Here I align the seminal "root power" of the Ace and the linear binary projection of the Two with the "agency" of the court cards and the situational "ways and means" symbolized by the remaining pips to produce a developmental tableau that enlivens Tarot de Marseille delineation. Rather than following the esoteric assumption that only … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille “Energy Translation” Tableau
Pips
The “Condensing and Concentrating” Cups
In his 1949 Tarot de Marseille book, Paul Marteau made frequent use of the term "condensing" when discussing the action of the suit of Cups on the emotional "vapors" (my word, not his) of the human psyche. The Cups are obviously vessels for holding liquid, and my fanciful take on Marteau's idea is that they … Continue reading The “Condensing and Concentrating” Cups
Pleasure and Fun, On The Double
This morning I was thinking abut the old Doublemint gum jingle and how it might be applied to the elemental dignities between the Minor Arcana in two-card sets. "Double your pleasure, double your fun!" But I switched it up a bit to create four "opportunities:" "Double your pleasure, double your pain;Double your money, double your … Continue reading Pleasure and Fun, On The Double
The Threes as “Feedback Loop”
In my reading I came across the assertion that the Two in tarot always represents an incipient action arising from the potential embodied in the Ace of its suit. (It shows the "first step" or initial outbound impulse that the static, self-absorbed Ace has only been pondering up to that point.) The imputed binary state … Continue reading The Threes as “Feedback Loop”
Islands in the Sea: The “Gateless” Suit of Pentacles
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is one of the more intriguing and challenging mental tasks I've undertaken in a while: rethinking the numbered cards of Pentacles in line with Barbara Walker's discussion in The Secrets of the Tarot: History, Origins and Symbolism. I've long felt that the quaint, folkloric descriptions that have grown up around the Minor … Continue reading Islands in the Sea: The “Gateless” Suit of Pentacles
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 Suit of Wands As “Arrows”
I'm currently reading Alain Bougearel's book, The Language of the Cards: An Initiation into French Cartomancy (OUROBOROS Editions, August 16, 2020), in which he equates the tarot suit of Batons (modern Wands) to the playing-card suit of Diamonds, and associates the arrowhead-shaped suit emblem with the military arrow as a weapon of ranged combat. He … Continue reading The Suit of Wands As “Arrows”
“Set the Table, Doug”
As my revisionist thinking on the significance of the Major Arcana in a tarot reading continues to churn up fresh ideas, I entertained the notion that the functional relationship between the minor cards, court cards and trump cards might be likened to the experience of dining out. The minor cards provide the "meat-and-potatoes" of the … Continue reading “Set the Table, Doug”
Barbara Walker and the RWS Suit of Pentacles
Although it's a bit overstuffed with mythology and "armchair" anthropology (think "Golden Bough Lite"), I've been reading Barbara Walker's fascinating and frequently enlightening 1984 book Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History and Symbolism. Despite the meticulous academic tone of much of her writing and its overarching themes of matriarchal culture and Goddess worship in antiquity, … Continue reading Barbara Walker and the RWS Suit of Pentacles
The Virtue of Simplicity
As time goes on I find myself drawn more and more to working with only the 56 Minor Arcana cards in divination. Granted, the 22 Major Arcana are where most of the philosophical "meat" lies in the tarot, but very few of my readings rise to that level of metaphysical complexity and intensity. Most of … Continue reading The Virtue of Simplicity
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 