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Astrology Trading Cards (ATC)

Astrology Trading Cards (ATC)

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Astrology Trading Cards

Making astrology trading cards is a creative way to do arty things and learn some astrology as well.

Anyone who is interested to explore astrology in a fun way will enjoy crafting and trading with their Astrology Trading Cards.

Other ways of getting arty with astrology are through my astrology Wheel of Fortune.

The Inspiration for Astrology Trading Cards

Astrology trading cards are a twist on the famous artists trading card when an artist would do a large painting and then make several tiny copies on these cards to give to prospective buyers, galleries and other artists in an effort to promote their craft.

The cards would be swopped between others. You don’t sell them but you give one and they give you one back.

Over time you will have a vast collection of a variety artist’s work without spending a penny. At the same time you have distributed your hard won work to people who may be interested

Size

Each card is 64mm x 89mm or 2.5″ by 3.5″ which is a standard card size.

Astrology Theme

At a group meeting each person will be given a blank copy of the trading card template. You can download a PDF copy below.

 

[purchase_link id=”13940″ style=”button” color=”green” text=”Download Your Template” direct=”true”]

 

The leader, or moderator will offer you a hat, or jar, with pieces of paper containing one word indicating an astrology feature or theme. You take one piece of paper and the word printed on it is your theme for the day.

The pieces of paper will have either one planet, house, sign or aspect as your theme for you to work on. These are the starter words and are used in the groups I guide.

Examples of words on the papers are::

  • Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto
  • Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius or Pisces
  • 1st House, 2nd House, 3rd House, 4th House, 5th House, 6th House, 7th House, 8th House, 9th House, 10th House, 11th House or 12th House
  • Conjunction, Sextile, Square, Trine or Opposition

When I have a more advanced gathering or class I can have more advanced themes like; anticia, moiety, contra-parallel or transits.

 

Astrology Trading Card front and back

What you do

Say you get “Jupiter” as your astrology theme.

You write your own name in the by line on the back.

You will write the word “Jupiter” in the top block on each card on your sheet of six cards. You do this on every trading card on the page so in the end you have six Jupiter named cards with your name as your by line.

This is the fun part.

You draw the glyph and write keywords or draw images of what this theme means for each card. You can make each card the same or each one different. It does not matter how you embellish your cards but what is important is that you make something nice because you will be trading them with the other people at the end.

When you have finished you will have six detailed and coloured Jupiter trading cards.

The Trade

When you are happy with your designs and have completed the cards you cut them out. You may keep one for yourself if you like otherwise you will trade these cards with the other people who have various themes and will have made different cards.

That day you will go home with six original works of art signed by people you know and they will all be special and unique.

If you meet again the next week you can redo the hat/jar theme pull with the remaining theme prompts and over time you will grow a beautiful Astrology Trading Card collection that spans all the planets, houses, aspects and signs.

That is at least a total of about forty handy dandy astrology trading cards.

Show Us Your Cards

You may decide to make more cards you can buy actual cards in better quality cardstock and thicker thicknesses (available at Michael’s craft store) to make better cards.

As the interest in making these little cards grabs you, you can develop your style and the way you present your astrology through cards.

Every astrologer is different and each one will work with the energy of astrology in their own way.

When you finish a card take a photo and put it on Instagram or other social media with the hashtag #astrologytradingcard and we will love to see your work.

Grow Your Collection

This can be used as a learning resource for beginners and seasoned astrologers as well.

Getting Clever

In reality, the artists write their name and the title of the piece they have created on the back. You can get creative here as well. This is also a place to put your website and contact details.

More advanced astrologers who get into Astrology Trading Cards collection will make individual cards to trade with other astrologers.

In Vancouver?

Follow me on Instagram for more updates or direct message (DM) so we can get started if you are in Vancouver. I am up for a trade as soon as you are.

Join In at Conferences

I was at Calgary in September 2017 and at NORWAC in March 2018 and I had had some of my Astrology Trading Cards to trade with you.

Will I see you there next time? I hope so.

 

Alison

 

#astrologytradingcards

Grimoire

Grimoire

by 

by Alison Price

Your Astrological Journal or Grimoire

This year my main plan to improve the presentation of astrology for your understanding and pleasure is a little different.

I am working on the development of astro art or creative pages to help aspiring astrologers or anyone and everyone learn more about our art.

In the astro art section so far you have posts on a binder cover page to colour and a wheel of fortune to make for yourself.

Creating an astrological journal supports the multiple input method of learning and is a good way to build a resource that you can use later.

 



How To Use Your Astrology Journal

A Journal can be used in several ways:

  • To plan your day for things you have to do (pick up the kids and take the dog to the vet etc.) and this works best as a bullet journal.
  • It can be a “dear diary” style for capturing what did happen and how you felt about it, whatever it is.
  • Or it can be used to build a personal resource to learn and remember information and build a knowledge base that you can use for years to come.

It it the third one that we will talk about here.

How to make an astrological journal that becomes a personal resource to learn , understand and appreciate the little pieces in your chart.

