I’ve Been Sleeping with the ShadowFox …

So… I discovered this deck by chance a few weeks back when I was sat up way too late for most people, happily painting away and tuned into the radio, to keep me company… I was listening to Inner State Highways where  Sherry Shone was a guest and in between her causing me to shake with laughter many times, with her many tarot tales, she piqued my interest with a comment along the lines of being able to tell what sort of person she was reading for by the deck they chose… and that very often a Virgo would opt for the ShadowFox…

Now I’m a Virgo… albeit a very cuspy one… so I went to look up the deck… and I thought…mmmm… that’s interesting, that’s not at all the usual type of deck I would plump for to read with… However… If I was sat opposite a reader and being read to… well then yes! I probably would pick up that deck as curiosity would no doubt get the better of me and I’d want to know how it worked… On the other side of the table… I would throw down the challenge… Read for me! Show me what you’ve got!

So a quick impulse buy later and I’m waiting on a new deck… It arrives pretty quick and I am more than delighted! I didn’t take the time to check out the details… so when it arrives… and I realise I’ve bought a Schiffer deck… I am head over heels with glee!!

I love Schiffer decks!! You can’t beat them for card quality and the best bit… OH!! Those boxes with the magnetic clasps… and shhhhh…. here’s a little secret… they come with cardboard inserts inside, to give a snug fit… but it serves very nicely as a false bottom and a handy hiding place to stash a crystal or two or maybe a talisman… out-of-the-way of prying eyes… 😉

The other thing with Schiffer… no LWB… no you get a BFB …Big… Fat… Book… This deck comes with a Book of Shadows.

Now… I  must admit… it’s not that often I take time to read the paperwork that comes with a deck… So… I picked this up and gave it a cursory thumb flip and oh!! How cool is that? It is packed full with every correspondence you could ask for… It’s like someone sifted all the books that I have gathered and scattered around my house over the last nearly 30 years and took out all the top tips and put them in one handy place. In fact… I think even if this deck doesn’t float your boat, it’s worth getting just for the book…

So… like I say… this is not my usual gig… I love my colour and my first hit comes from there as the cards land down like chords of music and I get the tone and feel… and whether we’re singing in major or minor…

So…I asked the ShadowFox… What sort of character are you?

So… it threw out this duo for me… Which instantly made me laugh, as it brought to mind Judge Dredd and when old judges go off to retire… It seemed to say to me… I hold in my hands the knowledge of a life time… I’ve seen the lightness and the dark side of life and I walk out among the crowds and spread my word and those who care to listen will hear…

Anyway… I’ve spent a while wandering around, in and out of these cards… and they seem to inhabit a strange place of neither here nor there, as though all the characters in the cards inhabit some vast empty waiting room… Like I imagine souls go to hang out whilst they are waiting to be born or reborn… And it has a strange eerie effect on me… Like sitting with the lotophagi…
and I’ve worked with decks that have had that effect before… I call them the Narcolepsy & NotePad decks… They drift in and out and are a bit like making a cup of tea, in that you have to leave it time to brew…

There’s a couple of cards that stand out for me… in that they have no Shadow…

So… the Tower that amuses me, in that the Shadow has become disconnected… and my first response to this card was – Hey! Peter Pan! I told you to ask Wendy to stitch that on for you, so you wouldn’t lose it…

And I’m sure if I’d been schooled in Jung, I’d probably have much more to say about that…

I also like Death… firstly because he is pretty rip roaring rather than R.I.P and makes me think of Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider…though when I finish chuckling… I’m quite surprised at the number of Buddhist quotes that come seeping in… there were several that wafted in and out but the two Buddha quotes that remain, I will share…

‘Wisdom makes light the darkness of ignorance’

&

‘He who lives by the sword eats with bloody hands’

There are a couple more cards that catch my eye… The Pentacles generally, as a whole suit interest me, in the way that the coins stack and are positioned to defy gravity…

I particularly like the 8 of Pentacles, as at first glance there appears to be only 7… the 8th is placed over his heart… I see it as his work is a labour of love and he manifests and creates into the world what he feels within…

The 2 of Cups… I love those cups… one black and one white… the whole yin/yang vibe…

So… eventually… I ask my deck… so how will you work with me?

Well… I pulled all Pentacles…so it does seem to be a deck ready to work and I like the 4…3…2… that suggests you need to roll your mind backwards…

But what did it say to me?

It said…

Karen… I hold my many secrets close to my chest… You concern yourself with your conversation with your seeker and leave me to work my magic quietly in the background… I hang in the balance and dwell in the spaces between things… I am the dusk, the dawn, I am between waking and sleeping… neither here nor there… I’m everywhere and nowhere baby… 😉

So… on that note… I will drift away… and I’ll leave you to check out this… should you wish…