Description From Its Main Page – Singing Fish Tarot

Heading Of The Singing Fish Main Page

: Explanation :
The Main Pages of my Tarots aren’t posts on this blog;
They must be on the site where they’re published & sold;
But you can’t find them there by searching here;
And the formatting there is impoverished;
So i copied the main gist here.
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Basic Menu For Singing Fish Tarot:
More links are inside the text below.

{-here-} .. .. The deck’s main page
You can buy it or get the free downloads.
The text you see here is also shown there.

{-here-} .. .. In an art gallery
This is the best way to look at the cards.

{-here-} .. .. Help Sheet
One of the deck’s enclosed documents.
Info about the deck and about shamanism.

{-here-} .. .. The Other Enclosed Document
How the Fish can sing without their cards.
Inspirational poems in ultra-fancy Text Art.

{-here-} .. .. Tarot Overview Page
About all my Tarots plus lots of related stuff.

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Dear Reader Note:
I am an old Engineer, and this is pretty much a
discussion of making an advanced-design Tarot.
-sr

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Singing Fish Pocket Tarot
A small fast humane compassionate easy reading
deck that likes to tell you little stories.

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Description
The cards are only 2.75 inches (70mm) square, each card
having its picture on the front & its meaning on the back.

There’s only 31 cards because the Minor Arcana’s omitted.
And this is shamanism by an expert.

There’s a nice selection of free downloads.
This is also part of the Alphabeticon boxed set .. {-here-}

The Help Sheet .. .. {-here-}
.. (or from the Download List somewhere on your screen.)

The cards in an art gallery .. .. {-here-}
.. (or scroll down to the “See it in action” section.)

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I finally made a Tarot that’s perfect for my own needs.

For one thing:
.. I’m a professional reader and time constraints at psychic
fairs are always tight.

On the other hand:
.. I often close an evening with a few cards before bed, to
guide my dreams.

Combining Both:
.. Last weekend i wrote a “Help Sheet” that’s now enclosed
with this deck.
.. .. You see, .. when i first conceived this unusual Tarot, the
Big Idea was this:
.. .. .. Give the cards highly memorable ALPHABET NAMES!

So last weekend:
.. The main thing i put on the new sheet’s front is a list of
Alphabet Names i assigned,
.. .. And beside that their standard names in most decks.

For example:
.. The “Apple” card here, my honoring of Mother Eve,
.. .. Is usually named the Alchemy reference “Ace Of Cups”,
.. .. .. And so on.

Why is this list helpful?
.. It opens the on-line world of precise discussions about
Ace Of Cups, and every other card.

On the other hand:
.. Turn the sheet over!
.. .. Its back leads you deep-deep, far into:
.. .. .. Mysterious Primordial Forest for Shamanic Divination!

Leads you with practical instructions titled:
.. “Talking With Song Birds”!
.. .. “A very ancient way of enriching your divination skills”!
.. .. .. .. .. The other side of the same sheet!

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And it’s SKILLFUL work!

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For example:
.. In other Tarots their cards’ backs are the same, a
meaningless uniform design that seems wasteful;
.. .. Meant to hide them till you’re supposed to look,
a DISCIPLINARY Measure really.

While in Contrast:
.. The Singing Fish are smaller so they kind of hide
in your hands,
.. .. And they’re black & white with no borders, so the
designs seem to merge till you focus on one;
.. .. .. And yet thru art technique, when you look at the
dramatic pictures there’s a vague appearance of color,
like good black & white movies can give.

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And there’s less than half as many cards!
.. For the art’s richness allowed an old design option:
.. .. Leaving out the Minor Arcana.

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And of course:
.. The Fishes’ backs have their meanings printed right
there, so you’re not constantly distracted by glancing
in a booklet!

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And besides which:
.. The reduced number of cards, and the card size,
.. .. and the missing booklet, replaced by 2 ingenious
paper sheets,
.. .. .. make this deck relatively inexpensive.

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And there’s a durable drawstring bag, not a fragile
paper box!

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This is skillful liberated art,
whose ambition is to liberate you.

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THE MEANINGS ON THE BACKS:

Each card’s meaning is printed on its back, designed
for easy reading with fast vivid comprehension.

Each card’s meaning is a BLANK VERSE narrative in
a compact design of TEXT ART.

“Bank Verse” being:
.. A modern term for the worldwide spoken art found
in most traditions of Ancient Bards,
.. .. Including Shakespeare’s plays!
.. .. .. Such artists are always specialists in vivid fast
comprehension.

While “Text Art” is:
.. Lessons learned by masters of Modern Painting, but
used for Sign Painting,
.. .. By such artists as New York Hip Hop Jean-Michel
Basquiat, also a means of fast vivid comprehension.

Just look at the Text Art on these cards;
.. You’ll see it both guides your eyes and shapes the
text into meaningful rhythms.

