AUTHOR'S NOTE: Conventional wisdom is that tarot is ineffective for addressing simple "yes-or-no" questions because it is more suitable for telling stories. I've always taken issue with this opinion, believing that the cards will provide an answer for any inquiry that is phrased properly. So rather than wanting to know "Will I or won't I … Continue reading Leveraging the French Cross: An Alternative to Yes-or-No Reading
Historical Tarot
Major Arcana As “Step-Change”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In manufacturing jargon, effective process control begins with the engineering of a work-station performance envelope that ensures steady-state functionality by permitting only minor, easily-adjusted shifts in operating parameters for the duration of the activity. (As a former quality-control technician, later an engineer and ultimately a manager, I know a little about the subject.) … Continue reading Major Arcana As “Step-Change”
Mars Abides: A Question of Surgery
AUTHOR'S NOTE: An acquaintance of mine has a long-standing medical issue related to several previous surgeries that looks like it may need another surgical intervention. In February I did a French Cross (tirage en croix) spread to ask that question. (Note that I performed this reading two hours before I learned the surgeon's recommendation.) Thoth … Continue reading Mars Abides: A Question of Surgery
The Power of “Past Prediction” in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The simple "past-present-future" predictive reading is such an integral part of the tarot practitioner's toolbox that we usually perform it without thinking too much about exactly what we're doing. In practical terms, examining events and circumstances that have already transpired and can no longer be affected by our active intervention would seem to … Continue reading The Power of “Past Prediction” in Tarot Reading
A Tarot Triptych: Catalysts, Linked Patterns and Sensitive Junctures
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I haven't considered it for quite some time because the opportunity for self-improvement is a foregone conclusion among experienced diviners, I was recently reminded by Benebell Wen in Holistic Tarot that tarot cards can serve as catalysts or motivators for seekers to act on their own behalf in ways suggested by the … Continue reading A Tarot Triptych: Catalysts, Linked Patterns and Sensitive Junctures
Anticipatory Forecasting: “Escape from New Tarot”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Despite the title, I promise I won't invoke the cinematic spirit of Kurt Russell in this essay; Carl Gustav Young will have to do. I've just begun reading Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot, and the introductory chapter brought me back to the topic of "first principles" in my practice of divination. Some of this … Continue reading Anticipatory Forecasting: “Escape from New Tarot”
500 Views . . . and Nothing to See: The Tarot Wasteland
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not long ago I joined a couple of online deck-collecting groups, and in short order my eyes were assaulted by swarms of substandard tarot decks that I would never buy in a million years (not nearly 500 of course, I was just trying to get your attention; let's round it off to 100). … Continue reading 500 Views . . . and Nothing to See: The Tarot Wasteland
Elements and Modes in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If there are any astrologers among my readers who were active during the era of New-Age metaphysical expansion, feel free to fact-check my historical observations. Having been there myself, this is how I remember it. Astrology uses a modal form of analysis: there are three quadriplicities (also known as modalities) - Cardinal, Fixed … Continue reading Elements and Modes in Tarot Reading
The Repurposed French Cross Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The five-card French Cross spread (officially the tirage en croix) is an ideal layout for gaining insights about straightforward action-and-event-oriented scenarios. Not long after I discovered it on Aelectic Tarot back in 2011, I searched the web and found the Cartomancier site (linked below), which I've been using for guidance ever since. The … Continue reading The Repurposed French Cross Spread
Airing Out the Tradition: When “Organic” Trumps “Scientific”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although he was addressing Medieval poetry and poets in The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis made several observations that can be directly applied to the diviner's approach to cartomantic tradition.* He mentioned that many literary works of that era were an amalgam and synthesis (or at worst a pastiche) of contributions by a host … Continue reading Airing Out the Tradition: When “Organic” Trumps “Scientific”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 