Once upon a time I was doing a deep dive into the subject of the "facing" (aka "gaze" or "regard") of the human figures on the tarot cards. Facing is often seen as showing where the focus or attention of a card falls outside of its normal span of control, usually conveying an impulse to … Continue reading The King of Swords: A Study in Impartiality
Courts
Court-Card Hierarchies: An Interesting Comparison
I've just rediscovered Alejandro Jodorowsky's unorthodox sequencing of the court cards and, although I still don't fully agree with him, I now find more sense in his thinking. I decided to compare his vision side-by-side with Waite's historical hierarchy and the Qabalistic premise of the Golden Dawn/Thoth model. All images are copyright of U.S. Games … Continue reading Court-Card Hierarchies: An Interesting Comparison
The Power of Ten in Four: The Court Cards and the Decimal Paradigm
Along with a few other tarot authors I've encountered, Alejandro Jodorowsky makes much of the fact that the court cards have no numbers on their faces and therefore shouldn't be given them for any purpose whatsoever. His specific argument is that the organic "base-10" structure of the Minor Arcana doesn't support the practice of assigning … Continue reading The Power of Ten in Four: The Court Cards and the Decimal Paradigm
“Blondness” as Perfection?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here's a lightweight bit of fluff with a serious undertone. While many statements in The Grand Etteilla compilation that I recently finished reading are outdated to the point of being irrelevant to the modern practice of divination (if not actually laughable), this one stands out as particularly ludicrous. It definitely falls into "Gimme … Continue reading “Blondness” as Perfection?
Knights and Streetcars: “Coming and Going”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My wife dismisses blues music as "whining man" music (as in "My baby done left me and I'm feelin' lowdown and mean." But there is a bawdy old "whining woman" blues song from the early 20th Century that complains: "Men are like streetcars/They keep coming and going." (A similar modern version would be … Continue reading Knights and Streetcars: “Coming and Going”
Do the “Loosen Up”
While writing my recent post about the the ability of the court cards to receive "inspiration and support from Above," I stumbled upon an epiphany that deserves further exploration. At the end of the essay I wrote: "I will continue to see tarot royalty as hobbled by their inability to “loosen up;” in practical reading … Continue reading Do the “Loosen Up”
Head to the Sky
I've resumed reading Paul Marteau's Tarot de Marseille book after a month's hiatus and immediately encountered another interesting idea. He mentions that the Knight of Cups is bare-headed and therefore "he is directly receiving inspiration and support from Above." In contrast, although Marteau doesn't elaborate further, it struck me that those members of the tarot … Continue reading Head to the Sky
Left or Right? A Matter of Orientation
There is a tradition in tarot reading that visually scanning from the left to the right in a linear spread presents a past-to-future panorama of circumstances signifying an urge to move forward, while looking from right to left suggests a need to first deal with past events in the situation that may still be unresolved … Continue reading Left or Right? A Matter of Orientation
The Court Cards: A Paradigm Shift
There is a premise in Liber T, the tarot canon of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, that relates the court cards to the exercise of worldly "power" in its various forms. The Kings represent "Potential Power;" the Queens convey "Brooding Power;" the Knights (or Princes) wield "Power in Action;" and the Pages (or … Continue reading The Court Cards: A Paradigm Shift
A Tarot de Marseille “Energy Translation” Tableau
Here I align the seminal "root power" of the Ace and the linear binary projection of the Two with the "agency" of the court cards and the situational "ways and means" symbolized by the remaining pips to produce a developmental tableau that enlivens Tarot de Marseille delineation. Rather than following the esoteric assumption that only … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille “Energy Translation” Tableau
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 