Stories of the Wild Spirit [Box set] [Paperback]

Poppy Palin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2002

This book leads the reader through the concepts upon which the text is based, the terms it uses, and the imagery it contains. It is helpful to anyone interested in knowing more about the complex symbolism of Tibetan Buddhism.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Poppy Palin is a qualified and experienced artist and teacher who uses her trained illustrative skills to enhance her own work and that of others. She has written and illustrated four non-fiction books on her life as a natural psychic, all of which are published by Capall Bann. She combines magical fiction and enchanting artwork in the Wild Spirit Tarot (Llewellyn 2002) and in her "Wild Spirit Trilogy" of novels which begins with The  Greening. She is the author of The Craft of the Wild Witch (2004).

She recently illustrated The Hedge Witch's Way written by English author Rae Beth and will be working with her on The Hedge Witch's Oracle in 2002. Poppy's artwork regularly appears in magazines in the 'mind, body and spirit' category.

Poppy is also an experienced tattoo artist who specializes in one-off pieces to commemorate rites of passage. She currently lives in Glastonbury, England.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

7 Hunter-Spirit of Clarity

"With purpose and with good intention, centred, poised, and in position." Focus. This moment . . . strung, drawn, aimed . . . is all that there is.

As the Hunter, I cannot allow myself to become distracted, for I must achieve what I set out to do here, or I shall not eat tonight. I know that my family, who rely on me, shall go hungry if I am not fully in this moment, completely concentrated in this instant. It is a skill that not many still have-the need to be as still and as utterly in control as the Hunter is no longer imperative in society, for one need not catch the deer in order to survive. I come from an age before the supermarket or convenience store. I come from your ancestral past with messages of self-discipline that relate directly to your life today.

How may I, this antiquated but romantic figure from the mists of time, have skills that are transferable to you, the modern person, in a hectic, trying age? Hear me well and hear me out. You need to learn two hard lessons, and the outcome is success. Have I your attention now, my daydreaming, reminiscing, distracted, busy descendant? Good, for you and I both understand that word . . . success. True, our definitions may be slightly different. My success is shelter, warmth, food, water, clothing. Your success is money, but money buys the same things, only now in a variety of ways.

You may choose the cheapest, the most utilitarian of these equivalents to my shelter and sustenance in order to be frugal, conservational, or plain mean. You may be extravagant and careless in your choices, believing that you have the right to own bigger and better than your neighbour, a hedonist who believes that all she does is in isolation-for you only live once. You may choose the middle way and opt for comfort and convenience without being overmaterialistic. For me, these were staple basics that I needed to be clearly and rigidly sure about finding out there would be no tomorrow and no generations to come. Our line would now be broken if I had not taken these goals very seriously. Just think, without my focus and intent, you may not be sitting in relative luxury today!

Think on that for a moment, and imagine me not as the Hunter you see before you, honed and taut with tension, but as a lackadaisical and whimsical figure who couldn't be bothered to get out of bed in time to catch the fish for breakfast, or who could not be bothered to skin the animal for its pelt and so it rotted where it fell after I sauntered away. Would you curse me for fading away and letting my kin starve and catch their deaths because of the cold? For in my time, this catching your death was not just a euphemism, but a truth. Without my hunting and associated skills, people would have died, and I would have died-I would never have become your link here today.

What can I teach you, or, more to the point, what can you learn from me now?

Firstly, what is the difference between a want and a need? If you can see a difference in your own life, then this is good, you are doing well. For an example, I may have wanted more land, finer woven cloaks, more elaborate jewelry, drinking vessels made of precious metal, a magnificent sword with exquisite craftsmanship, and a lithe and powerful horse. Yet these things were not essential, and I could live without each and every one of them, for as long as my cloak was warm, my cup sound, my horse healthy, and my sword sharp, then I had no real complaints. I would count myself lucky to have a horse at all, and for a common man to own a sword was a special thing, indeed. Both were useful and enhanced my life.

I needed safer conditions for my family group, involving more security and less worry about invaders, thieves, taxes, and unjust landlords. What I needed was more basic and much more profound: good weather that wouldn't be too damp on the bones as I grew older and less agile; an abundance of game in one place so that I wouldn't need to move my group too often; fine harvests for my neighbours so that we could exchange foodstuffs. These were simple requests in order for us to survive, nothing fanciful or frivolous . . . that was just an added bonus.

What both want and have in common is the will behind each to get whatever it is-the will, combined with the effort. Two traits that may be said to be sadly lacking in the world you inhabit. In my world, nobody would catch you if you fell, no one would do it for you; you couldn't get by if you did the bare minimum, and neither could those who relied on you. The key to our success was our teamwork and our interconnectedness. The qualities of will and effort have died because people are out for their own ends only, and so there can be a lack of purpose and meaning, a lack of drive and necessity to do really well in terms of achieving a set goal.

