AUTHOR'S NOTE: I threw the cards for this reading last night, but right now I'm sitting in Emporia, Virginia at the end of the second leg of our trip, so this is a validation of yesterday's prediction rather than a new forecast. Since the subject is a road trip, I adapted the usual suit meanings … Continue reading Driving to Florida: Second Leg
General Divination
Driving to Florida: First Leg
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every year around this time we drive from New Hampshire to Florida for a month-long stay during the worst of the New England winter. February in Daytona Beach has been too cold for the last few years so we pushed it out a month into March. I normally perform a trip forecast with … Continue reading Driving to Florida: First Leg
“Releasing” Positions and “Charging” Cards: Friction or Stimulation?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading Roger Horne's Cartomancy in Folk Witchcraft, I encountered the curious notion that difficult positions in a spread should be viewed as "releasing" their influence, whether harmlessly banishing it or unleashing it with prejudice on the seeker I can't say since there was no explanatory text at that point in the book … Continue reading “Releasing” Positions and “Charging” Cards: Friction or Stimulation?
Playing-Card Numerology: A Personal Take
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an experiment in tweaking Pythagorean and Hermetic numerology for use in playing-card divination. It is based on my decades of practice with esoteric number theory. The parenthetical quotes are from a poem (The Devil's Picture Book: A Cartomantic Mnemonic) at the beginning of Roger Horne's Cartomancy in Folk Witchcraft. Ace = … Continue reading Playing-Card Numerology: A Personal Take
“Shot on Goal” – An “Answer +1” Cartomantic Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here I'm using my new cartomantic spread to explore present and future developments in a long-delayed initiative. There are a couple of ways to read these cards, but the one that is uppermost in my mind is the prospect for resurrecting my public divination practice that went dormant with COVID and my cross-State … Continue reading “Shot on Goal” – An “Answer +1” Cartomantic Reading
“The Answer + 1” – A Cartomantic Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently learned about the "Answer Spread" developed by Kapherus (J. David Arcuri) from Regina Russell's earlier design, so I went to his Art of Cartomancy FB page to check it out. I'm a relentless spread creator with over 300 original patterns to my credit and more awaiting my attention. I knew before … Continue reading “The Answer + 1” – A Cartomantic Spread
Somebody Wants Something: The Single-Minded Focus of the Court or “Face” Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just set aside the two uninspiring tarot books I've been reading and went looking for a volume on playing-card divination. A member of the online cartomancy community recommended Roger Horne's Cartomancy in Folk Witchcraft, and I was able to buy it on Kindle for a small sum. His writing style is a … Continue reading Somebody Wants Something: The Single-Minded Focus of the Court or “Face” Cards
“Coming By It Honestly”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My Canadian forebears had a wealth of colorful Scottish and Irish folk sayings that I've treasured since the long-ago summers I spent in New Brunswick. Many of the best were preserved by my mother and my maternal grandparents over the decades before they passed. One was "He comes by it honestly" (i.e. "He … Continue reading “Coming By It Honestly”
Playing Cards and the Astro-Romany Personality Profile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several years ago I adapted the 21-card Romany spread for use with the seven planets of classical astrology and came up with a dual-axis developmental profile for both character analysis and associated timing. All seven columns can be used for a complete personality study, or only those that apply to specific circumstances can … Continue reading Playing Cards and the Astro-Romany Personality Profile
Deploying the Cartomantic Significator
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a unique way to deploy the Significator in playing-card reading that draws its inspiration from later cartomantic techniques. It places the querent squarely in the middle of the action by having to "live in the present" while dealing with previous inputs and subsequent outputs. It relies on the shuffle (and cut … Continue reading Deploying the Cartomantic Significator
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 