AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across the following quote (attributed to The Emerald Tablets of Thoth by Taoist author Ethan Indigo Smith) that brought me back to the subject of predictive vs psychological (or humanistic) astrology. "Know ye, the hounds of the Barrier move only through angles and never through curves of space. Only by … Continue reading “In Angles They Will Pursue Thee” – Angles Speak Louder Than Curves
General Tarot
The Three-Card Matrix: Arriving, Indwelling and Departing
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Suppose that every card in a horizontal three-card line isn't an isolated instance but rather the randomly-drawn locus of another perpendicular three-card set based on its "natural" position in the 78-card run. We would then have a nine-card tableau with "mini-storyboards" that can be read vertically and diagonally as well as in the … Continue reading The Three-Card Matrix: Arriving, Indwelling and Departing
Circular Numerology and the Revolving Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A large percentage of everything that goes on in our environment is cyclical rather than linear in nature (although some cycles like the 25,800 year "wobble" of the Earth's axis are so long that it's difficult to observe their periodicity). The alternation of day and night and the turning of the seasons are … Continue reading Circular Numerology and the Revolving Tarot
Subconscious Induction: Bridging the Gap
"I have only come here seeking knowledge/Things they would not teach me of in college" - from Wrapped Around Your Finger by the Police AUTHOR'S NOTE: As a diviner who prefers face-to-face reading but no longer has a steady clientele (the COVID pandemic and my cross-State relocation saw to that), I now pursue my esoteric … Continue reading Subconscious Induction: Bridging the Gap
A 78-Card Geometric Mandala
"Devil inside, the devil insideEvery single one of us, the devil inside"(From Devil Inside by Inxs) AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the end of this essay is a numbering table I created several years ago for the sequence of 78 tarot cards that begins with the Fool as "1" and ends with the King of Pentacles as … Continue reading A 78-Card Geometric Mandala
The Heart of the Matter: Quality Over Quantity and Simplicity in Action
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Early in my re-reading of Ethan Indigo Smith's The Tao of Thoth, I once again encountered his analysis of the virtue of simplicity over complexity. He observes that "Simplicity is often a quality, whereas complexity yields mostly quantities." His premise is that "qualifying ourselves and (our) surroundings" through focused "inner work" is far … Continue reading The Heart of the Matter: Quality Over Quantity and Simplicity in Action
Tarot as “Mystical Guidebook”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ever since Jungian group-think hijacked the New Age zeitgeist of the early '70s, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the tarot as a tool for innate self-understanding and cognate self-improvement. In that regard it's a pale substitute for astrology, one that offers a gentler learning curve suitable for the casual … Continue reading Tarot as “Mystical Guidebook”
“Right, Right, You’re Bloody Well Right”*
*From Bloody Well Right by Supertramp AUTHOR'S NOTE: I debated whether to title this essay "The Woo of We-Are-All-One" (in the saccharine spirit of The Tao of Pooh) but decided to leave that cynical observation for the body of the essay. Current wisdom in the tarot community is that no matter how we read the … Continue reading “Right, Right, You’re Bloody Well Right”*
The Fount of All Wisdom?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It could be argued that any human activity - no matter how slight - that isn't fully automatic on one hand or totally arbitrary on the other has an implicit blueprint or model that expresses its ideal performance, even if this exemplar is only a personal benchmark that we keep in our own … Continue reading The Fount of All Wisdom?
The Onus of Elemental Discord: Earth/Air and Fire/Water
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While helping a friend with a relationship reading, I was visited by an epiphany regarding the elemental incompatibility of Earth and Air cards. The reading was a series of twelve monthly projections for the year beginning on the Spring Equinox. The spread logic I used was that each month holds a two-tiered arrangement … Continue reading The Onus of Elemental Discord: Earth/Air and Fire/Water