to take a look behind the scenes and gain a bit of insight on its creation to discover what could have inspired such a beautiful deck.

Q: Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background.

A: I am an acclaimed psychic medium, spiritual advisor, and writer. I have a Master’s degree in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and launched Soul Life in 2014 to help people connect with their spirituality, find hope, heal, and achieve their full potential. 

At a young age, I discovered I had the ability to see the past, present, and future, as well as connect with loved ones who have passed on. With these experiences and insights, I authored two books, entitled Behind My Face and The Ring Power, and have been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. I have been featured in Elle, Forbes, Teen Vogue, and the Jenny McCarthy Show, among many others, and I advise some of the most influential figures in the entertainment industry. 

I have also always had a passion for investigating unsolved crimes. I am currently working on projects that harness my psychic intuition and mediumship abilities to help uncover key clues and make crucial discoveries to solve missing persons and murder cases, among others.

In 2019, I launched my own line of tarot card decks entitled Soul Cards in memory of my late mother, who introduced me to spirituality. I’m a loving mother to two young boys.

Q: Could you talk a little more about the inspiration behind the Soul Cards deck?

A: My mom was the one who introduced me to spirituality and she brought the decks out on the kitchen table when I was nine. She had just divorced my dad. It became a thing we bonded with together, but I always thought the tarot cards were weird and crazy-looking. So when my mom passed away in 2012, I wanted to create something in her memory and rebrand spirituality at the same time! That‘s how the Soul Cards were born.

Q: Do you read tarot for yourself?

A: I do tarot for myself every day. And every Sunday, I do a tarot reading to see how my week will look, what kind of energy will be present for each day. I love this little ritual and I often do tarot if I have questions or if I’m wondering something about my personal life. They always serve me with clarity! 

Q: As a psychic medium, what value do you find in tarot?

A: The value I find is just validation really, and it’s also a lot of fun! 

Q: Would you say there is a point at which someone on the spiritual path might want to shift away from tarot to tap into energy instead as their abilities develop, or do you think tarot always has value, no matter where we are on our path?

A: I always think tarot has value. It’s important not to use it as a crutch, but rather to create a balance to practice your intuition while using the cards.

Q: Tarot cards have a variety of meanings and nuances. What advice would you give for interpreting the messages of the cards?

A: I honestly didn’t even want to have descriptions on the website because I wanted people to follow their intuition while using the cards and learn that way. I was voted down big time. I believe that the meaning you give each card will serve you. Theres no right or wrong meaning; the cards will give you the messages still.

Learn more about the gorgeous Soul Cards and discover the world of Kristine Fredheim.

Blog, Tarot Interviews

Oracle of Mystical Moments: A Deck Interview

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Oracle of Mystical Moments by Catrin Welz-Stein
Image by Victoria Constantino

This deck interview uses the spread and corresponding questions by Katey Flowers.

Originally drawn to this oracle deck for the otherworldly yet timeless qualities of its artwork, I’ve found that it conveys meaning primarily through its imagery. Though I suppose that can be said of all (or most) decks, the messages in the Oracle of Mystical Moments are directly informed by its resonating qualities of beauty and the celebration of the natural world. We sat down for an interview, and here’s what it had to say.

What can you teach me? To the Moon and Back
Keywords: Desires, Wishes, Longings

This deck can reveal desires that are hidden and the path to attainment. It provides encouragement to reach for goals and the reminder that we all have wings; we just need to remember how to fly.

Describe yourself: Pure Nature
Keywords: Grace, Blooming, Youth, Freshness

This deck honors the natural world and brings a sense of fresh vitality to readings. It reminds us of the pleasures of nature and that we are an integral part of it. It is through this lens that this deck offers guidance, bringing to the fore the simultaneous ephemerality and eternal spirit that characterize nature. Like us, nature is eternal in its continuity of cycles, yet each flower has its day in the sun and so should be treasured while it blooms.

Describe me: All Is Connected
Keywords: Innovation, Transformation, Growth, Release

The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.

