AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've had this draft in the queue for some time and decided to finish it. The subject of the example reading was on my mind when I created the spread, but it could be used in any situation where "both ends are arrayed against the middle." As described in Benebell Wen's I Ching … Continue reading Of Snakes and Swallows: A Conflict-Resolution Spread
Esoteric Tarot
Calling Forth Answers: A Mixed-Media Problem Solving Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's been a while since I last explored the technique of using a board-game spinner and an array of tarot cards to come up with a two-tiered approach to reading. In Benebell Wen's I Ching The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes, I've been learning about an abbreviated yarrow-stalk method … Continue reading Calling Forth Answers: A Mixed-Media Problem Solving Spread
Tarot as “Mystical Guidebook”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ever since Jungian group-think hijacked the New Age zeitgeist of the early '70s, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the tarot as a tool for innate self-understanding and cognate self-improvement. In that regard it's a pale substitute for astrology, one that offers a gentler learning curve suitable for the casual … Continue reading Tarot as “Mystical Guidebook”
A Monthly “Astro-Tarotscope” – Harnessing Horary Astrology and Tarot Insights
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not the first writer to use the term "tarotscope;" I've encountered it in various posts over the years. But here I'm applying it to a merger of horary astrology and tarot to come up with a monthly forecast that may well be unique. (I don't believe the hyphenated term in my title … Continue reading A Monthly “Astro-Tarotscope” – Harnessing Horary Astrology and Tarot Insights
Reverse-Engineering an Alternate Outcome
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another novel application of the Golden Dawn's system of astrological correspondences for the tarot cards as presented in the annotated figures of the "Chaldean" zodiac. (See the diagrams below.) In this model, each card has a complementary opposite across the wheel that is of the same polarity (positive or negative) and … Continue reading Reverse-Engineering an Alternate Outcome
The Onus of Elemental Discord: Earth/Air and Fire/Water
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While helping a friend with a relationship reading, I was visited by an epiphany regarding the elemental incompatibility of Earth and Air cards. The reading was a series of twelve monthly projections for the year beginning on the Spring Equinox. The spread logic I used was that each month holds a two-tiered arrangement … Continue reading The Onus of Elemental Discord: Earth/Air and Fire/Water
Ancestors on Call: A Spiritual Contact Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been reading about ancestor worship in Asia (which is not precisely "deification" but instead a ceremonial show of respect usually accompanied by ritual offerings and a sincere plea for assistance with one's mundane affairs). I've created a couple of spreads in the past with the goal of ancestor contact, but this knowledge … Continue reading Ancestors on Call: A Spiritual Contact Spread
The View from Shore: A Directional “Put-in” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First, a brief word of explanation: the title does not contain a misprint of "input." In this spread the action begins with the "putting," not the "receiving." The underlying concept takes some effort (and more than a few glib nautical metaphors) to spell out but the spread itself is of a simple alternate-path … Continue reading The View from Shore: A Directional “Put-in” Spread
The “Skirmish Line” Head-to-Head Conflict Resolution Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In ground combat, an expeditionary skirmish line exists when a sparse detachment of infantry faces a larger enemy force across contested terrain. This is not a pitched battle, a melee in which all available resources are thrown into the fray by both sides, but rather a "scouting, feinting, harrying or blocking" mission such … Continue reading The “Skirmish Line” Head-to-Head Conflict Resolution Spread
The “Chinese Menu” Tarot Timing Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Recalling the raucous furor that attended the colloquial renaming of Covid-19 as "the Chinese flu" (in which many people chose to demean the source of the presumed gaffe and dismiss the mounting evidence), and the more recent rallying cry over "cultural appropriation," I might have felt some trepidation about the political correctness of … Continue reading The “Chinese Menu” Tarot Timing Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 