I’m not sure I have favorites anymore. It’s just as much what is inside of me at the time as what they have produced.
I haven’t explored a lot of newer bands, so I hadn’t heard of those two. I’m Listening to the Hädanfärd album right now though, and I’m about 3/4 of the way through. I appreciate this kind of sound a lot, and in a different life situation I’d probably want to keep it on loop in the background. It would help to temper and focus intense energies.
Freeform Questions 05/09/2020
In which I ask a set of freeform questions, attempting to reveal a story. I drew a total of 5 cards for the reading.
What must I find in order to bring about the best happiness for myself and for those who I care about both now and into the future for the rest of all our days?
Knight of Wands
Yes. My physical fire and passion. Correct. Something I already knew, but it’s nice to see it confirmed. Hey, isn’t this exactly what the reading on 05/03/2020 said in response to “What do I need to find in community?” Yes. Yes, it is.
Where Is this energy being held captive?
The Empress
Subsumed in the influence and presence of the Empress and her feminine energies, the Knight of Wands has been led astray. Led too far to a life of domesticity, and sapped of all masculine fire.
How is this energy held captive?
5 of Cups
Loss, the fear of loss, a need for comfort in a world of loss. Cut off from home, and feeling despondent. Yes, there has been much loss. In fact, the loss of a mother in the past 2 years. Almost as long as the troubles have been here. In fact… Isn’t The Empress synonymous with “The Mother?”
Why?
Page of Wands
A call for help. But who comes? If not the Knight of Wands, then who?
What must I do to break this cycle and free the Knight of Wands?!
6 of Cups
6 of Cups…
6 of Cups!
At least today, the card returned to its normal, innocent, uncomplicated reading. The threat factor was absent, even if the creep factor of drawing this card again was off the charts. Both the figures are me. The flowers are mine, in each cup. The guardsman in the background is me too, oblivious to the kind gesture which we are witnessing. There is nothing that I can give myself that I don’t already have, and I have everything I need.
Or maybe the flowers are prescription medicine. 
The Goetic correspondences again, are Duke Aim and Marquis Orias. Both of whom are well equipped to bring forth a Knight of Wands. Or even a King of Wands.
Sensation
I sense that the next card in the deck is The Tower. I am wrong. It is the 3 of Wands. I am relieved that I am wrong. In fact, this illustrates to me exactly the power the 5 of Cups has to distort and catastrophise. Don’t listen to that guy. He’s dumb. He sees a departing voyage for a better life as being a life wrecking thunderbolt. Stop listening to him.
Reflection 05/20/2020
A card drawn on which to meditate
Judgement
The dead arise. What has died in my life? And what is arising once again? Passions. This past week I have not performed any divination because I have been fully absorbed in my technical pursuits. Pursuits that I’ve let lay dormant far too long.
The dead are jubilant. They rise in praise at the herald of the Archangel Gabriel. It is a call. A summons. How can anyone ignore it?
A cat leaps onto the table as I ponder.
As I put the deck away, I see at the bottom of the deck the Strength card. Hello again, kitty.
Dream 05/25/2020
In my dream last night
The Magician (Reversed)
I dreamed that I pulled a one card draw last night. I turned the card over and it was “The Magician”, but as many things in dreams, it was distorted and it also was reversed. I do not read with reverse cards, and I do not know what to make of this. I also couldn’t quite understand what the image on the card was intended to reveal because it was so distorted and its colors smeared together.
This morning I performed a one card draw. King of Wands. Interestingly the smears on the card in my dream do resemble the King of Wands. I am at a loss, still.
my take on the 2 cards, the magickian then the king of wands, the king of wands was upright yes? so the 2 of them one after the other should mean new beginnings. in my opinion.
possibly spiritual or magickal new beginnings
Yes, the King of Wands in the morning was upright. How does a reverse Magician in the dream play into new beginnings?
Its the 2 of them together, the magician is you also the king of wands is you imo, first you saw the magician is upside down and then your first draw (in the morning or whenever it was) was the king of wands upright, that’s what I think they both together mean new spiritual or magical beginnings for you
Celtic Cross Reading 06/03/2020
The topic at hand : Where to live. Would it be best to move to a new city?
The Situation
Knight of Wands crossed by 5 of Wands
There is a sense of urgency to ride swiftly to action, yet what you have found is nothing but meaningless conflict all around. Just as quickly, you seek a way out.
The past and future
4 of Swords -> Knight of Cups
How did it come to the point where you even felt this way? You were complacent, too busy resting in comfort on your successes and transient victories. Now in ways the peaceful rest may feel like a trap, a tomb. But instead of rushing wildly like the Knight of Wands, the Knight of Cups and his measured pace will do more to help in this decision. To your heart be true.
What is below and what is above?
