AUTHOR'S NOTE: Whenever I consider silently chanting an intention-and-protection spell prior to beginning a tarot reading, I'm reminded of the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost movie Hot Fuzz, in which Timothy Dalton played the leader of a creepy cabal of local activists whose members kept muttering in unison and in a morbid monotone "The greater good, the … Continue reading “Peace, Power and Openness:” A Tarot-Reading Mantra
Author: parsifalswheeldivination
The Numerical Essence Card as “Vaulting Over Limitations”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: After taking a long detour into the psionic research of Dr. Dean Radin as applied to divination, I've returned to reading Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot. I just encountered a three-card example reading in the book that I felt deserved a more carefully-considered analysis. The reading was for an aggressive Aries male who was … Continue reading The Numerical Essence Card as “Vaulting Over Limitations”
“Another Cup of ‘Why Bother’ . . .”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been following an increasingly rancorous argument in one of the online occult forums over why the esoteric community seems so toothless of late (hey, I was going to use one of the darlings of AI writing, "pusillanimous") compared to its previous vigor. Where is the bracing "bite" of old? There is certainly … Continue reading “Another Cup of ‘Why Bother’ . . .”
The One-Card Draw as Thematic Stage-Setter
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my opinion, the one-card pull as a daily reading practice is relatively useless except as a way to show the environmental backdrop or atmosphere of the forthcoming 24-hour period. It is static and therefore can't effectively display potential developments in the situation unless we imagine (aka "intuit") them. However, I'm proposing another … Continue reading The One-Card Draw as Thematic Stage-Setter
UFOs, the Multiverse and the Irruption of the Paranormal*
*Irruption: a sudden, forcible, or violent breaking into a place, a sudden invasion AUTHOR'S NOTE: This one is more ambitious than most. Let's see where it goes. Years ago I read a pair of cosmology books by science author Timothy Ferris, and in one of them (it was either 1988's Coming of Age in the … Continue reading UFOs, the Multiverse and the Irruption of the Paranormal*
Tarot Cards as a “Hall of Mirrors”
"One explanation for (human sentience) is that consciousness emerges as a result of the complexity and self-reflective recursion that is built into the circuits of the brain, like a hall of mirrors."- Dean Radin in Supernormal AUTHOR'S NOTE: A commonly-help opinion among tarot practitioners is that the random cards pulled for a reading "mirror" the … Continue reading Tarot Cards as a “Hall of Mirrors”
The Card Whisperer
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of the strangest questions posed from time-to-time in the online tarot community (even stranger than "Do you think the cards have personalities?") is "Do you talk to your decks?" As if we can be expected to cozy up to a pack of cards on the sofa over tea and have a meaningful … Continue reading The Card Whisperer
Deep Thoughts on Participatory Divination: People, Not Process
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is an unusually abstract theory in speculative physics (one that is dismissed out-of-hand by the mainstream scientific community) that all objects - whether in concrete form or as massless "packets of energy" - have their origin in the primordial raw material of information that is defined as binary data-bits operating in the … Continue reading Deep Thoughts on Participatory Divination: People, Not Process
Experiential Cash-Value: The Wages of Accurate Prediction
"What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?"- Psychologist William James on the uncertain advantage that truth holds over falsehood "in anyone's actual life." AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many years ago I was taken to task in one of the online tarot forums for prizing accurate results in my divination. I was asked pointblank by … Continue reading Experiential Cash-Value: The Wages of Accurate Prediction
Peripheral Vision in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE The inspiration for this brief essay came from a Stephen Wright quote in Dean Radin's book Supernormal: "I was a peripheral clairvoyant. I saw the future, but only way off to the side." I've always been skeptical of intuitive (and, more specifically, psychic) tarot readers who claim they can learn everything they need … Continue reading Peripheral Vision in Tarot Reading