UPDATE: Success! I was finally able to publish my book on Lulu, the only platform I could find that will accept OpenOffice "ODT" documents without a lot of reformatting effort. I should mention that this is not a work for the absolute beginner since it's aimed it at the "experienced TdM generalist and serious student" … Continue reading Pips, Courts and Trumps: A Short, Simple Guide to the Tarot de Marseille
Month: April 2022
Footprints in the Sand
I've been pondering just how ephemeral online content can be. Unless the material we discover through our internet searches is downloaded and saved for future use, we may never be able to find it again (particularly if the source goes down). I was brought to this conclusion by noticing that someone in Japan has been … Continue reading Footprints in the Sand
Numerological Counterparts by Multiplication
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay duplicates a few of the details that appeared in my post on the planetary and elemental trump cards, but I started this one first. It addresses the idea of "correspondence by multiplication" more specifically. The idea of Major Arcana cards as "numerological counterparts" of one another has been floated in the … Continue reading Numerological Counterparts by Multiplication
Cups and Pentacles: Even More Subtle Distinctions
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Completist that I am, I figured I had better finish my thoughts on the nuances of interpretation that separate the elementally "friendly" minor suits of the tarot. The suits of Cups and Pentacles (or, in different systems, Coins or Disks) are entirely sympathetic to one another; one represents the element of Water and … Continue reading Cups and Pentacles: Even More Subtle Distinctions
The “Chalice of Earth” Taurus Ingress Matrix
Once again, I decided to try getting more interpretive value out of the Golden Dawn's Chaldean correspondence wheel beyond its card-by-card significance. As an experiment I created matrices of the five cards that are "in play" at the ingress of the Sun into each of the zodiacal signs: the Ace and Princess that relate to … Continue reading The “Chalice of Earth” Taurus Ingress Matrix
Wands and Swords: Subtle Distinctions
In my recent thinking about the minor-card suits of the tarot, I recognized that there is some functional convergence (if not quite overlap) between the characteristic energies of the Wands and the Swords: as Fire and Air, both are elementally masculine, active and positive, and both strive for self-expression in a direct and unsentimental way. … Continue reading Wands and Swords: Subtle Distinctions
The Threes as “Feedback Loop”
In my reading I came across the assertion that the Two in tarot always represents an incipient action arising from the potential embodied in the Ace of its suit. (It shows the "first step" or initial outbound impulse that the static, self-absorbed Ace has only been pondering up to that point.) The imputed binary state … Continue reading The Threes as “Feedback Loop”
The Near-Sighted Tarot Reader
AUTHOR'S NOTE: No, this isn't an allegory about a cartomancer with defective vision, it's an elaboration of my previous thoughts concerning the reliable duration of a tarot reading. The title was just a clever ploy to grab your attention. It's a given that "things change," especially when more than one person is involved in a … Continue reading The Near-Sighted Tarot Reader
The Crane and The Snake: “Hard” and “Soft” Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Reading style" is a consideration that is always at the forefront of my thinking on the most effective ways to wield the tarot when divining for other people. I was just nudged a little further along the path by my study of traditional Chinese philosophy. I recently finished a thought-provoking book, The Tao … Continue reading The Crane and The Snake: “Hard” and “Soft” Tarot Reading
The “Gang of Ten”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: After reading Paul Marteau's peculiar statement that the Fool doesn't necessarily belong at either end of the Major Arcana sequence as 0 or 22, but would more properly be found after any multiple of 7 (e.g. the Chariot or Temperance), I felt I had to drive the notion from my head by tackling … Continue reading The “Gang of Ten”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 