I discovered the Prisma Visions Tarot through my love of James R. Eads’s Lenormand deck, Green Glyphs Lenormand (read my interview with the Green Glyphs here). I’ve backed the Cosma Visions Oracle deck on Kickstarter as well, so I’ll soon(ish) have another deck by Eads in my collection (there’s plenty of time to get to know and work with this one before then).

The colorful whorls in this deck and the linking scenes of the minor arcana are so beautiful, and the art invites the tarot reader to really enjoy the deck, as seen in the results of this spread. But I’m also expecting there to be a fair amount of discomfort because the deck will require (or inspire) a change and acceptance of confusion that is counter to my nature. Change is hard but necessary. And confusion, discomforting though it is, can encourage growth once the initial disorientation has passed. Here’s hoping!

Deck interview spread with Prisma Visions Tarot — Interviewing the Prisma Visions Tarot

**What major lesson are you here to help me learn?** *6 of Swords*
**Through which divine energy can we best communicate?** *8 of Wands (reversed)*
**In what area can you aid me to help others?** *2 of Swords*
**In what area could your guidance be easily misunderstood?** *King of Chalices (reversed)*
**What can I do to keep our communication clear?** *The Moon*
**How can I use your guidance for the highest good?** *3 of Swords (reversed)*
**How will I know when we’re ready for a new lesson?** *The Sun*

There’s something so peaceful about Eads’s version of heavy snowfall here in the Swords despite the reality of such coldness and the challenges many people find with the Swords cards. The 6 of Swords feels especially vibrant with the rainbow-colored clouds and butterflies somehow surviving the cold. It’s a bit fantastical and otherworldly, but there’s hope in it, and I think that’s a powerful lesson to take away from the deck alongside its confusions. I’ve been increasingly drawn to the Star card, which I discuss in a recent post. The 6 is an Aquarian card, so it’s tied to the Star in that hopefulness, even if the scene is virtually impossible. There’s still the dream of that hope, and so much of the 6 of Swords in other decks relies on that hope. I think for me personally there’s also a resonance with the transformation of the butterflies as well, and I’m here for it, however much I may fight against it.

This is a total aside, but I’m seeing butterflies everywhere, and my post on learning to read the Fool includes a slight reference to their symbolism in some depictions of that card. They also have found their way into the first draft of the first card of a new oracle deck project I’ve started, which I’ll post about here once I have more art done. For now, you can see it on Instagram. But like I said, I’m here for the change and, apparently, the butterflies.

The butterflies have no choice but to go with the strong winds. As the trees show, it’s no gentle breeze! What choice does a butterfly have? It seems better, in this case, to go with that driving wind than to fight against it. Where will it take me?

As far as connecting with an appropriate energy for proper alignment, it’s hard to read a reversal here. But with the whirlwind of springtime flowers depicted on the 8 of Wands and the card’s traditionally fast and intense meanings, this feels like an invitation to slow down and just experience the card, to appreciate its beauty and just revel in the moment.

Despite the plurality of Swords in this spread, there’s actually an appeal in this reading to something other than strict logical patterns. The reversal of the 8 of Wands encourages slowness and attention to detail, seen in the vortices behind the trees on the card. It seems to say, “Step in and enjoy the beauty.” I’ll have to think further on whether there is some deity of flowers or beauty being brought to life here. The more I linger with it, there’s an increasing sense of reflective waters with this card in reversal, a bath of flowers, and it makes me think of Aphrodite and Venus or even Narcissus. The card has a self-indulgently beautiful feel to it. But it requires fine balance. Don’t drown in the waters or stick fast to the bank as Narcissus did. Emerge from it newly formed like Aphrodite.

This slowness and willingness to process the imagery carries into helping others with the deck. Allow for internal debates and let thoughts flow over each other like the colorful clouds (or aurora) in the background. But let it move at its natural pace and without a great clashing of swords. We also have the butterfly here, and the appeal to fantasy returns, as if to say, “Don’t worry about your surroundings and what you can see objectively. See what truth there could be.” (I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about the 2 of Swords, so this is another timely card.) The 2 is a beautiful complement to the 6 in the first position in this way.

We can see in the fourth card that this isn’t an invitation to get lost in the cards without some kind of result, without some forward movement, carrying forward that wintry air from the Swords. There’s slowness and attention to detail, but there’s also an output, whether that’s a thoughtful decision or some more tangible action. The King of Chalices balances head and heart, and reversed, he cautions against becoming inundated and drowning in the experience—falling into the waters as the autumnal leaves do or becoming stuck to the banks like Narcissus. (The Hanged Man in this deck is a drowned man.) There’s also probably some caution in this card against using this deck to deal with interpersonal issues, but I’ve lost the thread of it while writing this. I do like that the passionate court cards of the Wands and Cups are energies more than figures though: focus on the principles of the person, not the surface details.

With all of this advice to enjoy the view and take your time combined with caution against falling too deeply into the waters, it’s weird but fitting to see the Moon as an antidote. It’s so watery, but I focus most here on the boat and pathway made by the light of the Moon. It’s a reminder that the unconscious processing encouraged in the earlier cards is meant to lead somewhere. Still, there’s always the threat of false surfaces in this card and in this depiction, so it works nicely with the reversed King and asks that you remember that the surface is rarely going to be a useful way of understanding. See the surface of the images, and wade into them, but don’t sink. The Moon gives light, but that reflected light reflects once more in the waters. Get sidetracked and you may find yourself following the illusion down into the watery depths.

Taken together so far, these cards encourage optimism and slow contemplation, and they allow plenty of abstraction and wishful thinking—it actually makes this a very challenging post to write!—but there’s still some determined thought process and, in some form, an outcome that moves things forward.

And why is that? It’s to help reject any desire to wallow in despair or pain. Float and bathe in the beautiful, feeling waters of this deck, but don’t wallow. If the primary factor here is to move ahead without moving on too quickly, there’s good work that can be done on the psychological front. Finding closure and working to overcome past wounds takes a lot of time, and it takes hope for the future. It might even require a suspension of disbelief because, of course, we’ll be hurt again at some point. Hopefully it won’t be hurt us in the same way, and hopefully we can learn from it, but we can’t avoid risking pain. That’s not a life. Accept that it will be there and allow yourself to keep moving ahead. It’s actually something that I have become more attuned to helping querents through.

At the end of this current phase, I expect to experience new moments of just losing myself (temporarily) in the cards. Optimism and fantasy will give way to joy or even ecstasy. What a strange thing to see in these cards. It feels a bit uncomfortable and threatening now that I look at it again with its melting, liquid quality. But it also feels necessary, as if it’s the transformation and a new way forward in my own practice promised by the 6 of Swords and that butterfly. Somehow, at the end of the lesson, my relationship to this deck will be very different. What a trip it promises to be.

The Prisma Visions Tarot was created by James R. Eads © 2016. The deck is published independently by the creator, and you can purchase it through James R. Eads’s site. The version shown here is the Fifth Edition.

Deck Interview: Prisma Visions Tarot