Which Tarot fragrance is for me?

[lorajc]

Okay, I've gone over the reviews and this indecisive Libra cannot decide which ones to get. After reading some posts on the forum (you ladies are bad for the wallet), I found out Libra's tarot card is Justice, Venus is Empress and The Fool is Air. I'm not familiar with Tarot cards, but if this is correct and I'm a Libra, are these good Tarot's to purchase for me?

 

Also, my moon is in Sagittarius and Virgo is my rising sign. Which oils should I pick out of all of these:

 

Those above (as well as)

 

Fortune - corresponding to Jupiter

Magician " to Mercury

Temperence " to Sagittarius

The Hermit " to Virgo

 

I really only have $$ for 4, so please help me decide.

 

Thanks!!

[Laivine]

Well, Mercury is Virgo's ruling planet...so you might want to try The Magician first and rule out the Hermit this round.

 

I'm not sure about the others. Hmmm.

[shriekingviolet]

I second the Magician as opposed to the hermit. I haven't tried either, but most of the reviews I've read (both here and on Bust) for the Hermit said it was a bit of a dusty scent, and some have even called it musty (which is appropriate) so the Magician might be better for wear.

[sarada]

Given that I am only wearing oils for their fragrance and not specifically for magickal work, I have been wondering for some time which Tarot oils would suit me the best. I've been through all the reviews but since many of them only have a couple of reviews I thought I'd see what people thought!

 

I am most fond of scents that are: Woody, resinous, pine/evergreen/juniper, herbal, incensy, dark, and complex, but I also love roses, berries, and citrusy scents. I just don't like light florals, I can't smell them at all...and anything with vanilla, rum, almond, cherry, etc. ('foody' smells) I'd rather not get, even if it is a Tarot card that I dearly love.

 

My favorite card has always been the Tower, incidentally. Though looking at the reviews I think Death might be the most up my alley, fragrancewise. I love all of the cards though, and there's none that I wouldn't want to wear, if it was a scent that agreed with me. Any thoughts? I think the only one I have sampled was the Lovers, which was too sweet for me.

[silverangel]

You may like the high priestess, i don't totally remember what it smelled like, but it was deep i remember. on me at least it was. deep, kind of dark, rather serious...but I did give it away, you may want to ask someone else what it smells like.

[tempete]

I also disliked Lovers, although it smelled like cinammon-y soap on me.

 

You might like Strength. Although it's light, it falls into the herbal/green category and even though you're not using it for magickal purposes, wearing it during the preparation for a presentation seemed to help keep me calm.

[heartbeast]

The only tarot blend I've tried is the Empress, but you might really like it. It's an elegant, reserved rose fragrance, with hints (to my nose) of sandlewood, tea, lemon and vanilla. I know you said no foody scents, but the vanilla is just barely there; it is very much predominantly a rose scent.

[harlequin]

Awww. no lovin' for The Lovers....

 

the only other one i've tried was Temperence.. it was lemon and herbal, to me.. something in it gave me a headache, though, so i swapped it away.

[sarada]

Thanks! I appreciate it -- I am hoping that they don't discontinue the Tarot oils before I get a chance to try some. It looks like no one has reviewed some of them for many, many months. Has anyone encountered any of the ones at the bottom of the list, like the Devil or Death? I think I might need Strength tomorrow, when I meet with my boss! Hopefully Jupiter will help me out with that! The right scent really helps me get in the right mindset for things sometimes.

[Red_Hot_Mama]

You've got to try The World. I think you would like it very much, especially in colder weather.

 

Check out the reviews.

[sarada]

I'm sure this has been answered before but I cannot find it right now if it has --

Are the Tarot oils available as imps? I ask because on the Tarot oils page it says they are available as 10 ml only. Yet I've seen imps of them before and know others have discussed them...

 

Basically, I don't want to order six and then find out I made a boo-boo!

 

I think Death, Ace of Pentacles, High Priestess, Strength, The World and maybe the Empress are on my list.

[pekeana]

Yup, the Tarot scents are avaliable as impies. [Thank goodness, too!]

