AUTHOR'S NOTE: I occasionally encounter questions about ways to contact the spirits of the departed and other disembodied entities using the tarot cards. Through my esoteric studies and practice over the last fifty years I've become familiar with the principles of "astral pathworking" using the Major Arcana, but that is a more disciplined - and … Continue reading “Finding the Path” – Opening A Spirit Contact Channel
Experimental Methods
A Kid’s Tarot-Reading Game
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm always looking for novel ways to read the cards for young people that will get them involved in the process and hold their interest. Here is a board-game motif that invites them to roll a die and move a token on the board to select cards for the reading. It requires a … Continue reading A Kid’s Tarot-Reading Game
The “Crucible of Becoming” Self-Mastery Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: . . . and now back to our regular programming! As I learned them in the early 1970s, the Cardinal signs in natal astrology are considered to be "action-oriented," the Fixed signs are "security-oriented" and the Mutable signs are "people-oriented." When developing their set of astrological correspondences for the tarot, the Hermetic Order … Continue reading The “Crucible of Becoming” Self-Mastery Spread
“Bottom-Feeders” – A Creative Solution
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In nature (as well as in human affairs) there are creatures that lurk in the depths and augment their livelihood by sponging off the enterprise of others, either passively or more aggressively. As tarot readers we have all experienced readings of a largely negative kind where the "bottom-dwelling" miscreants among the cards act … Continue reading “Bottom-Feeders” – A Creative Solution
A Lenormand Personality Matrix Example Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: After five decades of self-analysis using various metaphysical techniques, I understand myself much better than I know anyone else, so I decided to test this psychological profiling method on my own character by asking "Who am I now?" At least on the surface, the overall picture isn't very encouraging (as one might expect … Continue reading A Lenormand Personality Matrix Example Reading
A Predictive Model for Low-Scoring Sports
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the past, my efforts to predict the outcome of sporting events have been limited to sports like Major League Baseball and NFL football that have modest to moderate scoring projections, typically anywhere from 1 run (baseball) to 28 points (football) for either team over the course of a game I'm working on … Continue reading A Predictive Model for Low-Scoring Sports
An Alternative to the Lenormand House System
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I intentionally steer clear of using any kind of astrological correspondences with Lenormand cards, this struck me as an intriguing alternate house system to the one commonly employed. I chose one set of general meanings for the twelve houses of the horoscope and matched them with the cards that best express those … Continue reading An Alternative to the Lenormand House System
Syncretic Cartomancy: A Threefold Divination*
*Syncretism: The union of different practices whose features may be synchronized to good effect. AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the past I have occasionally dabbled in two-phase readings using cards from different disciplines in a single spread, usually tarot and Lenormand or an oracle deck. As I spend more time and effort looking into traditional cartomancy while … Continue reading Syncretic Cartomancy: A Threefold Divination*
“Stop Cards” and Interrupted Paths: A Situational Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a sophisticated spread that borrows ideas from palmistry and also from the game-play provisions of Lenormand's ancestor, the Game of Hope. It can be used with either Lenormand or tarot, and potentially with any cartomantic method for which well-defined "stop cards" can be identified. It is best to keep their number … Continue reading “Stop Cards” and Interrupted Paths: A Situational Spread
Dots and Dashes: A Lenormand Experiment
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In a blog post a while back, Mary Greer described the Lenormand card meanings we use today as having evolved from the reading of coffee-ground patterns that remained on the inside of a cup after the liquid had been consumed. (It apparently originated in the Middle East - mainly Turkey - where grounds … Continue reading Dots and Dashes: A Lenormand Experiment
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 