When I started this blog in July of 2017, I was looking for an alternative to my ongoing participation in on-line tarot forums and occasional publication in various tarot newsletters and journals, mainly as a personal outlet for the ideas I've been honing over more than four decades of studying and working with the cards. … Continue reading A Pause to Consider
Month: November 2017
“Cheap Shots” #24: A Herd By Any Other Name
Preponderance: A fancy word that simply means "lots more of one thing than another." A herd of mostly-brown horses. The consensus among my tarot forum-mates is split as to whether it's best to look for dominant "signatures" in a reading first - for example, many more cards of one suit, number, rank or orientation than … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #24: A Herd By Any Other Name
“Hard” and “Soft” Suits
One concept from the Tarot de Marseille "school" of interpretation - which has a meager divinatory legacy unless one can read French - that is worth carrying forward into general use is that of "hard" and "soft" suits. The former are comprised of the Wands and Swords cards, while the latter encompass the Cups and … Continue reading “Hard” and “Soft” Suits
Coming or Going?
In the Golden Dawn tarot papers, MacGregor Mathers made an observation regarding the facing or directionality of the Kings and Pages when placed in a spread: "The Kings, if looking against the direction of the reading, or if meeting it, represent the coming of a person or event, or phase of an event, but if … Continue reading Coming or Going?
The Long and Short of It
As a creator of numerous tarot spreads, I find that I must walk a fine line between pursuing too much information and seeking insufficient detail in the structure of a layout. Trying to parse a reading into narrative bits that are too fine-grained risks putting too much insignificant "ground clutter" on the reader's radar screen, … Continue reading The Long and Short of It
The “PB&J” Sandwich Spread
As usual, I'm having some fun with the title, but the intent of this spread is quite serious. It offers a "Progressive Betterment and Judgment" ("PB&J") outlook for long-range prospects in life improvement, both overall and in specific focus areas. The three-card "sandwiches" provide a past/present/future profile in four areas of personal growth: Inspirational, Emotional, … Continue reading The “PB&J” Sandwich Spread
“Cheap Shots” #23: “Random” Thoughts
The perceived need to assure a random distribution when pulling the cards for a reading often comes up in forum discussions. It's seen by some as the sine qua non for success in producing a meaningful result. When you think about it, though, it's not the mismatched assortment of cards drawn by pure chance that … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #23: “Random” Thoughts
An American Football Prediction
I decided to keep experimenting with my "Enemy at the Gates" conflict-resolution spread to predict the outcome of sporting events, specifically the American football match-ups for Sunday, November 6. In looking at the standings, I wanted to pick two adversaries with winning records that at least have a chance against one another. Although most of … Continue reading An American Football Prediction
World Series Game 7 Postmortem
It's interesting how life teaches you lessons through the tarot. The flaw in my first attempt to predict the outcome of the final World Series game was in using a coin-flip to decide which team to place in the top row of the spread, rather than following the traditional practice of putting the visiting team … Continue reading World Series Game 7 Postmortem
The Star Tarot Deck Interview
Let's get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. While Cathy McClelland's artwork is a wonder to behold, the manufacturing quality of the deck is rather poor. I had to order the Star Tarot from Amazon twice and both times some cards had damaged backs. Many had rolled sections or shallow nicks on the … Continue reading The Star Tarot Deck Interview
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 