[Rheliwen]

Here's a thread where you can find your year card and has some explanation on the significance of it all:

 

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?s...findpost&p=1132

 

Hope that helps

 

I chose to order the hermit because of that thread alone

[Neko]

I agree that Death, the World, and the Empress would all be pretty good choices for you. You might also want to look into Judgement, which was predominantly a dark and complex blend of dried florals and herbs on my skin. Not too light, but not heavy enough to be headache inducing.

 

I would actually advise against the High Priestess. I have a 10ml of this scent, and while it is quite pretty, it definitely has sweet almonds in it. On my skin, it is all almonds and mint. You might not want that if you are attempting to avoid foody scents.

Edited January 6, 2005 by Neko

[aedes]

The price is a little prohibitive for me to fool around and try a few, and there are so many to chose from! Also I'm not sure if any of the swap circles are still running. The World and The Hermit sound very interesting to me intellectually. I think I jive with both, personally speaking (a friend of mine put my picture on the Hermit card of tarot deck he was making, labelling it "The Seeker." Aw!). But I'm not sure my nose will go for them.

 

Seance, Darkness, Belle Epoque, Hades, Yog-Sothoth, Pele, and Athens are so far my regular top picks, with runner's-up being The Ghost, Grandmother of Ghosts, Hellfire, Anubis, and Dorian. I guess you could say I really like floral/wood or floral/myrrh combinations, though sometimes they can fade very quickly on me (I think when paired with "Middle Eastern Spices"). And I generally don't like things that smell too incensey or foody (Anubis and Dorian being my special exceptions, respectively). Also red wine, cajeput, patchouli, and amber don't work on me.

 

What do you think, oh Wisened Veterns? Thank you!

[ChupaChup]

Hmm, if you don't like patchouli you should probably stay away from The World. It has just about everything in it and a strong earthy component (duh) that I'm pretty sure is patchouli. Sorry, I haven't tried The Hermit so I can't help you there.

[aedes]

Hmm, if you don't like patchouli you should probably stay away from The World. It has just about everything in it and a strong earthy component (duh) that I'm pretty sure is patchouli. Sorry, I haven't tried The Hermit so I can't help you there.

 

That's helpful, actually! It's hard to pick one when your likes/dislikes have become more cemented. I'd also consider ones other than those two. After reading up more on the tarot, The Chariot, The Magician, The High Priestess, and The Star also sound very interesting philosophically, though I haven't learned about the enumerated cards yet.

[darklorelei]

Just a heads up, many of the tarot oils smell very similar to me, though there are a few that are noticably different (like the Empress and...I want to say the Devil?).

[Lycanthrope]

The Chariot, The Magician, The High Priestess, and The Star...

 

Here's my take on these oils. They're not so much 'perfume' as they are functional, but it's still an important part of enjoying the oils, I know

 

The Chariot - it is anise on me, and a very sharp, herbal. It's quite potent - anise, horehound, sassafrass, astringent, almost bitter. I would advise against this if you are a woods/myrrh person, this is quite powerful.

 

The Magician - it reminds me of Anubis's embalming herbs, and has an incense streak. Definitely a brush of anise, but not like Chariot's uber-anise punch. There also seems to be a mild touch of lavender, but it's not the feature. It's reminiscent of Magus's galangal, lemony-woodsy. There's definitely some clove. When I wear this, at least, I do get occasional whiffs of banana peel.

 

The High Priestess - kind of almond-y, definitely is the closest to myrrh (although I think it's a warmer, drier sandalwood) that somehow morphs into a sweet mint. It's very pleasant quite evocative of 'enlightenment.'

 

The Star - a favorite here, it seems. It is lemongrass, coconut, vanilla and sweet spices on me. Very tropical, it's a tasty drink at the beach. It's definitely -not- resinous to me, and dries down to a milky cream.

 

If you like sweet, spicy resinous scents I recommend:

 

Malkuth from the Sephiroth Line (sweet, vanilla spicy, rosewood)

The Hierophant (ecclesiastic resins, a little almond)

Justice (slightly musky, golden amber)

Judgement (Red Sandalwood)

Binah from Sephiroth (galbanum, benzoin-esque resins)

 

ETA:

 

The Hermit - pine/fir oils, over a lightly damp, rocky base. It's pretty green, not really resinous, but evocative of mountains to me at least.

