Back when I started picking cards or images or concepts to use in this deck, I had some very strong ones I knew for sure had to be included. Then I thought and thought and picked out some others....none of those were as strong or as meaningful as the first choices. So now months down the road I am revising the list...
First I took out all the filler cards that I had placed in the deck to sort of round it out. Images such as the fool, the moon, etc...ones that are in traditional decks....well...guess what...this is NOT a traditonal deck. They don't fit for me!
Second I went through and took out the images that were from history but perhaps not as strong or meaningful to me. I have left only one person card in the deck. The Grandma Annie card represents my mother. And while there are other important family members, such as Grandma Uptown...none of them resonanted with me as being part of this deck other than the woman who embodies the idea of this deck.
Third I added a few cards. The grasshopper card is a recent adventure but still seemed to fit in this deck. I also added the Ball of Fire, Knock on the Door, the Ouija Board, and the Stone (all from family history and with interesting stories attached to them.)
I still have a few blanks (I'm not rushing this time, these cards will "come to me")...I'd like to start the deck with 48 cards but am open to adding to the deck as time goes by...but the goal is to get the 48 in place and then add a card here or there if something seems to fit.
If you are interested in the list of cards...click on the The Cards link on the top bar here at The Silent Woods and you will be taken to the page with the list...scroll down a bit!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
CARD: Ghost Lights
Have you ever watched something on TV and got that vague uneasy feeling that it is something you have seen before or it just jiggles your memories? Well with all the new shows on like ghost hunters and paranormal....I'm bound to encounter that what with the haunted farm and stuff. Well this happened over a year ago when I was watching TV, not a paranormal show...I hardly ever watch those but I did happen to catch a bit of an advertisement for one in which they mentioned "ghost lights". When I caught a glimpse of the segment, it sure reminded me of something. Something buried deep in my memories and I sort of just shook it off.
Then about six months ago, I was chatting with my niece who is in her thirties and as often happens ....talk turned to family, funny memories, and the farm. My older daughter was there too and just happened to mentioned that she wanted to take a "ghost tour" in St. Charles, MO. That's a town about 35 minutes from us and it has these tours in the old down town section which are taken (at night of course). We had been throwing around this idea (just for fun mind you) for quite some time.
Then my niece mentioned the "ghost lights". It seems that she has some pretty clear and distinctive memories of the farm. She lived in a trailor on the farm for several years when she was quite small. The trailor was about fifty to a hundred yards from the farm house itself. As she told the story she remembers of the ghost lights I began to realize that she was talking about exactly what I had viewed and found disturbingly familiar on the TV segment. Those glowing lights several feet in the air and moving (usually directly toward me).
She related to us, how as a small child of about 4-6 she can remember at dusk being afraid to walk the fifty yards or so to Grandma's house (the home I grew up in) because she had to watch down the lane for the ghost lights and make sure she had plenty of time to make it to the house before they could travel down the lane toward the house. She vividly described the lights usually in pairs or groups of three to five lights. Possibly ten-twenty feet in the air, but she can't be sure as they were in the distance. But when she would enter the yard at dusk or a bit later in the summer she could see them up the lane and they frequently started moving toward her and the farm house as she made her way quickly across the yard. She had actually read mention of "ghost lights" in a book about Missouri ghosts and made the connection.
I can't say I have a clear memory of the lights which seems a little odd but what she described are exactly like the lights on the TV segment that cause me such pause when I caught a glimpse of them. Perhaps her story could be explained away as her memory "fitting" what she had read but how exactly do you explain my nagging dejavu when I saw the segment and then the fact that her stories so closely match my vague memories. The ghost lights unlike the little man in the attic caused us a bit of fear but no one was ever hurt by them. Small children can be easily scared by what they do not understand especially at dusk in that twilight time when the light of day becomes the darkness of night.
Originally Posted at Ginger's Journey MARCH 2008
Then about six months ago, I was chatting with my niece who is in her thirties and as often happens ....talk turned to family, funny memories, and the farm. My older daughter was there too and just happened to mentioned that she wanted to take a "ghost tour" in St. Charles, MO. That's a town about 35 minutes from us and it has these tours in the old down town section which are taken (at night of course). We had been throwing around this idea (just for fun mind you) for quite some time.
Then my niece mentioned the "ghost lights". It seems that she has some pretty clear and distinctive memories of the farm. She lived in a trailor on the farm for several years when she was quite small. The trailor was about fifty to a hundred yards from the farm house itself. As she told the story she remembers of the ghost lights I began to realize that she was talking about exactly what I had viewed and found disturbingly familiar on the TV segment. Those glowing lights several feet in the air and moving (usually directly toward me).
