AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is a question I've been chewing on for more than 30 years, and with the aid of divination I think I'm getting close to an answer. One day back in the '80s, a co-worker walked up to me with an enigmatic smile and said "You know, you reek of self-confidence." I laughed … Continue reading “Reeking of Self-Confidence” – An Astro-Tarot Reflection
Courts
The “Chinese Menu” Tarot Timing Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Recalling the raucous furor that attended the colloquial renaming of Covid-19 as "the Chinese flu" (in which many people chose to demean the source of the presumed gaffe and dismiss the mounting evidence), and the more recent rallying cry over "cultural appropriation," I might have felt some trepidation about the political correctness of … Continue reading The “Chinese Menu” Tarot Timing Spread
Tarot Analogies: Three-Part Harmony and Feeling*
*With apologies to Arlo Guthrie for deliberately misquoting Alice's Restaurant. AUTHOR'S NOTE: The fact that a tarot deck can be subdivided into three distinct but interdependent tiers - trump, court and "pip" cards - invites numerous analogies describing how they interact from the top down in "three-part harmony." Here are a few ideas. We might … Continue reading Tarot Analogies: Three-Part Harmony and Feeling*
Aspiring to Perfection: Mining a Metaphor
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As part of my exploration of esoteric syncretism, here I'm paraphrasing a quote from Benebell Wen's I Ching, The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes to make it more relevant to tarot reading. The quote relates to invoking the "Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens" as a metaphor to aid … Continue reading Aspiring to Perfection: Mining a Metaphor
The Pentacles Court: Strategy Over Tactics
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading a Quora essay that described George Washington as a lousy military tactician but a brilliant strategist. It seems he lost all six of the major battles in which he participated, but his goal wasn't to win, just to preserve his army so it could remain a thorn in the … Continue reading The Pentacles Court: Strategy Over Tactics
Boundaries, Fences and Neighbors: Drawing a Line in the Sand
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his poem Mending Wall, Robert Frost gives the impression that he is rudely baiting the neighbor who keeps telling him earnestly "Good fences make good neighbors" as they work on repairing their shared stone wall. ("Something there is that doesn't love a wall." Hmm. Why do I feel that Frost would have … Continue reading Boundaries, Fences and Neighbors: Drawing a Line in the Sand
One Against Nature: A Tarot Self-Critique
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Mystical and spiritual types like to assert that they use tarot solely to tap into their self-awareness and self-improvement potential in the service of personal enlightenment. Fair enough, but going at it completely cold with nothing but the cards to compare ourselves to - no model or set of criteria defining excellence and … Continue reading One Against Nature: A Tarot Self-Critique
The Page, The Ace and the Fool: Three of a Kind
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've long believed that there is a conceptual link between the Fool, the Aces and the Pages of the tarot as the inspiration but not necessarily the "prime mover" for a departure from the status quo. They might put the idea in our head but, if anything useful is to be made of … Continue reading The Page, The Ace and the Fool: Three of a Kind
Reversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came across an opinion in the tarot literature that a reversed court card in a spread will typically highlight the negative character traits of an individual when that card stands for another person who is involved in the situation and not a psychological or universal/spiritual concept. Given my nuanced approach to … Continue reading Reversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?
The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I may regret it from the standpoint of intellectual overload (and so might my readers), I've just begun digesting (you don't idly graze these things) Ronald Decker's scholarly study of occult tarot history, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah, in the introduction to which he acknowledges that he … Continue reading The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 