Daily Dose #6: Tarot as Medicine: Mirror, Mirror
"Mirror, mirror on the wall...who, in this land, is fairest of all?"
~The Brothers Grimm~
That is the question, isn't it? The one that an aging wicked queen berates a magic mirror about time & again, desperate for validation & to be seen as the most beautiful. This story, originally told in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's fairy tales in 1812, has become part of Snow White, Disney, cinematic history, pop culture & more princess merchandise than anyone can even begin to imagine.
Personally, I feel like what the wicked queen really needed was to break the mirror to pieces or to gift it to young Snow White to let her worry about her crows feet or laugh lines & then go out on the adventures she was finally in the position to take as a rich widow. But, that wasn't her fate. In the Grimm version, she was danced to death in iron shoes heated with burning coals. Not exactly worth it--this obsessive worry over how she looked to others.
It's a worry I understand--a worry I think most of us understand. We have been asking the mirror the same question for years. Are we pretty enough? How do we look to others? What lies beneath our carefully curated surface? These questions are among the ones I recently have taken beyond the mirror to my tarot cards instead. There is clarity that can be gleaned by asking unusual questions of the tarot & I have created a 7 card tarot spread around issues of beauty, perception, fairy tales & transcendence. I will be at the Oddporium: the Gallery of the Peculiar & Bizarre on Sunday, April 24th from 2-6pm to offer readings that illuminate & offer clarity & focus on just these topics. I hope any of you local women & men (because issues of image & identity cross gender territory) interested in my Mirror, Mirror reading will come out to see me on the 24th, first come first served. These special readings are just $20 for seven cards, as my contribution to my dedicated clients & curious newcomers alike.
As an extra offering, I am willing to do a total of 7 of these Mirror, Mirror readings for my online community at the same cost as well. Please comment or reach out to me via email to set this up through Paypal & to schedule a session. I am not normally called to do online readings but was fortunate enough to do several Full Moon readings a few months ago & it was such a rewarding process for me that I want to open the Mirror, Mirror readings up to online readers again, too. My online sessions have both a written transcript & an audio or video discussion of the cards as I see them sent directly to you. Once the 7 spots are reserved, I won't be taking any more this round so that I can give each person a full & concentrated reading.
W.H. Auden said, "The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in." The same is true of the way to read tarot. I hope to see you here inside of this story with me.