AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been getting a bit bombastic lately, so here is a "palate-cleanser." I often employ both tarot cards and dice in what I call mixed-media readings. While I use the odd-and-even faces of the dice mainly as binary "pointers" in multi-path spreads to indicate which of two or more series of cards should … Continue reading Blended Trends: Card-Wrangling with Dice
Esoteric Tarot
Elemental Dignities: A Belated Awakening
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I had been using the Golden Dawn's "Elemental Dignities" (EDs) casually since 1972 and thought I had a firm grasp of the fundamentals, something about their application still bothered me. My doubts were exacerbated almost ten years ago when I spent quite a bit of time and effort dissecting the Order's tarot … Continue reading Elemental Dignities: A Belated Awakening
Tapping the Power: A Self-Realization Matrix
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a third adaptation of Benebell Wen's Lo Shu Square, this time applied loosely to her feng shui tarot model. I've created my own theme and position meanings for this purpose and did not adopt her spread design. (See her book Holistic Tarot for background details.) Another inspiration was the Lenormand 9-card … Continue reading Tapping the Power: A Self-Realization Matrix
Rehabilitating Bad Cards (aka “Putting Lipstick on a Pig”)
"As the saying goes “You can put lipstick on a sow but it’s still a sow,” or similarly and more bluntly, “You can’t polish a turd.”- from my 2019 essay When "Bad Is Bad" AUTHOR'S NOTE: Over the last few weeks I've encountered two posts in the online tarot community where novice diviners were agonizing … Continue reading Rehabilitating Bad Cards (aka “Putting Lipstick on a Pig”)
Personality, Adaptive Behavior and Character in Three Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not long ago I read a psychological article that described personality as being innate or instinctual, while character develops gradually over time through repetitive experiences that eventually solidify into a Pavlovian "conditioned response." In astrological terms, personality is the purview of the natal horoscope while the emergence of character can be shown by … Continue reading Personality, Adaptive Behavior and Character in Three Cards
A “Topical Impingement” Life-Reading Matrix
AUTHOR'S NOTE: From her book Holistic Tarot I picked up another idea from Benebell Wen's discussion of Chinese divination (this time the application of the Lo Shu Square to feng shui): a matrix that has a general life-topic card at the center (for example, "Health"), with influences feeding into it from all sides. I expanded … Continue reading A “Topical Impingement” Life-Reading Matrix
The “Cross-and-Square of Becoming” – A Force-and-Form Situational Awareness Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE:: This spread was inspired by the discussion of the Chinese Lo Shu Square in Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot, but I've taken it in a different direction. The objective is to first read the "force-and-form" axes from top-to-bottom and left-to-right, respectively to see how the situation will develop when unaffected by "big-picture" environmental concerns. … Continue reading The “Cross-and-Square of Becoming” – A Force-and-Form Situational Awareness Spread
NFL Football: Patriots at Seahawks, September 9, 2026
UPDATE: It looks like the Seahawks found the pulse of all those reversed trump cards after all. The only thing I can say about this reading - other than that I'm getting better at "hedging" - is that the final point spread was within range of the predicted single touchdown, although on the wrong side. … Continue reading NFL Football: Patriots at Seahawks, September 9, 2026
A Tarot Card-Counting Tableau
AUTHOR'S NOTE: After a long spell pursuing other divination-related interests, I've returned to reading Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot and was just examining her card-counting approach to populating spreads. She uses the Golden Dawn technique from the "Opening of the Key" method, but I find it counterintuitive so I decided to create my own based loosely … Continue reading A Tarot Card-Counting Tableau
Tarot-Card Rank as a Measure of “Reach”
Author's Note: In her book Tarot and the Tree of Life, Isabel Kliegman spent some time describing the implications of accidental ennoblement as symbolized by common suit, element, number, polarity or rank displayed by several cards in a reading. This commonality (known as "dignity") gave the affected cards an edge in effectiveness over their unaffiliated … Continue reading Tarot-Card Rank as a Measure of “Reach”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 