this book isn't a rigid set of prescriptive rules which you must follow or else play the game wrong; neither is it a full accounting of my practice of tarot, my "house rules," which i use my copy of these cards for. more than half of what i know is bound up in intuition, in habit, in personality, in brain chemistry, in something like the soul.

when you practice tarot with the people around you, you will develop your own way of playing the game, and if you're lucky you'll meet people who will share their ways with you, as i have been lucky to receive.

you can read a hundred books, but nothing prepared me like meeting the right person.

in short, it's all house rules.

tarot is like what i wish all games were.

it has a book of rules, it has a regular set of pieces, you can play it with a number of players. it has an ending, but you can play it again if you want.

but everything is changeable. if you don't like the rules, you can make up your own. if you have a set that isn't working for you right now? get another. the number of players changes the dynamics of play but only as much as the number of players changes the dynamic of a conversation. everything is permitted.

revisiting my old prompts:

"ask...
what unspoken truth has been illuminated by the light?

YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE RADIATES OUTWARD, ATTRACTING AND INSPIRING HOPE."

maybe these are salvageable? i can edit them rather than rewriting? id like to include commentary/description of the art, though, i probably have some things to say. secrets...

welcome to some daily readings by tally. they may or may not be daily. the cards i draw will probably be from droqen's deck, especially at first, but i do have several tarot decks so no guarantees. for this reason, it is in the tarot board instead of the droqen's tarot board.

2025-07-08
7 of cups

ask.. which dream is real?
you're lost in all your dreams

wishes and ideation...
daydreaming, fantasy.
vision quest. future possibility.

today was a simple day at home, doing chore, unwinding from vacation and returning to work. what is this card telling me?

what do I see in the cups? i think the traditional tarot has specific interpretations/things that are in each cup. what i like about droqen's cards is that i don't know what these traditional ones are, and it is not immediately evident to me what they are supposed. here's my interpretation.

• a scorpion. perhaps this represents danger
• purple vapors. what does this mean? i think it's a potion of some sort. is it good or bad? it's hard to say. i think purple could go either way.
• a snake, for temptation.
• coins, for wealth.
• tombstone, for death.
• clouds, for dreaming.
• i can't decide what this final one is. i think it is a man. perhaps for practicality, stability. reality.

at the bottom of the card i see two doorways. at first I thought these were tombstones but i think they are doorways. i think it means when one door closes, another door opens. the character is climbing a ladder, reaching for the cups that float above, when there is a new doorway to the right at the bottom. perhaps instead of getting too distracted by what could be, one should focus on what is. am I lost in dreams right now? perhaps. i may be lost in my dreams, but is that such a bad thing? i am not sure which one is real, but i think i will stay away from the reality for a little while and ponder where i can go creatively. i've felt the creative spark coming back, in a slow way like embers rather than quickly like lightning, and i think that is a good thing. coming back to reading. doing more writing in various ways. developing a tarot practice.

i will make a book that speaks my language, not one that reproduces the vibe of older foundational books

no... no, i can go so much deeper

triple jump
infinite combo (?)

a table of 10 items, using small bits of gameplay... prompts... questions...

i'll play with this 'key word' format but i like the "5 (not 5)" structure... i'm fully ten-brained and it appeals to that side of me, which i love to spoil.

less a letter to myself, more a journal, a space for myself to bleed...
a memory.
why is this Sun this way?
...

"My Sun depicts a journey, or a relationship, between the earth-bound figure and the one in the sky, its outline destroyed by pure energy. The Sun dominates the sky, ignites the city's ten lesser suns, and its light even penetrates the constructed world to the lush greenery beneath.

When I think about The Sun, I'd like to remember above all its innocence: its pure life-giving energy reaches everything without judgement. I need it most of all in times of skepticism and doubt and fear to remind me of the power of revealing fire.

XIX. THE SUN."

This one is hard! I'm putting a lot of weight on it; this one feels like it's going to set the tone for all the pages to come. What does a page look like? Maybe I should do a mockup? Imagine flipping to a random page in a tarot guidebook... I took notes. What do I want the ideal guidebook to have? What do I like?

... I liked personal interpretations. Why is this Sun this way?