AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an "elemental storyboard" test reading that uses the suit of Cups to represent the "base element" of Water. I'm tackling the age-old (and largely inscrutable) subject of "true love" (as in finding and keeping). I'm stating it coyly as "Under what circumstances will I (or won't I) find emotional fulfillment in … Continue reading A Suit-of-Cups “Elemental Storyboard” Test Reading
Elements
The Will and the Way: A Self-Advancement Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that is designed to reveal the "way forward" in any situation involving a "willed" ambition or purpose. It offers both an "Open Way" that is obvious to everyone involved in the affair and a "Hidden Way" that has more clandestine dimensions and implications. Working with the Thoth deck as … Continue reading The Will and the Way: A Self-Advancement Spread
Complementary Opposites: “Neutral and Supportive” Elemental Dignities
AUTHOR'S NOTE: According to the Golden Dawn's esoteric worldview, the classical elements of Empedocles (Fire, Water, Air and Earth) as used in the tarot are distinguished by four unique degrees of compatibility that dictate how potent a card will be in performing its role when bracketed by certain other cards in a spread. This is … Continue reading Complementary Opposites: “Neutral and Supportive” Elemental Dignities
Psychological Parallels in Tarot: The Mechanics of Redirection
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First a disclosure. After studying and working with the tarot cards for over five decades, I'm convinced that they aren't ideal for psychological profiling and character analysis (or, put less academically, what someone else "thinks or feels"), in which capacity they are too much like "mind-reading-with-props." That's why I use natal astrology for … Continue reading Psychological Parallels in Tarot: The Mechanics of Redirection
A Suit-of-Swords “Elemental Storyboard” Test Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an "elemental storyboard" test reading that uses the suit of Swords to represent the "base element" of Air. It involves a hypothetical client who intends to leverage his intellectual property by compiling a group of previously-published essays into a formal book. (It's not me, I've already "been there, done that" . … Continue reading A Suit-of-Swords “Elemental Storyboard” Test Reading
A “Warring Factions” Political-Profile Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This spread needs little explanation. It is intended to examine the key qualities of aspirants to public office. (I'm leaving age and infirmity off the table.) It is best to use a different deck for each contender so all cards are available to both (or all) of them. In the US political system … Continue reading A “Warring Factions” Political-Profile Spread
A Tarot “Poke in the Eye:” Self-Serving Objectives and Loss of Focus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It goes without saying that most people who seek a tarot reading are angling for a sign from the Universe that something they want to happen will come to pass. I doubt there are many who are looking for assurance that their vision isn't going to materialize as projected (unless their presentiment involves … Continue reading A Tarot “Poke in the Eye:” Self-Serving Objectives and Loss of Focus
“Moving Cards” As Symbolic Counterparts
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my second post on the subject (the first one is linked below). My original idea was to create a four-card line spread using fixed position meanings based on the four classical elements of Empedocles, going from left-to-right and from Wands to Pentacles. Then I shuffled a deck and dealt random cards … Continue reading “Moving Cards” As Symbolic Counterparts
Deeper Than You Realize: Reversals As Hidden Messages
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across the intriguing notion that it could be instructive, after performing a reading that allows for reversed cards, to go through the rest of the deck and find additional instances of reversal that didn't make it into the reading. (In other words, they didn't surface during the pull.) The assumption … Continue reading Deeper Than You Realize: Reversals As Hidden Messages
The “Hourglass of Opportunity” Three-Way Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an elegant spread that offers three possible paths to resolution: the left-hand path of intuitive insight, the right-hand path of rational judgment, and the central or "ideal" path that blends the two into a perfectly coordinated "middle way" between them. All three pass through a central "lens" (Key #2) that represents … Continue reading The “Hourglass of Opportunity” Three-Way Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 