How can we work together? White Rose of Hope
Keywords: Hope, Beacon, Solution, Beginnings

This deck is a resource that can be tapped into for solutions, guidance, and direction. It offers illumination to light the way forward.

Your strengths: Flower Spirit
Keywords: Friendship, Soul, Tenderness, Joy

The lovely artwork of the cards reveals everything the keywords mention above. The spirit of this deck is captured through the images, which convey how beautiful life can be. It encourages us to open our hearts and minds to the wondrous possibilities that are all around us and helps us to forge and strengthen our connection with them.

Your weaknesses: Eva
Keywords: Duplicity, Deception, Caution

Like a friend who fibs to spare your feelings, this deck may present things through rose-colored glasses and may not always be completely forthcoming. Whether this plays out in the form of actual deception or gentle glossing over remains to be seen, but there is wisdom to be gained here: knowing this aspect will encourage me to tune into my own awareness and intuition above all.

Our potential together: Elixir of Life
Keywords: Healing, Consolidation, Reinvigoration, Truth

Through the messages it conveys, this deck can provide guidance that brings about restoration and healing. While the indication of truth seems to veer from the card above, ultimately, it is a medium through which deeper understandings are conveyed that can bring about a consolidation of wisdom and encourage their integration.

Blog, Tarot Interviews

The Threads of Fate: A Deck Overview

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The Threads of Fate by Brit June and Blaire Porter
Image by Victoria Constantino

Have you ever felt a deck call to you? Like crystals, sometimes they reach out, asking you to bridge the connection. It is a way of energetically, vibrationally communicating that they hold medicine for you, that they have something to teach you, that they can help you in some way. It was that way for me with this oracle deck.

The moment I unwrapped it, I could feel it has something to teach me. Its wisdom feels deep and timeless, and as I shuffled the cards for the first time, I could sense that they reward a meditative approach. Slowly, they seemed to communicate. Sit here awhile. Feel the energy. Let’s get to know one another. And so I did. And so we did.

Sitting in communion with the messages until they are understood is the most effective means of working with this deck. It is like soul work, in that sense, which rewards the meditative, slow approach, as knowledge builds upon itself and realizations dawn with each new asking and exploration and growth becomes as a result of the questionings and answerings layer by layer, as with each reflection, meditation, journal entry, with each moment of stillness, we slowly begin to understand ourselves and our lives and who we are, where we are going, and why, and in this way, we begin to approach true self-knowledge.

In response to my query for a card describing the deck, I received The Pillar. That is to say that it is a pillar of wisdom, a structural support through the teaching it can offer, and also a container, holding space for the reader to tap into their own internal guidance and connect with their higher truths. So it is, in that sense, also a conduit.

In the guidebook, the authors indicate that this is precisely why the deck was created. It is intended, they write, “to help you establish a deeper relationship with yourself, your intuition and all the allies, guides, and spirits you may work with. The most important thing is that you feel empowered and unlock your own personal medicine.” And there begins the journey.

Blog, Tarot Interviews

A Jane Austen Tarot Deck: An Interview

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A Jane Austen Tarot Deck by Jacqui Oakley
Image by Victoria Constantino

This deck interview uses the spread and corresponding questions by Katey Flowers.

In this charming deck, Clubs = Wands, Diamonds = Pentacles, Hearts = Cups, and Spades = Swords.

The Deck’s Personality

I found this deck to be very forthright, refreshingly so, allaying my initial concerns that it would offer only surface readings lacking any real depth. It has substance and a certain manner of getting to the heart of things, conveying truth in no uncertain terms—much like Jane Austen herself.

Additional Aspects

One thing to note about the deck—and this may be considered a benefit or a compromise—is that, because it is structured on playing cards and doubles as a gameplay deck, the Major Arcana cards are duplicated over the Minor Arcana. For example, The World is also the Ace of Diamonds (Pentacles), The Sun doubles as the Nine of Clubs (Wands), and so on. Ultimately, as with any tarot deck, the reader should use their instinct to direct them in the interpretation, considering the question, the situation at hand, the influences of surrounding cards, and what their intuition is telling them.

In a feature perhaps more suited for novice readers or those who read purely for entertainment, the accompanying guidebook distills the essence of each card into a single word. Those are included in parentheses following each card below.

