AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never been entirely satisfied with the title "Strength" (or its precursor, the Golden Dawn's "Lord of Great Strength") for the Thoth 9 of Wands as signifying the Moon in Sagittarius. The Moon is not particularly forceful at the best of times and Sagittarius is the most muted of the Fire signs. Crowley … Continue reading The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
Courts
The Ideal Consort: The Devil and the Queen of Disks
"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste" (Jagger/Richards) AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book The Thoth Companion, Michael Snuffin expounds upon the "goat" symbolism on the Queen of Disks card by noting that "A goat stands on a second golden orb in the foreground, which represents the Sun in Capricorn, … Continue reading The Ideal Consort: The Devil and the Queen of Disks
The Daily Reading in Three Parts
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Consider this the "club sandwich" of tarot spreads, or maybe the "lasagna;" it breaks the daily reading into three distinct tiers of interpretation. Within the field of behavioral conjecture it's a well-established premise that the human personality exhibits three characteristic modes of response to circumstances: automatic or unplanned (the "knee-jerk reaction"); conditional or … Continue reading The Daily Reading in Three Parts
Personal Court Cards: A Crowleyan Perspective
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm currently reading the court-card section of Michael Snuffin's Thoth Companion and came across the observation that Aleister Crowley chose the Prince of Wands as his personal court card due to its association with Leo, the sign on his astrological Ascendant, accompanied by the Queen of Swords to symbolize his Sun sign of … Continue reading Personal Court Cards: A Crowleyan Perspective
“Who Am I Right Now?” – A Three-Part Personality Profile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an approach to personality profiling that uses a "prepared" deck split into trump, court and pip card sub-packs. The design employs three layers of significance: the outer rectangle of four "pip" cards displays a tableau of daily experience in four elemental attitudes or postures; the middle diamond of four court cards … Continue reading “Who Am I Right Now?” – A Three-Part Personality Profile
The Thoth Court Cards: Old and Trusted Friends
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second post in my three-part initiative to explore the Thoth tarot at a profound level that goes deeper than the card-by-card analysis I've already presented elsewhere in this blog. Here I'm tackling the court cards, for which I've always considered Crowley's compact explanations to be "some of the best out … Continue reading The Thoth Court Cards: Old and Trusted Friends
“Putting A Face To It” – Physical Profiling with the Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Most of us have felt the quandary expressed in the trope "I know the name but I can't put a face to it." I'm often asked whether the court cards of the tarot can be used to reliably describe the physical characteristics of someone involved in the querent's life. Here is my answer … Continue reading “Putting A Face To It” – Physical Profiling with the Tarot
The Tarot Cosmology of Papus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A couple of weeks ago I posted an essay in which I took issue with the Golden Dawn's arrangement of the Kings, Queens and Knights on the Chaldean wheel of the zodiac. Rather than the Queens being Cardinal (a dynamic and enterprising mode), I've always felt that they should be Fixed due to … Continue reading The Tarot Cosmology of Papus
Schrodinger and the “Fabric of Reality”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I haven't touched on this subject recently, but my involvement in the Reddit sub r/seculartarot brought it back around. I once described divination in fanciful terms as "running my mental fingers through the warp-and-woof of the fabric of reality, trying to tease out threads of truth." More recently I encountered the ideas of … Continue reading Schrodinger and the “Fabric of Reality”
Rethinking the Chaldean Court
AUTHOR'S NOTE: During a recent online conversation, a question was raised about the reasons for the Golden Dawn's arrangement of the court cards on the Chaldean zodiac. I had a plausible answer for the Princesses: basically there was no place else to put them in the grand scheme, so the GD came up with a … Continue reading Rethinking the Chaldean Court
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 