AUTHOR'S NOTE: To demonstrate the "Meaning of Life" spread I posted yesterday, here is a fictional reading based on real-life circumstances. A 47-year-old New Hampshire man was living in his mother's basement. She bought him a Playstation 5 for his birthday, but he jacked up the volume so high while playing that it annoyed her. … Continue reading A “Meaning of Life” Example Reading
Experimental Methods
Purpose, Potential and Performance: A “Meaning of Life” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the risk of impersonating a "self-help guru," I've created a spread for those who feel that life is bereft of meaning, and who want to stop drifting and "jump-start" their private reality. Craving a path to a better place through divination, they want to tap into subliminal glimpses of what the immediate … Continue reading Purpose, Potential and Performance: A “Meaning of Life” Spread
“Shapes of Things” – A Developmental Insight Spread*
* "Shapes of Things" is a 1966 "psychedelic" rock song by the Yardbirds (one of the very first) written by Jim McCarty, Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith, with Jeff Beck contributing guitar and inspiration. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that can go in multiple directions depending on the nature of the cards pulled. Highly-influential … Continue reading “Shapes of Things” – A Developmental Insight Spread*
A Tarot “Poke in the Eye:” Self-Serving Objectives and Loss of Focus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It goes without saying that most people who seek a tarot reading are angling for a sign from the Universe that something they want to happen will come to pass. I doubt there are many who are looking for assurance that their vision isn't going to materialize as projected (unless their presentiment involves … Continue reading A Tarot “Poke in the Eye:” Self-Serving Objectives and Loss of Focus
The Root, the Stem and the Fruit: A Developmental Insight Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is another of my "breakout" spreads that explores ways to approach and ideally resolve a known problem. The "root" of the title is the central card of the layout that describes the dilemma; the "stem" is the three-card developmental array that leads from the center; and the "fruit" is the calculated quintessence … Continue reading The Root, the Stem and the Fruit: A Developmental Insight Spread
“Moving Cards” As Symbolic Counterparts
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my second post on the subject (the first one is linked below). My original idea was to create a four-card line spread using fixed position meanings based on the four classical elements of Empedocles, going from left-to-right and from Wands to Pentacles. Then I shuffled a deck and dealt random cards … Continue reading “Moving Cards” As Symbolic Counterparts
Synchronizing the “Inner” and the “Outer” Self: A Tarot Mandala
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not proposing this as a spread for divination but rather as a tool (a form of mandala) for meditation. It could, however, be used as a "birth-chart" for the moment of the pull and supplemented over time with additional cards that function like astrological transits to a natal horoscope. One possible way … Continue reading Synchronizing the “Inner” and the “Outer” Self: A Tarot Mandala
A “Near-Term Breakout” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that is intended for use when we feel becalmed or unmotivated and are looking for a definitive "breakout moment" sometime in the next month. You will need two decks for this spread, one for the fifteen "advice" cards in the top row and one for the "mode of action/inaction" … Continue reading A “Near-Term Breakout” Spread
Deeper Than You Realize: Reversals As Hidden Messages
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across the intriguing notion that it could be instructive, after performing a reading that allows for reversed cards, to go through the rest of the deck and find additional instances of reversal that didn't make it into the reading. (In other words, they didn't surface during the pull.) The assumption … Continue reading Deeper Than You Realize: Reversals As Hidden Messages
The “Hourglass of Opportunity” Three-Way Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an elegant spread that offers three possible paths to resolution: the left-hand path of intuitive insight, the right-hand path of rational judgment, and the central or "ideal" path that blends the two into a perfectly coordinated "middle way" between them. All three pass through a central "lens" (Key #2) that represents … Continue reading The “Hourglass of Opportunity” Three-Way Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 