Above : 7 of Wands
Below : Judgement
While you may feel that your desire to escape conflict will lead you to a calmer pace of life, in reality you will have these struggles no matter were you go. You will stand your ground, whether it is here or elsewhere. You do this because they are here to pass judgement on you, and you have been left with no choice but to pass judgement on them. The ghosts of what you thought you’d put behind you rise from their graves, and have no intention of letting you escape.
Yourself
5 of Pentacles
Remember through these decisions that what you give is what you receive, and that what you give may mean little to you now but what you receive in return could mean the world for you later.
Outside Influence
The World
No shit! The world is an outside influence? You don’t say! Taken literally this card makes more sense than literal translation of the card’s meaning.
Hopes and Fears
5 of Pentacles
No, I don’t hope to be sick and penniless. However there is a subtle hope in this card, in that I would hope that I can rely on and turn to others in times of need. My fear however is that I cannot and must not. This is the fate that awaits if I slip and need help. Just being left out in the cold.
Outcome
Heirophant (Clarification Queen of Swords)
At the end of this all, you may find yourself in a much more traditional or conservative setting. It won’t necessarily be a consciously bad thing, but it will for sure be a change. You may in the end meet a capable and intelligent woman who will be your partner in this journey.
Reflection On Past, Present, Future 06/13/2020
Note : This will be my first recorded reading with my new Anima Mundi deck. I find it more difficult to discern than Rider-Waite, and thus I may be reaching in these conclusions.
The Past
Death
Pictured is a snake shedding its skin. I am seeing a lot of little garters outside lately as it is the season for them. I also indeed have just shed an old skin that constrained me and inhibited my growth. It is left behind, discarded. Yet I can’t help feel there is more to this than the personal, as I also strongly associate the humble snek with freedom and rebellion against tyranny. Yes, I have a fondness for the Gadsden Flag for those reasons and find its recent treatment galling.
The Present
The Sun
This does not make me feel happy. This sun does not have any of the unambiguously joyful trappings of the Rider-Waite verison. In fact, all I see is a pale horse racing through a desert alone, under the searing light of an unescapable ball of fire rising in the early morning sky. I don’t like this at all. The pale horse reminds me of the pale horse of Death in Rider-Waite… although, Rider-Waite’s sun does have a white pegasus so this is likely the inspiration.
Directionally, this horse is racing towards the past and away from the future. It does not like where it is. It does not like what is ahead. It wants to return to a past that is no more. Why is it running away from the future?
The Future
Ace of Cups
One would think that in a scorching desert the horse would run towards this oasis. Perhaps the reality is that this isn’t an oasis, but a flood. The cup overfloweth with emotion and threatens to consume all the lands. Never before have I seen the Ace of Cups as a threatening presence, but there was a growing unease that settled in as I contemplated its presence and its imagery in this context.
On the whole, this reading says little that I didn’t know already. However it is a good calibration, to see just how this deck reads and whether it may have potential. I find the individual cards to be less inherently meaningful than Rider-Waite, which might hamper its usefulness. Time will tell.
General Guidance on the path to a happy future, 7/13/2020
The Heart of the Matter
1- Ace of Swords
2- 9 of Cups
Always a promising sign when the first two cards speak directly to the question. Many things arise in life that give impetus to the question, perhaps even more impetus than already existed. A need for a clear and incisive solution is required in order to secure and maintain abundance.
Below and Above
3- Below : 10 of Cups
5- Above : 9 of Wands
Your foundation is a need to return to a situation of a loving family full of joy. As years wear on, this feels farther and farther distant.
Your pessimism and projection is such that you feel your future and higher self will be one of lonesome struggle, very nearly the opposite of your foundation. How best to remedy this?
The past and the future
4- 6 of Wands
6- 7 of Cups
Having experienced many personal victories and overcome hardships, what awaits in your future is a garden of possibilities, many of them false promises. What you expect and fear for your future may well be phantoms of possibilities that hold nothing for you. Interesting note: Is this to say that what resides “Above” in the previous pairing is simply paranoia? That following the paranoia could lead to making false motions in the future, following mere empty promises?
My Influence
7- 4 of Pentacles
Yes, my historical practice has been to jealously guard what comes to me only grudgingly giving of what I’ve attained.
The World’s Influence
8- Temperance
However, this jealous approach to life will be difficult to maintain if you want to obtain and maintain happiness and plenty.
Hopes and Fears
9- The Queen of Swords
Facing the truth is necessary and frightening. Continue to act with clarity, without being hung up on the logical results of what you’ve discerned.
Outcome
10- The Sun
This Is Significant Long ago, before I moved to where I live, I did a reading that ended with The Sun as my outcome for moving where I did. To see it again in the same position in this same question shows me that I am on the right track.