Welcome to the sixty-fourth card pull for the Mundane Magic project!
So happy to have you on this ride with me, looking at writing prompts, analyzing tarot cards for inspiration, and creating brand new short stories!
This subscription is for anyone who may be interested in how the creative writing process works, finding magical aspects about their everyday life, learning more about tarot card meanings, reading new short stories, or creating their own short stories.
Mundane Magic is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Every Sunday, I pull a card from an old Rider Waite tarot card deck I purchased years ago in Salem, Massachusetts. Once a card is chosen, it will not return to the deck. The goal: 78 cards, 78 stories.
If you are subscribing for FREE, you will get to see a card pull post like this every Sunday. You may choose to use it for your own entertainment or inspiration for creating a short story of your own! FREE posts will remain free for you to access for a month, and then they head to the archive.
If you are a PAID subscriber, you will get to see the Sunday card pull posts, AND have access to my podcast, recorded live as I pull the card.
PAID subscribers will also get the exciting pleasure of reading the story that is created during the week. It will be posted the following Saturday morning.
PAID subscribers will have the ability to post comments and add to discussion around all of the posts, and will have full access to the archives.
Founding Members receive additional perks, like meetings with me!
On to today’s tarot card pull!
The card pulled today was the King of Pentacles.
For my initial reaction to the card, check out the podcast, Episode 64.
First impressions from the image, which was pulled in reverse, or upside down in relation to myself, the reader: There is a lot to consider in this illustration.
I’ll start with the king, himself. The king looks young. He’s seated on a throne. His facial expression is somewhat serene, his eyes looking downward, to his left. On his head, he wears an elaborate crown. It consists of a band of green, maybe laurel, with a traditional gold crown above that, that has red flowers affixed to it. He wears his crown over a cap of red, a red cowl around his neck, and red clothing beneath his robes. The robe itself is dark, with a pattern of ripe grapes and green grape vines. One calf and foot are showing from under the edge of the robe, and they are encased in armor. His left hand rests on top of a bright, round pentacle. In his right hand, he holds a golden scepter with a golden orb at the end of it.
His throne is also dark, black. The head, or back, of the throne has the head of a bull, carved out of what looks like wood, on either side. The bottom of the armrests are also adorned with bull’s heads, but these are grayish, and appear to be carved from stone.
The king’s armor-clad leg and foot rests on top of an additional stone carving that could be another bull’s head, except that I don’t see any protruding horns like the other heads have, so it could represent another animal, a wolf’s head, or something similar.
There appears to be stone underneath the throne, and behind the throne there is a stone wall. Plants have broken through the stone, and we see grapevines, some small flowers, and fern-like leaves taking over the space around the king. Full, purple grapes are on the vines that climb up the back of the throne.
In the distance, behind the king, we see castle turrets, a flag flying from the top of one of them, an ocean or large body of water, and a yellow and orange sky.
The Rider Waite interpretation of the King of Pentacles is as follows: The figure calls for no special description. The face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull’s head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on his throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed. Divinatory Meanings: Valor, realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind—success in these paths. Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.
There is a lot going on with this card, and our reversed meaning definitely has a stark contrast with the upright meaning. I’m definitely drawn to the king in the illustration as a character. I’m curious about the armor he wears underneath his very ornate robes, the difference in his crown from the other kings’ in the deck, and the idea of this plant life overcoming the boundaries of the stone. There’s also something that feels ancient about the throne and the figurehead that the king’s foot rests on, and it contrasts with the castle behind him that looks very new and currently inhabited.
A ton going on here! I’d love to hear your thoughts, too. What do you think of the card? Where do think this story will take us?
I’m Late!
I drew my card at the beginning of the week, but other things kept pulling at my attention, and I failed to get the post out. However, to make up for it, I thought I’d share some of the brainstorming that happened during the week. I wasn’t sure at first where the card would take me, but the morning after, I was out for my walk with Luna, my little English Bulldog/Terrier Mutt mix, street lamps and porch lights glowing in the pre-dawn, mulling over the card.
Often, I go with the upright interpretation of the card pulled, even when it was in reverse, or upside down, simply because that’s where the story gravitates toward. However, as my doggie and I crossed the street to a local park, I heard a sound I’ve never heard before. It was a cooing noise, but not like a dove. It’s difficult to describe, but it sounded like it came from an animal with a mouth, not a beak, smoother, softer, rounded.
I continued moving toward the sound, despite the lack of lamp light on the back side of the park. After all, I thought, there’s no such thing as howling, changeling beasts lurking around corners in the real world, is there? Then, it howled? cooed? again. Luna sniffed the air for a moment, but quickly moved on, nose to ground, getting the neighborhood news from all the paws that had trod, and the legs that had lifted, along her usual route since the morning before.
I love that park. It could easily be the scene for a spooky film with its Harry Potter vibe, empty playground equipment, and a winding, concrete sidewalk that is bathed in soft light on the street side and then fades into darkness. By the time we made it back to the house, I had a head full of ideas that I needed to jot down.
Below are my notes. Can’t wait to share the final product!
Now what?
Our sixty-fourth card has now been drawn!
If you are a PAID subscriber, you’ll be able to view my final story on Saturday. If you are a free subscriber, you’ll get a teaser, a peek at the finished story.
If you like what we’re doing here, please consider sharing. Whether you are a free or paid subscriber, you will earn rewards for doing so, and it is the best form of advertisement, which helps me keep this project going!
Until next time, let’s make some magic!