Tarot Cards
Playing with the Deck - 111 Cards:
78 Tarot plus 33 Imaginosophy Cards
The Imaginal Deck consists of 111 cards, which are divided into three categories or sets. The number three is a number sacred to the Celtic Imagination for it invites mysterious riddles. The first set is that of 78 Tarot cards that have some similarity to traditional Tarot but arise out of the Celtic Imagination. You will see some differences in the Major Arcana such as the III Green Woman and IV Green Man instead of the III Empress and IV Emperor. Also, instead of Hallows (stones/pentagrams, swords, cups, and spears) the Elements (Earth, Air, Water and Fire) are used, since these are the forces from which the Hallows arise.
The 33 Imaginal Cards consist of two additional sets: Spirit Cards with Sunlit backgrounds are designed to inspire, heal, and invite conscious evolution. They bring in the Divine Light. The Quest Cards (or Question Cards) invite the inquirer to quest for the Grail and to consider the 5th Dimensional evolutionary leap we are in the process of making as a humanity. This deck intertwines the historic wisdom of the past in a way that serves the present and helps us perceive a future that we wish to live into.
Using the Imaginal Sets of Cards
Practices involving cards must be remade for each era so they continue to excite the current generation. Often it is easiest to begin with what is familiar. If the reader wants to begin with the Tarot, then work with the 78 cards with darker Nighttime Sky backs. They work perfectly with the well-known ten card Celtic Cross.
The Spirit Cards can also be called the Color or Healing Cards and can acts as gateways to the perpetual qualities of the soul, or they can be used as balm for the wounds of the heart. They can be applied to the places within that still hurt so that liberation from pain in suffering can fall away, and we can fly into the next paradigm free of the fetters of the past. The 33 Imaginosophy cards invite us to dream in a new way. As you get to know the cards, you might wish to combine all 111 cards.
We have been delighted and surprised to discover the living landscape inherent within the framework of Imaginosophy. We have been careful to make sure the stories and the interpretations are philosophical, alchemical, and psycho-spiritual. We do not adhere to a religion but follow the Hermetic principles, and the Arcane guides of the Tarot. This means that a person with any orientation can use the deck. We want to honor the many teachers, deities and sentient beings who have assisted us on this long, exciting, and creative journey. To be clear, we work with the healing path of sacred magic.
When reading with the cards, keep an open mind and a spirit of play. If certain patterns are recognized by the reader, then a future will reveal itself based on current insights and considerations. We do not believe that the future is fixed or pre-determined, but that there is a Highest Destiny Way that we can choose to walk for our optimal unfolding. We are always re-imagining ourselves and the world.
Imaginosophty invites Direct Knowing through Self-Inquiry, which is so important in this new era of increased light and consciousness. As our higher minds awaken, we can begin to see the beautiful patterns that create life and understand our role within this design.
Belle Crow duCray
Artist and designer, Belle Crow duCray created the images used in the Imaginosophy cards. These form depictions arose out of a series of visualizations, myths and stories that originated when illustrating Dr Ayn Cates Sullivan’s Legends of the Grail series. Most of the archetypes, guides and deities appear in the early Irish stories included in Legends of the Grail: Stories of Celtic Goddesses; the Welsh and Arthurian, Heroines of Avalon & Other Tales, the Arthurian novel Nimue: Freeing Merin, or Riddles of the Ancestors.
All of these books are available as print books, audio books, or eBooks: www.ayncatessullivan.com.
The Imaginosophy Cards are comprised of 111 images in total: 78 Tarot Cards, and 33 Imagination Cards. The 78 Tarot cards have a darker nighttime sky back. The 33 Imaginal cards have a lighter sun lit back. The Imaginal cards literally arose from our imagination as we collaborated on the deck. We feel that these new Imaginal Cards are important for the new Aquarian energies that are available to humanity now. We are being invited into 5th Dimensional understanding, and the Spirit Cards help guide us into this new era of Divine Light.
All of these books are available as print books, audio books, or eBooks: www.ayncatessullivan.com.
The Imaginosophy Cards are comprised of 111 images in total: 78 Tarot Cards, and 33 Imagination Cards. The 78 Tarot cards have a darker nighttime sky back. The 33 Imaginal cards have a lighter sun lit back. The Imaginal cards literally arose from our imagination as we collaborated on the deck. We feel that these new Imaginal Cards are important for the new Aquarian energies that are available to humanity now. We are being invited into 5th Dimensional understanding, and the Spirit Cards help guide us into this new era of Divine Light.