Edited November 7, 2005 by Lycanthrope

[Penance]

Since I only gave all of the Tarot oils a quick test (with the exception of Judgment, Death, Strength, The World and The Hermit), I can't really say for sure which ones you'd like, but I can tell you what I thought of The World and The Hermit.

 

The World - On me, it was a green scent...kind of like sandalwood and something piney with a hint of aquatic of some sort. It was interesting and I liked it, but it's not my favorite.

 

The Hermit - I was so disappointed by this one, but that's mainly because I wanted it to smell like dusty old books, the way other people have described it. I got something citrusy...orange or lemon of some sort and something musty in the background. It really didn't appeal to me, but it's not a bad scent necessarily.

 

The other ones you list are also ones I've tried, but there're only a few that I can really remember the smell of enough to really review them for you:

 

The Magician - A weird one for me. It's vaguely herbal, almost licorice or fennel-like (on me, at any rate) and...strange. It's one of those ones that I just can't pin down note-wise.

 

The High Priestess - Almond, almond and more almond. I don't know what else is in it since almond in anything completely overwhelms everything else (I'm very allergic to almond and can't stand more than a tiny sniff of anything with almond oil in it), so there may be something else there that I didn't smell.

 

The Star - A lot of people like it, but it wasn't for me, either. It's similar to Spooky (if you've ever tried it), plus citrus of some sort. I'd say it's orange (or maybe lemon...it's hard for me to tell), vanilla and coconut.

 

I don't really remember The Chariot aside from remembering that, for some inexplicable reason, it smelled like butterscotch to me. I'm positive that was just a weird reaction, though, since no one else seems to get it, so I wouldn't go by my impressions on this one.

[coulrophobe]

Weird how different everyone's noses are - on me, The Chariot was pure lotus! And for The Hierophant, I got a mossy cinnamon smell, a lot like Hamadryad. The Hermit was a rich berry scent, to me...

 

I'm not helping much here, I suppose. I guess my advice is that, if you're looking for a Tarot blend based on scent rather than for any significance or purpose, just scour the reviews and see what most people think it smells like. Or find someone selling imps of them - that's the only way I was able to try them all.

[PurringPulsar]

I get the exact same reaction as Coulrophobe concerning the Chariot-it was LOTUS on me...and fruity anise lotus at that! And the Hierophant was cinnamon and incensy wood.

 

Judgement smells like red musk with maybe some vanilla. But it does have a patchouli note, I think.

Edited November 10, 2005 by yeahbutnobut

[OriginalWacky]

I hate to toot my own horn... but I have a tarot decant group thing... and that might work well for you. Tarot Decant Post The details are there. It may be possible to work something out for less than full decants as well, to save money ( I *so* know the woes of budgeting).

[aedes]

I hate to toot my own horn... but I have a tarot decant group thing... and that might work well for you. Tarot Decant Post The details are there. It may be possible to work something out for less than full decants as well, to save money ( I *so* know the woes of budgeting).

 

Ooh! I think I shall consider that. Though I did just shed a whole lot of money on the update. We'll see!

 

I have just recently tried The World and The Lovers, actually. They were both quite lovely, and I understand how they can smell alike. I got a bit of a sweet, candy-ish smell from both of them at first, like smarties, but not as much as, say AC's Joy Mojo. But The World definitely had earthy and aquatic notes besides, while The Lovers had a lovely, fae sort of floral thing going on. I don't think I'll be needing bottles of them, but the imps are very enjoyable.

 

Now I'm not so sure about The Chariot now. I love black licorice, but I've found that the smell of anise somehow makes my stomach turn nowadays. I think because I had a bear of a respiratory/throat thing a couple months ago and the tea I used to treat it had anise, slippery birch, and marshmallow root in it, amongst other things. Very distinctive smell that I can't help but identify with anise now. Smells like being sick! Oh no!

 

And I'm a little leary about The High Priestess now, too. Queen of Sheba was pure almonds on me, too. It's not bad, but I do worry that it takes over on my skin and nose when it's there.

 

But, ah, I still have to try them to know for sure. My curiousity shall someday be sated.