AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of the strangest questions posed from time-to-time in the online tarot community (even stranger than "Do you think the cards have personalities?") is "Do you talk to your decks?" As if we can be expected to cozy up to a pack of cards on the sofa over tea and have a meaningful … Continue reading The Card Whisperer
Esoteric Tarot
“Banishing the Clerics” Reading – Tarot Looks at the Iran Crisis
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Following up on my previous post, I did a reading on the crisis in Iran that applies the "n x 9/n2 - 5" numerological-reduction model shown therein. I used my favorite sociopolitical deck, Brian Williams' PoMo (Post-Modern) Tarot, to explore what will become of the Islamic regime over the next month in the … Continue reading “Banishing the Clerics” Reading – Tarot Looks at the Iran Crisis
Purposeful Divination
AUTHOR NOTE: I was answering a question on one of the occult forums regarding what kind of magic I've found most effective, and I came up with the following response. Although I haven't performed any ritual magic since the mid-1980s, I realized that I now pursue what might be called "purposeful divination" as a form … Continue reading Purposeful Divination
Banishing the Clerics: A Numerological Twist on the Calculated “Essence” Card
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to geek world! Here is an oddball notion that may appeal to the numerologically-inclined tarotist. It aligns with my earlier exploration of the "numerical essence" concept but with a couple of twists. For context, see my previous posts on that subject and the "quintessence" calculation. When discussing the particulars of telepathic research … Continue reading Banishing the Clerics: A Numerological Twist on the Calculated “Essence” Card
Tarot Reading Beyond the Lookup
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In a recent post titled "Most Tarot Readings Stop Too Soon," tarot author Paul Hughes-Barlow observed that, at its most basic, a tarot reading approximates a "lookup table:" Pull a card, look up the meaning, make the interpretation. He concluded by saying that "It works, but only in the same sense that a … Continue reading Tarot Reading Beyond the Lookup
Mental Gender, the Tree of Life and the Tarot Trumps
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In presenting the seventh "Great Hermetic Principle" of Gender (as an active/passive mental polarity rather than a biological duality), The Kybalion describes the masculine principle as the domain of the Will, which is dynamic and energizing, and its feminine counterpart as uncommonly responsive and generative in that it welcomes the motivating impulse of … Continue reading Mental Gender, the Tree of Life and the Tarot Trumps
Pre-Conditioning and Pre-Positioning: The Twin Roots of Cause-and-Effect
"There is always a 'cause' and a 'because' for every event. Nothing ever 'happens' without a cause, or rather a chain of causes. There is a continuity between all events precedent, consequent and subsequent. There is a relation existing between everything that has gone before, and everything that follows."- from The Kybalion by "Three Initiates" … Continue reading Pre-Conditioning and Pre-Positioning: The Twin Roots of Cause-and-Effect
Leaving the Treadmill: Separation, Compensation and Neutralization
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In its lengthy dissertation on the reciprocal "separating and compensating" action of a swinging pendulum as envisioned in Hermetic thought, The Kybalion observes that it is the goal of an aspiring master to "get off the treadmill" (my own phrase for it) by rising above the mindless tide of repetition and refusing to … Continue reading Leaving the Treadmill: Separation, Compensation and Neutralization
Empowerment as “Mental Induction”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is no concept more widely endorsed in the divination community than that of peppering (aka empowering) a sitter with encouragement during the conduct of a tarot reading. We don't merely want to hand our clients relevant information about their future circumstances, we attempt to make them feel like they are (or will … Continue reading Empowerment as “Mental Induction”
My Life with the Qabalistic Tarot: A Field Guide
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been following a lengthy academic debate in the online occult community about whether non-Jews should be "allowed" to engage in esoteric practices based on the Hebraic body of Kabbalistic knowledge as filtered though the Hermetic working model. Little mention is made of the fact that the Kabbalah itself was heavily influenced by … Continue reading My Life with the Qabalistic Tarot: A Field Guide
