Today’s deck is a fun historical one: Michiate Al Cigno.
Minchiate Al Cigno sounds like some sort of pasta dish but Minchiate apparently means something vulgar similar to “bullshit”, according to the included pamphlet. But here the term refers to a variant of Tarot and apparently the association with a more vulgar term might’ve been deliberate at some point. “Al Cigno”, meanwhile, is actually the workshop that made this specific Michiate, so the name would actually be more like Al Cigno’s Minchiate, which would check out considering I’m sure I have a couple other Minchiates somewhere.
One of the interesting things about the deck is that it has a lot more than 22 major Arcana, in fact, here’s a list of them:
0- The fool (as usual more meaning “the madman”)
1- Pope one (the magician at its most street gambler-y)
2- Pope two (the empress)
3- Pope three (the emperor)
4- Pope Four (the pope)
5- Pope Five (love)
6- Temperance
7- Fortitude (Strength by a different name)
8- Justice
9- Wheel of Fortune
10- The Chariot
11- Hunchback/Time (the hermit)
12- The Hanged man/ The Traitor
13- Death
14- The Devil
15- The house of the devil (The tower but not quite)
16- Hope
17- Prudence
18- Faith
19- Charity
20 to 23- Fire, water, earth and air Fucking magnets how do they work
24 to 35- The whole zodiac, a card for each sign.
36 to 38- The star, the moon, and the sun.
39- The World
40- The trumpets (Judgment)
Apparently the shifting around is less arbitrary than one might think. For example, if you’re in Italy in the 18th Century, the idea of the High Priestess (literally The Female Pope) might’ve been touchy so they threw her out hence why a bunch of the cards are down one number.
They’re also Pope’s one through five because of how they were used in the game they were used to play, where those five were the lowest points.
Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice are cardinal virtues (the opposite of cardinal sins) so they put them all together and THEN added Prudence, Faith, Hope, and Charity down the ladder.
Also, elements like The Tower being The House of the Devil (normally called The House of God when it’s that variant) and The Hunchback instead of The Hermit are apparently the result of it being a common thing in Bologna and Sicily.
I swear to God, Bologna doesn’t sound like a real city, it sounds like a city an American makes up when trying to make fun of Italy.
“Ayyyy I’m-a Cazzo Linguini from Bologna”.
Aaaaanyways, today’s reading is… a challenge. Charity, Page of Swords, Ten of Swords.
Page of swords reflects that drive to learn, the boy with a sword eager to use it; The ten of swords means pain, betrayal; and then charity… what does charity mean to me?
To me, a charitable spirit is one that gives because they love giving. Not out of pity or responsability but out of love, be it to whoever they give or the love of giving, sometimes to their own detriment.
I’d consider myself a charitable spirit, but like many things in my life, less in a bragging way and more in a “picture me chugging a whole shot of rum after saying it” way.
I can’t help being that way, I often feel like my life would be easier if I wasn’t yet fighting against that impulse is more stressful, it’s the wish to be more self-motivated clashing against the fact that I’m only ever truly happy giving to others…
…
…well, I guess that’s basically what today’s reading is saying, huh?
Go figure.
Today was a moody sort of day. I often talk about those, but let me explain how it usually feels: You know those thoughts after 10PM? Where you cringe at yourself from the past or get angry about stuff that happened to you years ago?
Like that, but all day long.
The funny thing is that ever since I started labeling it as happening because of the Manperiod (since it always happens near the end of the month) it’s become easier to handle as just something predictable that will happen again but will also pass again.
I do wonder why I end up so moody near the end of the month specifically, though.
I spent most of the day staring at the cieling and dissociating while my brain did its thing unpacking small grievances and big… I don’t wanna say “regrets” because I try to live a life without those (reframing things as learning experiences whenever possible in a “well, I wouldn’t be here if not for dumb thing I did that taught me to not do dumb thing” way) more like uh… cringe moments.
As such, aside from researching about today’s tarot and starting a book about the history of Sierra Online, the most notable thing I did was chatting with E and looking up the Project Sekai voice cast and find who’s also in Uma Musume.
It’s all these by the way, plus Kurofune Perry Steam but she has no official art.
There’s no better moment than describing what kind of girl Agnes Digital is and finding out Ena Proseka is basically Minori Suzuki getting typecast as an awkward nerd that makes fanfics about her friends.