AUTHOR'S NOTE: I once wrote that, with his nose buried in his bundle of sticks, the man in the Waite-Smith 10 of Wands could just as easily walk off a cliff as reach the village shown in the distance. From a practical divination perspective, he has too much on his plate and doesn't know where, … Continue reading The 10 of Wands: Oppression as the Wages of Negligence
Pips
The Aces as “Seed-State”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In Tarot Architect, Lon Milo DuQuette describes the Ace of Wands as the "Seed of Will" that carries the blueprint for purposeful action. I decided to extend this concept into the rest of the Aces. The Ace of Cups suggests the "Seed of Compassion;" the Ace of Swords the "Seed of Insight;" and … Continue reading The Aces as “Seed-State”
The 2 of Swords: Peace Restored or Peace, Period?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As part of his apparent crusade to reduce the Golden Dawn's multiplex card titles to single words, Aleister Crowley truncated the name of the 2 of Swords from "Lord of Peace Restored" to simply "Peace," thereby redirecting the thrust of the Order's definition, which was intended to convey successful recovery from distress. "Strength … Continue reading The 2 of Swords: Peace Restored or Peace, Period?
The 10 of Cups: Satiety or Perfected Success?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Whenever I consider the Thoth 10 of Cups in light of the Golden Dawn's original title, I'm amused by the fact that Aleister Crowley chose "Satiety" as his one-word condensation of the Order's "Lord of Perfected Success." The expression goes beyond mere sufficiency into a state of egregious excess, as in consuming far … Continue reading The 10 of Cups: Satiety or Perfected Success?
The 9 of Swords: Despair Is There But Where’s The Cruelty?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my opinion, neither the Thoth nor the Waite-Smith 9 of Swords does justice to the Golden Dawn's title of "Lord of Despair and Cruelty." While both capture the essence of despair, the overall effect looks more like "Despair after Cruelty" than an equal distribution of the two: the former describes a condition … Continue reading The 9 of Swords: Despair Is There But Where’s The Cruelty?
The 9 of Wands: Why “Strength?”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written about the 9 of Wands a couple of times before, usually in more detail. But I keep coming back to it because it's one of several Golden-Dawn-named cards that doesn't wear its title well. Aleister Crowley tried to fix most of them in his own way but - at least in … Continue reading The 9 of Wands: Why “Strength?”
“Here An Angel, There an Angel, Everywhere An . . . “
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My mother-in-law, who was a devout Catholic, had a small figurine of an angel with spread wings in her living room. My wife had been reading children’s books to our two-year-old son, who glanced quickly at the angel and said “Look at the duck, quack-quack.” The title of this essay comes from my … Continue reading “Here An Angel, There an Angel, Everywhere An . . . “
“Hair of the Dog” – Elemental Mixing in the Court Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of the oddest puzzles facing the esoteric neophyte upon first exposure to the Golden Dawn's "Chaldean" wheel of astrological correspondences for the tarot is "Why on Earth don't the twelve zodiacal court cards line up precisely with the 30-degree span of their designated signs? Why the offset?" For some strange reason, they … Continue reading “Hair of the Dog” – Elemental Mixing in the Court Cards
“Downsizing” the Major Arcana in Mundane Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: All too often, the random appearance of a trump card in a tarot reading about a commonplace subject feels like a giant rock has been tossed into the middle of a placid pond when a drop of rain or two would have been sufficient to stir the water to a depth that churns … Continue reading “Downsizing” the Major Arcana in Mundane Tarot Reading
Mixed Elements Among the Minor Arcana: Recipes for Self-Realization
"The cosmic duty of the elements is to mix with each other in infinite combinations and proportions in order to knit manifest creation together."- Lon Milo DuQuette in Tarot Architect AUTHOR'S NOTE: This quote brought me back to my earlier essay about the four elements as "natural forces," an analysis that aligned with and expanded … Continue reading Mixed Elements Among the Minor Arcana: Recipes for Self-Realization
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 