There is a reasonable assumption that, due to its layered symbolism, any card in a tarot deck can mean almost anything within its broadly-construed conceptual range when encountered in a reading. This elasticity of context is limited only by the diviner's resourcefulness in "connecting the dots," and it could be argued that, in the interest … Continue reading Weasel This!
Month: July 2020
No Fortune-Telling Here . . . Well, Not Much
It's fashionable these days for people who write about the tarot to say "The cards don't predict the future." My response to that is "Well, of course they don't, they never did." They are nothing but tools, evocative visual aids that serve as pointers for the diviner in helping the seeker explore the potential consequences … Continue reading No Fortune-Telling Here . . . Well, Not Much
The Arrow and the Song
All images copyright U.S. Games Systems, Inc, Stamford, CT I haven't done one of these in a while, but recently I was performing a decision-making spread and the 8 of Wands came up as the "resolution" card in one of the decision chains; I judged it as reflecting an open-ended (inconclusive) outcome and was strongly … Continue reading The Arrow and the Song
First Things First: Preliminary Courtesies
"We're all here just to have a little fun Fred'll play the fiddle, now we'll begun" (from "The Corn Won't Grow So Rock-and-Roll" by Goose Creek Symphony) Most face-to-face tarot readers have certain protocols and courtesies they go through between the time a sitter "sits" and the moment the diviner "starts the clock" on the … Continue reading First Things First: Preliminary Courtesies
Meditation Patterns: Strength/Lust and the Leo Decans
Continuing my exploration of the "meditation patterns" for the Minor Arcana from Jim Eshelman's Liber Theta, here are the patterns for the Leo trump card, Strength (Lust in the Thoth Deck), and the three decans of Leo; I call this sequence "The Three Trials of Lust." The Minor Arcana for the Leo decans are 5 … Continue reading Meditation Patterns: Strength/Lust and the Leo Decans
The “Friends & Enemies” Situational Awareness and Response Spread
Multi-person conflicts can be tricky because the querent doesn't always know going into the situation exactly who is a staunch friend and who an undeclared enemy, and how the involvement of each will affect the outcome; in addition there may be veiled factions in both camps that could act as "wild cards," radically changing the … Continue reading The “Friends & Enemies” Situational Awareness and Response Spread
Meditation Patterns: The Emperor and the Aries Decans
A Facebook friend of mine just reminded me that Liber Theta, the College of Thelema's Thoth-based rewrite of the Golden Dawn's Liber T, includes what author Jim Eshelman calls "meditation patterns" for each pair of Major Arcana that are considered "astrological counterparts" to the Minor Arcanum for the associated decan of the Chaldean zodiac. There … Continue reading Meditation Patterns: The Emperor and the Aries Decans
Flipped Missives: Reversals As Insinuation
While working on my initial dream-analysis reading, I started to say that all of the reversed Wands cards in the dream scenario represented an "incursion" of Spirit into the reverie, but then I realized that, in the dream-world, visions of profound import typically don't stand up and shout in order to draw attention to themselves, … Continue reading Flipped Missives: Reversals As Insinuation
Down with the Synonym! – Variations on a Theme
Writers who care about originality love the synonym. It lets us repeat the same idea (sometimes ad nauseum) without seeming overly redundant or hackneyed. You may have noticed that I try not to use the word "shows" to describe the import of the cards in a reading more than once in the same piece of … Continue reading Down with the Synonym! – Variations on a Theme
The “Morpheus Effect” Dream Message Example Reading
I took the opportunity to use the fascinating dream I posted recently to test the subject spread; most of my dreams have been too inconsequential to serve that purpose. The deck here is Ciro Marchetti's Tarot of Dreams, an ideal vehicle for this subject. https://parsifalswheeldivination.com/2020/07/11/a-curious-contact/ A images copyright U.S Games Systems, Inc, Stamford, CT … Continue reading The “Morpheus Effect” Dream Message Example Reading