The Unofficial Wild Unknown Tarot Card Meanings
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The Unofficial Wild Unknown Tarot Card Meanings by Carrie Mallon 1 Notes The Wild Unknown tarot deck was created and is copyrighted by Kim Krans and Harper Elixir. For official information pertaining to the deck, visit thewildunknown.com, or purchase the official guidebook which accompanies the deck. The text of this document was written by me, Carrie Mallon. I am not affiliated with the Wild Unknown, or Kim Krans, or Harper Elixir. My interpretations of this deck are unofficial, purely my own thoughts and opinions. I would like to extend gratitude to the Wild Unknown for creating a deck that has inspired so many of us on our tarot journeys. This text in this document was originally presented, and can still be found, on my blog at carriemallon.com. I have not included images in this document. Images of each card can be found on the original blog posts, those images were included courtesy of the Wild Unknown. The text of this document and of the original blog posts is the intellectual property of Carrie Mallon LLC. If you have further questions, you can reach out to me via email: [email protected]. 2 Introduction When I discovered the Wild Unknown tarot deck back in 2015, I was immediately intrigued. There’s something so simple yet so evocative about these images. As I formed my own relationship with the cards, I started sharing my personal views on the deck on my blog at carriemallon.com. I didn’t know if anyone else would ever read these posts, but I enjoyed writing them. As it turned out, other people did enjoy reading them! Lots of people have emailed me or left comments thanking me for my input on the cards. Over the years I have received many requests to combine these posts into a downloadable and printable PDF, and I’m happy to finally offer this to you. The versions contained here have been revised, expanded and updated as of 2018. As the inside of the deck’s box states, there are no rights or wrongs. Take what you find valuable from my thoughts on the cards, but trust your own intuition. I hope what you find in this document will be valuable to you as you deepen your connection to your own deck! 3 The Major Arcana 4 The Fool Deck Creator’s Keywords: innocence, naivety, starting out, spontaneity Carrie’s Keywords: potential, leap, adventure The Fool Tarot Card Meanings in the Wild Unknown Our fool is a baby chick perched on a tree branch, one foot stretched out as though he is about to step off. Buds and blossoms are unfolding on the tree branch. It is spring- time, and the world is brimming with new life. Potential is bursting forth everywhere! Even the chick itself is a form of fresh, invigorating energy – a spring chicken, as they say. The sky is orange and yellow, as though the sun is just starting to climb up the horizon. This brings to mind the metaphoric resonance of ‘the dawn of a new day.’ Sunrise is a time of adventure and potential. Where might this new day, this fresh blooming energy take you? The possibilities are truly endless. The Fool is not concerned with yesterday or tomorrow – the Fool is immersed in the now. And it is always the now, as one moment gives way to the next. The Fool reminds you to place your attention here, in the present moment. The chick and the branch are black and white. The bright white of the branch makes it look charged with pure energy. As the bright colors of dawn descend along the horizon, they give way to black lines near the bottom of the card. What might be in this black void? You simply don’t know. The Fool is literally heading out into the wild unknown. There is an interesting use of lines in the Wild Unknown tarot. The direction of lines in the cards give clues to the energy the cards hold. In the Fool, the sky is lined horizontally. These static, horizontal lines seem to me to represent energy that is still free-flowing; the energy is there, but hasn’t yet been guided into a particular direction. This fits in well with the Fool, a card brimming with limitless, not yet fully directed universal energy. 5 The Fool Tarot Card Meanings in General In many classic tarot decks, the Fool shows a person who looks poised to walk off a cliff – similar to this Fool, who is poised to walk off the branch and into that black void of the unknown. In fact, taking a leap into the unknown is a core message of the Fool in any tarot deck. This card speaks of pure, unbridled potential. In order for that potential to take shape, risks are required. Taking a leap doesn’t necessarily guarantee a favorable outcome. But if you never leap, you remain stuck on the precipice, never fully immersing yourself in all that life has to offer. The Fool is card 0, giving it a special role in any tarot deck. Without a fixed number, the Fool is unbound and free, often thought to represent each of us as we journey through life. In some tarot traditions, the Fool is considered to be the character who encounters the various lessons that we see in the rest of the cards. In a spiritual sense, the Fool is infinite universal energy. The Fool is the creative force that animates the entire universe. Without this undirected universal energy, no other manifestations of creation would be possible. The Fool is the energetic magic that allows the entire adventure of life come into being. In a reading In a reading, this card can ask you to consider the timeless conundrum of the Fool: are you naïve, about to leap unprepared and face disaster? Or are you filled with a spiritual trust that the universe will support your leap? The Fool asks you to tune into your primal instincts instead of overthinking. The Fool is also a reminder that there are no right or wrong decisions. The most important thing, the Fool might advise you, is to say YES to life in whatever way feels expansive for you. Sometimes your best option is to remain on the branch until you are ready. But more often, the Fool nudges you to open your heart, set out, and trust that whatever happens from there is a meaningful adventure. 6 The Magician Deck Creator’s Keywords: action, self-empowerment, purpose Carrie’s Keywords: creation, yang energy, doing The Magician Tarot Card Meanings in the Wild Unknown In the first incarnation of this post, I described this Magician as a cheetah – but upon further consideration, I believe this is actually a leopard. Mythologically, the leopard is known for exuding confidence and independence. Seshat, the ancient Egyptian goddess who invented writing, wore leopard skin. Leopards have long been heralded as powerful and capable creatures. This Magician is proud and alert; he has a powerful stance and his gaze is focused. He is sizing up his surroundings, not with any urgency, but with a natural awareness of all that is at work around him. Surrounding the leopard are rays of orange and yellow light – colors that convey active energy and vitality. The rays emanate out from a singular point in the distance. This shows a concentration of energy which was previously undirected (as we saw with the Fool) but which is now available to the Magician through his understanding of the four tools before him. The Magician has an innate ability to tap into – and actively channel – infinite energy. The lemniscate symbol appears on his chest. We’ll see this symbol on a few more cards from the Wild Unknown tarot (it also appears on several cards in the Rider-Waite tradition). This symbol is sometimes referred to as ‘the infinity sign’ suggesting the never-ending nature of all life and all matter. This symbol also shows the ways that the wisdom and archetypes within tarot transcend space and time – this is why the cards have resonated with so many people for so long. The tarot goes through different incarnations and different artistic interpretations, but its core messages always remain relevant. The four suits of the deck – sword, pentacle, cup and wand – are laid out in front of the Magician. The Magician is attuned to the dynamic nature of life, and these four suits are the emblems of that dynamic nature. His front paws rest on the pentacle, suggesting his ability to take raw materials and create something tangible. He faces right, a direction that is symbolically linked to activity and conscious 7 awareness. He is ready to act not out of stress, but out of intention. The Magician shows the power of directing your energy wisely, and the importance of having confidence in your abilities. Your greatest skill is in knowing that you are an empowered creator. The Magician Tarot Card Meanings in General In other traditional decks, such as the Waite-Smith tarot, the Magician is depicted as a human figure with one hand pointed towards the sky and one hand pointed towards the ground. This invokes the spiritual axiom “as above, so below.” This implies a deep understanding that the true nature of the universe is creative. And as a creative being inhabiting the universe, our true nature is to create in whatever way speaks to us. The Magician takes these ethereal spiritual principles and applies them to mundane life in our world. The Magician shows that your highest potential unfolds when your ego (or conscious awareness) is aligned with spiritual energy.