AUTHOR’S NOTE: It hasn’t been said but I know it’s been thought. I can envision John Lennon commenting with tongue firmly in cheek, “You might well arsk,” although I have to admit that being a curmudgeonly mischief-maker has a certain Machiavellian appeal.

I thought I would preface my next ornery rant with a modest confession. I’m quite sure many (if not most) younger tarot enthusiasts who are thrilled with the online tarot community and who happen to stumble upon this blog don’t share my opinion that it’s largely a metaphysical wasteland (the community, not the blog). It’s probably why they come here and then depart when they’ve had enough of my bitching about it. My disclosure is that I don’t really care since I write mostly for my own pleasure and to “hear myself think” (my wife says I talk to myself while writing). If you like it, fine; if you don’t, that’s OK, it obviously wasn’t meant for you.

I don’t really have an outreach agenda for positioning these divination-related essays within the online tarot metaverse (since I dumped Facebook and reddit, this blog will have to do). I began generating them because I had to find someplace to park the idle intellectual horsepower I found myself swimming in after retiring from a lengthy technical and legal writing career in 2010. My esoteric fascination goes back even farther than the start of that three-decade stretch in business, so it was reasonable to devote much of my now-abundant spare time to sharpening my fangs . . . umm, I mean honing my tarot skills. Other than selling an occasional e-book, I don’t make any money from this venture so I don’t worry much about the “likes-and-follows” preoccupation of the typical social-media purveyor of tarot wisdom on a monetized web-site. I will keep paying for the domain just to have an outlet.

I suppose, other than unintentionally irritating people, the things I would like to be known for involve getting tarot novices to: 1) stop hunting for the next YouTube “talking head” to fill their brains with nonsense; 2) read a good tarot book or two (or ten); and 3) practice a lot to begin forming their own tarot philosophy rather than merely piggybacking on someone else’s. Tarot is indeed its own language, and the sooner the beginner acquires a personal vocabulary for its explication, the better the odds will be for escaping reliance on generic internet sources.

This means they will have to begin thinking for themselves after absorbing enough of the fundamentals to serve as grist for the mill. There is no substitute for patient and persistent contemplation of the basics, but eventually the training wheels will have to be abandoned and the coach must step aside. When tarot reading is done right, there are no “pat” answers that will satisfy each and every situation, it’s all “cut-to-fit.” The diviner’s job is to tailor any inspired insights to the context of the question. Baseline knowledge may point the way to the destination, but there are no shortcuts for getting there any sooner by trying to bypass the milestones, such as “read for yourself; read for a friend or family member; read for a stranger, charge for a reading” until you’re comfortable. (Note that I didn’t say “start a blog or YouTube channel;” stop scrambling while you’re ahead and enjoy your accomplishments.)

Since Aeclectic Tarot folded in 2017, I’ve been diligently wading through socially-oriented tarot-forum-after-blog-after-web-page, seeking a worthwhile online experience that offers even a faint glimmer of its profundity, but I finally decided to just walk away since none of it has any real substance. (There are exceptions, of course, like Mary K. Greer’s informative blog and the various tarot history sites, but I’m looking specifically for communal engagement, not just knowledge.) All I’ve seen are needy people immersed in an anxious quest for insight on one side of the equation and those opportunists who are beating the mercenary drum for income on the other. I don’t intend to contribute to the latter and, without spending far too much time, I can’t help the former.

I could answer questions all day long about specific cards that explain (or fail to explain) why so-and-so didn’t call or text the OP, without feeling that it made a bit of difference to the poster’s understanding of the situation. All they know is that they’re nervous and want someone to tell them why they should or shouldn’t be, when they really ought to just confront the avoidant individual and stop hiding behind the tarot. It’s called “real life,” get used to it.

Illumination doesn’t come second-hand; they will have to directly encounter the principles at work before they can grasp their functional significance in day-to-day affairs. If they are looking to be spoon-fed everything they need to know, they’re in the wrong discipline. Perhaps it’s my impatience with lazy thinking and the entitled, instant-gratification mindset that comes across as a “mean streak.” If so, I’m certainly not going to apologize for that.