In looking over my "Aces/Princesses" paradigm of descent into materiality that "operates via the 'solar' potency of the Sixes, establishing their 'kingdom on Earth' through the administrative vigor of the fixed signs," I thought it might be interesting to use the "quintessence" technique to turn the series of cards into single trumps to use as … Continue reading A “Paragon of Earth” Talisman
Esoteric Tarot
Cosmobiology and the Chaldean Decans in Tarot
The German cosmobiologists of the mid-20th Century held that the "soft" aspects between planets (the sextiles and trines along with the less prominent quintiles and bi-quintiles) were largely a waste of time in that they seldom show anything "visible" happening. These astrologers focused on the "hard" aspects - squares, semi-squares, sesquiquadrates and oppositions - when … Continue reading Cosmobiology and the Chaldean Decans in Tarot
A “Wish, Will and Way” Example Reading
I decided to test my 5-card approach to this method by asking the same question I've been chasing for the last few years: "As a professional diviner, how can I become more publicly successful and sought-after?" I chose for my inspiration the time-honored assumption that a skilled cartomancer is both sensitive and intuitive (Queen of … Continue reading A “Wish, Will and Way” Example Reading
The Wish, The Will and the Way
In tarot divination, there is a tendency to look at the Major Arcana (aka "trump") cards that turn up in a reading and say "That's all well and good as a philosophical abstraction, but what does it really mean for this particular person or situation at this point in time?" Their archetypal aim can be … Continue reading The Wish, The Will and the Way
Aleister Crowley: The “Measure of the Man”
Since Aleister Crowley's birthday was October 12, I thought I would run my new "Measure of a Man" (aka "homunculus") spread to see what it might say about him. Of course I used the Thoth deck for this, although the layout got a bit crowded. I didn't apply reversals because, in many ways, Crowley was … Continue reading Aleister Crowley: The “Measure of the Man”
The Skinny End
We've all seen the Hollywood version of the investigative psychic: the brow furrowed in concentration, the eyes squeezed shut, the hands to the temples, proclaiming "I think I see the letter 'B' . . ." One thing I've learned during my pursuit of missing-person situations is that the number of unsolved homicides far outweighs incidents … Continue reading The Skinny End
What’s In a Name?
Samuel Liddell Mathers was one of the seminal figures in the annals of modern esoteric tarot, having co-founded and eventually dominated the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, single-handedly penning a large portion of the tarot curriculum that was compiled in Liber T. (Hmm, why does spellcheck keep trying to substitute "single-underhandedly" and "single-highhandedly?" Maybe … Continue reading What’s In a Name?
One Is The Loneliest Number . . .
. . . until it becomes a catalyst for change. In the song of the title, Harry Nilsson was talking about the stifling torment of emotional rejection, but French tarot writer Joseph Maxwell had a different idea. Maxwell considered the number One to be the primal unity, perfect in its indivisibility and needing no amplification. … Continue reading One Is The Loneliest Number . . .
Temperance, the Star and the Water of Spirit
The thing that is most obvious when examining the two cards of the title is that the figure on each is manipulating a fluid that has been symbolically linked to the ethereal elixir of Spirit. Temperance is sloshing it back-and-forth between two chalices (and much has been made of the fact that, in the Waite-Smith … Continue reading Temperance, the Star and the Water of Spirit
“Mirror of the Soul” Karmic Message Spread
The Pythagoreans held that Number is sacred and embodies the root of all Existence; the measure of anything whatsoever can be taken in its ten formative principals, which ascend from an embryonic origin in the Monad or Point (1) to mature perfection in the Decad (10). (Note that this isn't the mathematical perception of Pythagoreanism … Continue reading “Mirror of the Soul” Karmic Message Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 