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
General Divination
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
An Alternative to “Facing” in Non-Scenic Minor Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The concept of "facing, gaze, regard, gesture or posture" is sometimes used to determine what a card is "looking at" or contemplating when there is a human figure or other off-card "pointer" present to suggest shifting one's attention to external conditions. But with decks like the Tarot de Marseille and the standard playing … Continue reading An Alternative to “Facing” in Non-Scenic Minor Cards
Super Bowl LX: Patriots vs. Seahawks
UPDATE: The take-away from this exercise is that tarot is much more accurate for doing sports predictions. I've had some remarkable successes with it going back to Super Bowl 51 in 2016 and the World Series in 2018. From a learning perspective, the advantage of doing them is that you get immediate feedback on the … Continue reading Super Bowl LX: Patriots vs. Seahawks
A “French-Cross Twist” on the Job-Search Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've tinkered further with my "French-Cross Twist" spread to align it with employment situations. Here is a "real-life" example reading. After concentrating and shuffling, the first six cards are to be dealt in the order shown, with Card #5 placed beneath Card #2. The seventh card is the "numerical essence" ("quintessence" in the … Continue reading A “French-Cross Twist” on the Job-Search Reading
An “Italian Romany Spin-Off” Playing-Card Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a playing-card reading using a truncated version of a fifteen-card Italian Romany design I encountered several years ago. I created the spread (linked below) for use with the Tarot de Marseille but it should be equally effective for playing-card divination. It can be read in two ways: 1) as rows that … Continue reading An “Italian Romany Spin-Off” Playing-Card Reading
“Counting Round” in Playing-Card Reading: An Experiment
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I've been "counting round" in Lenormand reading for years, I recently came across the idea of using a comparable technique with playing cards. The Lenormand concept is to lay out a Grand Tableau of 36 cards, then start at the identified Significator card and - treating the Significator as "1" - count … Continue reading “Counting Round” in Playing-Card Reading: An Experiment
Outgrowing “Lego-Block” Tarot: When Rote Memorization Gives Way to Internalized Recall
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The professional tarot community is understandably dismissive of the journeyman reader's reliance on memorized keywords as a shortcut to flesh out the bones of a rudimentary narrative. This is a perfunctory technique that I've called "Lego-Block® divination" in previous essays because it promotes the stacking-up of tailored snippets of language in the hope … Continue reading Outgrowing “Lego-Block” Tarot: When Rote Memorization Gives Way to Internalized Recall
A New Year, A New Agenda
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's no secret that I've become thoroughly disenchanted with the populist pretensions of the online tarot community, to the point that I've decided to disengage from public conversation and return to private academic pursuits of a more esoteric nature. (I doubt the typical YouTube "talking head" will miss me or even notice.) I … Continue reading A New Year, A New Agenda
“Igniting Consciousness” – The Tarot Reader’s Mission
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently plowed my way through a lengthy post on the r/Tarot sub-reddit in which the author discussed the true purpose of tarot reading, ending with the opinion that it's all about igniting the seeker's consciousness via an act of motivation. I like this focus much better than the typical goal of "empowerment," … Continue reading “Igniting Consciousness” – The Tarot Reader’s Mission
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 