BALANCE ... CARD OF THE YEAR

It's always interesting to connect the number of a year with a tarot card. This year's number is EIGHT (2006 adds up to 8) and that represents the Voyager BALANCE card. It's a year for balancing, or perhaps for RE-BALANCING. (see December's Connection about the RE-Generator card).

As a Charioteer excitement freak (My Life Card is the CHARIOT), I confess that I've always thought Balance was good... but boring. Stable, steady, level... how dull! Where's the passion, the pizzazz, the play? But after my last year's (Year of the Chariot) fall on my head, Balance is heaven, even luxurious (how relative is everything in life).

What stands out for me in the Voyager Balance card, at the precipice of the New Year, is the image of the Dancer. Balance is a continuous dance, not a straight line monotone march (flatline) with the automatic pilot on. We go up and then we re-balance and go down. Think teeter-totter. Life is about seeking the center only to find that it's gone again as we go the other direction. (Perfect center is probably a rarified state of "nirvana," a void and stillness beyond ego and body). If you think you've found stasis in your life, watch out for STAGNATION (8 of Cups). In fact, the healthiest of hearts are irregular, says science today.

We all want regularity in life though, not a precarious balancing act. However, in our world of quick and quirky change, we need to learn how to dance and move – such a perfect metaphor for life. Things are unpredictable, the music shifts, the floor becomes slippery, crowded, new partners, and different dances. Are you on your toes? Back on your heels? Stuck, fixed, mobile?

CONFESSIONS OF A FORTUNE TELLER, Part One: I Don't Know Back to tarot...everyone wants to know the future from the cards so that they can cruise in comfort. Most people seek Readings to be soothed and assured that their life is on course and secure. But who knows? How can anyone know what's going to happen, really?

I confess that I don't know. FYI.. go to my article on CONFESSIONS OF A FORTUNE TELLER.

QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH

Dear James - I had the pleasure of attending the Foundational Conference with Brugh Joy in Tucson in November and December. I was thrilled to receive your Voyager Tarot cards! They have become special for me everyday. So much so that I bought my son a set as well.

At the conference, I drew the - O Fool-Child card. In the description you refer to the toucan angel guides. Brugh suggested I ask you - what are the toucan angel guides?

Thank you for your time. I would like to receive your catalog regarding your products and workshops. Sincerely, Joan Ingle

Hi Joan, Thanx, thanx for your interest and support of Voyager! Brugh Joy has been such a good friend of Voyager over the years and is a most wonderful spiritual teacher and modern medicine man. As for the "toucan angel guides"..... in the ancient shamanic world, birds were angels, messengers of the divine in animal form. Listen to them speak. Why toucans? Well, we (artist Ken Knutson and myself) were just "fooling around" (it was always important to get into the consciousness of the card as we did them)... toucans can hardly fly, they hop around and are fruitarians, wow!! No fooling. "Anything is Possible!" – the Fool Child's mantra. As for info about Voyager products, www.voyagertarot.com has all the voyager stuff and schedule. ( i do not do printed catalogs). fyi...Way of the Great Oracle is the one additional, indispensable guide book to Voyager. Bright Blessings for this New Year!! James, Captain Pick-a-Card aka. Whooooosh~~~ for softer landings

Dear Captain Pick-a-card, I am an old, retired psychiatrist (73) which is 30 years interested in the Tarot and which wrote the first Tarot book in former Yugoslavia (Tahuti's secrets). In the meantime I was interested for other things (Aleister Crowley, A Course in Miracles etc.). Now my old passion for the Tarot grabbed me anew. Coincidentally several days ago i did find your Voyager Tarot in the Internet. I picked up and printed all your materials. Now I am waiting (through my friend) your cards deck and the big book (Oracle).Amazon has the last Oracle book and some decks. I am not sure I shall get them. But while I am reading your Internet materials I became very sure it is the best what I did read on the Tarot till today. (I also did write my original book on the Yi Jing, so how much it can be original.). I will be very happy if you respond. Excuse, my English is not so good, but I hope you can understand me. Best Wishes, Petar

Hello Mr.Wanless, Thank you for this extraordinary deck . As a life longer reader of Tarot and student of sociology and quantum physics , the Voyager deck has been most accurate deck for psyche translation , repressed memories , and reflecting denial . The Voyager is like having a free therapy session . One of the best I've ever been given. This note, however, is to satisfy a question in relation between quantum physics and the back-side of the Voyager cards In unified theory , worm holes are part of the theory and are believer to exist in every realm, from the infinitely small to the infinitely enormous . Forgive me , I don't mean to condescend, it seems this knowledge is in the cards . Oh, and no, I did not finish the book which accompanied the deck . You see, all was lost in a series of recent tragedies, including the book and deck. As my vision was fading slowly, ready the cards was much easier than reading the book . So, with all than said, here is the question; Is the image on the back-side of the Voyager deck representative of a worm hole ? What ever it is, it feels calming to look into and as well in meditation. Thank you again for such detailed work And a huge thanks for the web-site . Take Good Care, Martha C .

Hi Martha!! Well, the image on the backside of the Voyager card is an actual photo of a human DNA chromosome, not a "Worm Hole," but why not? i believe in the micro/macrocosm mirroring. Fractals abound from the smallest to the largest. Perhaps, we can escape from the seeming determinism of our DNA. Life is dynamic and subject to spontaneous, creative change, so with intention and the help of the cards, of course, we can transform our so-called genetic certainty.

Thanx, thanx so much for your interest in Voyager and most of all, for your CURIOSITY!! Bright Blessings for this New Year! James Captain Pick-a-Card

Hi James, My name is Veronica. I'm blind, and use the Crowley Thoth tarot. I've been teaching my friends how to work with the tarot cards over the phone via a teleconference. I was wondering if maybe you could talk a little about yourself on the conference Jan 7th from 7:00 P M until 8:00 P M PST? The students who I teach are blind, and I've been reading for over 3 years, almost 3 and a half years. My friends have been reading about 4 or 5 months or so. Let me know if you can attend. Maybe you can talk about who you are. It'd be a mystery guest speaker. Let me know ASAP. I'd love to have you. All the best, Veronica

Hi Veronica, I'd be honored to be a guest in your class. And when Ken and I made Voyager, starting in 1981, and were working on the Emperor card, the eyes of King Philip in the card looked bad! I told Ken that the Emperor is a visionary ("vision aries"), and so he put a spiral galaxy in one of the eyes of the King. Later that very same day, PBS was presenting a Documentary on Alexander the Great and his father, King Philip... wow! We watched and during the program, it was revealed that King Philip was in fact blind in the very same eye that we had put the galaxy earlier in the day. Holy, holy, holy.... "synchronicity rules!" The Lesson of the True Story... Follow and trust your intuition, which is really "flying blind"!!! Often, we were flying blind with our intuition in making the Voyager cards... believe.

QUIZ OF THE MONTH (Best Answer Gets a Free Book) ABOUT THE CROWLEY THOTH TAROT DECK AND VOYAGER In this special New Year's issue of the Connection, there are two letters to me that refer to the use of the Aleister Crowley Deck. Kool. I learned on that Deck way back in the mid seventies. Voyager is, in a way, an offshoot of that Deck. There are lots of connections between Voyager and the Thoth tarot, like ART card, instead of the traditional TEMPERANCE card. What other similarities are there? Best answer gets my book, NEW AGE TAROT, which is actually an instruction guide to the Crowley Deck.

(Transmitted 12/20/05)