Welcome to the Mabon Tarot Blog Hop;
My name is Jay Cassels and I am your Head Chef Extraordinaire for this month. It kind of blows me away a little to think that this is the fourth hop I have done, it's also going to be a bit tamer than my last outing but I don't think by much, so a little caution my lovely readers, I might make you jangle with my approach, but then if we were all the same, blog hops like life would be a bit on the dull side. If you aren't that familiar with these things, it's okay because we all start somewhere; I am not as eloquent as some of the other hoppers when it comes to explaining what it is, but the nuts and bolts of it is this, a hop is like a writing circle, we all work with the same theme but each of us has a different perspective or idea about what the theme means.
The theme for this month is Foodies Guide to the Tarot... In the planning stages, I had this almost absolute certainty that I knew what I wanted to write, there was this plan in my head and here we are on the day (well okay for me this is a week early in writing it) and I haven't stuck to the plan at all, even while I am editing it the plan is changing...
However that for me is a sign of experience and I think all Chef's like Readers get to a point where they can take a good recipe, and once they know it inside and out, start to play about and try to use different mixtures and ingredients to add a little flavour and it occurred to me today during the editing that this how I work; I have taken my readings, the decks and the spreads, looked at them as they have been and then changed them, given them a new flavour but at the same time tried to stay as true as possible to the original.
As they taught me the basics of the Trumps game, I noticed that some of the Tarot cards were in the deck, when I asked them about it they explained that in France they have decks that were similar to the Tarot but used to play card games instead of 'Fortunes' which was their word not mine.
Much like my time in Edinburgh; I wasn't very keen on the mix of ingredients from Dishonoured and so I began to mix a new batch, this time I threw in some extras such as a Crystal Ball, and Oracle Deck alongside a new ingredient, which was the Wildwood Tarot Deck, but I still kept my options open and held onto the Legacy deck as well just in case. The trouble I found with this mix was the balance felt a bit like my life at that time, in many ways, the more I tried to change things the more they stayed the same. So needless to say before long I threw out that mix as it really wasn't working. It was as if each spread was thick and like a cake from the Bake Off thing, too flashy and had very little taste (as well as a soggy bottom).
At some point during my time with the Tarot I started to realise that when people try to be flashy and showy, like some kind of carnival act, or attempt to be all puppy dogs, love, light and sparkles (yes I have a thing about this at the moment, yes I am aware there is absolutely no need for it... however, read on) all that happens is people end up with groupies and an elevated sense of self importance because everyone sings their praises and says how oooh and ahhh this so called amazeballs person is when in fact, the only thing that is good about them is the flim-flam, wham-bam thank you for your money mam and they are off routine. Each time I have met one of the showy types they haven't told me anything I didn't already know, in fact they rarely tell me anything, other than its all going to work out, you have an incredible gift and ooh look time's up that'll be your life savings please...
Yeah! I am a little jaded and like the occasional icing on a cake, perhaps a little bitter, but it comes from doing this for so long, (currently at a guess 25 years); so my style like my cooking has changed considerably, although I prefer basic foods these days, I also prefer simply readings, that are uncomplicated and easy to follow; there isn't really any need to tart things up and make them look flashy or showy, a victoria sponge will taste as nice with some strawberry jam and no icing, rather than slathering it with 78 different toppings, three layers of icing and a candle the size of everest with lettering that says oooh look at me, I am the worlds best ...
Don't get me wrong, there are people that like that kind of thing, in fact I would go as far as to say that the need that kind of thing, to be told that everything is going to be fine, that they have no mistakes and prince charming will jump out that big seven foot cake, with nothing but a smile and lots of big endowments. He'll then sweep them off their feet and they'll have more cream than they'll know what to do with for the rest of their natural days. However they're not going to want to hear about the reality, the cold water in the face the next morning, or the fact they have to deal with their own shit! because no one else is going to clean up their mess. Simply because most people need someone else to blame and since we do the cards, we are the ones who didn't make their dream life happen...
I'll admit to a few things here, I have been that person who has been force fed the blame; I have been that person to point the finger of blame too; these days I tend to leave my apron in the kitchen and dawn the dinner jacket, the swept to the side hair and take the customer to their seat. Its a far, far better approach, because instead of serving them up what they don't always want or are going to like, I simply show them to the table, hand them their menu and say the choice is yours, you can see what is there and sure the soups of the day is the ten of swords, but its okay because our desert is the lovers; would you like a two of cups with you wait? Can I offer you some strength on the side to go with that?
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