I know I'm repeating myself here, but I draw few psychological inferences (not none, but certainly not many) from my tarot readings. I'm an "action-and-event" kind of guy, and would rather explore what could potentially happen in a situation and not what someone else "thinks or feels" might happen, since (putting it kindly) they may … Continue reading Reversed Cards As Psychological Cues
General Tarot
The “Hedge Mystic”
In a recent post I characterized myself as a "garden-variety mystic" in that I don't identify as a "psychic" (much less an all-seeing one) or a "sensitive" in my professional pursuits (nor as an "empath" either, but that's a subject for a different post), I just "read the cards." Today I hit upon the even … Continue reading The “Hedge Mystic”
Mind Over Matter
I was just looking at the tarot-deck "de-enable" thread on one of the forums and realized that I haven't had to be "de-enabled" on buying a new deck in a very long time. It probably helps that I don't find most recent decks particularly inspiring from a divination standpoint, even if they happen to be … Continue reading Mind Over Matter
Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
Upon entering the ranks of the professional diviner, we inevitably encounter the question "How much is enough?" Time, that is, or effort expended for value received.I was once advised that, in rural New England where I lived at the time, the going rate for a face-to-face tarot reading was a dollar a minute. This was … Continue reading Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
Bridging the Gap Between Magic and Meaning
You will often hear me say that, at least in my own work, divination is a subliminal process rooted in the unconscious (or, if you like, "Higher Self") that relies heavily on imagination, inspiration and ingenuity to tease practical messages from evocative symbolism that is typically shrouded in rather obscure "magical" imagery. In the best … Continue reading Bridging the Gap Between Magic and Meaning
A Star to Steer By
Old wine in new bottles . . . Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will no doubt have noticed that I tend to recycle certain ideas that have become almost axiomatic for me, and I trot them out whenever the occasion warrants it. There are a couple here but … Continue reading A Star to Steer By
A Baleful Thing?
Upon the recommendation of a fellow on-line "Tarot History" member, I've begun reading The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis, a study of Medieval literature and its iconography. At the very beginning of the Introduction I encountered a passage that stopped me in my tracks. He was talking about how, when we come upon "hard places" … Continue reading A Baleful Thing?
The “Pernt” and the “Cherce”
I must be getting really desperate if I'm resorting to "Archie-Bunker-isms" for my post titles; for the culturally uninitiated, it reads "The Point and the Choice." What I'm referring to, of course, is the key point (goal, not location) in our approach to divining with the tarot cards and the choices we make in their … Continue reading The “Pernt” and the “Cherce”
The Star Effect (aka “The Bubble”)
In a brief essay about his aphorism "Every man and woman is a star," Aleister Crowley made the point that it's physically impossible to stand in someone else's shoes at the same instant in time and look at the world from exactly the same perspective; thus, each of us inhabits a private universe of which … Continue reading The Star Effect (aka “The Bubble”)
Chord Changes
File this one under "How Stuff Works." I'm a firm believer in the assumption that very little that is truly definitive in life happens by sheer coincidence, or in complete isolation; formative impulses and nascent events crowd the background of our personal drama, waiting to be propelled into prominence by invitation (ours or others) or … Continue reading Chord Changes
