AUTHOR'S NOTE: The High Priestess, the second "numbered" trump card of the tarot, is typically regarded as a guardian of secrets both cosmic and mundane. When she appears in a reading, something about the matter is not yet known, and perhaps the querent isn't prepared to receive the revelation or is being kept in the … Continue reading The Gatekeepers of Tarot: The Priestess and Her Posse
Experimental Methods
The “Upside/Downside” Situational Roadmap: A Cartomantic Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the cinematic cartography of the buccaneers favored by Hollywood, treasure maps invariably displayed an "X" where the prize could be found (i.e. "X marks the spot"). On a different arc, there have been many tarot spreads that use the "best case/worst case scenario" to indicate how a situation can be expected to … Continue reading The “Upside/Downside” Situational Roadmap: A Cartomantic Spread
A “Close Encounter” Triskelion Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a concise spread that is aimed at exploring the general characteristics, consequences and dynamics of a new human contact or other opportunity that has recently entered (or is about to enter) the seeker's life. (If it addresses a situation rather than a specific individual, those attributes will reflect the querent's own … Continue reading A “Close Encounter” Triskelion Spread
An “Overt-and-Covert” Situational Development Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that is designed to follow the progress of an initiative, enterprise or project from its inception to the "first milestone" of self-sustaining viability. (The "story arc" is structured so it can be repeated for later phases of a strategic game plan.) It includes a public (or "overt") arc and … Continue reading An “Overt-and-Covert” Situational Development Spread
A “Life’s Big Questions” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a tarot spread that should be useful for exploring any profound existential issues confronting a seeker. In it, the analytical shares equal billing with the mystical (which is my customary approach to divination). The five-fold architecture of the layout is more philosophical than pragmatic in a "fortune-telling" sense. It is to … Continue reading A “Life’s Big Questions” Spread
A Potential-Mapping Spread in Three Parts: High Road, Low Road and Middle Way
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a spread for the analysis of situations that offer three ways to confront the ethical choices facing the querent: a "High Road" of wisdom; a "Low Road" of folly; and a "Middle Way" of apathy. There are five factors on each path that are subject to optimization or abasement according to … Continue reading A Potential-Mapping Spread in Three Parts: High Road, Low Road and Middle Way
The Mirror of Identity: An Astro-Tarot Self-Appraisal Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here I'm merging astrological principles (natal planets and rising sign) with tarot cards and insights from the casebook of psycho-spiritual mind/body awareness to create a self-appraisal tool that is intended to identify any strengths and weaknesses in one's personality that may not stand out clearly from horoscopic delineation or cartomantic examination alone. While … Continue reading The Mirror of Identity: An Astro-Tarot Self-Appraisal Spread
The “Pendulum of Revealing” Positional Yes-or-No Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth in my series of "Revealing" spreads: I've done a "Mandala," a "Pentacle" and an "Onion" of Revealing in the past. I'm using the pendulum motif for this one to answer the perennial yes-or-no question, with a nod toward "maybe" and any contrary trends that might occur as shown by … Continue reading The “Pendulum of Revealing” Positional Yes-or-No Spread
Tarot As Social Herald: The Timing of Arrival or Departure
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While re-reading Paul Fenton-Smith's Tarot Master-Class, I rediscovered his observation that the reversed 10 of Pentacles can exhibit an exceptionally attenuated "trigger point" (on the order of 18 months from the time of the reading), portraying financial distress that is likely to be more consequential in broad societal terms than intensely personal at … Continue reading Tarot As Social Herald: The Timing of Arrival or Departure
The “Split-Decision” Opportunity Advancement Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that examines the comparative probability of success or failure for an opportunity that could go either way. Select a card to represent the "best-case" outlook and place it upright on the table. Then take the same card from a second identical or similar deck and set it reversed below … Continue reading The “Split-Decision” Opportunity Advancement Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 