The Astrology Reading Cards Interview
An Interview with Alison Chester-Lambert, Creator of the Astrology Reading Cards
OM Times: How did the idea come to you for the Astrology Reading Cards?
Alison Chester-Lambert: Because I have learnt astrology myself I am aware of its potential and wisdom. It is a system that was developed by ancient master races thousands of years ago and it is the supreme tool for universal understanding. The Mesopotamians, Greeks and Mayans all used astrology and astrologers get to know some pretty cool stuff. We have considerable sacred and esoteric knowledge at our finger tips, but we are not good at sharing it. We wrap it up in jargon and bamboozle, or hide it from the public because we think they can’t deal with its potency. At the bottom of all my work is the desire to share these spiritual Mysteries with all spiritual people. So I puzzled and puzzled with the idea of astrology cards for ages. I figured that if only this wisdom could be distilled into a deck of easy-to-use cards, then maybe the ancient archetypal energy would come alive as the individual soul reached for it. But there was a technical barrier to using astrology, for the system didn’t `fit` into a card system. Then a `Eureka` moment came to me at 04.00am one morning and suddenly I know how to do it! The Cosmos agreed, for that very morning, Richard Crookes, the illustrator, contacted me on facebook and asked me if I’d like to work with him on a deck of cards. The synchronicity was amazing…. I said yes thinking I could figure the detail out on the way….. which I did!
OM Times: Can you explain why you have divided them into three specific sets, i.e. Houses, Planets and Zodiac Signs?
Alison: This is the technical problem that no-one else had ever been able to solve! In astrology we use a three layered system where we take a planet and put it into a layer of clothing (the Zodiac Sign) and then we watch it operate in the last layer, which is a certain area or our lives (the Houses). Professional scientific astrology is `read` in this way. The Horoscopes you read in magazines have only one layer – the Zodiac Signs – and that is why they are necessarily vague – they don’t have all the layers. They are not wrong …. they are just one-dimensional. To get a really good `reading` in astrology you have to have all three layers available.
My Eureka moment was recognizing that if I designed a deck with three different sets in it, then this would take care of the three different layer issue. Which it did! So when you take one card from each set you are copying the way that professional astrology actually works.
OM Times: Can you explain how the cards work?
Alison: The ARC cards can show you the `present` and the `future`. Let’s look at the present first. Our unconscious spirit and soul is constantly in dialogue with the Collective Unconscious or Universal Soul. Our nervous system gets electromagnetic `downloads` or messages from the unseen dimensions all the time. But our conscious does not `tune` in and act on them. We mistrust and doubt these vague feelings; we drown out our `gut` instinct or intuition. However, we are resonating to the energy of the present and our unconscious will select cards that represent this if we give it the opportunity. If you have heard about the dark matter and dark energy of science, then you probably see how this might work. The Cosmos has a higher intelligent consciousness which is connected up in some giant invisible 3D web to everything. That sounds pretty weird, but the scientists are discovering amazing truths in this area. For instance, they have found that Earth’s weather and earthquakes are driven by the Sun and Moon. An example of this is the auroras on Earth, which come directly from particle energy kicked out by the Sun. Your own aura is plugged into all this because you exist in the midst of it and the cards allow the energy from your aura to manifest or show itself in the same way that the auroras can be seen around the Earth.
Now, that explains the present, but how about the future, how can the cards predict the future? Well, the present contains all the future potentials. All future possibilities are like a little seed that will sprout when we give it attention and the unconscious part of us will envisage and select the most likely outcome. Then when we read the cards that represent our future, our consciousness takes over and manifests it, or makes it happen. We are part of the process, for when we believe, we make it happen as well. For that reason, if you get a reading you like, don’t have another one until it has come true. Or tell yourself that the first one IS going to happen, you are just checking up on some other detail for today, so that in your mind you are still on board to have the first one come true.
By the way, in the book belonging to the cards, it tells you pull three cards for your `present` then put them back and draw three more for your `future`? Well I have found that if you do that the same cards will come out again. So keep the first three out and then draw three more to give you the `future`. This works really well.
OM Times: Tell us about the beautiful designs.
