Preamble

I play a character at LARP known as Carlos Magellan, who is a general scoundrel and good-natured troublemaker, with a penchant for gambling and fortune telling.  Over the many, many years of playing Carlos, I have been told that I (or he, at least) has an uncanny accuracy with a deck of Tarot cards, to the point that several people have asked me to teach them.  Given I work in IT and documentation for a mundane job, I figured I would write this document.

Before You Begin

A few things to get out of the way, before we get to the details.

• It is tradition among some people that you should never buy your own tarot deck, or your first tarot deck.  This is a nice thought, but it runs into the issue that the deck gifted to you might be a horrible match to your personality and style.  Take this one with a grain of salt, or take care not to give someone a deck they will reject (or vice versa).
• Every deck is different.  Some follow the standard Rider-Waite spread of 56 Minor Arcana in each suit (1 through 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King), and 22 Major Arcana cards.  Others deviate in smaller or larger ways.  As you pick up decks and use them, you will need to adjust your readings to them.
  • Some decks use Rods as Fire and Swords as Air, others reverse them.  This is as classic a debate as Pineapple on Pizza, so go with your personal preference (or both).
  • Be mindful of decks that are cute or gimmicky.  While they can be fun and you can still use them to read using the traditional meanings, it will be a lot harder to remember what a card means when the visuals don’t match up to the meaning of the card.
• Over time, you may find you disagree with this guide.  That is OK!  Once you get your legs under you, you will develop your own style and interpretations.  This is merely meant as a starting point.

Now then, let’s get to it!

The Suits (Minor Arcana)

A classic Tarot deck is made up of 4 suits of Minor Arcana, and 22 cards of the Major Arcana.  The suits represent aspects of human nature.  Everyone has some bit of all four suits in them, but usually, one trait stands out more than the others.  The suits (and their meanings) are:

Pentacles

Pentacles, matched with the element of Earth, are represented by coins, usually with a pentagram on them.  Pentacles represents material things – Jobs, wealth, money, career, working with one’s hands, etc.  Associated with this are feelings of worth, feelings of a job well done, the ebb and flow of money in society, etc.  People who are associated with Pentacles are usually practical, problem-solvers, hands-on, and very down to earth.  They may be career focused, or just hard workers.

Cups

Cups, matched with the element of Water, are those who deal heavily with emotions, matters of the heart, family, and the nurturing and caring for others.  People who are associated with Cups may not seem like much, but they have very profound impacts on other people in their ability to advise, empower, and care for them.  A Cup’s strength lies in the ability to make other people better versions of themselves, or to empower them when they are laid low.

Rods (Wands)

Rods, also called Wands, are matched with either Fire or Air.  They represent personal drive, self-reliance and empowerment, and self awareness.  People who are Rods tend to be ones who do things themselves, not because they dislike others, but because it’s just easier to do it themselves.  Rods are also known for not forming as deep an attachment to other people as other suits – this is not to say they are loners or sociopaths, but they are the kind of people that drift into and out of other people’s lives very easily.

Swords

Swords, matched with Air or Fire, represent social dynamics, political power, leadership, and the joys and sorrows that come with dealing with other people.  People who are swords are expert manipulators, and know how to push other people’s buttons (for better or for worse).  They are capable of organizing groups into achieving great things that another person could only dream of, but are also prone to being laid low by the fact that other people don’t share their excitement or vision, or are an obstacle to their goals (either via passive or active decisions).

The Story of the Suits

Each suit has a series of cards from Ace (1) to 10, and it represents a path that everyone goes through in their lives, for each of the aspects the suits represent.  A very quick summary that applies to all four suits would be:

We’ll break this down for each suit below – once you get more familiar with them, you can just look at the table above for a reminder, until it becomes second nature to know the story.

Pentacles

Cups

Wands

Swords

The Major Arcana

(TBD)

The general guide to taking care of your boots is that you don’t want them to be damp (or soaking wet) for too long, but you don’t want them to dry out until they become dessicated and ruined, either. The best way to care for your boots long-term is to keep them clean, and condition them with oil or wax on a regular basis (every few months, more if they get a lot of use) so that the leather stays flexible and protected, without becoming too dry so it becomes brittle, or too wet so it rots.

To clean your boots:

1. Use a dry brush or rough cloth to get all the dirt and mud off before you do anything else. It helps if they’ve had a chance to dry for a while, so the dirt will come right off.
2. Use a cleaning spray to wet down the boot, and let it work for a bit to lift the dirt off.
3. Wipe off the dirt with a brush or a clean cloth – an old washcloth works well.
4. Set the boot aside to dry for a while, preferably overnight
   • If you have Boot Stays or Boot Shapers, this will help them maintain their shape (instead of flopping over), and also means they’ll get maximum air flow to dry out on the inside, which is good.
5. Once the boots are clean and dry, apply either Oil or Wax to condition and waterproof them. Again, let them “dry” overnight so the oil has time to soak in and condition the leather.
   • Oil is easier to apply – it’s a liquid that will soak into the leather of the boot. However, it doens’t last as long as wax does, meaning you’ll need to apply it more frequently.
   • Wax takes more work to apply, and you need to put the boots somewhere warm (near a radiator in winter, in a sunbeam in summer) for them to warm up and soak in the wax. However, wax lasts longer than oil for protection, meaning you don’t need to apply it as often.

