AUTHOR'S NOTE: As a teenage science-fiction fan in the mid-60s I was fascinated by rocketry and the theory of space-flight in general. Here is a spread that uses some of that terminology to show three potential paths that a situational-development reading might take: short-range, long-range or open-ended. It will take some study for the user … Continue reading Departing the “Goldilocks Zone” A Multi-Path Situational Development Spread
Experimental Methods
Deconstructing the Quintessence Calculation
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I have always preferred to perform the "quintessence" calculation in a way that rolls up the numerical values of all the cards on the table (including the court cards) to generate a single trump card as a condensed overview of the situation and the outcome, I have in the past "parceled out" … Continue reading Deconstructing the Quintessence Calculation
Releasing The “Daemon*”
*Daemon (n): originally a lesser divinity or spirit; the word is derived from the Proto-Indo-European daimon, meaning "provider, divider (of fortunes or destinies). AUTHOR'S NOTE: I vaguely remember an old animated cartoon that portrays one of the genre's iconic characters (I think it was Daffy Duck but it could have been Donald; others may recall … Continue reading Releasing The “Daemon*”
“This Is The Way:” A “Middle-Ground” Approach to Life-Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm always looking for new ways to bring elemental attributes into tarot spread creation. This experimental layout uses both elemental attunement and midpoint numerology to arrive at an adjusted conclusion that does not end with a lopsided "best case" or "worst case" outlook but rather a compromise position that should ideally be more … Continue reading “This Is The Way:” A “Middle-Ground” Approach to Life-Reading
An Augmented “Yes-or-No” Reading Method with Cards and Pendulum
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This experiment will no doubt make pendulum purists cringe, but it is intended to satisfy my personal quest for more information and greater developmental insight, neither of which is provided by the typical "yes-or-no" pendulum prediction. I also wanted to make allowances for the provisional "maybe yes" or "maybe no" answer (which could … Continue reading An Augmented “Yes-or-No” Reading Method with Cards and Pendulum
The Three-Card “Tarot Sentence”
It has been proposed that the three-card line forms the basic "sentence" of tarot reading, and adding more cards to the series only augments but doesn't supersede the original narrative. Three cards in sequence can be read in a number of ways: as a traditional "Past/Present/Future" outlook; in the Hegelian sense of "Thesis/Antithesis/ Synthesis;" according … Continue reading The Three-Card “Tarot Sentence”
Horizontal and Vertical Orientation: A Study in Contrasts
AUTHOR'S NOTE: More inspiration from Alejandro Jodorowsky. In The Way of Tarot, Jodorowsky talks about certain trump cards that exhibit a horizontal orientation and thereby symbolize "action in the world," while others align vertically and emphasize interaction between the plane of Earth and the spiritual (or in some cases, infernal) regions. His representative examples were … Continue reading Horizontal and Vertical Orientation: A Study in Contrasts
An Alternate Take on the “Shadow” Card
It is a common practice among modern tarot readers to look at the bottom card of the deck after the rest of the cards have been dealt, with the purpose of discovering hidden aspects of the matter; this is variously called the "base" or "shadow" card. Personally, I want none of this in my own … Continue reading An Alternate Take on the “Shadow” Card
Tarot Taken Twice
Long before I read the chapter titled "The Tarot Two by Two" in Alejandro Jodorowsky's book The Way of Tarot (in which he examines the cards as pairs, couples and duets), I was advising beginners that - rather than trying to learn the meaning of individual cards in an interpretive vacuum - it's best to … Continue reading Tarot Taken Twice
A “Conditional” Yes-or-No Outcome Spread
My experience has been that "yes-or-no" answers delivered by the tarot are seldom crystal-clear and often have "strings attached" that cloud the picture. I call such muddling factors "conditional qualifiers" and use what I describe as the "Yes, But/Maybe, If/No, Unless" paradigm to analyze their influence. In each case the caveat means that the seeker … Continue reading A “Conditional” Yes-or-No Outcome Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 