I presently own just over 70 tarot, Lenormand and and oracle decks and, although I've made great strides in my battle with "Deck Acquisition Syndrome," I despair of ever completely conquering it. But I just had an epiphany regarding the nature of my addiction. I've come to realize that, at least in the realm of … Continue reading The Tyranny of the Familiar
Historical Tarot
“So Many Words . . .”
Those four syllables were spoken (well, written) by tarot author and entrepreneur Marcus Katz during a recent online conversation about the symbolism that has been attached to the tarot cards since the advent of esoteric contemplation with Etteilla in the 18th Century. It came across as a slightly rueful acknowledgement of the monumental effort involved … Continue reading “So Many Words . . .”
The Court Cards: A Paradigm Shift
There is a premise in Liber T, the tarot canon of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, that relates the court cards to the exercise of worldly "power" in its various forms. The Kings represent "Potential Power;" the Queens convey "Brooding Power;" the Knights (or Princes) wield "Power in Action;" and the Pages (or … Continue reading The Court Cards: A Paradigm Shift
The “Chalice of Earth” Taurus Ingress Matrix
Once again, I decided to try getting more interpretive value out of the Golden Dawn's Chaldean correspondence wheel beyond its card-by-card significance. As an experiment I created matrices of the five cards that are "in play" at the ingress of the Sun into each of the zodiacal signs: the Ace and Princess that relate to … Continue reading The “Chalice of Earth” Taurus Ingress Matrix
The Unevolved Fire Signs: A Study in Vanity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I struggled to find a polite way to say "arrogance" without actually saying it, but that would be an extreme example of my point. Also, there is an idea here regarding the reversed court cards and their Golden Dawn assignment to the Chaldean zodiac that warrants further exploration in another essay. In astrology … Continue reading The Unevolved Fire Signs: A Study in Vanity
The Avatars of Tarot Past and Present
This morning I was thinking about the various "tarot factions" that exist and how I might write about them in a fresh (and satirical) way. The timeline for tarot-card development is fairly well-known, at least in broad terms: early Italian decks were appropriated by French, Swiss and German cartiers for the "Marseille" and "Besancon" styles, … Continue reading The Avatars of Tarot Past and Present
Chickens, Eggs, Carts and Horses
I just had an interesting but perplexing conversion on one of the Facebook tarot pages regarding the provenance of the tarot material associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There is apparently a widespread popular opinion that "Liber T," a compilation of the Order's tarot "knowledge papers," was actually written after Aleister Crowley's … Continue reading Chickens, Eggs, Carts and Horses
“Celestial Seeping”
As I work my way through The Discarded Image, an examination of Medieval cosmology by C.S. Lewis, I encountered an observation that seems to support my long-standing assumption - not my own idea but one I read somewhere - that the Hermetic Qabalah is to a large extent grounded in the Neo-Platonism that was grafted … Continue reading “Celestial Seeping”
Archetype, Archetype, Who’s Got the Archetype?
It appears from the on-line conversations I've been following that there are two distinct chains of archetypal descent in the tarot. One of them - the older one - is culturally-specific, symbolizing conventions that were widely understood and accepted during the pre-Enlightenment era when they were first captured in the trump cards. Their appeal to … Continue reading Archetype, Archetype, Who’s Got the Archetype?
The “Keys to the Kingdom”
Somewhere in the dim and distant past I encountered the idea that astrology represents the "gold key" to unlocking visions of the future through divination, in that it is objective and rational (that is, based on visible phenomena), while the more subjective and intuitive tarot provides the "silver key." I can no longer find the … Continue reading The “Keys to the Kingdom”
