I grew up in the Caribbean so I never saw the leaves falling with hues of pumpkin orange and rusty yellow. But I remember the autumnal breeze to be real crisp. Every October 1st started a countdown to my birthday on the 22nd and Halloween on the 31st. It was the best part of the year every year. I remember the spooky house parties and parades of costumes with jack-o-lantern baskets. I remember bats, purple foil fringe curtains and orange plastic cut-outs of carved out pumpkins with different expressions. I remember having buckets of candy that took months to go through. Marathons of The Addams Family and Elvira: Mistress of the Dark were mandatory in the afternoons and evenings. Watching Tales from the Crypt from beneath my bed covers. Furiously burning through every Goosebumps book I could get my hands on, and then revisiting them all year round.
I resonated with witches and spirits closely, given the background of my family legacy. October brings with it a change in the air and we all felt it. It was an energizing feeling for those of us who loved the month and all the magic it brought. It was all good fun staying up later than usual and feeling the thinning of the veil. Feeling the messages coming through from the other side, as much as you'll be delighted to know you can use the Trick or Tarot to channel messages. You just need to tune in with your intuition, and structure the reading according to your needs.
Duck Soup’s Trick of Tarot is a tarot deck that is evocative of all the best moments of my childhood, with added magic and mystery. It was made by Douglas Thornsjo, a creative powerhouse bringing lots of magic to card reading. The decks all have personality and substance; I have seen them in use before and can attest to them being great divinatory tools. If you have some time, please check out tarotbyducksoup.com. I’d get all of the decks if I could!
This deck is made up of collage illustrations, blending photographic material with cartoons and textured juxtapositions. It prompts you to work with your shadow aspects, recognizing them to be a part of your mortal life. If I was to categorize this deck, I’d call it Magic Surrealism. The darkness to the deck is actually quite comforting for me. There is humor etched into the somber depictions, making this deck a real jovial tool to work with. I could see a reader having fun with the readings by adding enlightening jokes or unsettling epiphanies.
There are elements of fantasy stitched on the cards. If you’d just allow yourself to go into the scene, you would find you’d have the most interesting conversations with the characters contained therein. You can be assured that much like a haunted house, this could prove to be an experience with unexpected twists and surprises that make your hair stand on end.
I love the imaginative, whimsical borders on the cards. They fit together nicely when placing cards side by side and tie the entire tableau together for me as if looking at a story scene by scene. The narrative aspect alone is insightful; it gets me right in the mood to read. I love the shady colors, the deep blues and purples juxtaposed with yellow, red and orange. The contrasting colors make characters and other little details pop. the visual hierarchy of each illustration will lead your eye along without trapping it.
Without further ado let’s look into the cards.
♡ What is your most important characteristic?
The Empress. You can expect to have a rich experience with this deck. Implied humor will liven up the seriousness of a reading, but in paying close attention you will also find early warning signs.
This deck presents you with all that is natural: birth, growth, death and rebirth. A reminder to find harmony with life’s stages, finding ways to be at one with natural order. Living in harmony with nature and the way it works. Stay aware of your surroundings and keep your intuition clear in case you need to act on responsibilities.
♡ What are your strengths as a tarot deck?
The Chariot. This deck claims to be a vessel getting you from a haunted destination to that of safety. It suggests we all have haunted houses worth of baggage to move on from, which is a humorous way of suggesting moving forward from drama and self-sabotage. You can bring whoever you like with you, a reminder you are not alone in the journey. I like the idea of being in motion and leaving behind the walls we’ve built that don’t keep us safe from our own fears.
Remember this is a dark deck, though. Make sure you’re safe on the journey. While you may be leaving a haunted house behind, somebody in your company could bring an aspect of it with them. Be vigilant and exercise critical thinking when you are in the process of moving forward with your life.
♡ What are your limits?
The Hermit. Introspection will only go as far as you let it. At times it is necessary to distance yourself from a scenario that you are reading about so you can think about it through reason and not just with your feelings. Getting clarity of mind can take time to get better perspective on the aspects of your life you’re dealing with. At times it can get overwhelming because you will be facing these matters on your own. If some light can be shed on the matter then you have enough to work with if you strategize. It’s just you versus the world, anyway.
♡ What are you here to teach me?
Seven of Coins. If you feel your efforts are ineffective and your potential unrealized, try not o be hard on yourself. Try not to rush the circumstances just to get things done in time.
You may have to learn to be patient when circumstances are difficult and time is of essence. Knowing when to make the right moves can greatly improve how well you do in many situations. So long as you are not in immediate danger, you can allow yourself to sit with some discomfort if it means you evade a real problem.
♡ How can I best learn to collaborate with you?
Ten of Wands. Accepting that sometimes there will be aspects of a situation that escape the grasp of our control. We can still be mindful of that which is still with us, but accepting to let go of what we are now without is a real challenge. We take burdens on, sometimes unnecessarily, and when we free ourselves from them we can find that we are free. Liberated from the stress and worry of overlooking too much. Sometimes it’s just not our responsibility.
♡ What is the potential outcome of our working relationship?
The Moon. Sometimes readings will get a little crazy. A surprise comes from seemingly nowhere because your intuition leads you. If you can go along the path not drawn ahead of you, you’ll have to face many obstacles. You will, however, come out the other side wiser. With all that experience under your belt, I can’t imagine there would be much more you’d be afraid of. By then you’ll have faced all of your fears.
The Moon is my personal signifier. It always makes me smile when it shows up in a reading. I see it as intuition without harness. The crazy comes out when things get real. This is real sacred ground, but it comes with a bite.
♡ Which card do you want to show off?
King of Swords. This card symbolizes the intellectual mind, the watcher who understands from having just seen. If you are an introvert with a passion for words, then drink words in all day. Practical matters won’t be of much interest when you have more serious things to think and dream about. Keep in mind it all gets clearer after you’ve had enough time to digest what you have seen.
I like the mystery suggested with the smoke and mirrors. The festive pipe suggest there is more to this intellectual than he allows you to see at first glance.
♡ How do you see me?
The High Priestess. A seer who spends a lot of time interacting with the paranormal. The spirit world hosts mysteries and comforts alike, being a realm that has become helpful over the years. The familiarity with the unknown makes you sensitive to the environment and any changes in it. You feel your way through the cycles as life ebbs and flows around you. Coexisting with all that is around you, but having worlds of depths within you. More mysteries to explore, many surprises to find.
♡ How do you see yourself?
Page of Cups. This deck attributes itself youth, presumably because it was just published in 2017. It is very new to the world. The deck will be one that impulses emotional responses from messages that are derived from the cards. There will be humor and horror mixed just as you’d find as you journey through life.
If you are looking for a friend and don’t worry much about the eccentricities that come with a new personality to get used to, then you’ve found one. This deck has depths to explore. Be expectant of surprises and you will likely enjoy the experience.
If you are of active imagination I think you will laugh plenty as you read with this deck. Who knows, maybe you’ll be scared speechless.
♡♡
