AUTHOR'S NOTE: Occasionally, playing cards and tarot cards converge in unlikely ways, as they do here. When my brother and I were kids learning to play "trick-taking" cards games from our grandmother (who was an old-school cartomancer, although she would never read for us or even talk about it), her oft-repeated mantra was "Highest in … Continue reading “Highest in Red, Lowest in Black” (or Not)
Pips
The Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of Spirit
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another of my random, intermittent forays into the Minor Arcana of the Thoth deck, which has been my steadfast companion in the study and practice of tarot for over five decades. (See my Tarot 101 series of posts for a more systematic overview.) Think what you will of Crowley, his deck … Continue reading The Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of Spirit
The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I may regret it from the standpoint of intellectual overload (and so might my readers), I've just begun digesting (you don't idly graze these things) Ronald Decker's scholarly study of occult tarot history, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah, in the introduction to which he acknowledges that he … Continue reading The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm endlessly annoyed by the popular opinion that the 3 of Swords is a card of devastating emotional suffering and heartbreak. C'mon, people, it's a low-numbered Air card; any pain will most likely be short-and-sharp, more a flesh wound than a disemboweling gash, and more commonly mind-centered than heart-centered. I've even seen it … Continue reading The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written frequently in the past about the fact that the insurmountable obstacles to an agreeable outcome shown in the Waite-Smith 8 of Swords can be circumvented by the compromised woman - whose feet are unbound - "feeling her way" along the watercourse to escape off the lower-right corner of the card. (When … Continue reading The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
Personalizing the Princesses
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my previous essay on assigning tarot court cards to the Sun, Moon and Ascendant degrees of the natal horoscope, I promised to address how the multi-sign Princesses of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley can brought into the same model. Here goes! It is a traditional assumption that each King has mastered … Continue reading Personalizing the Princesses
The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never been entirely satisfied with the title "Strength" (or its precursor, the Golden Dawn's "Lord of Great Strength") for the Thoth 9 of Wands as signifying the Moon in Sagittarius. The Moon is not particularly forceful at the best of times and Sagittarius is the most muted of the Fire signs. Crowley … Continue reading The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
The Daily Reading in Three Parts
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Consider this the "club sandwich" of tarot spreads, or maybe the "lasagna;" it breaks the daily reading into three distinct tiers of interpretation. Within the field of behavioral conjecture it's a well-established premise that the human personality exhibits three characteristic modes of response to circumstances: automatic or unplanned (the "knee-jerk reaction"); conditional or … Continue reading The Daily Reading in Three Parts
“Who Am I Right Now?” – A Three-Part Personality Profile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an approach to personality profiling that uses a "prepared" deck split into trump, court and pip card sub-packs. The design employs three layers of significance: the outer rectangle of four "pip" cards displays a tableau of daily experience in four elemental attitudes or postures; the middle diamond of four court cards … Continue reading “Who Am I Right Now?” – A Three-Part Personality Profile
A Valentine’s Day Mini-Tradition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post is kind of a "gimme" for my daily blog update since I've been bumping the attached analysis periodically on Valentine's Day since I first presented it in 2018. I have quite a few new followers who may not have seen it. Because love readings are such a large part of the … Continue reading A Valentine’s Day Mini-Tradition
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 