AUTHOR'S NOTE: Those who have seen the Tom Hanks/Gary Sinise movie Forrest Gump will appreciate the reference in the title. This spread uses all 78 cards to create a six-card reading in one of thirteen situational and temporal settings as determined by the location of a pre-selected "Significator" card. The four general topic areas are … Continue reading The “Box of Chocolates” Life-Reading Spread
Elements
The “Gatekeeper and Keymaster” Best-Case Scenario Spread
The title of this spread comes from the two demonic characters ("Zuul" and "Vinz Clortho") played by Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis in the first Ghostbusters movie. The premise was rife with thinly-veiled sexual innuendo about the "gate" and the "key," but it seemed like a good basis for a tarot spread. The spread uses … Continue reading The “Gatekeeper and Keymaster” Best-Case Scenario Spread
Daily Patterns: “Moon-Day,” “Mars-Day,” Etc.
As an astrologer of long standing, I've always been fascinated by the internal or secondary structure in my tarot readings offered by the symbolic architecture of the astrological correspondences developed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at the end of the 19th Century (see the chart below). Some of them work better than … Continue reading Daily Patterns: “Moon-Day,” “Mars-Day,” Etc.
An Experiment in “Symbolic Parallels”
Here is a 15-card spread that explores the notion that cards will complement one another according to the position they hold within the 78-card series, essentially creating pairs of "symbolic parallels." It is intended to show the querent's psychological orientation to the subject of the reading as it develops over time, from initial awareness to … Continue reading An Experiment in “Symbolic Parallels”
Suit Dynamics: Rising and Falling Energies
Apart from the symbolic orientation typically used in tarot reading (left refers to "the past," right shows "the future," up reveals matters and down conceals them), there are directional suit dynamics to consider. When you think of it in those terms, the assignment of the function of Spirit alternately to the tarot suits of Fire … Continue reading Suit Dynamics: Rising and Falling Energies
Pleasure and Fun, On The Double
This morning I was thinking abut the old Doublemint gum jingle and how it might be applied to the elemental dignities between the Minor Arcana in two-card sets. "Double your pleasure, double your fun!" But I switched it up a bit to create four "opportunities:" "Double your pleasure, double your pain;Double your money, double your … Continue reading Pleasure and Fun, On The Double
Cups and Pentacles: Even More Subtle Distinctions
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Completist that I am, I figured I had better finish my thoughts on the nuances of interpretation that separate the elementally "friendly" minor suits of the tarot. The suits of Cups and Pentacles (or, in different systems, Coins or Disks) are entirely sympathetic to one another; one represents the element of Water and … Continue reading Cups and Pentacles: Even More Subtle Distinctions
Wands and Swords: Subtle Distinctions
In my recent thinking about the minor-card suits of the tarot, I recognized that there is some functional convergence (if not quite overlap) between the characteristic energies of the Wands and the Swords: as Fire and Air, both are elementally masculine, active and positive, and both strive for self-expression in a direct and unsentimental way. … Continue reading Wands and Swords: Subtle Distinctions
A “Knowledge & Wisdom Ledger” Example Reading
Here is a reading I did to test this spread. I didn't have a specific question in mind beyond curiosity over what my proposed initiative to push my tarot-reading practice into the corporate sector (still only a notion, not an actual plan) will mean for my future. Overall, this is a very encouraging reading for … Continue reading A “Knowledge & Wisdom Ledger” Example Reading
The “Knowledge & Wisdom Ledger” – A Contrast and Complement Spread
I'm experimenting with elemental correspondences again. Here is a spread that examines how knowledge can become wisdom in the four main areas of life; it uses opposing positions in the attached Chaldean decan charts to show the contrasting or complementary energy for a drawn card. I had to do something different with the planetary trumps … Continue reading The “Knowledge & Wisdom Ledger” – A Contrast and Complement Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 