Note:
.. To see the cards, scroll down to the “See it in action”
section.

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But where are these meanings from?

Of course i kept my notes from 41 years of work!

Started with the first little booklet i ever opened, me
recently home from leading in war & rebellion;

.. Opened a booklet as big as my palm that supposedly
contained the world,

.. .. Held together with poorly stapled staples,

.. .. .. Which came in a box with the fine old Rider Tarot,
designed in England while the ghost of Queen Victoria
still lingered there.

But i had an ambitious study program:
.. Each week taking a pocket full of them out into the
world to find them there,
.. .. And seeking parallels from China in the I Ching too,
.. .. .. Consulting the spirits with Ouija now and then,
.. .. .. .. And learning Yoga,
.. .. .. .. .. And enriching my notes,
.. .. .. .. .. .. And writing poems of it.

On and on:
.. Stopping to make order of it now and then,
.. .. While every reading teaches something.

That’s where the humane compassionate sentiments
on the backs of the Singing Fish came from.

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Now Let’s Talk Card Spreads:

Well first, do you like LAYOUT BOARDS?
Also called Layout Sheets;
.. Printed pictures you can lay out a Card Spread on!
.. .. Yes? We have a Library of them as free downloads,
all pics of original paintings.
.. .. .. So if you like that way of laying out a Card Spread,
as many do, get them dispensed free of charge from the
Download List somewhere on your screen.
.. .. .. .. Then print the ones you like at home, or take them
to a print shop.
.. .. .. .. .. And brief instructions are printed on every sheet.
.. .. .. .. .. .. But you don’t get any when you buy the deck,
so i’m sorry and you’re welcome.

Now at last! :
The Singing Fish like to tell you .. LITTLE STORIES.
.. So you usually, but not always, use simple little layouts.
.. .. Why do they like doing that?

Their printed meanings are very !!Action-Oriented!!
.. Like most of Human life is; .. thus even complex readings
often need fewer cards than with other decks!
.. .. So much so, that a typical reading is just 3 or 4 cards!!

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So let’s talk about Singing Fish card spreads:

Let’s start our discussion with this:
A multi-dimensional variation i’ve developed:
It’s a 9-card square, with a 10th card placed below,
and 11th card placed above.

Now notice: That’s an enlargement of the deck’s
“Basic Spread”,
.. Which is the 3-card series, optionally with a few
more cards,
.. .. Which derives from a fact of Human Minds, that
we say stories have: Beginning :: Middle :: End .

Then maybe more to summarize related stories:
.. Maybe next or prior stories in a client’s life,
.. .. Or maybe the main story’s cause and effect,
.. .. .. Or the stories of their loved ones,
.. .. .. .. Or etc., somewhere around the main three.

So basically the “Singing Fish Basic Spread” is:
.. : Now or Soon :: Transition Phase :: Final Outcome :
.. .. .. But with some freedom for embroidery as required.

And there’s the basics of Singing Fish card spreads,
as i understand them so far.

??Got the picture?? .. .. Thank you.

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Finally: The Magic Of These Cards:
Psychological magic, ie: of the mind:

Without doubt, deep in our instincts, divination is an
aspect of our human potential for shamanism, .. And
i feel the Singing Fish are DEEPLY shamanic. .. .. .. So
what do i mean by that?

Please pardon me if this seems too personal, but if i
say “Prayer Life”, what comes to mind for you?

In a shaman’s Prayer Life: .. You step out on a twilight
landscape in a different reality, .. (maybe your body’s
interior landscape?) .. .. a twilight landscape full of a
wide variety of Beings.

And you go there for A Specific Purpose, .. to obtain
a Specific Good, .. for a specific person, or for your
entire community, .. then you bring it back.

Thus we see divination is an aspect of our human
potential for shamanism.

And these Singing Fish:
For one thing: .. To me these cards’ borderless black-
-white-gray pictures, .. plus the subtle psychological
impression of dramatic color, .. portray that twilight
landscape quite convincingly.

Also:
The word “Medicine” is often used for that Good you’re
going after, .. a vague but vivid visual metaphor:

“Medicine” is a GLOWING SUBSTANCE you must become
competent to Find and Handle.

And to gain that competence, of course you have to find
goodness in yourself.

And the very deeply-sourced humane compassion of the
Singing Fish helps me do that.

If you do this good work, my friend,
you’ll have my blessings.
-Stone

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You can see the cards below in
the “See it in action” section,
or {-here’s-} the art gallery.
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But don’t forget “Talking With Song Birds”
on page 2 of the “Help Sheet”, packed with the
deck, or free on the Download List, or free {-here-}
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:Components:
2 Documents
1 Square deck of 31 cards
Parts Bag, Small, Brown
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(- And here is the end of this blog post.-)