Let Le Fol be your guide through the landscape of Blood & Ink. Like any good pilgrim his walking aligns his vision (inner and outer) with the earth under his feet. Up hill, downhill. He walks on and on until his body ceases to be his own but merges with the landscape through which he treads. Two sticks act as his tools, one to carry his pack and the other to propel him forward. (The sorcerer would do well to consider these two sticks.) The Fool may have an idea, a vision, of where he’s heading. However, he certainly doesn’t know exactly how he’ll get there. No worry, though, nothing is taken too seriously here. He has blind faith and trust in the journey, the pilgrimage, as an unyielding compulsion moving him ever forward toward his destination.
Magical uses: Use Le Fol for new beginnings, ignitions, road openers, anything that requires an open heart.
“I shall plunge down into the abysmal horror of madness and death—or I shall walk upon the dawn.” ―
Marjorie Cameron
Le Bateleur
The Magician stands at his table distracting you by waving one hand in the air, shaking his magic wand in anticipation of the thing he is about to conjure. You, however, are wise to the ways of tricksters. You know that the real action lies concealed on his table, perhaps beneath it, or in the palm of his other hand. So you ignore the obvious and thus Le Bateleur has you, he’s drawn you into his world. The objects he uses create the lie he spins, the reality he bends and you are going home utterly changed by his performance. Because magic makes the impossible possible and the magician has just the tool for the job.
Magical uses: Call on Le Bateleur to bend probability in your favour, for glamour, deception and getting away with most anything.
When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.
Teller
La Pappesse
A nod to Pope Joan, the female pope, our Pappesse holds her position of female spiritual power & infinite wisdom by nature of the book which rests on her lap. She draws you into the fleshy, visceral, folds of her cloak and asks you to be enveloped there. It’s not so much about what’s behind the veil, but what’s within her heavy robes themselves – the interwoven fabric of spirit/matter. Here you will find instruction, guidance and knowledge. You will be given ways & means and perhaps a glimpse of all that is recorded in her book. La Pappesse is no priestess of air and water. Instead she is flesh and blood, deep, dark earth and the interstitial laws of knowledge that reside within the human body. She does not call you to escape yourself, but instead to fully infuse every single muscle, bone and tendon with consciousness. Bringing consciousness to the body is her mission.
Magical uses: La Pappesse will offer spiritual muscle to any genuine pursuit of deeper knowledge and understanding. Go to her for healing, knowledge of herbcraft, spells and potions.
“Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world—everything is hidden in you.”
Hildegard Von Bingen
L’Imperatrice
As the Emblem of Female Worldly power, the Empress takes a stand. This is no lounging, reductive, fertility symbol or seductress. If the Empress is either mother or creative potency, then nothing gets accomplished lying flat on your back. If she is a symbol of fertility then let’s show her in the full, direct, sovereign position of this power to create all that exists. Let her stand on her two feet, powerfully, wildly, feminine, facing forward and staking her claim to the Empire which is hers. The eagle is driven wild with admiration.
Magical Uses: Nothing comes into the mundane without passing through the Empress. Call on her to birth your most phenomenal acts of creativity.
Now you understand Just why my head’s not bowed… ’Cause I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.
Maya Angelou
L’Empereur
The Emblem and ruler of all of mankind’s Great Works, The Emperor is seen as the Master Builder, the Great Architect. This is the combination of Authority with the Material. He takes the raw materials of creation and sets them in order, maintaining their constancy and fortifying their strength. Anything that we manifest must be first be thought and imagined, but it is only through a solid plan that the imaginal gains weight and momentum and can actually be fully realised and maintained. The authority of idea The is the Emperor, he makes thing REAL, he stakes his claim and looks to increase his holdings. If you have a problem, he can fix it. If you need to make a decision, he will bring clarity.
