Candles flicker in the dark room as low music plays in the background, maybe Saint Saëns’ Danse Macabre. A cold draft wafts over the back of your neck, goosebumps rush over your arms as you wait for Lady Svetlana across the table to tell you what your future holds. New love? Money? Better career? Fame? Or a dastardly blow where you lose everything?
Or maybe just whether or not you’ll get good chocolate in the future. . .
In the autumn, whether Halloween, Samhain, or All Saints Day, people pay more attention to the "otherwordly" at this time of year than any other. Tarot cards, numerology, the I Ching, even fortune cookies get more attention. From now through the beginning of the new year, people will be watching for signs, portents, and omens, hoping for good luck as well as a little comfort and hope during a season that tends to be dark and cold in many parts of the world.
Enter chocolate. Divine chocolate. Could it be used for divination?
Astrology and Chocolate
Not much is said about chocolate and astrology. However, Joy Nagy has written a book, Chocolate Astrology (check it out ), with hints for gifts and recipes for each sun sign. A couple of sites have broken down chocolate personalities according to sun sign. Below is a paraphrase of some of those characteristics:
Earth Signs –
While hedonistic Taurus enjoys rich, dark chocolates, Virgos carefully ration that chocolate out over months. Capricorns just want whatever is the best.
Water Signs –
Aquarians pass up chocolate for a fruit tart, while Geminis change their minds halfway through one truffle and grab another instead. Libras share, splitting the last truffle in half if necessary.
Fire Signs –
Leo wants a controlling interest in the chocolates, while Aries just wants them all. Right. Now. Sagittarius wants only the best European chocolate flown in fresh every week.
Water Signs –
Cancer revels in chocolate, savoring each bite, while Scorpios enjoy incorporating chocolate into their more (ahem) sensual endeavors. Pisces makes sure everyone gets chocolate and forgets to keep some back for themselves.
Chocolate and the Tarot
But what about Lady Svetlana sitting patiently across the table from you? Does she know if you will go on a sumptuous chocolate date with the cutie in accounting? Will you bond with your boss over a box of truffles and get that raise? Now you can use the Chocolate Tarot to find out.
Lynn Atkinson, Ph.D., educator, life coach, writer, 3rd Order Secular Franciscan, and businesswoman decided to take a closer look at the history of chocolate and use it in a tarot card deck as she researched, wrote, and put together the Chocolate Tarot Card Deck (check it out). Though not officially published yet, it is listed in The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume 4, published by U.S. Games Systems.
An author of several tarot card decks, including the Royal Britain Tarot Card Deck, as well as the upcoming Dark Shadows Tarot Card Deck, Atkinson, a former sociology professor, believes in using the tarot not only as a divination tool, but also as an educational device. The Chocolate Tarot can be used intuitively as a tarot card deck, but the set also covers the history of chocolate, from its uses as a trading commodity to how it is made, and how it was hawked as a health aid.
The user of the Chocolate Tarot will glean such facts as how Napoleon Bonaparte (of course pictured as the Emperor in the Major Arcana) drank 12 cups of cocoa before making any important decision on his military campaigns. The difference between American and European chocolate? According to Atkinson, when Hershey’s originally tried to make chocolate inexpensive enough to sell to the masses, they cut the cooking time from the traditional 30 minutes to 8 minutes, then added wax to the mixture so the resulting chocolate candy would keep its shape.
Pictures used in the deck are taken from historical paintings and advertising having to do with chocolate. For example, the Hierophant is the picture of a famous medieval priest who allowed his parishners to drink cocoa while on a fast. Temperance is a picture taken from a historical painting showing how chocolate is mixed. Strength is taken from an old Cadbury’s ad. The Queen of Cups is the painting of a young maid carrying chocolate, and the Princess (in some decks known as the Page) of Swords is an old ad for chocolate sponge cake.
Atkinson’s own experience with using the Chocolate Tarot is that it is very intuitive and accurate in past life, future life, and parallel dimension life readings. And when it comes to which card she sees herself as? She laughed and said the Fool.
Legally blind and a long term survivor of Lupus and COPD, Lynn Atkinson believes in approaching each day with and basing each act in joy. As many Harry Potter fans out there know, chocolate is the cure for spending too much time around Dementors (definition) because it puts you back in touch with joy. When asked about her own favorite type of chocolate, Atkinson said she prefers British chocolate. Her two favorite chocolate companies are Terry’s Chocolate (they do the chocolate orange that is made by Toblerone in the U.S.) and Cadbury’s (made in the U.K., not in the U.S.).
This autumn, when the Dementors are after you and you’re not sure where you’re going next, grab some chocolate and a tarot card deck. See if divine chocolate can help you find your way.
