AUTHOR'S NOTE: First a confession: it's been years (make that decades) since I last performed all five "operations" of the Golden Dawn's "Opening of the Key" (OotK) method of divination, which can take hours to complete and yields far more information than any ordinary inquiry requires. This fact alone severely limits its application in professional … Continue reading The Golden Dawn’s “Opening of the Key” – Much Ado About Too Much?
Month: May 2025
Attack of the Killer TINOs!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently had an eye-opening experience regarding the current state of disarray in modern tarot design. (I almost wrote "state-of-the-art" but that would have been giving it far too much credit.) I joined the Hermit's Cave Facebook page hoping to find intelligent conversation about the tarot, but what I encountered was an endless … Continue reading Attack of the Killer TINOs!
Pursuing the “Imaginative Turn of Phrase” – An Astrological View
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his essay on the Knight of Swords in Tarot Master Class, Paul Fenton-Smith observed that this "quick-minded" Knight "is keen to practice an imaginative turn of phrase." This once again brought to mind my own predilection for nailing the "well-chosen metaphor" in my writing on divination. (Full Disclosure: I'm a Thoth Knight-of-Cups … Continue reading Pursuing the “Imaginative Turn of Phrase” – An Astrological View
Acceleration and Deceleration in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once again I've received inspiration for a new essay from something tarot author and entrepreneur Marcus Katz said on the Tarot Professionals Facebook page. His wise counsel for those confronting a "Tower moment" is "May it bring about for you an Acceleration in those things which require Acceleration." It's common knowledge that those … Continue reading Acceleration and Deceleration in Tarot Reading
Death of a Dream: the Seven through Ten of Swords as a “Downward Spiral”
"I woke up this morningAnd I got myself a beer.The future's uncertainAnd the end is always near."- from Roadhouse Blues by The Doors AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my recent essay on the Minor Arcana of the suit of Swords, I mentioned that the 9 and 10 of Swords taken together could be construed as meaning the … Continue reading Death of a Dream: the Seven through Ten of Swords as a “Downward Spiral”
“Lenormand 101” in Brief
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Even with nearly twelve years of study and practice behind me, I'm still far less experienced with divination using the Lenormand cards than I am with tarot reading after five decades of involvement, so I haven't felt confident (or competent) in publishing a Lenormand e-book to accompany my five tarot volumes. The fact … Continue reading “Lenormand 101” in Brief
“Beware the Devil Woman”
"Crystal ball on the tableShowing the future, the pastSame cat with them evil eyesAnd I knew it was a spell she cast She's just a devil womanWith evil on her mindBeware the devil womanShe's gonna get you from behind"- from Devil Woman by Cliff Richard AUTHOR'S NOTE: I confess to a bit of "trolling" with … Continue reading “Beware the Devil Woman”
The Unpredictable Swords: Mental Agility or Mental Chaos?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the Golden Dawn's system of elemental correspondences for the suits of the tarot, Swords are assigned to Air, suggesting admirable fluidity, flexibility and agility. This despite the fact that, as A.E. Waite observed in his Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Swords "generally are not symbolic of beneficent forces in human affairs" … Continue reading The Unpredictable Swords: Mental Agility or Mental Chaos?
“Present” Focus in Tarot Reading: Leveraging the Moment
"I woke up in betweenA memory and a dream"- from You Don't Know How It Feels by Tom Petty When it comes to temporal bias in a tarot reading (i.e. the traditional "Past/Present/Future" sequence), it could be said that there is nothing more useless to the timing of events than a memory and nothing more … Continue reading “Present” Focus in Tarot Reading: Leveraging the Moment
Cut to Fit: Existential Advice in Four Elemental “Flavors”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One problem with tarot spreads based on the four classical elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth is that there is often a significant qualitative mismatch between the elemental position meanings and the nature of the cards that land in those positions, requiring vigorous mental gymnastics on the part of the reader to … Continue reading Cut to Fit: Existential Advice in Four Elemental “Flavors”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 