Another
Otherworld Tarot

The correct answer to this question is:

whatever first comes to your mind—
even if it doesn’t immediately make sense.

In fact, one might almost say that the less immediate sense it makes, the more we are likely to learn from it. When we think we already know the answers, we usually are not as open to new ones.

What we do now is to look at the object and consider what it may be symbolically telling us about that aspect of your life.

Let’s say, for example, that G picked an acorn, and the first thing that came into G’s mind was his eldest child. There is the obvious thing here—an acorn is a seed, something with potential for growth, like a child. However, there may be much more than that - an acorn grows only into an oak, not into a holly or beech. This may indicate some strong family influence, something inherited, like a musical, artistic, or other talent. Oaks might also have certain characteristics in G’s mind—size, strength, beauty, fertility which may relate to the child.

Oaks may represent attributes unlike those of other trees. For example, their branches grow straight out in defiance of gravity, not sagging in surrender like some trees, not growing upward to ease the strain like others. This may say something about the child’s character.

Oaks might also symbolize druids (or magical wisdom), mistletoe (kisses or ‘all heal’—the ancient herbalist’s name for mistletoe). Has G any past experiences of oaks that might have special meaning in this context? All of these things (and potentially much more) can tell us about G’s eldest child. The acorn is a symbol, a metaphor for the child.

Many of these insights will be something we know without knowing we know it, or that we only know fuzzily around the edges. However, there may also be insights we haven’t even begun to guess at before playing the game. The longer we just quietly sit with the object, the better and deeper the insights tend to become. Ask faery—they'll help.

When you think the well of insight has run dry, wait a bit longer. Then, when you are really certain you've finished for now, summarize for yourself what you've learned.

Finally, express your gratitude to the fae and Earthmama. (This, the fae tell me, helps create the energy for the next time. I like to ask them if there is something I can do for them in exchange—I've been asked for some pretty odd things!) This game can, of course, be done by yourself, but is often best played with two people. One is Questioner Prime (QP); the other is Questioner Secundus (QS). QP chooses the objects and what they symbolize. QP also tries to work out the symbolism. QS helps with this by asking questions without trying to push a particular agenda or point of view. This is an interesting game: the more points QP scores (insights gained), the more points QS gets.

If you don't have anyone else to help, you can always ask the fae to be the QS.

Then you turn it around, and QP becomes QS and vice versa. Like most fae games, everyone wins. It's more fun that way.

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