The Maat Tarot - A New Look at an Old Tarot Friend
Many of us tarot aficionados have quite a number of tarot and oracle decks. I have close to 200 hundred tarot decks alone, yet I only use one or two decks professionally. The rest I rarely even look at. One great way for me to work with these cards is through personal study. I like to do a Card of the Day (COTD) draw and journal about it and for this process I select a different deck each month.
This month I’m working with the Maat Tarot by Julie Cuccia-Watts. Julie has authored and illustrated a number of amazing decks throughout the years. Her decks are imbued with a wonderful sense of magic and mysticism. (It sometimes feels to me as though she has a time tunnel directly to ancient Egypt.). The Maat Tarot is based on cross-quarter days and the Lunar Calendar. I always thought it was beautiful, by when I decided to use it for my COTD for May, I realized that now that I’ve added a good understanding of astrology to my skill set, the deck has even more appeal for me personally.
I decided to play with the cards by plotting the Lunar Cycle for the next month and looking at the cards for each one. In the Maat Tarot, thirteen of the Majors correspond to the thirteen full moons, eight of them to the cross-quarter days, and the World is a central card. The four Aces each relate to a season and the rest of the minor cards trace the path of the moon through lunar phases.
Maat Tarot - 5 Cup - 6 Cups - High Priest - 10 Cups
In May of 2024 we have a New Moon in Taurus on May 7, a First Quarter Moon in Leo on May 15, a Full Moon in Sagittarius on May 23 and a Last Quarter Moon in Pisces on May 30. (Times are EST). In the Maat, this translates to the Five of Cups, the Six of Cups, the High Priest (much preferable to Hierophant, I think!), and the Ten of Cups. So, the story for May could be something like the following.
With the New Moon in Taurus – Five of Cups, we start the month with a sense of despair and worry. In the card we see a young girl who is mourning a loss; she is not quite able to embrace the concept of life on life’s terms, despite the beautiful spring day around her. What this card tells us is that sometimes emotional energy must be spent on loss, but we must take care not to dwell on it. Since new moons are the ending of the old cycle and the beginning of the new, we can expect a shift. Indeed, when the First Quarter moon moves to Leo, we are now free to move into happier and more joyous energy of the Six of Cups with its nostalgic memories of childhood. This can be either good, or bad, depending on the emotional environment of one’s childhood, but it’s most likely an improvement over the sadness of the previous card.
The Full Moon in Sagittarius depicts a High Priest, surrounded by children and animals, playing a flute. The theme of this lunar cycle is about men and love and about their contribution to the cycle of life. It is also about a loving person who has a spiritual calling. The moon reminds us that now is a time of focusing on our goals and on our mission in life. The Sagittarian arrows give us the energy to do so. Finally, we move into the positive and uplifting energy of the Last Quarter Moon in Pisces in the Ten of Cups. Those who are familiar with the RWS version of this card will no doubt appreciate the high fidelity of the imagery of this version; it’s quite beautiful. It’s the card of a happy family, a new home, and emotional fulfillment, complete with the rainbow in the background. Overall, it seems like a month to move through emotion and use it as ballast to focus on our goals. The final card is a reminder that holding a vision is quite important.
What decks are buried in your tarot chest? Why not make a New Moon resolution to get them and out work with them? For more information about Julie Cuccia-Watts go to https://www.newmoontradingco.com/home.html. If you’re interested in the Maat Tarot, or other tarots by Julie, the website will take you to a place where you can order a print of the deck. For an online version of the Maat, got to The Fool’s Dog wherever you shop for apps.