What can you teach me? Jack of Clubs (Energy)

This deck accurately conveys the energy of a situation or undertaking. It has a firm pulse on the inner workings and motivations of a thing or situation; it is an instrument of acute vibrational attunement.

Describe yourself: 7 of Spades/The Chariot (Assertion)

Before doing this interview spread, I gave myself a reading and came to the conclusion that this deck’s personality is characterized by forthrightness, as mentioned above. My observation is confirmed in this card, whose keyword is, aptly enough, assertion.

Describe me: 2 of Diamonds (Adaptability)

Go with the flow, live and let live, make the best of every situation. What can I say? Adaptability is my superpower.

How can we work together? 3 of Diamonds (Collaboration)

I love the literalness of this. Yes, we will indeed be working together collaboratively. It’s the beginning of a beautiful partnership.

Your strengths: 3 of Hearts (Celebration) & 5 of Diamonds/The Hierophant (Tradition)

This deck celebrates traditions—again, so literal! It honors the beloved author, embodying the essence of her personality and her persona as a writer, while embracing the lovely heritage her work encompasses. The strengths that shine through in this deck are some of the same strengths that defined her life, work, and personality.

Your weakness: 7 of Hearts (Choice)

This deck’s weakness is not really a weakness, per se. This card simply confirms that the deck cannot dictate for us, that ultimately it can only guide us as we rely on our free will to make our own choices and determine our fate. This card seems to say, The choice is yours and reminds us that we are the masters of our own reality. After all, as Jane Austen wrote, “We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”

Our potential together: Ace of Diamonds/The World (Completion)

Ah, this is interesting. The World comes to say that this deck can be a powerful tool to help guide me to the best outcomes in any situation, and its aspect as the Ace of Pentacles indicates it can help steer me toward new beginnings and help me to see new potential. Whatever questions I bring to it, it will be a loyal companion, assisting me in ways that will benefit my highest good and show me accurately the outcomes so I can make informed decisions and move ahead in confidence.

Blog, Tarot Interviews

The Wild Unknown: A Deck Interview

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The Wild Unknown Tarot Deck by Kim Krans
Image by Victoria Constantino

This deck interview uses the spread and corresponding questions by Katey Flowers.

In a time in which a pandemic is sweeping the mass consciousness, I followed my inner urging to do something fun, to invest in something new that would bring me joy. I have long admired The Wild Unknown tarot deck and in my seeking, happily found it in a bookstore. I like to start off my partnership with every new deck on the right foot, as it were, with a getting-to-know-you interview. This provides an introduction and is a way for me to understand the energy and personality of a new deck.

The results from my interview with The Wild Unknown reveal a deck that cuts to the bone, that takes no part in fluff or sugar-coating. This deck deals with primal archetypes, with universal symbology that is the essence of life distilled. It is the subsconscious made apparent, revealing itself in images that speak to who we truly are, rather than who we think we are.

What can you teach me? The Self

In the most literal interpretation, this deck can teach me about myself on deep levels that help me understand my subsconscious mind and inner workings.

Describe yourself: The Vessel

This deck is a conduit, a means through which information is carried, held, and contained.

Describe me: The Mother

The mother is a creator, a life-giver, a magician of sorts, a source of life and creativity, especially in the sense of creation, and new beginnings. The divine feminine, to some degree, lives within us all, as we all generate and incubate our own reality.

How can we work together? The Mask

This deck can teach me about myself and show me the layers that make up my persona, personality, inclinations, talents, and the true identity beneath it all. It reveals both the mask and what is beneath it.

Your strengths: The Stone

This deck is reliable, as it is founded on archetypes which are immutable though always in flux, eternal yet ever-changing. Its wisdom is an anchor.

Your weakness: The Box

This deck is necessarily limited in that it cannot possibly reveal everything or include every archetype. It can guide, but the ultimate and most meaningful guidance comes from within.

Our potential together: The Judge

This deck can act as a compass and as an advocate for discernment, guiding me to make choices that are balanced and just, given the energies at hand.