AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's no secret that I'm both an esoteric theorist and a conceptual minimalist in my approach to tarot card interpretation, although as a reader I consider myself first-and-foremost a creative storyteller with a flair for inspiration, imagination and ingenuity in my narrative output. The purpose of this essay is to explore ways to … Continue reading The Art and Science of Precise Tarot Reading
Esoteric Tarot
The Tens: A “Holding Pattern”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I won't regale you with where I got the raw material for this essay; suffice it to say that it's "of a piece" with my last dozen "sourced" ideas. The Tens of the Minor Arcana have been described as representing a "cessation of effort" while awaiting new information or a fresh impulse to … Continue reading The Tens: A “Holding Pattern”
Aleister Crowley: “Hierophant” or “Devil?”
I'm now reading Alejandro Jodorowsky's commentary in The Way of Tarot about the number Five and its "decimal equivalency" in the Pope (Hierophant) and the Devil. One passage struck me as an accidental portrait of Aleister Crowley as an exemplar of what Jodo is talking about: "The Five of Wands represents two temptations: sublimating the … Continue reading Aleister Crowley: “Hierophant” or “Devil?”
The “Active Witness” and the Minor Arcana
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another interesting observation from Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Way of Tarot. In it he notes that, when a "pip" card of the Tarot de Marseille exhibits a red dot or figurative "eye," the symbol represents an "active (that is, actively involved) witness" to the action signified by the card. This idea inspired … Continue reading The “Active Witness” and the Minor Arcana
The Sixes as “Solar Centerpiece”
I recently reconnected with an idea I had forgotten about from my previous studies: adding together the integers of certain sets of three consecutive numbers from One to Nine (and, if necessary, refining the sum through "Theosophical reduction") will always yield the number Six. The same is true of the double-digit trump cards, and actually … Continue reading The Sixes as “Solar Centerpiece”
The Overturned Cups: Half Full or Half Empty?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is a wonderful metaphor that speaks directly to our attitude about life's occasional downturns and hints at whether we are naturally optimistic or pessimistic in our outlook: "Is the glass half full or half empty?" As a lifelong skeptic, my first thought when confronted with this conundrum is "What's in the glass?" … Continue reading The Overturned Cups: Half Full or Half Empty?
Tarot: Three Gods in One?
Yesterday I came across a brief discussion of the Qabalistic numerology of the tarot. It involved an analysis of the Hebrew four-lettered "name of God," Jehovah, and the fact that its letters, Yod, He, Vau, He (written right to left) enumerate to 26. The premise was that since the number of cards in a tarot … Continue reading Tarot: Three Gods in One?
The Devil: Gateway to the Shadow
Alejandro Jodorowsky, in his decimal approach to the numbering of the Major Arcana (described in The Way of Tarot), notes that the "5" that is subsumed in "15," the number of the Devil, is connected as a "numerological counterpart" to the "5" of the Pope/Hierophant. Where the latter aspires to spiritual sublimation, the former seeks … Continue reading The Devil: Gateway to the Shadow
The Tree of Life in the Abstract
As I understand it after many years of study, there are two ways to look at the Qabalistic Tree of Life. There is the traditional viewpoint of Hebraic mysticism involving what I term the "rabbinical" Tree, perhaps best exemplified by the work of Rabbi Isaac Luria (which I admit to not having studied in depth … Continue reading The Tree of Life in the Abstract
The Twos As “Accumulation and Incubation”
I've always considered the number Two in the Minor Arcana of the tarot to signify "centrifugal" oscillation like that of a swinging pendulum. It reaches the outermost limit of its travel before being pulled (very briefly) back to center by gravity, and then departs once again to the end of its tether in the opposite … Continue reading The Twos As “Accumulation and Incubation”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 