Our father, the dear Pope, is rarely encountered in these times without a good deal of shadow. Most see him as an enforcer of hierarchies and patriarchal structures. Yet in The Tarot he is the holder of spiritual power, the counterpart to The Papesse, a teacher, a tradition holder, an initiator. He offers us guidance and a gateway to an encounter with the divine – IF we follow his teaching. However, our Pope, with the total lack of Christian symbology, appears far more martial than others. Note the huge black gauntleted fists, the over-inflated chest, the staff which pierces the skull of one of his disciples. This has much to say about belief. Belief fills you in place and fills you, up anchoring you and nourishing you in the surety of your spiritual practices. But it also keeps you fixed in place. Believe in something bigger than you and you place yourself in the position of the disciple. Believe that you possess THE WAY, then you better puff that chest out, put your big gloves on maintain that position of authoritative truth. Protect your way, protect your flock and guard carefully the continuance of your truths. But…there’s always a but. At what point does that over inflated chest burst? At what point does belief, fixed as it is in the correct and the incorrect, protect you from an authentic and organic encounter with the Divine.
“Priesthoods and beasthoods, sombers and glees, high-styled renunciations and avocations of dirt, sobrieties, satieties, pilgrimages to the very bowels of being … All my friends are finding new beliefs and I am finding it harder and harder to keep track”
All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs – Christian Wieman
L’Amoureaux
What’s love got to do with it? Many have said that they never felt so alive as they did when in love. What’s so enlivening here? The drama of it clearly, the renaissance of wonder when hearts pound and choices must be made. Compelled to choose. Compelled to love. Compelled to play this game. Persuasion. Compulsion. Exhortation. These three. All dressed up in masks, their sharpness revealing the utter lack of softness, empathy or connection in their encounter. Consider where the heart of each of these three resides. In #1 it consumes her entire chest. In #2 it fills his throat. In #3 it is below the belt, so to speak. Yes, it’s possible to be ruled by the heart and create only a state of chaos. Oh what exquisitely painful fun! In the end #2, our central figure, will make a decision, compelled as he is by a greater force from above. When this card turns up, consider what drives your behaviour in your interpersonal relationships. Are you as clear-headed as you like to think you are. Are your thoughts your own? Where does your heart reside?
and I am perpetually waiting for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn to catch each other up at last and embrace and I am awaiting perpetually and forever a renaissance of wonder
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, I Am Waiting
Le Chariot
Let’s consider if the Empress and The Pope had a child what that child might be like? Or the High Priestess and The Emperor for that matter. There would be something to hide and something to prove, but such a perfect, rich, stew of spiritual and worldly power that the golden child would be come into this world speeding head-first down an assured trajectory.
And so, The Chariot thunders into the scene, crowned and conquering, his arm raised in victory. He’s done it. He’s doing it. He will do it. There is no chance that his mission will fail. What are the elements of his success? Break the image down. First, he is contained in the right vehicle. He has a way of getting where he needs to go, and things are already in motion. Second, he has at his disposal the supra-human powers of the horses. Managing these beasts requires skill and daring, the ability to coordinate effort and direction, and the will to keep going.
Magical uses: Call on Le Chariot for anything that needs extra power and success, domination, victory,
Bring me my bow of burning gold! Bring me my arrows of desire! Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire!
Preface to Milton, A Poem In Two Weeks, William Blake
La Justice
La Justice does not weigh as a hobby. She measures because reality demands consequence and constant adjustment. The sword is swift clarity, not cruelty. The scales are not punishment or proportion; they are the forces of homeostasis ever in flux. In Blood and Ink, Justice is the moment your spell is noticed by Lady Justice herself. What you took. What you’re owed. What you refused to see. She is the clean cut that ends a lie. She is the steady hand that returns you to right relationship, with others, with yourself, with the unseen contracts you signed in blood and thought. If you want truth, she will give it. Do not ask unless you mean it. Magical uses: Cutting through confusion, ethical binding, contracts and oaths, legal luck, karmic return.
