Thanks for all the great posts this past year! I've enjoyed reading them. Like last year I've drawn a Tarot card for the following year.
This is from the Steampunk Tarot deck, illustrated by Aly Fell, written by Barbara Moore, which is one of my favorite decks in my collection. Steampunk can get a little cheesy, and this deck is tastefully done and masterfully illustrated. I also love the interpretations. Highly recommend this deck!
The Four of Swords represents a period of rest after turmoil. I don't know how you guys have been, but this was an exhausting year. Long hours at work, and I spent most of my free time freelancing. There were many months where I hadn't had a single day off, and I'm becoming aware that my life is just slipping by. Most of my coworkers are coming to the same realization, and they're leaving NYC for greener pastures, where you can work one 9-5 job and afford to live like a normal person. NYC is still not San Francisco, where people are living in bunk beds at $2000 a bunk. But rents are rising, and no one got a raise this year again. Every year, instead of getting ahead, we're all losing money.
In other decks, the sleeping person in the Four of Sword has survived the ordeal and is resting after. The steampunk deck has a more pessimistic interpretation. Yes, he is in blissful sleep, but the swords are dangerously overhead and when the hourglass runs out, the danger will be there.
But for now, there's rest. I'm fine with a year of rest, even if it's fleeting.
(the card is atop Grimoires: A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies, published by Oxford University Press. My husband, who is very into the occult, recommends this book even though it is VERY dry reading, as all academic press books are. There was a chapter called "Pulp Magic", which is more aligned with what I work on today. My past (I used to work in academic publishing) and present on a single page.)
Will your year be a year of rest? I hope so. Happy New Year!
