AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just bought a set of Elder Futhark runes and decided to experiment with them in combination with tarot cards and standard dice. In this reading I've used six randomly-selected runes to show the "Foundation of the Matter," and six randomly-pulled tarot cards to provide "Anecdotal Commentary." A single six-sided die was rolled … Continue reading Metaphysical Syncretism: Runes, Tarot Cards and Dice
General Divination
The Eccentric Tarot Reader: Reaching Escape Velocity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In thinking about the observation of James Joyce that society ("the State") is concentric while the individual ("Man") is eccentric, I began toying with the idea that modern peer-pressure resembles a social "gravity well" that exerts a relentless pull on the iconoclast (at its worst an inexorable "black-hole" form of entrapment from which … Continue reading The Eccentric Tarot Reader: Reaching Escape Velocity
“Specialization Is For Insects”
from Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein (1973) AUTHOR'S NOTE: Science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein was of the opinion that all human beings (to which I would append "who are physically and mentally competent to do so") should be able to accomplish anything to which they bring sufficient focus and commitment, and that specializing in … Continue reading “Specialization Is For Insects”
“Like Water to Fishes” – Instinctive vs. Stochastic Tarot Reading
instinctive: an entirely spontaneous, non-rational and automatic response to stimulus (cognitively related to "intuitive"). stochastic: "processes in which, out of a random series, some 'intelligence' or something that can be metaphorically conceived as an intelligence, is selecting a final outcome." (Robert Anton Wilson) AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I wasn't aware of it from my previous studies … Continue reading “Like Water to Fishes” – Instinctive vs. Stochastic Tarot Reading
The “New Tarot” – Losing the Signal?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In Prometheus Rising, Robert Anton Wilson presents semanticist Alfred Korzybski's principle of "time-binding" by which the passing of signals from one generation to the next assures that informational coherence is maintained in perpetuity (or at least until a major paradigm-shift disrupts the order of things, which used to happen once a century but … Continue reading The “New Tarot” – Losing the Signal?
The Self-Defining Diviner
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although my previous multi-decade retirement from public divination was a consequence of my rustic circumstances, this time I'm going back into relative hibernation by choice. I plan to continue blogging at my customary rate, but I've decided not to seek broader external exposure unless it finds me first. I suppose at this point … Continue reading The Self-Defining Diviner
The Fatigue Factor
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm beginning to suspect from the recent lack of engagement that I've exhausted even my most ardent followers at the same time as I'm entering a new phase of expanded exposure. The increased popularity, although still minuscule, is gratifying but I value those who have been with me for the last nine years … Continue reading The Fatigue Factor
“One Must Know These Things”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Excuse the minor autobiographical redundancy in this essay; its repetition was essential to my purpose. A few years ago my son asked me how a guy who cuts down trees with a chainsaw can make such "girly" cocktails, an anomaly he found to be out-of-character (not that he doesn't quaff them willingly). Short … Continue reading “One Must Know These Things”
“Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)”
"We got to realize that ninety-nine and a half just won't doNo, got to have a hundred, oh yeah"- from the rhythm & blues song by Wilson Pickett AUTHOR'S NOTE: Today - for the third or fourth time in nine years - I've reached 100 consecutive days of posting on this blog, which is nowhere … Continue reading “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)”
“Another Cup of ‘Why Bother’ . . .”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been following an increasingly rancorous argument in one of the online occult forums over why the esoteric community seems so toothless of late (hey, I was going to use one of the darlings of AI writing, "pusillanimous") compared to its previous vigor. Where is the bracing "bite" of old? There is certainly … Continue reading “Another Cup of ‘Why Bother’ . . .”