“The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” Shakespeare
L’Hermite
The Hermit carries a lantern like a small, stubborn star. He does not rush to be understood. He does not parade revelation. He walks the edge of the world where the noise thins and the soul can finally speak in its own voice. In Blood and Ink the Hermit is the craft of solitude, the heat you build by staying with your question long enough for it to change shape. His staff provides stability while his cloak is refuses ego. He teaches that mystery is not a performance. It is a practice. Magical uses: Divination, ancestral listening, withdrawal from interference, long form spells, incubation.
“I live my life in widening circles…” Rainer Maria Rilke
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La Roue de Fortune
The Wheel turns whether you pray or not. That’s the first lesson. The second is sharper. You are never only the one rising. You are also the one falling, and the one watching. In Blood and Ink, the Wheel is a living mechanism fed by chance, appetite, timing, and the invisible mathematics of consequences. It laughs at your certainty. If you want to work with it, stop begging for control and start learning rhythm. Catch the turning. Ride the curve. Know when to leap. Magical uses: Luck work, reversal, timing spells, breaking streaks, opening cycles. Quote: “There is a tide in the affairs of men…” Shakespeare
“There is a tide in the affairs of men…” Shakespeare
La Force
La Force is not brute domination. She does not win by crushing but by contact, by the steady intimacy of will meeting wildness and holding still. In Blood and Ink, Strength is the moment you put your hand on the beast and the beast recognises you, opens to you and sings its song. It is nervous system magic. Breath. Composure. Connection. The gaze that does not blink. This is quiet courage and endurance without martyrdom or showmanship. If you are afraid, bring your fear closer. Name it. Feed it the truth. Then ask it to serve you. Magical uses: Courage, confidence, steady power, taming compulsions, charisma without apology.
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.” Shakespeare
XII — Le Pendu
Le Pendu is inversion, a sacred inconvenience. He is not stuck. He is suspended on purpose, the world turned upside down so you can see the hidden hinge. Blood and Ink understands exchange, what must be given up so something truer can take its place. Le Pendu asks for voluntary sacrifice. Ego. Speed. Certainty. The need to be right. In return you get the strange mercy of perspective. Sometimes the spell works by waiting. Sometimes the spell works by surrender. The spell always works.
Magical uses: Reversal work, offerings, contracts and bindings, seeing the hidden pattern, letting go to unbind.
“Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)” TS Eliot, The Wasteland
XIII — L’Arcane sans Nom
Death in Marseille keeps its name unspoken, as if language itself might try to bargain. But the scythe does not bargain. It harvests. In Blood and Ink this is the card of clean endings, ruthless mercy, and the severing of what has already died inside you but kept walking out of habit. It is not punishment. It is compost. It is the necessary rot that feeds the next living thing. When this card appears, stop asking how to save what’s over. Ask what wants to be freed. More importantly, ask how you might become nourishing compost. Magical uses: Cord cutting, banishings, endings, grief rites, shedding skins, breaking habits.
“And death shall have no dominion.” Dylan Thomas
La Lune
Blood & Ink, I have said, wants to be used for things best done under the cover of darkness. Herein lies the action of La Lune. These are dogs or wolves, our wild nature, who inhabit that space outside the fortifications of city walls, outside the watchtowers. They inhabit the bridge between the mundane and the celestial and it is here that they lift their voice and HOWL. It is here on the edge of the blood-soaked world that they prance and sing and wail. But to what? What celestial body calls their attention? Luna, only visible because she reflects the light of another celestial body. She defies The Sun’s need to retreat, steals his light and reveals in her aperture her own cycles which govern fluid tides of all varieties: oceans, blood, moods… There are cycles without and cycles within, bubbling up from the abyss nipping at your heels, glimpsed & sensed but never clearly perceived, still calling us to HOWL. In the light of the moon, your voice carries the power of your sorcery. When you call THEM, they will come.
Magical uses: Call on the moon to reveal paths in the darkness, voices of the unseen.
“I saw the best minds of my generation who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on their heads every day for the next decade.”