Alison: I worked with a digital image artist called Richard Crookes who designs book covers and had worked with another author on a deck of spiritual cards. Astrology is very specific with its symbolism and my ideas of how to represent that even more so, so I guided the project throughout. This must have been pretty tough for Richard because I can be very bossy, but his great skill was in manipulating the symbols I gave him onto a card and embellishing them. Because he knows nothing of astrology he had to take all my ideas and get them to work with Photoshop. Creative imagination wasn’t needed but creative interpretation was. My struggle was to ensure that every card faithfully represented astrology, so that astrologers themselves would appreciate them. I was also aware of the huge burden of representing astrology properly and responsibly for astrology’s sake. And because astrology represents the entire field of human experience – because every single conceivable possibility had to be given an outlet – the cards had to have a really diverse range. So if you look at an Earth card like Taurus for instance, it looks nothing like a Fire card such as Aries. We worried that the deck might not look as if it belonged together because of that, but in the end the variety became its signature and the glue that held it together. If you spread all the cards out on a table face up, then the most striking feature is the difference between the cards.
We couldn’t afford models for the cards, so we press-ganged family members, friends and Findhorn Press management into posing for the right shot. My daughter appears in four of them with a different wig on for instance and Richard’s wife and step daughter also appear in them.
OM Times: How can these cards be helpful to us?
Alison: The ARC cards describe the current issues in your life with astonishing accuracy, but importantly, in a way that you perhaps hadn’t thought about. They give you the hidden layers or the underlying meanings. In a PhD theses and research study, Dr N. Campion found that learning astrology had made astrologers feel more self-empowered and their lives more meaningful and fulfilled and I found the same in research I did. This is astrology’s great gift. And even though the card reader is only accessing astrology at a user level rather than a professional level, that same sense of meaning and self-empowerment is still there.
As far as predicting the future is concerned …well that is for you, the reader to decide. Is it helpful to understand how the future might be? I think so.
OM Times: You have some cards in the pack that many of us know nothing about, planets such as Chiron and Vesta, how did that come about?
Alison: There are 12 Houses or areas of our life in astrology and that is unchangeable. There are also 12 Zodiac Signs and that is unchangeable too. But there are very many planets and that list is growing all the time. In astrology, everything that is an object and out in space is called a `planet`, so the Sun is a planet and so is the Moon. And there are lots of little planets called asteroids and dwarf planets. But most people only know of the classic ones like Mercury and Venus. However, there are only 10 of those. So in order to have 12 planets, like the other two sets, I added in two of the lesser known ones, Chiron and Vesta. I chose those two out of all the options because they are so humble and unassuming. I felt we needed some quieter members of the planetary line-up next to the big, brash ones.
OM Times: Which were the hardest cards to create and which ones were the most easily created?
Alison: In this the planets lived up to the energies that are their meanings, for the hard ones to create were the ones that represent struggle and hardship. And the ones that are soft and accessible rolled out easily. Richard did the Venus card all by himself and I just accepted it without question – this planet just falls over herself to get noticed and help you succeed! Mercury is a quicksilver energy and the card was hard to pin down. I had to drive all over my home town photographing different friends as models and since Mercury represents short journeys, kinships and communicating that seems pretty apt. Neptune was so elusive it drove me crazy, in the end we both got utterly confused by the amount of different versions, each more beautiful than the last. In astrology, the energy of Neptune is illusory, vague and deceptive, so this makes sense too. The Saturn card took ages because the model wasn’t available for a while and that hold up was typical of Saturn in real life. Aries rushed in in about an hour and if you know an Aries then you will know how true that is! One that comes to mind as the most difficult was the Eighth House which represents crisis and difficult exchanges with others. Richard and I nearly fell out over that one, by the end of the third day he wasn’t speaking to me and normally we got on well.
So as you can see, the cards all arrived in the energy that they represent. Proving to me that they absolutely knew what they were doing at least. For during the whole project I felt like I was floating above it all with an anxious feeling inside. Like a mother watching a baby take its first tentative steps. I both knew and didn’t know what was coming next; the whole thing had a fated or karmic feel to it.
They are a completely new predictive animal. Neither a tarot card nor a professional horoscope…they are just `new` really and I feel this is completely appropriate for 2012. We have had a marvelous reaction from people so far and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to give birth to them…. I hope you enjoy them too!
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To learn more, or to order a set of The Astrology Reading Cards, visit: Findhorn Press
