AUTHOR’S NOTE: It’s no secret that I’ve become thoroughly disenchanted with the populist pretensions of the online tarot community, to the point that I’ve decided to disengage from public conversation and return to private academic pursuits of a more esoteric nature. (I doubt the typical YouTube “talking head” will miss me or even notice.) I took most of the last month off from daily blogging while recovering from the flu that eventually turned into pneumonia, and now I’m back with a renewed resolve to dive straight into occult subjects.

This may cost me a few followers among those diviners who are only interested in exploring the psychological dimensions of what other people “think or feel,” but I never intended to cater to them anyway. This means less-frequent posts on tarot fundamentals, fewer new spreads, and longer pauses between entries since I will be cuing my observations mainly on my nonstop reading about the metaphysical arts and their history.

I plan to spend more time with the I Ching, the Lenormand cards, the Tarot de Marseille, Etteilla, horary astrology, the study and practice of Qabalistic magic, astral pathworking and crystal-ball scrying, druidry, shamanism, and my newfound interest in the Nordic runes, some of which will inevitably make it into my essays. (These are all techniques I’ve explored – either in-depth or peripherally – in the past, but now I’m going to approach them in a more disciplined way without spreading myself too thin and becoming a mere dabbler.)

I will, of course, continue my intense, life-long relationship with the Thoth tarot and, as I promised a few weeks ago, I may even find the stamina to take a thorough look at Aleister Crowley’s Book of Thoth beyond what I’ve addressed in previous posts. There is always more to unearth in the book, even after having read it four times over the years and referring to it almost daily in my work.

If you’re interested in any of these topics, I encourage you to stay tuned. This decision has been over eight years in the making and I feel fully justified in embracing the intellectual stimulus that operates well outside the boundaries of common tarot usage and the pedestrian focus that has been so confining in ordinary practice. I won’t be backing away completely from my fascination with action-and-event-oriented prediction, but I will be seeking more profound explanations for its inner dynamics and will share what I discover here.