She related to us, how as a small child of about 4-6 she can remember at dusk being afraid to walk the fifty yards or so to Grandma's house (the home I grew up in) because she had to watch down the lane for the ghost lights and make sure she had plenty of time to make it to the house before they could travel down the lane toward the house. She vividly described the lights usually in pairs or groups of three to five lights. Possibly ten-twenty feet in the air, but she can't be sure as they were in the distance. But when she would enter the yard at dusk or a bit later in the summer she could see them up the lane and they frequently started moving toward her and the farm house as she made her way quickly across the yard. She had actually read mention of "ghost lights" in a book about Missouri ghosts and made the connection.
I can't say I have a clear memory of the lights which seems a little odd but what she described are exactly like the lights on the TV segment that cause me such pause when I caught a glimpse of them. Perhaps her story could be explained away as her memory "fitting" what she had read but how exactly do you explain my nagging dejavu when I saw the segment and then the fact that her stories so closely match my vague memories. The ghost lights unlike the little man in the attic caused us a bit of fear but no one was ever hurt by them. Small children can be easily scared by what they do not understand especially at dusk in that twilight time when the light of day becomes the darkness of night.
Originally Posted at Ginger's Journey MARCH 2008
Sunday, November 8, 2009
CARD: The Tunnel
This is the actual site that The Tunnel card is based on. This is a tunnel that a road used to run through as there is a railroad track that used to run across the top. The road now dead ends at the tunnel because it is not passable and trains no longer travel across the rail here. There is much local lore about the tunnel and possible paranormal activity inside it.
This picture is taken about 8:30 in the morning just inside the tunnel, looking toward the other end. As I stood in the tunnel, there was a very distinct noise, about as loud as a voice during normal talk. It sounded like a train in the distance or perhaps a roar. Outside the tunnel the noise could not be heard. There were also periodically metallic tinging like noises of unknown origin.As I stood with my back to the tunnel for a picture my niece observed a line of weird swirling mist at the opposite end of the tunnel. The line of mist was positioned exactly where my camera battery drained. As we drove away from the tunnel I checked my camera and it was fully charged again.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Working on the Journey Deck
I've put this deck away for a couple months because I was getting some anxiety from trying to work out cards. The deck has quite a few VERY strong cards that I am completely satisfied with....the meanings are good, well developed and "feel" right. They read well in the readings I have done with the "draft deck".
Then there are some cards that seem too vague or just don't seem to fit. There's nothing really wrong with them but when ever they come up in a reading I cringe because I don't really feel connected to them nor do they seem to fit particularly well. These are mostly the cards that I "created" to fit the deck...when I had a good number of my experience cards defined I felt an urge to get a full deck so that I could start practice reading....so I added ones that made sense to me and a few represented some memory or idea from family history BUT not really a strong one. This I soon discovered was a mistake...which is why I am reworking and rethinking the deck....
Some cards like the ones I've written about....The Little Man in the Attic, The Little Woman, even the Hell Hounds....those are all strong and read well. So my goal for this week is to go back through the cards and the card list and pull ONLY those that are strong and seem to speak to me. The rest will be set aside and then I will continue SLOWLY this time to round out the deck with more meaningful selections....
After I do the card sort....I'll pop back in here later in the week and list the cards that are being kept as part of the deck....so you will be able to see the beginning of the Journey Deck....and get a glimpse of the weird family history and strange occurances...
Then there are some cards that seem too vague or just don't seem to fit. There's nothing really wrong with them but when ever they come up in a reading I cringe because I don't really feel connected to them nor do they seem to fit particularly well. These are mostly the cards that I "created" to fit the deck...when I had a good number of my experience cards defined I felt an urge to get a full deck so that I could start practice reading....so I added ones that made sense to me and a few represented some memory or idea from family history BUT not really a strong one. This I soon discovered was a mistake...which is why I am reworking and rethinking the deck....
Some cards like the ones I've written about....The Little Man in the Attic, The Little Woman, even the Hell Hounds....those are all strong and read well. So my goal for this week is to go back through the cards and the card list and pull ONLY those that are strong and seem to speak to me. The rest will be set aside and then I will continue SLOWLY this time to round out the deck with more meaningful selections....
After I do the card sort....I'll pop back in here later in the week and list the cards that are being kept as part of the deck....so you will be able to see the beginning of the Journey Deck....and get a glimpse of the weird family history and strange occurances...
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Saga of the Little Woman Continues
Okay the last time I wrote about the little woman I described what I remembered from my childhood and mentioned that that was not the only encounter or story about this seemingly benign spirit (for lack of a better word).