Things like signs, planets and houses meanings that go to build a comprehensive chart reading.

The Benefits of Journaling

Your brain remembers things easily if it knows them via more than one means of input.

Teachers read aloud, or make you draw pictures, or glue a collage from dried macaroni, or do a play like astro drama to reinforce your knowledge.

The variety or ways to learn is important because the information arrives in your memory through different channels.

This is why just reading books makes it harder to learn stuff.

In the multiple activity way of gaining knowledge, what you know can be retrieved in snippets through thoughts like, “Oh gosh, now what do I know about Jupiter in Virgo?”

You will get better at remembering the many things that you need to know to read a chart by writing and drawing in your astrological journal.

 



Which Journal to Choose?

There are a few points to consider and choices to be made for a journal that is good to use for astrological journaling.

If you are going to invest your time and energy creating a beautiful astrological journal you might as well get a decent journal in the first place.

Size does matter

The best size is A5 or about 6″ x 8″ because this is easily carried in your bag and can be whipped out on a plane or at dinner. Who does that?

If you choose a size smaller (say 3″ x 5″) it will work as a pocket journal, but will get full quicker.

You can think of this one as your on-the-go journal, or field journal, which is best to jot down ideas while you are out and about or at a conference or lecture.

When you get home you can transfer the gems of knowledge to your main A5 journal. This process serves learning.

Paper quality

Can you see through the pages in your journal?

If you can, the paper is too thin and too cheap.

Get a better quality book.

I like the Moleskine A5 plain paper journal and the Leuchhturm1917 dotted bullet journal.

Each year I buy a few new journal books and I have one for each year but that’s another story.

 

How to Use Your Astrological Journal – Basic Layout

Title page

You will have a title page which is usually the very first page in the main body and not the inside flap page which is thicker than normal.

State your journal name.

Typically this will be “My Astrological Journal” or “My Journey into Astrology” or something in that vein.

Contents page

Open to the first double page.

This will be a contents overview and here you can specify the deeper level of detail that you want. The choice is yours.

This will help you gauge the number of pages you need between each section.

For instance if you have 12 signs you may need 12 (or 24) pages.

This depends on how large your journal is to start with.

How to plan your astrological journal with sections and segments

For each main section like natal signs you will make a title page on the right hand side.

You will do a section title page for each main section in your contents page.

It is best to add a tab sticking out at the right for your main sections and perhaps your segments.

 



Signs Summary Journal Pages

Signs

 

This is a summary page to note things about the zodiac signs.

 




Signs Journal Page

 

This signs full spread shows the signs in the natural wheel and some main keywords for each sign.

The ruling planet is shown in the inner wheel for each sign.

 

 

Elements and Modes Journal Pages

 

See how this element and mode table can help you work out each sign.

You can perhaps draw this table and place your planets in their corresponding signs from your chart to show which planets your have in each sign.

The colours relate to the signs.

 

Planets Journal Page

Houses

  • 1st to 12th houses
  • Planets in the first house, in the second house etc.
  • House systems

Chart Division

Aspects

Aspects of longitude 

  • Soft aspects
  • Hard aspects
  • Neutral aspects

Aspects of declination

  • Parallel
  • Contra parallel

Aspects of antiscia

  • Antiscia
  • Contra-antiscia

FORECASTING SECTION pages

  • Transits (outers)
  • Eclipses
  • Solar returns
  • Secondary progressions (inners)
  • Firdaria
  • Profections
  • Solar arc directions
  • Summary

You can do as much detail and depth as you wish. If you are just starting out with astrology I suggest the following sections, natal and forecasting and keep it simple.

Going deeper means a page for each planet in sign and house and deeper still is nice-to-haves about astrology like eclipses or the oriental planet.

 




Tree of Life

The tree of life is a symbol of the full cycle from root to tip.

Trees are leaned heavily on for our survival.

They convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

If you are stuck on a desert island you can build handy items like boats and shelter with the wood from trees.

Paper that we used every day often comes from trees.

Art Tip

Make sure to center your circle on the page not like mine which is a little off to the left.

Herb Garden Layout

This is a classic herb garden layout with a central circle and four quadrants adjacent and larger gardens in this pattern have more quadrants.

Here I drew the four main beds of herbs.

  • Medicinal herbs
  • Aromatic herbs
  • Indigenous herbs
  • Culinary herbs

If you cook with herbs make sure that your fertilizer and mulch is organic and not synthetic.

The aromatic bed has plants for pot potpouri and perfume basics.

Indigenous herbs are local to your area they different for everyone.

Medicinal herbs are where traditional healing herbs come from, so know what you are doing here.

The Four Elements

The four elements align with the compass points

  • Fire – South
  • Earth – North
  • Air – East
  • Water – West

Polarity

The symbols relate to the active (masculine) and passive (feminine) polarities.

The upwards pointing triangle for masculine elements is symbolic of an erect manhood.

The downwards pointing triangle for feminine elements is symbolic of a woman’s pubic area.

Spring Poem

Pippa Passes by Robert Browning.

Summer Poem

From A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.