AUTHOR'S NOTE: Buried in the strident chorus of "Just go with what you feel!" and "You don't have to read books!" emitted in self-righteous certitude by a significant percentage of 21st-Century tarot "influencers," an occasional quiet voice is raised in defense of developing a method of reading the cards that is both rational and instinctual. … Continue reading Structured Intuition
Esoteric Tarot
The “Scattershot” Spread: Shotgunning the Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I sometimes encounter people online who will only read a random cluster of cards with no formal spread positions. I've created a few layouts that embrace that kind of neutrality and here is the latest one, although it goes from scattered to structured in three operations. It owes its premise to two-thirds of … Continue reading The “Scattershot” Spread: Shotgunning the Tarot Reading
The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm endlessly annoyed by the popular opinion that the 3 of Swords is a card of devastating emotional suffering and heartbreak. C'mon, people, it's a low-numbered Air card; any pain will most likely be short-and-sharp, more a flesh wound than a disemboweling gash, and more commonly mind-centered than heart-centered. I've even seen it … Continue reading The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
Riffing on Reversals: An Instructive Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently performed a reading that provided excellent insights into how reversed cards can alter the thrust of a prediction. The client graciously allowed me to post this narrative as long as anonymity is preserved. The question involved the long-range consequences that might result if the client continues taking the medications she has … Continue reading Riffing on Reversals: An Instructive Reading
The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written frequently in the past about the fact that the insurmountable obstacles to an agreeable outcome shown in the Waite-Smith 8 of Swords can be circumvented by the compromised woman - whose feet are unbound - "feeling her way" along the watercourse to escape off the lower-right corner of the card. (When … Continue reading The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
Personalizing the Princesses
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my previous essay on assigning tarot court cards to the Sun, Moon and Ascendant degrees of the natal horoscope, I promised to address how the multi-sign Princesses of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley can brought into the same model. Here goes! It is a traditional assumption that each King has mastered … Continue reading Personalizing the Princesses
The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never been entirely satisfied with the title "Strength" (or its precursor, the Golden Dawn's "Lord of Great Strength") for the Thoth 9 of Wands as signifying the Moon in Sagittarius. The Moon is not particularly forceful at the best of times and Sagittarius is the most muted of the Fire signs. Crowley … Continue reading The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
The Ideal Consort: The Devil and the Queen of Disks
"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste" (Jagger/Richards) AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book The Thoth Companion, Michael Snuffin expounds upon the "goat" symbolism on the Queen of Disks card by noting that "A goat stands on a second golden orb in the foreground, which represents the Sun in Capricorn, … Continue reading The Ideal Consort: The Devil and the Queen of Disks
The State of the Art
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In light of the schizophrenic persona that modern tarot culture displays, you might call this my "State of Disunion Address." The tarot as most English-speaking diviners know it today is largely a product of the British Occult Revival of the late 19th Century, which was itself a further iteration of the work of … Continue reading The State of the Art
Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Coagulation
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As the final stage in traditional alchemy, one that is analogous to the clotting of blood, coagulation of the refined elixir produced by distillation is intended to yield gold in physical terms or the "Philosopher's Stone" as its spiritual output. In The Collector, Thomas Ellison describes it as "the process of solidification where … Continue reading Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Coagulation