Years later when my mom was sharing unusual stories of an ummmm...we shall say supernatural nature...I mentioned the Little Woman story...and it was then that I discovered that my odd experience was not the first nor the last visit. Describing for me in vivid detail she talked about her first knowledge of the little old woman...when my sister Connie was a baby....still in a basinett beside the bed.It seems that mom had come slowly awake and realized that someone was standing beside the basinett. Her heart was gripped with fear even though to her the lady looked quite angelic. She worried that her presence at the baby's bedside meant that she was going to die.
It was only after weeks and weeks of unease that she was able to put those thoughts aside. After contemplation she came to the conclusion that the little woman represented a family guardian or spirit. She only came to this conclusion quite a while later after hearing about similar visits that the woman made to my aunts who lived in Kansas City Missouri but that is a tale for another day.
Originally Posted at Ginger's Journey June 20, 2008
Years later when my mom was sharing unusual stories of an ummmm...we shall say supernatural nature...I mentioned the Little Woman story...and it was then that I discovered that my odd experience was not the first nor the last visit. Describing for me in vivid detail she talked about her first knowledge of the little old woman...when my sister Connie was a baby....still in a basinett beside the bed.It seems that mom had come slowly awake and realized that someone was standing beside the basinett. Her heart was gripped with fear even though to her the lady looked quite angelic. She worried that her presence at the baby's bedside meant that she was going to die.
It was only after weeks and weeks of unease that she was able to put those thoughts aside. After contemplation she came to the conclusion that the little woman represented a family guardian or spirit. She only came to this conclusion quite a while later after hearing about similar visits that the woman made to my aunts who lived in Kansas City Missouri but that is a tale for another day.
Originally Posted at Ginger's Journey June 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
When the Macabre is the Norm
Oh perhaps macabre is not the right word to use. Ghastly? Perhaps some of the events that unfolded years ago on that small patch of ground were macabre but not all. No not all by any means. Some were simply "interesting."
One such encounter was the story of the stone. It is a story that goes back even further in time. In the days when my mother was a young girl. It transpired not on the farm itself but in some adjacent woods that were about five miles from the Silent Woods themselves. Five miles as a crow flies. It was in those woods, covered in brambles, the ground hidden from the light of day by the dense branches hanging overhead, that my grandmother discovered the stone.
The stone was large and flat and smooth. Nestled there is the green moss of the spring woods it glistened and beckoned. "What a perfect stone for the flower bed." must have been what my grandmother thought as she gazed upon it. For it was smoother than one would expect in the deep woods far from the river to the north.
With hands on hips she stood towering over it. It looked heavy and it was slightly buried in the damp soil. But grandmother was not one to be daunted by the need for muscle. Hard work was no stranger to her and so she stooped without a second thought and tugged at the stone. It did not break away from the ground easily but when it did, she gasp and stepped back quickly, covering her ears with her hands.
For as she lifted the stone, the distant sounds of screaming voices reached her ears. Voices, she described later that were like those one would imagine in the bowels of hell. With shrieking, and moaning, and gnashing of teeth. Cries of agony, begging for release. So strong and real that she quivers in telling the story.
In the woods that day, she shoved the stone securely back in place and moved quickly through the damp darkness of the woods. For evening was approaching and she wished even less to find herself in these woods at night then she had earlier.
One such encounter was the story of the stone. It is a story that goes back even further in time. In the days when my mother was a young girl. It transpired not on the farm itself but in some adjacent woods that were about five miles from the Silent Woods themselves. Five miles as a crow flies. It was in those woods, covered in brambles, the ground hidden from the light of day by the dense branches hanging overhead, that my grandmother discovered the stone.
The stone was large and flat and smooth. Nestled there is the green moss of the spring woods it glistened and beckoned. "What a perfect stone for the flower bed." must have been what my grandmother thought as she gazed upon it. For it was smoother than one would expect in the deep woods far from the river to the north.
With hands on hips she stood towering over it. It looked heavy and it was slightly buried in the damp soil. But grandmother was not one to be daunted by the need for muscle. Hard work was no stranger to her and so she stooped without a second thought and tugged at the stone. It did not break away from the ground easily but when it did, she gasp and stepped back quickly, covering her ears with her hands.
For as she lifted the stone, the distant sounds of screaming voices reached her ears. Voices, she described later that were like those one would imagine in the bowels of hell. With shrieking, and moaning, and gnashing of teeth. Cries of agony, begging for release. So strong and real that she quivers in telling the story.
In the woods that day, she shoved the stone securely back in place and moved quickly through the damp darkness of the woods. For evening was approaching and she wished even less to find herself in these woods at night then she had earlier.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The Woods are Calling
" The woods are calling today." Not sure what it means or even what I mean...but as I was mulling things over and getting ready to start the day...that phrase just sort of appeared out of no where...and I wanted to write it down before I forgot it. I'm short on time this morning but I'll come back and elaborate more later...
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