AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post is kind of a "gimme" for my daily blog update since I've been bumping the attached analysis periodically on Valentine's Day since I first presented it in 2018. I have quite a few new followers who may not have seen it. Because love readings are such a large part of the … Continue reading A Valentine’s Day Mini-Tradition
Cultural & Social Commentary
Quantity or Quality? (The Blogger’s Challenge)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've decided that it's time for a recap. For the past 224 days I've written a brief essay every morning on a range of topics related to divination, typically three or four paragraphs in length but more recently running from five to eight paragraphs. At least within the narrow range of my chosen … Continue reading Quantity or Quality? (The Blogger’s Challenge)
Subconscious Bias in Remote Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a companion piece to my essay of yesterday. I've been spending some time on the r/seculartarot Reddit sub, where nobody believes in the power of divination. The difference between them and me is that I'm firmly convinced of French author Joseph Maxwell's premise that "coming events cast a shadow before them" … Continue reading Subconscious Bias in Remote Tarot Reading
“Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The more I read The Tarot of the Bohemians by Gerard Encausse ("Papus"), the more respect I have for his wisdom (at least until he wanders off into Theosophy and loses me). When - in his discussion of science - he says that "observation and experience are only instruments" of intuition (the cognitive … Continue reading “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”
The Breeding Ground
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Having come from several years of involvement in Aeclectic Tarot, a stimulating online divination forum that closed in 2017, I've been somewhat disheartened by what I see as a much more diluted discussion platform in the Facebook pages I frequent. Although I have nothing against offering advice and assistance to novices, it seems … Continue reading The Breeding Ground
“Teach It To Talk”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: These four words jumped out at me from Sallie Nichols' text in Tarot and the Archetypal Journey as a perfect summary of how we must engage with the tarot if we're going to get the most out of its metaphysical abstractions. Tarot is a language but it isn't necessarily one with which we're … Continue reading “Teach It To Talk”
The Solitary Way
"Who has vocation hears the voice of the inner man; he is called." - Carl Gustav Jung AUTHOR'S NOTE: In recent years I haven't been much of a "joiner" since I usually find both the quality and the availability of the communal experience to be lacking. This wasn't always the case, since at one time … Continue reading The Solitary Way
Old Wine, New Wine, Wrong Bottle
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I've been studying and working with tarot for over 50 years, I still occasionally dip into the literature. My chosen subject matter is most often from the traditional canon but once in a while the material is of more recent vintage just to assess how the world of tarot is evolving in … Continue reading Old Wine, New Wine, Wrong Bottle
“Owning the Mystery” – Personal vs. Collective Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading about Carl Gustav Jung's process of individuation as it applies to the Major Arcana of the tarot, I came across this intriguing quote: "To own a mystery gives stature, conveys uniqueness, and assures that one will not be submerged in the mass. Mystery is essential to the experience of oneself as … Continue reading “Owning the Mystery” – Personal vs. Collective Tarot
Virtue and Vice in the Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've placed "virtue" first in my title because, when we receive a tarot reading, we will ideally discover evidence of worthiness in ourselves and our affairs and, unless we're entirely dishonest or avoidant, we will also acknowledge any incursion of vice with an eye toward subduing it, whether it is our own or … Continue reading Virtue and Vice in the Tarot
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 