AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading about the historical view that many ancient philosophers and mystics envisioned a primordial "Cosmic Egg" that coalesced out of formless chaos, from which all life emerged as the culmination of an embryonic seed-state. I decided to explore this concept as the basis for a new conflict-resolution spread that uses … Continue reading The Great Escape: A Conflict-Resolution Spread
Experimental Methods
The Eighth Nature: Beyond Patience
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay quickly became dense as I continue to draw inspiration from The Tao of Thoth, but it winds up with an exercise that you may find intriguing. Although there are seven tenets in Hermetic philosophy as presented in The Kybalion, an eighth metaphysical precept has been proposed that unifies them. One school … Continue reading The Eighth Nature: Beyond Patience
Tarot As “Offering Bowl” – A Situational Development Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The practice of Taiji envisions eight "offering bowls" that enclose space and also present the contents of that space to the aspirant. Here I've created an eight-position tarot spread modeled on the taijitu (yin/yang) symbol of the I Ching to show situational progress from constructive input (yin as receptive and cooperative) to productive … Continue reading Tarot As “Offering Bowl” – A Situational Development Spread
Natural Alignment: Separating the Cow from the Hamburger
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My opinion of Ethan Indigo Smith's imagination and sense of humor went up a notch while reading (in The Tao of Thoth) his discussion of the archaic Egyptian word "neter" (meaning vital energy or life-force), which he relates to the equivalent term "chi" in the Tao. He describes this organic animating principle as … Continue reading Natural Alignment: Separating the Cow from the Hamburger
Going Off-Script: Reversed Cards as “Gradients”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been involved in another online discussion about the use of reversed (upside-down) cards in tarot reading. The comment I offered was my standard response reflecting over fifty years of working with reversals, but the dialogue provided some fresh insights that I will explore here. I've been reading reversals since I started practicing … Continue reading Going Off-Script: Reversed Cards as “Gradients”
Claiming the Space: An Elemental-Alignment Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across the Taoist concept of "claiming the space" in Taiji martial-arts combat by swinging the arms in a specifically "yang" (or offensive) manner as opposed to "relinquishing the space" in strategic withdrawal via a defensive "yin" arm-movement. I decided to apply this "yang" idea to a tarot spread. Begin by … Continue reading Claiming the Space: An Elemental-Alignment Spread
Modality and Sensitivity: A Fourfold Response Pattern
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been reading about the practice of Taiji with its yin-and-yang duality and the need to balance our psychological condition with our physical state of well-being. Two terms - modality and sensitivity - started me thinking about similar qualities in tarot reading, where there are four elemental modalities that separate naturally into two … Continue reading Modality and Sensitivity: A Fourfold Response Pattern
“In Angles They Will Pursue Thee” – Angles Speak Louder Than Curves
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across the following quote (attributed to The Emerald Tablets of Thoth by Taoist author Ethan Indigo Smith) that brought me back to the subject of predictive vs psychological (or humanistic) astrology. "Know ye, the hounds of the Barrier move only through angles and never through curves of space. Only by … Continue reading “In Angles They Will Pursue Thee” – Angles Speak Louder Than Curves
The Three-Card Matrix: Arriving, Indwelling and Departing
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Suppose that every card in a horizontal three-card line isn't an isolated instance but rather the randomly-drawn locus of another perpendicular three-card set based on its "natural" position in the 78-card run. We would then have a nine-card tableau with "mini-storyboards" that can be read vertically and diagonally as well as in the … Continue reading The Three-Card Matrix: Arriving, Indwelling and Departing
Circular Numerology and the Revolving Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A large percentage of everything that goes on in our environment is cyclical rather than linear in nature (although some cycles like the 25,800 year "wobble" of the Earth's axis are so long that it's difficult to observe their periodicity). The alternation of day and night and the turning of the seasons are … Continue reading Circular Numerology and the Revolving Tarot
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 