From where I stand, I see people in your age squandering good chances for lack of focus, not caring if they do this or that because in the end someone will provide a home or money for them. I see a lack of commitment to projects because the people who set the task have not given the worker a reason that inspires them, or one which makes them think that they will gain on a personal level from the success of the project. Often, we are lost in big organisations or social structures that disempower us and make the end result...(Continues)

Product Details

• Paperback: 285 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (April 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738700975
• ISBN-13: 978-0738700977
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 2.2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, magical & beautiful, May 3, 2002

By 

Elen Hawke "Elenhawke" (Oxford UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stories of the Wild Spirit (Paperback)

As a fellow Llewellyn author, I was lucky enough to be given this deck to read from at the London Bookfair this March. The first thing which strikes you about the deck is how visually stunning it is. The colours are vibrant and alive, the images detailed yet clear and extremely beautiful. There is a wealth of imagery from both the seen and the mythic dimensions of nature, from fairies, elves, wild spirited folk, animals, birds and many plants and flowers; the very essence of wildwood and meadow and hill. The pictures speak with a language of their own, resonating on a very deep level. Despite the unusualness of the deck and the innovative meanings and pictures, the cards are not at all difficult to read once you have played about with them for a little while; in fact they speak to a deep part of the reader. For anyone needing the reassurance of a written guide, the accompanying well crafted book explains not just the way the cards can be used, both in spreads and for self exploration, but also expounds a whole spiritual philosophy which offers the keys to a wholesome and magical world view. This is a wonderful card set which will unfold a realm of visionary delight and profound realisation to all who use it.
Author of In The Circle, The Sacred Round, and Praise to the Moon.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wild Spirit Tarot Cards, January 25, 2004

By 

Boudica (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stories of the Wild Spirit (Paperback)

Ms. Palin's opening lines to the accompanying book gives us the essence of what her deck and her book reflects: "With an understanding of the seasons of Life and the natural enchantment of the Wild Realm, we can gain spiritual guidance."

The cards, like Ms. Palin's book, reflect her exuberance for the "Wild Realm" with bright primary colors, bold designs and free interpretation of the Journey of the Tarot.

Looking at the obverse of the cards is a quartet of what appear to be two fairy folk reflected across the card. This is much different from the usual abstract designs or monotones that usually are printed on decks.

The layout of the deck is similar to the Rider-Waite deck, with four suits and 21 trump cards. The focus of this deck is nature, so the suites are not magic oriented, they are nature oriented, being earth, air, fire and water. The trump cards also reflect the nature theme, and we have the "Cunning Man" rather than the magician, and "Mother Nature" rather than the Empress and "Lord of the Wild" rather than the Emperor, and so on.

The colors are bold primary, the designs range from well done children's illustration in feeling, as in the "Wandering Minstrel" or the fool, to very surrealistic, as all her fairy folk.

To wander through her cards is to understand her feelings for the natural world and to appreciate her talent for the arts. I feel it is a beautiful deck and working with it is a joy, as the symbolisms are clearly stated.

The book starts with Ms. Palin's intention for the cards, how to use them and the care of any kind of tarot deck. She then explores each card, giving very clear and almost poetic explanations of how she devised each card and its meaning. For example, her meaning of "Hunter - Spirit of Clarity" opens "Focus. This moment...strung, drawn, aimed... is all that there is. As the Hunter, I cannot allow myself to become distracted, for I must achieve what I set out to do here, or I shall not eat tonight." A wonderful clarity of vision for this card, which shows a hunters face focusing on the draw of a bow.

Overall, this deck presents itself as a connection to nature through the use of the tarot. The experience is being drawn into this deck through the illustrations. The similarity to the standard deck allows ease of use and understanding when augmented with the book.

This is an addition worth having if you collect decks and a good choice for those looking for a deck to express and grow their inner wild spirit. boudica

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take a Walk on the Wild Side, May 13, 2002

By 

D. Kendall (Bristol, Gloucestershire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stories of the Wild Spirit (Paperback)

The main emphasis on Poppy Palin's Wild Spirit Tarot should be on the word spirit. It is a wonderfully spiritual collection of drawings and stories produced and written with a very passionate spirit. The cards images should delight anyone with one foot still firmly planted in the realm of the child. Human, animal, plant and spirit laugh and dance with each other throughout the whole pack. This pack does not contain the archetypal tarot images, yet their counterparts can be found if you look carefully enough. Approach the book and images as if going on a country walk. Tread carefully and mindfully, and you will see much more than blundering through, expecting the woodland creatures to be prostrate in front of you. The book is a guide to the cards, and yet is much more, in being a guide also to the realm of the spirit. Many philosophies from many ages seem to be wrapped up in the stories. The emphasis on letting go in order to gain dominates the message of this tarot. Could be tricky to read if you are expecting the tarot to tell you what you are going to get and when. It requires a rethink on the traditional ideas. Maybe this is where the wild makes itself known. Like the wild nothing is cut and dried with this pack. It is a wonderful achievement. The amount of hard work and dedication is evident in every word and line.