AUTHOR'S NOTE: More musings inspired by Sallie Nichols' Tarot and the Archetypal Journey. The Collective Unconscious has been characterized as uniting (at least in theory) all conceivable human potential in a comprehensive "architecture of becoming" composed of archetypal symbolism that exists apart from exterior reality. It intrudes upon our waking world only to the extent … Continue reading The “Aperture of Awareness”
Esoteric Tarot
An Inconvenient Sidekick
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several times in the past I've come across arrangements of the 22 trump cards (aka "Major Arcana") in which the Fool is set apart from the other 21 cards. Most often it is placed above the rest, but my personal preference is to lay it adjacent to but separate from the middle row … Continue reading An Inconvenient Sidekick
Above, Below and In-Between
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "As above, so below" is a cornerstone of esoteric thought in the Hermetic tradition. According to this theory, life on Earth is a mirror or "microcosm" of the spiritual realm, or "macrocosm." Humans could therefore be viewed as approximate (and perhaps distorted) replicas of the perfect beings who inhabit the more numinous levels … Continue reading Above, Below and In-Between
Waiting For The “Drop” – A Situational Response Spectrum
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Serving as a (welcome?) bit of relief from my relentless Lenormand commentary, here is an approach to situational awareness and response based on the idea that a particular activity described as a set of circumstances or facts can be foreseen to precipitate a "second act" of a countervailing nature (a divinatory parallel to … Continue reading Waiting For The “Drop” – A Situational Response Spectrum
“It Just Happened . . .”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Cynics and nihilists are fond of saying (with studied indifference) "Shit happens." Here I'm going to take a hard look at that assumption. In a rational Universe, it can be argued that things don't "just happen;" even if we unwittingly place ourselves in the path of a developing train-wreck (the "wrong place, wrong … Continue reading “It Just Happened . . .”
The Nines As “Ripening”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another outtake from Cory Hutcheson's 54 Devils, this time riffing on his observation that the 9 of Clubs implies a "ripening outcome" that is almost ready to drop its fruit. The tarot Nines have been described as representing the "fulfillment" of their suit; they have reached a state of completion that … Continue reading The Nines As “Ripening”
The “Twitch Factor”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: During a recent online conversation I mentioned the fact that, when provoked, the element of Earth in the sign of Virgo can be fidgety, rising one notch above in "twitchy" angst from Virgo's trademark anal fussiness. This got me thinking about how the elements of the Chaldean zodiac react with the Minor Arcana … Continue reading The “Twitch Factor”
The “Mandala of Revealing” Decision-Making Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is another "mixed-media" spread that uses tarot cards and a single six-sided die as a "pointer." Instead of just posting the spread and following up with an example reading tomorrow, I combined the two in this post. (The images are from the Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn by Pat Zelewski and … Continue reading The “Mandala of Revealing” Decision-Making Spread
Rethinking the “Four Winds” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've come across examples of the "Four Winds" spread in more than one publication. Its premise is that the classical "winds" that blow from the four quarters of the Earth can be equated to the four aspects of the human psyche, Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional and Physical. (The inspiration for "rethinking" this spread came … Continue reading Rethinking the “Four Winds” Spread
Context as “Master Key”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I picked another random thought out of Vincent Pistisci's Genius of the Tarot that is worth contemplating. For most of us, the suit symbolism of the minor and court cards is the essential factor in determining their general "theme" (the specific images on the cards confer more precise anecdotal import). The "cameo" version … Continue reading Context as “Master Key”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 