In general, you clean and protect the outside of your boots, where the smooth leather is. You don’t need to clean or protect the inside, unless they are especially dirty.

Links to Resources:

I have an Amazon list I use to keep track of my boot care supplies, and share with anyone who needs it. The list is visible at:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1W9YBM0KGSR6N?ref_=wl_share

Other Notes:

If your boots have buttons (such as the Son of Sandlar 9-Button Boots), you may want to occasionally remove them so that you can clean under them, clean the buttons, etc.

If you do this, or if you have issues with the buttons unscrewing from their posts, you can use Loctite Threadlocker to hold them in place. The “Blue” version makes the screws stick to the buttons without being permanent – you can unscrew them later, it just takes a bit more effort to get them off. Do NOT use the “Red” version, as this is designed to make them non removable!

A very basic overview of 3D Printing as a hobby!

All 3D printing works on the same basic principle – you have a material that is in a raw form, and you use a machine that takes computer-generated code to put down a thin layer of that material. The printer then moves either the model or the print head a bit, puts down the next layer, and so on, until the model is complete. The material can either be plastic filament of various kinds, liquid resin that is cured / hardened, or other things that are more exotic.

Hobby 3D Printers come in two formats: FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), where a heated nozzle puts down layers of molten plastic into shapes, and the nozzle is moved by motors; and SLA (Stereolithography Apparatus), which uses Ultraviolet light to cure liquid resin into a hardened state in the desired shape. I’ll briefly go into the differences below.

FDM (“Filament” for short) printers are relatively inexpensive. You can buy a spool of 1kg of filament for about $20, more if you are looking for specific colors, unusual materials, or higher quality plastic. The filament comes off the spool, through a motor (called an “Extruder”) that pushes or pulls the filament to control the flow, and into a heated nozzle (the “Hot End” assembly) that is controlled by the printer’s control board to move about. As the layers are deposited, the printer either raises the nozzle, or lowers the print bed, and then works on the next layer.

One of the most common FDM printers is the Ender 3, which comes in several varieties for about $200 – the Ender 3 Pro and Ender 3 V2 are both excellent entry point into the hobby, are open source hardware, and have plenty of room to be upgraded and expanded upon. (The V2 has a bunch of minor upgrades over the Pro, and is well worth the price difference.)

Pros:

• Usually less expensive than Resin printers
• Larger print sizes / beds
• No major cleanup or post-processing with chemicals
• Very open to tinkering, upgrades, and modifications

Cons:

• Lower quality & detail than Resin printers
• Requires more tinkering / fidgeting to calibrate and use
• Slower printing rates / times for large or multiple objects

SLA (“Resin”) printers work by having a vat of liquid resin. An LCD screen emits UV light that cures the resin – much like a TV Screen or monitor, the LCD has pixels, and emits light only in the shape of that layer that is to be cured. After enough time has passed and the layer is hardened, the model is raised a bit, and the next layer is then processed. When the model is done being printed on the printer, only a part of the process is done – it then needs to be washed (either in Isopropyl Alcohol or water, depending on the resin), and cured even more in UV light (or sunlight). The resin can be toxic, and possibly smelly, and vapors can be an issue if precautions are not taken.

Pros:

• Much higher quality / resolution / detail
• Print time is the same per layer regardless of the size / amount of models being printed
• Usually very easy to operate and use

Cons:

• Usually more expensive than FDM printers
• Smaller print beds / volumes
• Requires cleanup and processing when done printing
• Materials can be toxic if not handled properly

Common Information for both types:

Both types of printers work with 3D models, usually in a file format called STL. You open the model in a program on your computer called a “Slicer” that takes the 3D model, and turns it into actionable code to be used by the printer. There are lots of different Slicer apps out there, but there are many good ones that are Free / Open Source for both kinds.

Designing models is another story. There are lots of apps out there to make your own 3D models – some are free (such as Blender), others are not, but have professional support and backing (AutoCAD, Zbrush, etc.).

There are also many websites out there where you can download STL files. Some are free (such as Thingiverse), others ask you to pay a fee set by the sculptor (such as Cults3D or MyMiniFactory).

The author of this article primarily uses his 3D printer for household tools and useful geeky objects, gaming minis & terrain, and sometimes large scale busts & sculpts of comic book heroes. I haven’t gotten into Starships yet, but I’ve been eyeing making a Yamato, Arcadia, and some Macross / Mospeda kits in the near future.

Additional resources:

https://all3dp.com/– General 3D Printing help and guides

http://www.fatdragongames.com/– An online store for D&D terrain & minis, and a useful guide on how to do FDM style printing (specifically the Ender 3 Pro & V2, which are excellent entry-level printers).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Lbnd97HV3rU98gcwHklzQ– Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors – same group as Fat Dragon Games, this is an invaluable resource for how to assemble, fine-tune, care for, and troubleshoot your Ender 3 and other FDM printers. Well worth watching before you buy anything, so you don’t ruin your new toy before you get to use it!